LET TIME DO THE TALKING...

My mom is full of one-line wisdom. Actually, she's full of a lot of wisdom, but it's the one-liners that stick with you—the Cliff Notes of life.

They're the kinds of things that make a frustrated teenager or an exhausted young mother roll her eyes.

Then one day, you realize...

Your Mom was right all along.

There were a few phrases I didn't fully appreciate until much later.

"Better to keep your mouth shut and let them wonder than open it and remove all doubt."

And an even simpler one:

"Let time do the talking."

When I was younger, I thought if someone lied about you, you should immediately defend yourself.

If someone twisted the facts, you should correct them.

If someone spread rumors, you should set the record straight.

After all...

The truth should win.

Right?

Then I heard another old saying:

"A forked tongue eventually cuts its own mouth."

I've thought about that a lot over the years.

People often believe deception is clever.

That if they repeat a story often enough...

Speak loudly enough...

Recruit enough people...

Or simply keep talking...

...truth somehow becomes negotiable.

It doesn't.

The interesting thing about dishonesty is that it rarely falls apart because someone brilliantly exposes it.

It falls apart because maintaining a false narrative is exhausting.

The details begin to change.

Facts stop lining up.

Contradictions emerge.

Emotions replace evidence.

Eventually, the story begins telling on itself.

Truth, on the other hand, is surprisingly low maintenance.

It doesn't need rehearsing.

It doesn't need defending.

It doesn't need constant editing.

Time has a way of revealing what words try to conceal.

That's why my mom would simply smile and say,

"Let time do the talking."

As a therapist, I've come to believe that dishonesty often has less to do with intelligence than it does with protection.

Sometimes we lie to protect our image.

Sometimes we exaggerate to protect our pride.

Sometimes we rewrite history because the real story is simply too painful to face.

Our minds are remarkably creative when they're trying to protect an old wound...

—or justify a really bad decision.

Whether it's rejection, humiliation, betrayal, or injustice, our wounds don't just shape how we see ourselves.

They shape the stories we tell ourselves...

...and the stories we tell everyone else.

Healing isn't just learning to tell the truth to other people.

It's learning to tell the truth to ourselves.

Because once you no longer need to protect the wound...

You no longer need to protect the story.

And when the story no longer needs protecting...

You can finally let time do the talking.

— Dr. Michaela.

Do you know your Primal Wound?

Because once you do… it changes everything.