You can use words to manipulate the world into delivering what you want.
…

To conduct life like this is to become possessed by some ill-formed desire, and then to craft speech and action in a manner that appears likely, rationally, to bring about that end.
…

Someone living a life-lie is attempting to manipulate reality with perception, thought and action, so that only some narrowly desired and predefined outcome is allowed to exist.
…

Consider the person who insists the everything is right in her life. She avoids conflict, and smiles, and does what she is asked to do. She finds a niche and hides in it. She does not question authority or put her own ideas forward, and does not complain when mistreated. She strives for invisibility, like a fish in the centre of a swarming school. But a secret unrest gnaws at her heart. She is lonesome and isolated and unfulfilled. But her obedience and self-obliteration eliminate all the meaning from her life. She has become nothing but a slave, a tool for others to exploit. She does not get what she wants, or needs, because doing so would mean speaking her mind. So, there is nothing of value in her existence to counter-balance life’s troubles. And that makes her sick.
..

If you do not reveal yourself to others, you cannot reveal yourself to yourself.

Jordan B Peterson, 12 Rules for Life

The greatest mistreatment we can do to ourselves is to lie to ourselves.

I think there’s an innate part of us that cannot deal with inconsistency in our thoughts and behaviour. Sure, we could lie once and tell ourselves that the lie was necessary to “smoothen a situation”. But suppression and lies introduce inconsistencies – inconsistencies that demand resolution. Either your thoughts change and you lose the initial conviction/meaning, or the dam breaks and you take action much more drastic that originally intended.

Dropping in a quick post before I hit the slopes of Hirafu. =)