How do you know if you are being Authentic?
It can look and feel like your intention, your actions and your willingness to listen to your own inner wisdom is in alignment with your values. Most of the time being our true self requires us to make somewhat unpopular decisions or choices but in our deepest sense we know that we are doing or choosing is the best decision that we can make. This takes cultivating self awareness and also holding yourself accountable when things don’t line up or match up with what you say and what you do. Or what you say and the actions that you take are really to please someone else rather than have it feel true for yourself.
There are many ways that we can learn how to be Authentic in our lives. Here are two ways you can start cultivating your authenticity today.
1.Listen to your intuition. That knotted feeling in your gut, or any physical sensation or that hunch that you feel is telling you something. Learn to listen to it and trust that sense.
2. Define your values. This will help you in recognizing what situations, relationships and environments are in alignment with who you truly are. This will help you be in more situations where you can be your true self.
Being your true self can feel vulnerable and scary but it can build trust, confidence and credibility with the people you are interacting with.
But most of all the greatest benefit of being who you are is that it takes less energy, its natural and normal. You will be able to inspire and motivate people more easily by just being Authentic.
In my experience, people will always try to impose their ideas of who they think you should be and it can impact our own perception of ourselves if we are not careful. Practice daily letting go of the idea of who you think you are suppose to be and really embrace who you are and let that uniqueness shine into the world. You will begin to experience the great benefit of this in your daily lives.
It is worth practicing, step by step in small daily increments, you will start to see changes in your thoughts and how you relate to others in a more authentic way.
Identifying authenticity
Life is made up of your experiences and your interpretation or perception of those experiences. How you choose to interpret and relate to your experiences is up to you, but it’s important that this interpretation be true to who you are because it affects your sense of self. You are your biggest critic and judge.
Having a personal, authentic voice builds confidence and self-esteem. When you are true to yourself, it makes it easier to make choices that are compatible with your values and purpose in this life. Authenticity is about truthfully expressing who you are as an experience of infinite possibilities – you do not have to be or act like anyone else.
Stop trying to please people at the expense of your own well-being. How can you expect to be happy if you aren’t willing to free yourself from the confines of false expectations? The truth will set you free, even if it isn’t what someone wants to hear.
Even though it may seem like there are too many obstacles in finding authenticity, your truest self is within reach it just takes some time and reflection to do so.
Your words, actions, and confidence portray who you really are. How someone acts in one situation should always be the same as how they act in another similar situation because this shows consistence of character which is what authenticity is all about. For example, you should treat every human being with respect, regardless of their background. We may be strangers but we are all human and deserve some form of decency.
Being authentic is a process that does not happen overnight. Showing your true self to the world can be scary, but if you take one step at a time and practice makes perfect then you will get there in the end. For example, every day try to be nice to someone, whether that be a co-worker or a stranger, just try to put a smile on their face. This is authenticity in action and you can see the positive effects it has on your life too.
When someone acts inauthentically they have created an image of who they would like to be rather than being true to themselves. This often is an untrue image of thoughts that are caused by senses of vulnerability. People who are being inauthentic to protect themselves do not want others to see their true selves. They may be afraid that the people they meet would not accept them or have preconceived beliefs that are negative towards this group of people.
Express your thoughts
Whether you believe your right to self-expression is being stifled or you simply want to get out of a rut, writing can be used for therapeutic purposes. Get your thoughts out no matter what and look into them in great detail.
Writing allows us to express ourselves when we don’t have the confidence to confide in somebody we trust because we are afraid of the consequences of what may happen. How you feel and show these thoughts is completely up to your discretion; it does not matter if somebody else agrees with them or not, because you know how you truly feel and that’s what matters.
What does matter is that you don’t bottle up your emotions because it’s unhealthy and causes stress.
