“To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day” a famous line (from William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet) promotes self-awareness and living in alignment with your core values. It encourages authenticity and integrity. The philosophy suggests that if you are genuinely honest and loyal to your own principles, you will naturally treat others with respect.
One would believe that being true to thine own self begins with truth telling. However, given our prevailing cultural climate, truth telling appears to have taken a back seat and our silence is being dictated by fear and recrimination.
We have been subjected to an inordinate amount of cruelty and blatant disregard on levels we are not equipped to process, let alone understand. It can feel as if truth tellers have become targeted, making it nearly impossible to feel safe or supported in speaking truth. But speaking truth we must, if we are to be true to thine own self.
If that feels simple but not easy, you may want to tap back into your core values and beliefs. Reignite your integrity, as withholding your truth, the truth about any given situation, requires a great deal of energy and takes up too much head space.
My paternal grandmother once shared sage advice when she suggested “If you never tell a lie, you will never have to remember what you said.” (I do believe it was my grandmother Mary’s adaptation of Mark Twain’s “If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything”, however I prefer my grandmother’s version.
I recall my drinking years as my lying years. I never intentionally chose to lie – I believe it came with the territory. I was covering up, embarrassed of something, full of shame. It wasn’t until I stopped drinking, nearly 35 years ago, that I stopped lying. Again, not intentionally. (I refer to it as one of the many gifts of sobriety, but I am digressing.)
The point I am making is truth telling was essential to my sobriety. It became one of my first steps in becoming true to mine own self. Truth telling is an essential step for you to become true to thine own self.
A bonus along this journey of becoming true, is that your own clarity and clear mindedness serve to make it uber easy to detect others’ lack of truth telling. They speak an untruth and alarms go off, lights flash. You will more easily be able to discern truth from untruth.
You may want to begin with this first step of truth telling, while you build your courage as you proceed.
As challenging as the times in which we live are, (as hesitation abounds for fear of retaliation or negative consequences) it is imperative that we garner our courage and “truth on.”
Seek out others who support, nay, celebrate, your truths. Hold one another accountable to being yourselves – at all costs. Together you can and will tip the scales to become the best damn version of thine own selves. The freedom of an empty mind (you know what I mean) is priceless.
©2026 All Rights Reserved. Listen To Thyself with Diane Marie Ford. You may share this article to your heart’s content, but please do not use it without my written permission.