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“Authenticity is the daily practice of letting go of who we think we‘re supposed to be and embracing who we really are.” Brené Brown
According Wikipedia, authenticity is the degree to which one is true to one's own personality, spirit, or character, despite external pressures. Many notions of authenticity have coexisted for centuries under different guises. The most popular amongst scholars is Socrates’ admonition that "the unexamined life is not worth living".
Authenticity is not a role we play or a mask we wear, it is the genuine expression of who we are in a specific period of our life, because we are changing throughout our lives. It is the attempt to live our life according to the needs of our inner being, rather than the demands of society. Individuals concerned with living authentically have often led unusual lives that opposed cultural norms. According to Sartre, in human beings, existence precedes essence, which means that humans are not predefined beings but they create themselves through their choices and decisions and they have the freedom not only to compose themselves but to reform and change them as well.
Being authentic requires a lot of courage and bravery and unfortunately human behavior is mostly dictated by fear. Life for many people is a difficult balancing act because they believe in a way of living and they live in a totally different way. Authenticity means that we have a deep sense of what is important to us and we align our life to it using our strength in order to induce the necessary changes. To be authentic doesn’t mean to be perfect and saint, it means to be just ourselves, our unique self. Exactly as love, compassion, truth, empathy are elements of human existence the same goes for fear, anger, shame. They all have their place in the palette of human emotions. We just need to recognize, to embrace and accept them. We should not be afraid of them, they are our teachers and they show us the path of self-redemption.
We should feel strong and safe within our own existence but at the same time we should be vulnerable and open. This is balance and with integrity, mindfulness, awareness and a sense of belonging are facets of authenticity. Authenticity is the state where we don’t need to protect and defend our identity, we just need to direct our attention into our sensations. Being authentic means that we possess the capacity to be resourceful and creative, to make choices that reinforce our values and to take effective action no matter what is going on around us. It is a self-generated inner state and we can cultivate it.
The flow of new awareness is experienced when our mind and emotions are brought into alignment with our heart. The heart radiates an electromagnetic field that energetically affects those in our environment who can sense our feelings. So there is no point in pretending we are authentic, we don’t fool anyone. Authenticity goes hand by hand with trust, calmness and acceptance. It is the freedom from self-doubt and negativity which leads to flowing in the present moment, to intuition and profound realizations. Being authentic means that we are open to experience, we are listening in order to connect, we trust our self and we filter everything through those filters. In order to be authentic we must know the truth about ourselves, we must be self-aware of what is happening within us, we must be in touch with our subconscious mind. Being in the authentic state is encouraging a shift in perspective, a shift from doing and having to being, a shift from autopilot to awareness.
It is a wonderful gift to know who we are and what we stand for because this is the source of our personal power, our anchor, the treasure and the alchemist within us that support us throughout our journey in this life.