Denial Is Not Just A River In Egypt: Face the Hard Truth and Set Yourself Free

Your ability to succeed in life is influenced by your ability to look at things as they are.

Developing this ability is not easy; it requires a certain kind of vulnerability too, with honest eyes, admit to yourself and others what is truly happening in certain circumstances and take ownership of what is yours.

Denial is a sinister thing, operating in the background of the unconscious mind.

It shows up in many different scenarios in both personal and professional settings. Do some of these ways sound familiar?

• Someone has a death of someone close and claims not to be impacted by it.
• A leader continually hears reports of grumblings from employees but does not address the issue.
• Annual doctor’s visits report a decline in health, but the patient does not make the lifestyle adjustments to correct the issue.
• An employee is frequently late or absent from work due to drinking the night before but does not think he/she has a problem.

Denial is a coping mechanism. It is a healthy response to challenging situations; the denial becomes unhealthy when you get stuck and frozen in a loop. Moving through acknowledging where denial may be influencing…