Speak Your Truth
By Rev. Josh Bell, PJI Interfaith Coordinator
Speak your truth. You are invited to say what is in your heart, trusting that your voice will be heard and your contribution respected. Own your truth by remembering to speak only for yourself. Using the first person “I” rather than “you” or “everyone” clearly communicates the personal nature of your expression.
Can I be honest with you? I am a recovering people-pleaser. I have always been very attuned and attentive to other people’s tone, body language, and emotions. It is simply part of who I am. Along with that attentiveness, I also learned during my developmental years to rely heavily on other people’s opinions of me in order to determine my self-worth. These realities led me to assume and adapt to other people’s expectations in order to receive the approval I thought that I needed throughout my childhood and into early adulthood. This helped me to survive, and it also kept me from being my full self.
My life has changed significantly over the past few years due to opportunities to live and speak more authentically. I have also learned that there are many people who are in similar places to myself, who have learned that many environments lack the safety required for them to speak what is truly in their heart. When we share what is in our hearts, we are practicing vulnerability. When I am willing to be vulnerable with another person, we have the potential to have a true and honest connection with one another’s humanity.
Many environments lack the safety to encourage the vulnerability of speaking one’s truth. Perhaps the majority of environments we encounter are not such safe spaces. This is especially true when someone’s truth includes his/her/their experience as a woman, as a person of color, as a person within the LGBTQ+ spectrum of identities, as a person living with a disability, as someone from a marginalized culture, nationality, or age group. Due to all of these factors and the additional layers of power dynamics and relational histories, spaces that are deliberately created for the speaking of one’s truth are rare, precious, and transformative.
The Peace and Justice Institute transforms lives through creating environments where people can show up as their whole selves, speak their truth, and participate in healing through authentic dialogue and relationships.
Alongside other nurturing experiences and practices in my life, the opportunity to participate in PJI events showed me that freedom and power are unlocked when I am willing to show up as my honest self. I was honored to witness others practicing this Principle, which gave me permission to practice it myself. When he took the risk to share about being profiled by law enforcement, compassion was awakened in the group for him and those with similar experiences. When she spoke her truth about her giftedness as a leader, other members were challenged to see their biases against women in leadership. When they spoke about their journey of self-acceptance as a non-binary person, group members were stretched to reconsider their understandings of gender.
I listened as so many people spoke their truth. Their courage showed me that when I offer my truth in a group discussion, I am communicating that I value the work and the people enough to show up as my true and honest self. This vulnerability is radically different from people-pleasing, and it has changed my life. Practicing speaking my truth in PJI environments has been a crucial step in speaking my truth in other contexts, regardless of whether or not that truth pleases other people. Thank you, PJI, for helping me learn to speak my truth.
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Each week we will be posting one of the 13 Principles for How We Treat Each Other from the Peace and Justice institute at Valencia College.
This week we turn our focus to the ninth Principle, "speak your truth". Being truly heard is a gift that can only be received when you speak your truth. Speak from your heart, and trust that you will be heard and your contribution respected. #PJIPrinciples
Click here to access all of the Principles available in English, Spanish, French, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese. 
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