Authenticity

June 04, 2019

June 10, 2012/in Living Well /by Shamalah-Allah Scott

Eventually, all roads of healing will lead you to living in authenticity. Being authentic with yourself and others means living out your own truth. It requires us to untangle ourselves from the value systems of our social groups and to discover who we are and what we find important and valuable. Authenticity sometimes takes an entire lifetime to achieve because this state is not encouraged by our parents or peers, who usually want us to live our life in ways that are agreeable to them. Ironically, their beliefs and values are probably not authentically their own! People who are consciously living out their truth will know the spiritual importance of being authentic and allow others to do the same.

Authenticity is about knowing, accepting and living out who you are at the deepest level.As long as we keep living by external standards at the cost of our own authenticity, we will continue to be unhappy. Being out of alignment or unhappy is oftentimes a state of internal conflict between what you think you should do and what you truly desire. This produces a lot of frustration and anger. External beliefs that are antithetical to your soul’s identity are like viruses, and you will always fight against them internally because they are not you. If conflicting desires become profound enough, we can develop spiritual disease of a physical natureHaving conflicting desires is like being fractured. Your heart wants to do one thing but your ego wants to do something else. Or you might satisfy physical needs at the cost of spiritual ones. Concerns about money, social status, pleasing your parents, or how you look to others will always produce these schisms in ourselves. You cannot manifest what you want when conflicting goals distort your creative energies. Ultimately, you will not be happy or satisfied with what you accomplish until you can do it from a state of authenticity.

Sometimes, you may not be aware of being out of alignment. Some people may not be knowledgeable about the concept of authenticity or, maybe they don’t care about it. They could be so outwardly focused on what others think about them and on where they rank, that they don’t care about what would truly make them happy and satisfied. Maybe they did not come from a spiritually-minded family and didn’t know that they had a soul with needs and desires. They never knew to look inward or that such a concept exists.

Sweet, Sweet Sophie

If you think you are doing what you want but still find yourself always blocked or unable to make much progress, you could be pursuing a goal that is actually repugnant to your soul. You may want to reconsider whether you are pursuing a goal that is truly yours. Authenticity can be difficult to achieve because we have to uncover the lies we believe about ourselves and then discard them. Very often, these external beliefs and goals came into us during our childhood and have been with us for so long that we don’t recognize that they are not ourselves.

Living an authentic life doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll reap financial rewards, but it doesn’t mean that you have to be poor either. It just means that the soul needs to be expressed in some kind of way, which may or may not translate into a lucrative career. Sometimes, people hold down a job so that they can live an authentic life that their soul desires- such as traveling, photography, animal care, people care, poetry or dance! Simply making the time to express yourself to others in an authentic way is living authentically.

For example, a soul’s desire could be to create beautiful food dishes, but that does not mean you have to be a chef. Creating beautiful plates of food can be done on a daily basis for yourself and others. Or, a soul’s desire could be to counsel people, but it may express this through being a good listener to friends and family. My soul’s desire is to be a musician and to play music with others; which I express as playing the african drums and percussion with others. It doesn’t mean that I have to go out and try to be the next great super-star drummer of the world. It just means that my soul enjoys this type of expression that makes me and others feel good.

The path toward authenticity can be through easy or difficult experiences, depending on whether you make a conscious effort at discovering yourself or whether life forces the self-introspection upon you. A very simple solution for consciously coming into authenticity is through meditation where you will come to know your core being. Also another way to discover your authenticity is by taking risks in doing activities that you’ve always thought of doing, but never had the courage to try. Afterwards, you may have to work on accepting what you find. Authenticity is an extremely powerful way to live because when all the layers of your being come into alignment, you can’t help but manifest what you truly desire.

Lavender Flower 2