Celebrating Your Authentic Self

In this short audio, I'll encourage you to practice self-acceptance by knowing, being, and celebrating your wonderful, unique, authentic self. I'll talk personally about what can sometimes get in the way and offer prompt questions to help you delve into the essence of knowing who you are, embracing your authentic self and celebrating your unique expression in the world. The audio will end with an invitation to take one small action to remind yourself of your unique gifts and how you bless the world just by being here and being you.

Transcript

Hi,

I'm Caroline Inkle,

Coach and creative practitioner.

So I've just finished a coaching session with an amazing client and following our call I found myself writing the words,

Knowing,

Being and celebrating your authentic self.

It felt like my greatest wish for this particular client but also for myself and I immediately felt inspired to talk a bit about it and maybe you'll resonate with these words.

I hope you'll find them helpful.

So knowing,

Being and celebrating your authentic self,

It feels like there's a whole journey in there and there's also quite a few elements to unpack.

It brings up questions like,

How do I know my authentic self?

What does it mean to know and then to be that in the world?

What do I need and want as an expression of my authentic self?

And then there's a question of,

If I'm knowing and being my authentic self,

Will that make me unacceptable to some others?

I think I feel so moved to talk about this as a theme because as I heard my client working through their own challenges around really learning who they are,

What they need and how to communicate those needs,

It resonated with my own challenges.

Who we really are and who we know ourselves to be deep down without all the noise seems to me like an authentic expression of life itself or the universe or the creative spirit wanting to come through us.

It strikes me that this has got to be one of the most important aspects of our journey in life.

But I know I personally can spend so much time and energy thinking about the world outside or what I perceive of as a world outside of myself and how I show up or appear within that external sphere that it can be incredibly distracting and I can find it really difficult to be able to tune into and really know who I am and what I really need and want.

And when I'm in this way of being,

I can lose touch with a more grounded sense that I'm actually connected.

There is no world out there and world in here apart from in my thinking and my imagination.

The reality is it's all one,

It's all connected and it doesn't actually make sense that there's any level of unacceptability around what's within me as opposed to what's out there.

So knowing being and celebrating our authentic selves,

I guess the first part of that is knowing what our authentic self is.

And in my own experience,

It seems to me that it's almost impossible for me to know if all my attention is going out into the world and imagining how others see me or imagining how I need to fit in.

When my orientation is outwards,

It's almost impossible for me to really know or even notice who I am.

So the first thing that strikes me is that it would be useful for me and maybe for you listening to find ways to turn that attention inwards a little bit more.

And one way that occurs to me is to tune into our intuition and notice preferences and needs.

Because it seems to me that our natural wants and desires,

Our natural intuition and instincts towards what we want,

They're our guide to really knowing who we are.

Maybe it's as simple as that.

I know instinctively what food I like and what I don't like,

For example.

I can try new things,

But it's pretty clear to me what's right for me to eat and what's not right for me to eat.

Basically what I like and what I don't like.

There's no question that I should eat certain things because of the way it looks to others or to try and fit in.

It's just either I like it or I don't like it.

It doesn't mean anything.

It's just neutral.

So paying attention to that inner guidance system and asking myself a few questions seemed like it could be good.

And maybe it might be good for you listening too.

So questions like,

What do I like?

What do I really want and need?

And how would I really love it to be?

And that last question,

How would I really love it to be?

Feels like the most creative one.

It feels like we can really imagine,

Not just how it is or how it seems now,

But how we'd really love it to be.

So once we have a sense of knowing who we are,

There's also being okay with that.

Because not everybody might like it.

It feels like a risk.

If I'm not bending myself out of shape to be acceptable to others,

Then I risk that others may not like me.

They may be unhappy with me.

This can feel like a genuine risk for us social animals who depend on connection and community.

The thing is,

We don't need to get on with everyone.

And it's worth asking another question,

And that is,

What's it costing me to go against that natural instinct inside of me?

The thing is,

We don't need to be accepted by everyone.

There will be people who do not like how we show up,

And there will be others who appreciate it and align with it,

And they'll want to be around us.

And that feels good enough for me.

If I'm truly,

Authentically being me,

I'm confident that over time I'll attract the people who align with me and want to be around me.

I don't think we need to be acceptable to everyone.

So it occurs to me that being okay with some people not liking us could be a really useful element in being our authentic selves.

So then how about being able to celebrate that?

What does that mean?

Well maybe recognising who we are,

Our achievements,

What we can do and what we can bring to the world.

Being of service and being active and using all that energy that's freed up from worrying about what others think and if we fit in,

To do what it is that we're meant to do,

To express ourselves in the way that we're meant to be expressing ourselves,

And to share our unique gifts.

We're here for a reason,

There's only one of each of us,

And we're unique and beautiful,

And we're an absolute gift to the world.

Anyone who's had a baby,

Or even seen a little baby,

Can understand by looking at that beautiful,

Innocent child what an absolute miracle and gift they are to the world.

Full of potential,

Full of life,

Needing to be nurtured and supported,

Needing to be free to explore their natural impulses and curiosities,

And able to give so much just by being here,

Being themselves,

Completely unique,

And an absolute gift.

Sometimes I think it's helpful to remember that that's what we all are.

We've all been that beautiful,

Little,

Innocent baby who's come into the world,

Just an absolute miracle,

An absolute blessing on everyone who comes into contact with them.

Even though we've grown,

It's who we still can be,

We're still just as miraculous.

The fact that we're here is still just as miraculous as it was on the day that we were born,

And the world's waiting for our gifts.

We were born to know,

Be,

And celebrate the magic of who we are.

We have an incredible creative capacity,

And an amazing way to imagine who we are and who we could be in the world,

And sometimes this ties us in knots.

But it also means that we've got the ability to set our creative minds on imagining the most wonderful life that we want to live,

And pursuing that.

And I think we'd free up an amazing amount of energy if we could drop a lot of the thinking around who we need to be,

And turn our attention to simply noticing the miracle of who we actually are,

And just being that in the world,

And celebrating it with others.

So here's an invitation.

Think about one thing that you love about yourself,

And you know to be true about who you are.

An aspect of your authentic self that you're proud of,

That feels like a core element to your being and who you're meant to be.

Now think of one small action that you can take today to remember that part of yourself.

One positive small action that you can achieve and celebrate today.

It might be as simple as paying someone a compliment to remind you of your generous,

Kind spirit,

Or singing along with your favourite song to remind you how you love to creatively express yourself.

Whatever you choose,

Take some time to celebrate that part of yourself you know to be authentically you.

Feel free to drop me a message,

And let me know what you're celebrating about you.

I'd love to hear from you.

Okay,

That's all for now.

I'm Caroline Inkle,

Coach and creative practitioner.

Be you.

It's lovely.

Reviews

This is so lovely to listen to in the morning as a contemplation to begin my day. You brought me into the present moment to consider what is truly important for today, while the ‘shoulds’ gently fell away.