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by Donald B. Ardell, Ph. D.
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Wellness in the Headlines
(Don's Report to the World)

Is Honesty A Wellness Issue?

Wednesday June 6, 2001

Honesty is praised and starves. Juvenal, Satire

If you choose to deliberately manage your life in a manner designed to enable optimal health and life satisfaction, does honesty matter? Is truth-telling relevant, in your view, to the kinds of skill areas described and illustrated in the three domains (physical, mental and meaning and purpose) described at this site? In short, is honesty not just the best policy in general but consistent with and even supportive of living a wellness lifestyle? What do you think?

I think it is.

Of course, not many people would likely come out against honesty, for it is, after all, right up there with the flag and apple pie, not to mention Mom. Who would expect a wellness promoter to come out in favor of dishonesty! Furthermore, if I endorsed lying, what chance would there be that you would believe any of my editorials? You might conclude something like, "There goes Don again—telling one of those tall tales of his!" Therefore I realize that this position in support of honesty as a wellness element does not send me to the head of the line for a "Profiles in Courage" award.

However, consider that honesty in a wellness context means a lot more than not telling an untruth or being a party to a deliberate deception.

With the memory still fresh of our former president claiming he spoke truthfully about what he did or did not do 37 times in the Oval Office, honesty is a deservedly hot topic these days.

I believe lying is always a bad idea from a health and wellness as well as a moral or ethical position. It takes courage and integrity to tell the truth at all times and never shade it, though you have a right to remain silent at times! I first encountered an explicit call for secular honesty (telling the truth because you deeply believe in honesty and protecting the value of your word, not to please a god or gods or conform to religious dogmas) in a book by Harry Browne entitled How I Fount Freedom In An Unfree World. Brown made the case for an "honesty at all times" policy as a personal effectiveness issue.

As noted, I found this argument persuasive at the time and still find it to be right on the proverbial mark—and much needed in society. Case in point: The Wall Street Journal published a survey the other day suggesting that employees are under pressure to prevaricate. (By the way, even if you call it "prevaricating," it's still lying!) A professional secretaries group did the survey. Here are highlights:

58 % lied about their supervisor's whereabouts (little lies tend to grow bigger);
27 % shared confidential information about hiring, firing and layoffs (dishonesty takes many forms);
12% changed the minutes of corporate meetings!

Honesty in a wellness context (affecting relationships, mental health, emotional intelligence and effective decisions, among other self-management areas) means displaying yourself as you really are, which in turn invites self-awareness and self-acceptance. It means you don't make promises or assertions that you can't be sure you can honor.

When you shade the truth, you limit your freedom, because you create restrictions on yourself (needed to keep your stories straight). If one person learns or otherwise knows you lied to someone else, he will realize that he might be next in line for some fiction. Furthermore, if you are less than honest with others, you will be tempted to lie to yourself, and after a while you won't know what's true and what you invented, in many instances.

Being honest is not always the easiest course, but moral dilemmas are opportunities for excellence. Therefore, consider them, like splendid life challenges, an invitation for ethical artistry and positive modeling. For these and similar reasons, I have to conclude that honesty is indeed an asset of great value to your wellness lifestyle.

Stay well.

Domain: purpose
Subdomain: relationships

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