It is indeed such a great pleasure for me to lead you down the pathway towards Authenticity. During this process, I also share my experience on my journey and how I did it.
This is our second article about Authenticity…
“Authenticity is the daily practice of letting go of who we think we are supposed to be and embracing who we are.”
– Brene Brown
As simple as it sounds, Authenticity needs time invested in grasping and finding your true self, but well worth the effort.
How can we learn to be true to ourselves? How can we take off the masks we are wearing so often when we know fully that our true self lies behind the masked face. As you uncover your pathway to Authenticity, you realize there are deep-rooted issues within ourselves, such as self-esteem issues, fear of rejection, feelings of less, people-pleasing etc. However, as you start to understand who you are and come to terms, you learn to work around all these bottlenecks to accept yourself wholeheartedly.
Today I will share with you five simple techniques leading to living authentically.
Finding time for yourself to teach you to be self-aware
It’s essential to be aware that as children and as we mature, we naturally absorb the views and opinions of those around us – parents, teachers, friends, etc. Bit by bit, their values become ours or replace or bury our values, essential to us. Without us knowing, constant usage of these other people’s opinion-driven values becomes a fundamental part of our belief system.
Becoming self-aware is essential
It also involves time to time, assessing these ‘acquired’ values and beliefs and seeing if they are true to yourself or not. It is the beginning of the self-discovery journey. Sometimes you can do it yourself with adequate time and attention to yourself. Sometimes you may need a life coach or a trusted mature friend, whom you can talk and get support from. Sometimes when you fall in life, struggling with issues, and you are looking to find solutions by turning into you, you may find your true self, breaking from years of being tied up. Sometimes when you start to untangle yourself from the tangled string ball, you come to see and think what is important to you, and the journey of self-discovery continues.
Journaling
Journaling is a great way to learn about things, which are essential to you. It is a way to connect with your soul, if you allow it to be, and can be very revealing. This action will help you clarify the core values and ethics you stand by, as this is a crucial part of the journey towards Authenticity. Journaling also can assist in identifying potentially unhelpful trends and habits of your life, which put yourself in jeopardy every so often. If done correctly, openly and confidentially, journaling can provide you with the opportunity to set yourself back on track, on a better pathway, to get rid of the unhelpful ways about you. Once you know your values and ethics clearly, you know it gives you a lot of basis for decision making ‘ accurate to your heart’. When making decisions, if you feel like you are not sure, somewhat uncomfortable and not happy, you may have violated your value and ethic structure without you realizing it. It is a call to rethink, recalculate and keep the options open.
There is no need to be perfect for inspiring others
‘Perfection’ usually is impossible to attain and can always make you feel inadequate and less. Who had pushed these boundaries of inhibition? Also yourself. Thrive to do things the best you can, but it doesn’t have to be perfect. Unnecessary and unrealistic standards we set for ourselves, looking at other people, make us feel stressed and anxious in an already stressed world. Embrace your imperfections, embrace who you are. Use imperfections as an opportunity to grow further and improve. Let others get inspired by how you deal with imperfections. Knowing and accepting your imperfections are as crucial as acknowledging your strengths when it comes to Authenticity.
Realize the value of genuine corrections and connections
In this journey to discover your authentic self, modifications of ourselves is essential. Sometimes we can do it by ourselves when we are self-aware of our shortcomings and take measures to correct them. However, at times we don’t quite see the weaknesses, and you will have to rely upon someone you trust, someone mature, someone who has such a deep interest in your well-being, to point it out to you.
This happens with genuine connections. I have been fortunate, and I had had about four people around me who had been mature, whom I had cultivated friendships over a while, who helped steady my boat when I was caught in the storm and was rocking. Genuine people, more prominent than their lives, who will stand by you and support you as you go through this journey.
Find few people you connect with at a genuine level and keep those friendships going because they are important, and they may be part of your journey to self-discovery without you realizing it.
Be where you are. Otherwise, you will miss life.
As the famous ‘Sath Guru’ says, we humans are gifted with two significant complex abilities than all animals. They are the ‘memory’ and the ‘imagination’. Most of the time, we are not using these gifted abilities for our good. We either live in the past, thinking about what happened in the past, feeling sad, or thinking about changing it. Or we try to live in the future – worrying about what will things go right the way I want it. So we either live in our memory, or we live in our imagination. The problem is you are missing your life, happening now, at this moment. You become depressed and stressed. You accumulate anger towards others, you get regret, you worry, and you give away every moment that you have the power to change. Meditation practices, yoga, and other exercises can help train you to focus your mind on the present. This is our biggest ‘life miss’ pathway.
Adapt some of these practices into your life, and slowly see how your life transforms for betterment. Best of Luck!
