The Dangerous Ways We Tell Our Truth to the World

Glennon Doyle Melton isn't afraid to tell it like is. Scroll through a few pages of her award-winning blog, Momastery, and that's clear in an instant. However, this wasn't always the case. In her latest memoir, Love Warrior, an Oprah's Book Club selection, Glennon writes, "We, especially women, find out very early in life that there is a system to telling the truth that splits us in two."

Glennon explains that she has felt split in two her entire life. "There is the part of me on the outside that's saying the things that I'm supposed to say," she says. "Like, 'I'm fine. I'm fine. Everything's good. Marriage? It's like Disney. Parenting? Fulfilled.' And then there's the part on the inside of me that's, like, scared and lonely and confused a lot."

Although we often cover up the messier parts of life, Glennon believes we are all truth tellers at heart. "It is very hard for the world to hear the truth from a woman," she says. "It's easier for the world to hear the truth from a man. But since negative emotions are less acceptable from a woman, we end up sometimes telling our truth in different ways than words. Dangerous ways."

For Glennon, her truth-telling came out in the form of a 20-year battle with bulimia and alcoholism. "I think we tell the truth with something," she says. "They say 'I'm not fine' with a credit card. Or they say 'I'm not fine' with overeating, or they say 'I'm not fine' with booze or sex or unkindness or whatever it is."

Here, Glennon explains how powerful it is when we can integrate our two selves into one.

Don't miss the new episode of Super Soul Sunday on Sunday, September 11, at 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. ET/PT.

More about Oprah's Book Club
Order your copy of Love Warrior online or pick it up at your local bookstore or library. You can also start reading a free preview now. Visit Oprah.com/bookclub to learn more about the book, and check out our FAQ page to get info on how to participate.

Glennon Doyle Melton is also teaching an online course with vulnerability researcher Brené Brown in which she dives deeper into the work featured in Love Warrior. Learn more about the course!