This Week's Wisdom - Integrity

By Paul Bauer

Last night, I saw a powerful new movie called The Insider. It's about a man who risked everything to tell the truth because he knew it was the right thing to do.
If you want a refreshing lesson on why being true to our nature is important, please see this movie!

How often are you faced with the option of speaking your Truth or backing down and "being a nice person"? When you see this movie, you'll think twice about the next time that you're in a situation that requires you to do the right thing. Not the popular thing - not the easy way out, but having integrity within yourself and honoring this value.

Integrity can mean many things, but at its root, Integrity means the quality of being complete or unbroken - wholeness. The power of this movie is that the central character is forced to make a decision - a difficult decision that could break anyone, to sign a confidentiality agreement that states he will not divulge any information to anyone about his work at Brown & Williamson tobacco company. One of many companies that have been contributing to hundreds of thousands of people dying from lung cancer and related illness each year!

(This is a TRUE story)
The main character, Wiegand is forced to struggle between telling the truth - a truth that could save thousands of lives, or remaining quiet. If he remains quiet, thousands WILL die. If he tells the truth, he risks being imprisoned for breaking the confidentiality agreement (which is enforceable by law), losing his severance package and benefits (the golden handcuff) and unexpectedly, his marriage.

In this apparent no-win scenario, he decides to honor his integrity and tell the truth - no matter what the consequences are. He sees that remaining quiet would not only break his own integrity, but add to the already long list of atrocities put on the American public by the tobacco industry.


What difference does this make to Me, Paul?
Many people go through their daily lives and are faced with honoring themselves or someone else that they think rules their lives. When given this choice, ask yourself "What's the right thing to do in this situation?" The thing that when you go to sleep at night you can say to yourself "I did the right thing".

There's an old quote that Abraham Maslow taught Wayne Dyer and it says:

"Learn to be free of the good opinion of others"

Let's take this lesson one step further... Learn to be free of the good opinion of your own ego.

I have a question.
Are you willing to listen to your Heart and intuition and be true to yourself, even when it hurts? Are you willing to do the unpopular thing especially when it's needed? Do you now work for a company that routinely rapes the land with pollution, or for a drug company that uses animals for testing and even worse uses humans as guinea pigs? Does this sound too opinionated? Only to those unwilling to really look at what is needed to honor our Earth, our children, ourselves.

Have you ever considered the consequences of your decisions? Do you purchase toxic products from companies like Monsanto (maker of Nutrasweet - a known toxic compound that slowly poisons the body - and they are now trying to "bioengineer" crops such as corn, soybeans, etc. that create dangerous side effects)? Do you smoke? Do you allow your children to watch violence on TV thinking "Oh, they'll get over it"?

Every seed we sow grows, so we need to be aware - fully conscious of what we are planting in our own minds and the minds of those who you influence.


What can I do today to have more integrity?

Sit for a moment, and ask yourself:

Why am I here?
What am Here to do?
How can I best use my creative talents and speak my Truth?

How can I honor my intuition - my Heart and honor this sacred Earth I live on - to help protect it for my children?

As you go about your daily life, listen to your Heart, remember that integrity means the state of being complete, connected to your own self. What can you do as you are reading this, that will honor your own integrity?


Ask yourself:

The rest is but mere details...

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May the warm sun of your imagination flow easily, effortlessly as you make your Dreams real...


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