The Authentic Self
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?’ Actually, who are you not to be?”
~ Marianne Williamson
The Authentic Self is who we truly are underneath who we think we should be for others. It’s the essence of who we are that holds our inherent worth and unique nature. It’s the part of us that when we’re in connection with it, we feel free, happy, safe and empowered. Essentially, living from our Authentic Self, feels like home.
We tend to not live from our Authentic Self for a few reasons. Firstly, most of the time our true Self is hidden behind our limiting beliefs of who we think we are. For example, “I’m not good enough,” is a very common limiting belief. Based on our limiting belief we build a story about who we are, what we’re worthy (or not worthy) of, our loveability, significance etc. We play this narrative throughout our lives until we make it conscious, peel back the layers of the onion, give ourselves the love we’ve always been needing and come back home to our true Self, once again.
Another reason for not living from our Authentic Self is that it’s vulnerable, and being vulnerable can be scary as we have nothing to hide behind. But as we do the inner work and learn to truly accept and love our entire self, we find confidence, comfort and power in being in our vulnerability (which being vulnerable really just means being human). Once we feel at home within ourselves, living from our authenticity makes us feel more alive, fulfilled and happy because we’re honouring who we truly are rather than pretending to be someone that we’re not.
Sadly, we have trained ourselves to live outside of who we truly are. Whether it’s because our family wanted us to be a certain way, we’re influenced by social media or social pressure, or that we simply don’t have a good image of ourselves, we tend to be someone else. Someone we think others will approve of more. We’re coping or surviving rather than thriving.
Whatever the reason, we’ve grown to believe that “fitting in” will make us feel safe (which in the end, we recognise is not the real feeling of safety we’re seeking). The illusion of safety, or belonging, might be there temporarily. But by conforming, we lose touch with our spirit, passion, uniqueness and the sense that we have an individual purpose and gift to share with the world.
When we try to be someone for someone else, we give away our power, joy and sovereignty, which leaves us feeling exhausted because pretending to be someone else, takes a lot of effort.
What we’re looking for is to belong firstly to ourselves. The rest becomes an expression of who we authentically are as we move through the various experiences that make up our lives.
We want to feel at home within ourselves, right? Much like being in pajamas with our belly out, we want to feel comfortable and free!
Connecting to our true Self is about getting out of the false story we made up about ourselves based on our limiting belief, which we replay each and every day.
It’s about getting to know the language of our emotions and what they’re telling us. Embracing our fear, sitting with our pain, pulling the thorn out from our wound and filling it with the love we have been craving perhaps our entire lives.
It’s an honest, inward journey where you get to know yourself more, learn how to show up and take care of yourself and be who you truly are in all areas of your life.
You’ll build self-awareness, attune to your deeper needs, ground yourself in your worth and finally feel free.
Once we connect to our essence and know both what our needs are and how to fulfil them, as well as how to be with our fears, we feel more confident and empowered within our lives. All of a sudden we feel more in control, not by gripping onto life through fear but by feeling fully engaged as a co-creator of our lives.
Knowing how to take care of ourselves, accept who we are no matter what we’re feeling, be with ourselves so we feel less alone and be authentic when we’re around others, is hugely liberating. We feel more connected, like we belong and we finally feel enough.
All of this is not because the outside world changed, but because our inner world did. When we change the way we see ourselves and the way we act towards ourselves by creating a loving, kind relationship with ourselves, all of a sudden the lens with which we once viewed life through, changes completely. From our Authentic Self we can see our lives more clearly and can manifest that which we want to call into it, with greater power, ease and joy.
By living from our Authentic Self, we exude a different kind of energy which makes us feel better about ourselves, and which silently inspires others to be themselves as well.
