02/25/2025
I came across this post, and it stirred something deep within me. As someone who feels energy intensely and sees beyond the surface, I couldn't help but dive into the layers beneath these words. If you're curious about the perspective of a deep empath—someone who feels the weight of both truth and omission—come with me on this exploration. It's not always black and white, especially when it comes to honesty, safety, and the spaces in between.
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The Complexity of Truth: Honoring Boundaries, Vulnerability, and Energetic Safety—While Recognizing Manipulation
The image suggests that omitting details or twisting truths is a form of lying because it involves deliberate deception. While this perspective highlights the importance of honesty and transparency, it doesn’t fully address the complexities and nuances that come into play, especially for intuitive, sensitive, or empathetic people.
But here’s the deeper truth—it’s not always about safety or emotional protection. Sometimes, people lie for self-serving reasons, to maintain control, and to manipulate outcomes in their favor.
When Withholding Information Is Justified:
1. Self-Protection from Harmful Dynamics: Sensitive individuals often pick up on subtle energies, including judgment or manipulative tendencies. In situations involving narcissists or emotionally abusive individuals, full honesty can be weaponized against the person. Withholding details becomes an act of self-preservation rather than deceit.
2. Energetic Boundaries: Not every person deserves access to your deepest truths. Setting boundaries around what to share and with whom is a form of self-respect. It’s okay to withhold information when someone is overstepping or prying into areas they have no right to.
3. Emotional Safety: For those who struggle with anxiety, trauma, or fear of confrontation, sharing full truths—especially with people who are controlling or dismissive—can be emotionally unsafe. Omitting details or softening truths becomes a coping mechanism to navigate these spaces without harm.
4. Discernment and Energetic Awareness: Highly intuitive people can often sense when someone isn’t coming from a place of love or authenticity. In such cases, it’s not deceitful to withhold information—it’s discerning. It’s about choosing where to invest energy and who to trust with your vulnerability.
5. It’s Not Always Deceptive—It’s Empowering: There’s a difference between intentional deception and conscious boundary-setting. Saying, “I’m not comfortable sharing that,” is an empowered omission, not a lie. The distinction lies in the intent. If the intent is to protect one’s energy rather than to mislead, it isn’t inherently dishonest.
6. Managing Power Dynamics: In conversations with controlling, narcissistic, or manipulative individuals, revealing too much can shift the power dynamic against you. Withholding details can be a way of maintaining balance and not giving others tools to use against you.
When Withholding Becomes Manipulation:
Here’s where it gets deeper. Sometimes, people don’t withhold information out of fear or self-protection—they withhold because they know the truth would cost them their comforts, privileges, or control.
This is intentional deception. This is manipulation. This is narcissism.
It’s when someone chooses to withhold life-impacting truths—not because they feel unsafe—but because they don’t want to face the consequences. They want to keep their control, their comfort, their “game.”
... Real Life Example Below From My Own Personal Life....
Like when someone lies about gambling, hiding the financial damage they’re causing—not out of fear for their emotional safety, but because they know that if you found out, you would make a choice that disrupts their comfort, like leaving the relationship. This isn’t about feeling unsafe; it’s about keeping the upper hand.
This is where manipulation crosses the line—when someone withholds the truth to preserve their selfish gains, knowing full well that honesty would shatter their illusion of control.
And that’s not about safety. That’s about power.
The Deeper Truth About Vulnerability and Non-Judgment:
If you want me—or anyone—to be fully open, honest, and vulnerable, there’s a sacred responsibility that comes with that:
Be kind. Be non-judgmental. Be love.
Vulnerability is a gift, one that requires safety and trust. If you want the full truth—the raw, unfiltered, deeply personal truth—then it’s essential to create a space where that truth can land without being twisted, judged, or weaponized.
If you’re not coming from a place of unconditional love, truth, and surrender—if you approach with judgment, ego, or control—I do not feel bad or guilty for withholding parts of my truth. In fact, it’s an act of self-love and protection.
Why? Because I know the risk of my honesty being used against me, twisted, or manipulated.
Truth thrives in love. It shuts down in fear.
But remember, not all withholding is about fear. Some people withhold because they want to keep playing their games, holding onto their comforts, while hiding the cost of their actions from you.
Reframing the Image’s Perspective:
Instead of viewing omissions as inherently deceitful, consider this:
Is the omission protecting the person’s energy and emotional safety?
Or is it protecting the person’s comfort at your expense?
The intention behind withholding matters. When it’s rooted in self-preservation or energetic discernment, it’s valid. But when it’s driven by manipulation, control, or selfishness—it becomes deception.
It’s about finding that sweet spot between honesty and self-protection.
Sensitive, intuitive people have the right to protect their energy, even if it means not always sharing the "whole truth." That’s an act of self-honoring, not deception.
But we also need to recognize when someone is hiding truths—not because they feel unsafe—but because they know the truth would force you to make decisions they don’t want to face.
And that, right there, is where love ends, and manipulation begins.
With Divine Love,
Tina Marie
www.loveguidesme.com
