Being Authentic

What does it mean to be authentic? The word is used all of the time, but what does it mean to be truly authentic? It is a launching off point, a place to start asking, "who am I?" How can we teach our children to be authentic in a culture that tells everyone what to do, who to be and who is and isn't good enough. How can children remain authentic if their parents aren't being authentic? To truly be authentic, one has to just start asking questions. First question, who am I, physically, mentally and emotionally? Simple enough question......,yet very complicated answer. Often people will look shocked when I ask them, "who are you" and they often say, I don't know! We are all so conditioned by the adults that raised us. We don't even realize that whatever they encouraged and discouraged, their feelings, attitudes and beliefs all get imprinted on us. Being authentic means to start to uncover who you really are underneath all of that conditioning. People are often afraid of that part of the journey, because it means going against deeply rooted conditioning. People often fear that if they honor their authenticity people will reject them. Being authentic means pushing through your fears and not needing or depending on external approval anymore. The quest is for internal approval.....,it comes from within. With authenticity, relationships will shift. You will often outgrow many relationships that were based on that "old" conditioning. This is the part of authenticity which means facing loss in the process of growth. Second question, why am I here? Asking why is about digging deeper to find your purpose, accepting yourself completely, thereby embracing your very existence. Authenticity is finding out who and what you are instead of trying to be who you think you are suppose to be. The journey of self acceptance and thus authenticity, begins with seeing the world and yourself with new eyes. It's as if you have been wearing someone else's glasses for years. Your parents gave them to you and said "here, these worked for me and you'll be able to see fine with them." You get use to seeing the world with 60/40 vision. Things are out of focus, very blurry, distorted and you cannot see peripherally, but you've accepted that as normal for your entire life. Suddenly, you begin to question, why am I wearing these glasses, maybe I need a new prescription or don't need glasses at all. At first everyone tells you your crazy to spend the time and money to find out if you need glasses. Everyone else is seeing the world with the wrong prescription so why are you daring to challenge that! Finally, you get the courage to take off the old glasses. You are very confused at first, perhaps even blinded by all of the spectacular colors and clarity. You may even feel sick and disoriented as you adjust to seeing the world in a new light. Slowly, you adjust and you just can't believe what you've been missing out on! As you see yourself and the world with your new eyes, you begin to feel differently and you begin to embrace authenticity. You dared to question the vision of ingrained conditioning, you questioned the old order and ventured out onto the path of discovery. Discovering who you are is the journey of authenticity...... so dare to be authentic, to question deeply who you are and to see yourself and the world with new eyes.