“Hypocrisy is the art of affecting qualities for the purpose of pretending to an undeserved virtue. Because individuals and institutions and societies most often live down to the suspicions about them, hypocrisy and its accompanying equivocations underpin the conduct of life. Imagine how frightful truth unvarnished would be.”— Benjamin F. Martin
Many of us have been two-faced in our lives—but those of us who succumbed to addiction elevated being two-faced to a high art form. We wheeled and dealed behind our shifting masks in a dizzying display of duplicity that had even the most seasoned con men shaking their heads. We were the great pretenders on the stage, acting out virtues that we did not have rightful claim to. We were the great deceivers, ever-ready to mimic to the gullible what we believed they wanted to hear. We did not mean what we said—and we never said what we meant. We were the hypocrites—holding truth hostage to the demands of our addiction.
Yes, in our using days, weren’t we just so slick and smug—as we oiled our way from one shady transaction to another? Finally though, we found ourselves in a hall of cracked mirrors, pursued and mocked by demons that were the shades of our various pretenses. Our game faltered and fell apart… Our hypocrisies began to unravel. Our souls split apart. We were exposed. Now came the catcalls and the boos and the shame-mongering, as we were driven from the stage. Our world had cracked. And only a radical decision to seek help could restore us to sanity. We accepted that help and we began our recovery.
And we came to see—as we progressed in our recovery—that hypocrisy had no place in a healthy program. We decided to preach only what we could practice—and we practiced so the practice could allow us to preach more boldly… This way lay wisdom, lay peace, lay serenity, lay the simple pleasure that comes from aligning our words with our actions. And the beauty too, was how much less effort it took to be true to ourselves…
Today, let’s reflect for a few moments on the extent to which we are well aligned in how we present to the world. Might there still, perhaps, be some lurking hypocrisy that could be shown the door? All good then, all good…
We can be out of alignment physically as much as spiritually, of course. Serious physical mis-alignment can benefit from skilled bodywork, but there can be simple, effective ways for us to adjust ourselves. And when we adjust ourselves physically, there is often a carry-over into an emotional-spiritual re-alignment. Here’s what we’ll do today:
Sit, if you are not already sitting. If you just sat down or up—or you were already seated—notice every element of your current posture, before you change anything. Are you slumped over, spine bent? Is your head hanging forward on your protesting neck? Are your shoulders hunched? Is one shoulder higher than another? Are you clenching your jaw? Squinting?
You get the picture… Now, start straightening up— relaxing and rebalancing whatever is obviously tight or out of whack. Once you have completed your re-posturing, put a light smile on your face, close your eyes and simply be with your new alignment. Breathe gently. Rest in yourself for a while. When you feel complete, open your eyes and move on with your day.
I am aligned and appreciate the peace that descends upon me from the feeling of being true to who I really am, right now, this minute.