The Joy in Authentic Living!
What does it mean to embrace our authentic selves? It simply means being true to who we really are and answering present in our own lives regardless of what people may think about us; it means loving ourselves and being unashamed of who we are. People are generally smart and can sense when we are not living our authentic lives.
Why is authenticity so important for our lives? Authenticity means freedom and liberation! It means joy! It means that we are living our lives as us, rather than as others. Being authentic means that we are living our truth. Truth usually sets us free. Freedom means soaring in most aspects of our lives. Living our truth almost always propels us in the right direction, ultimately steering us to our right calling, path, or destinations. When we are living our truth, we are approaching life from a path of conviction and courage and in that process, fear is conquered. When fear is conquered, almost every obstacle and challenge becomes exactly what it should be for people who get it – a positive teaching experience. When fear is conquered the sky becomes our limit. Throughout history, it has been men and women who are not afraid of being their authentic self through taking a stand, or voicing out their truth that continues to leave their imprints in the sands of time.
A lot of us go through life pretending to be who we are not for fear of getting disapproving glances from others or being unpopular. The effect of that of course, is a situation where we become stuck in the rot of a job we do not like, or the company of those that we cannot stand, or remain silent in the face of a glaringly wrong act perpetrated against another in our presence because if we voice our opposition, we lose our friends. (Now seriously . . . are they really friends for starters?). When we live our lives different from whom we really are, life becomes unhappy, overly complicated, our relationships suffer because our partners cannot even decipher who we are; our businesses suffer because we are not conducting the business from a place of conviction and truth; we are angry, and infect others with the same negative emotion and ultimately, we fail to excel at what we do because we do not have faith in it to begin with. Ever noticed what happens to us when we lie, our tone sort of falters. We normally do not have the same courage and convictions that we usually exhibit when we are in the right or when we are telling the truth.
Without question, no two human beings are exactly alike. As children, we usually have different personalities and ideas and are usually unafraid to say exactly how we feel. In that state of absolute truth and innocence, life is less complex and more fun! As children, everything is out in the open and generally we are mostly happy. We are unafraid of anything, (ok, may be... except for the boogieman and ghosts) Something drastic happens to us on our way to adulthood. As adults, we try to conform to a set of unwritten norms and become boring and in the process lose our individualities. Everyone acts just like the next person and sounds just like someone they are not. Of course we fail at what we do because we are fake! Many success stories today are about people who are different from the rest of the bunch and most of us fail to notice this.
I am in no way advocating that living your authentic self means that you become insensitive to others out of a need to always voice out your opinion, or that you must constantly be in the opposition. I am merely advocating that a life lived from an authentic place usually is a happier one for the person living it and for others whom he encounters. His endeavors and goals are usually easier to accomplish because of the strength and conviction that backs the endeavor. His relationships are usually happier because it is less complex and not ridden with a lot of secrets. His business will attract customers and clients who sense the devotion and conviction behind the business.
Are you living your authentic life?