This journey to authenticity…how do you get there? Everyone’s journey to authenticity looks different. In this article, I’ll share with you pieces of my journey to live authentically, in the hopes that it stirs your soul and encourages you to start thinking about how to step into your authentic reality. I’m gonna call a spade a spade here, and tell you that the journey to living authentically isn’t all butterflies and rainbows.
There’s some ugliness and really dark moments, but you’ve got to go through them in order to bask in the light of authenticity.
Grab a cup of tea, it’s story time now.
Choose Authenticity
Where I am today…
I am an entrepreneur. I am a spiritual life coach. I am the author of SOAR. I am the host of my podcast, the Live Authentically Show. I am a marathon runner. I am a single mom (and rocking it, I must say!) And in all of these roles, I feel energized, unstoppable and limitless.
My life didn’t always look this way. Read on to hear where I was just a short time ago.
Where I was two years ago…
Two years ago, I was still in the throes of my divorce process. I was a full-time mom and hadn’t worked outside the home in 13 years. I was “0 for 6” in all of the roles I listed in the prior section. I was exhausted, stressed, and energetically tethered.
How did I get to where I am, you’re wondering?
Plain and simple, I chose to live authentically.
The golden thread running through everything that I do is authenticity. It’s a state of being. And it’s a choice. It requires a leap of faith and a willingness to resist the pull towards comfort and familiarity, and embrace change and the unknown.
Choosing to take the leap into authenticity is the only way I could have made this shift.
Now, every aspect of my life is in alignment…what I think, what I do, what I feel, what I embody, and what I believe.
Why You Should Choose Authenticity
When you step into your authentic reality, you become untethered. There is absolutely no limit on what you can accomplish. The universe recognizes when you are living your truth – totally aligned with what you’ve come to this Earth to do, and conspires with you to make it happen.
It is from this place of authenticity that you have a direct line to Universal Energy. I’m so addicted, and it feels amazing. I feel free. Untethered. Energized. Empowered. Liberated. Carefree. Joyful. Peaceful. And the list goes on.
The key to unleashing yourself into a mind-blowing reality is to live authentically.
Period, end of story. You can’t get there any other way. You can’t half-ass your way there. You can’t fake it. You can’t just wish for it. You need to get a running start, and dive in, head first.
Lack of Authenticity – I Knew it Well
How am I so intimately familiar with the concept of authenticity, so much so that the spirit of authenticity is interwoven in every aspect of my life, personally and professionally? It’s because I once was intimately familiar with profound inauthenticity.
To say that inauthenticity felt like a personal hell would be a gross understatement.
I was so energetically drained – physically, emotionally, and mentally, and some days I felt like I was about to crack. I was harboring so much pressure I could barely even tolerate it some days.
My book SOAR contains an excerpt that gives you a glimpse of my life during the period of peak inauthenticity:
“The time between making the decision to get divorced and starting to communicate our decision to the kids, and subsequently family and friends, was incredibly challenging. Why? Because our current realities, the life we were living on the outside, was not at all authentic. It didn’t match up with what was going on in our hearts. It wasn’t congruent with the plans we were so meticulously and surreptitiously crafting behind the scenes. We were harboring this secret and the pressure built with each passing day.”
“On the outside, it was life as usual…hockey games, weekend plans, get-togethers and even a birthday party that all of our family and friends attended, during which we had to put on happy faces and pretend like everything was fine. And that’s just the day-to-day stuff. Big stuff was happening too. Houses were being purchased. Divorce attorneys were contacted. Meetings were taking place. Decisions about how we would carve up our schedules and share time with the kids were being made, and we could talk about none of it openly.”
What Authenticity Means to Me
During those three challenging months, I did some serious soul work and share my reflections my SOAR, and arrived at this definition:
“During this time, I thought a lot about the concept of authenticity and what it means to live an authentic life. I realized that to me it means living a life where you feel free to stand in your truth with confidence and grace. It means aligning your thoughts, actions and beliefs to be congruent with your truth. It means taking off the mask that society makes us feel like we need to wear to feel accepted and loved.”
“It means living without secrets. It means living a life that is free of judgement. It means living a life where you’re doing things your way. It means a life that embraces your light and your dark. It means a life that embodies the essence of who you are at the deepest core of your being. It means living a life that is unstifled by any external factors such as societal conditioning or others’ expectations, and free from any internal blocks such as fear or doubt.”
Your Journey to Authenticity
As you start your journey to authenticity, I encourage you to reflect on the following questions:
- What do you believe?
- Are you being honest with yourself?
- Does your life reflect what you feel in your heart?
- Do you align what you say, do, feel, and believe?
- What’s holding you back from embracing authenticity?
- What are you fearful of?
- How do you feel – physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually?
So many people are living in a place of inauthenticity, and in my book SOAR I provide this reflection, and nudge my readers closer to authenticity:
“My heart breaks for the people who are living split realities, whose day to day lives look one way, but their hearts and minds are wishing they were somewhere else. The best thing you can do for yourself and for humanity is to commit to your authentic reality and pour all of your energy into it. If you’re not passionate about it, don’t do it. If your heart’s not in it, don’t do it. If it doesn’t set your soul on fire, don’t do it. Arrange the pieces so that your life on the outside reflects what you hold in your heart and mind.”
“If you’ve spent your life wishing you lived in a warmer climate with a mountainous backdrop, pick up and move. If you’ve spent your life as a homosexual but are scared to live your life out loud, move in the direction of stepping into it. If you’re stuck in a job that depletes you rather than fuels you, consider a career change. If you’re struggling with an addiction that you’ve kept hidden from your friends and family, share your story with them.”
It would be an honor to guide you, so reach out if you’re ready to live authentically.