Sharing Your Authentic Self

“We are all born an original, but most of us die a copy.  Don’t die a copy.’  Agapi Stassinopoulos

Allowing our authentic self to be the person that we show the world is a courageous act for many reasons.  Our authentic self is probably not the person that everyone else is – our authentic self is probably someone that doesn’t blend into the crowd and disappear into the walls. After all, there is only one of us! Our authentic self is an original. There is only one of us and for us to step into our authentic self it means we have to have the courage to trust and support our knowing regardless of the validation and support from the outside world.

Showing our authentic self may make us feel vulnerable.  We are showing the world who we are.  There are no walls up.  It is the real us.  We can feel a bit unprotected as we step into our authentic self-unsure if we will be fully accepted.  This is probably one of the hardest parts of showing our real self to the world. Especially if we carry unloving, judgmental thoughts about our self. It is these judgmental thoughts and feelings we have towards our self that get in the way of our acceptance.  Without acceptance we will struggle to embrace our original self!

In order to accept our self, we have to connect with our authentic self.  We can work on acceptance by becoming mindful of the thoughts, feelings and beliefs, observing them and being aware of the judgments we may carry.  As we become aware of our judgments, we can choose to let the judgments go.  We are enough, just as we are.  We don’t have to be more.  And so we can work towards having appreciation, nonjudgmentalness and gratitude with our self. 

We can also work towards connecting with our self – sitting with our self quietly.  This means stepping into a practice of meditation where we sit quietly, stilling the body and mind and allowing for compassion to be part of this.  Allow the quietness of the moment to be enough.  We are all here on a journey, having a human experience, trying to do the best we can do.  Learning to sit with our self, have gratitude and appreciation for who we are, right here, right now, just the way we are, is a great gift and a good place to go.  Having compassion on you allows you then to be able to extend compassion to the rest of us humans on this journey called life.  And it also give you the courage to share your authentic self with the world, as you become the person that will support you as you step out authentically.  And that becomes enough!!