The problem with keeping secrets is that they’re alive. We like to think that our secrets can lie quietly in our minds, as inert as dirt, but we’re wrong. Secrets aren’t just our creations…they’re our creatures, beings with wills of their own. They grow. They reproduce, as we form new secrets to support the old ones. They even migrate, colonizing the people closest to us (ask anyone from a secretive family). But the scariest thing about secrets is what they want: They want out.
By Martha beck, oprah magazine
Secrets are just part of our life journey. Keeping them in darkness can be damaging.
I read a book called “The Power of Confession.” In the book they take two groups of college kids and watch them for four years. The first group, Group A, they just monitored behavior. They ran an experiment with Group B.
Brain waves were monitored in each individual in Group B. Implants in different areas of the brain recorded and/or stimulated specific sites in the brain. The person was then asked to tell them something they had never told any other person about. The brain activity quickly showed a congruence between the two hemisphres of the brain. They surmised that it takes power in our brain to block secrets. When that secret was told, the brain released.
The study also showed that Group B had almost no visits to the nurses station at the college for the four years. Group A went on a much more frequent basis for medical attention.
Secrets are not good for us. Period. This is why it is important to tell our stories.
