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Authenticity

by Andrew Schneider   (The Soul Journey)

The greatest social and familial pressure everyone experiences is to conform. We learn early in our life that if we want to get others to help us or cooperate with us, we need to do what pleases them.

We also find that we get approval for how we are when we conform to others’ expectations of us.

By conforming to gain acceptance and approval, we pay a very dear price.

We lose ourselves. We create a split within ourselves – a division between who we feel we are, and who we give the impression of being.

Our self-image that we show others becomes our dominant self. But this self-image betrays our true self, and we suffer accordingly.

When we live on the outside, we are dependent on circumstances and others.

When focused only outwardly, we are superficial and we do superficial things to try to satisfy our desire for fulfillment.

Not finding what we are looking for, we go from one thing to another. It takes greater and greater stimulation to achieve some sense of being alive – more intense music, extreme sports, drugs, to name but a few.

The Soul Journey is a shift of perspective from outside to inside. Taking the Soul Journey is a voyage to authenticity, a return to our true self.

The journey does not involve disowning our self-image, our negativity or the limitations of our personality.

We acknowledge, explore and accept what we are in our personality, but we base our living and actions in the core of our being. We learn to go outside from the familiar place we have discovered within.

To be fully alive requires that we live from the source of life. This is within.

Living with attention and presence to our innermost reality makes us independent and able to contribute in meaningful and fulfilling ways in all aspects of our life.

We then know we are alive, and can direct our energies at will. Giving from our authentic self is not only fulfilling, but it is creative and empowering to others.

When we get caught up in conformity, neglecting the true self within, we are only semi-conscious.

The truth is that we can only be as authentic as we are conscious, which means as we are soul-centered. And we are only authentic when we are soul-centered.

Exercises:

1. In what areas of your life do you habitually and consistently conform and why?

2. No one can be true to themselves unless they value themselves. How do you value yourself?

3. List the issues ongoing in your life that you are avoiding.

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Written by Andrew Schneider of the Philosophical Counseling Institute at The Soul Journey.

See the site for Soul Journey Books: Education for Higher Consciousness; e-books by Andrew Schneider: Authenticity, The Alchemists Dream, Overcoming Life's 9 Major Challenges, The Energies of 2007, and more e-books and email programs, plus Soul-Centered  Counselor Training.


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