Embrace the Tension

I finished reading that chapter I was discussing in my last post. I read a sentence that I wanted to share:

“Denying and stuffing and repressing never works because it’s a failure to acknowledge what is central to being a human being.” 

If anyone has read Sex God, they know that what I’m going to talk about isn’t necessarily what this chapter is about but what this one sentence states in the beginning of it. The denying stuffing and repressing never works part. It doesn’t…it never works. When you stuff things in and repress them it just causes issues and it causes you and whoever you’re repressing it from to drift apart. I’m big on communicating. It’s what I’ve learned to do and what even I overly do sometimes…but I’ve seen so many people who just don’t communicate. Who stuff..who repress…and I beg of them to not. It’s a deal breaker sometimes. It’s crazy how many people end relationships and friendships because of things not communicated that would have probably been easy fixes and were probably silly misunderstandings. 

Bell refers to people needing to live in the tension, to not ignore the truth…I believe one reason we stuff and repress and deny is because we’re afraid to live in the tension. We’re afraid of what might happen if we put it all out there and we’re afraid of what might come out of it if we’re actually real and honest. Sometimes…the truth can hurt. I’ve experienced the truth hurting, but in my experience and in being able to look back…the truth only hurts short term. It’s almost always better to have that truth in the long run. Of course, the only way to get that truth is to live in the tension and let go of the need to repress and to stuff…

Just embrace the tension.