05-24-2021 Getting REAL05-24-2021 Getting REAL
Levelheaded Talk
Dr Andrea Vitz and Jon Leon Guerrero talk about the REAL acronym—revealing everything accurately in life—and how emotional sobriety reshapes honesty. They contrast brutal honesty with kind, accurate truth-telling and suggest simple questions to help people check whether they are genuinely being real.
3:05•24 May 2021
Getting REAL: Revealing Everything Accurately in Life
Episode Overview
- REAL stands for “revealing everything accurately in life,” focusing on honest self-awareness.
- Many people believe they are brutally honest, but training shows how often that isn’t actually true.
- In moments of struggle, asking what you are truly thinking, feeling, and doing helps you get real.
- Being real may feel hard at first if you’ve lived in disassociation, but it can make life easier over time.
- Real honesty is not harsh; when informed by emotional sobriety, it becomes kind, gentle, and loving.
“When you’re real, your life’s easy.”
What can we learn from those who have battled addiction? This short Levelheaded Talk segment zeroes in on one simple yet challenging idea: getting REAL. Dr Andrea Vitz chats with Jon Leon Guerrero about what it truly means to be “real”, especially for those working through emotional sobriety and addiction recovery. She breaks down REAL as an acronym: “revealing everything accurately in life,” and points out how easy it is to convince yourself you’re already doing that.
Many people say, “I’m brutally honest, I tell everybody everything,” but as Andrea notes, “that’s actually probably not true.” Instead of harsh truth-telling, the focus here is on accuracy. Andrea invites students from her EMSO Essentials Intensive and self-study curriculum to pause in moments of struggle and ask: “Am I being real right now? Have I really found what’s accurate about this moment? What am I actually thinking? What am I actually feeling?
And what am I actually doing?” The conversation keeps things light and practical while still speaking directly to anyone dealing with habits, behaviours, and addictions. Andrea shares that “when you’re real, your life’s easy,” even if it doesn’t feel that way at first, especially if you’ve spent years in “disassociation or disreality.” Emotional sobriety, she says, becomes “the most attractive thing in the world.” Jon and Andrea also clear up a common myth: real doesn’t mean rude.
“Real doesn’t mean unkind,” they explain. Accuracy, when filtered through emotional sobriety, comes out “kind, gentle, loving,” so there’s no need to be “brutally honest” with others—just honest. If you’re curious about emotional sobriety or trying to build healthier habits, this chat offers a simple, memorable framework to check in with yourself. Maybe today’s the day you ask: are you being real, or just saying you are?
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