Fear Of Being Authentic

What stops you from being authentic? From taking a risk and sharing who you really are with someone?

We’ve all taken those risks. Sometimes it works. Sometimes we end up feeling isolated and alone. Judging ourselves keeps us quiet. We all navigate this nuanced complexity of speaking out, being vulnerable and protecting ourselves.

We speak up. It may not be welcome. We are relatively skillful or we lose it. The truth is on the table. It has been said. It works out in a satisfactory way. It falls apart. People are mad. There are many possible outcomes. The bottom line is that we have spoken our truth.

We don’t speak our truth. We don’t know how it would have worked out if we had expressed ourselves.We walk away feeling we betrayed ourselves. We shame ourselves for giving in to our fear.

Connection and the risk of disconnection is high stakes. Our most important relationship, the person we must impress the most, is ourself. The person we must get to know most is ourself.

Transcript

Bring your awareness inside.

I'm afraid of being authentic.

And change the words it might be it's too risky,

I'm ashamed I'm not authentic,

Whatever it is for you.

And notice your body,

Notice the soles of your feet,

Palms of your hands,

The whole back of your neck and shoulders.

And notice the rhythm of your breath and stay a little bit connected with your breath as you're looking at those words.

And where do you respond to those words in your body?

Where is the sensation or the energy as you're looking at those words?

I'm afraid to be authentic.

If memories are coming up notice what age you are.

If it's something happening now or there might be evidence of times when you didn't share what was really going on or were you held back somehow.

Keep practicing kindness.

We're not judging,

We're not trying to see all sides of something,

We're just looking to see what comes up.

We're really noticing what it feels like,

What are the thoughts about it?

Or maybe it's something around turning away from ourselves,

Betraying ourselves.

And settle right into it.

Notice the sensation,

The energy in your body.

Notice there's space all around that energy.

Sometimes it feels like we could go right into the very center of that energy.

Just notice what's it like from the inside out.

Is it fear?

Is it something else?

Are you afraid of the energy or the sensation?

Is it okay for you to pay attention to it?

To see what it is that it's here for?

Why did this particular energy come up?

So we're looking at this.

We form beliefs based on our experiences and if we have any kind of fear or discomfort around showing up being authentic,

Then it's because we've had some experience that's led to that belief forming.

We have some evidence for that.

It would be helpful to look at that evidence.

What is it?

How is it you know that it's not okay to show up and really be authentic?

What would happen?

You might even make a collage of all the images and words,

All of the evidence that you have that it's not safe.

It's not okay to do that.

Too risky.

You could put a frame around that whole thing and tap on it or trace the space on the outside.

And stay connected with your body and with your breath.

We're going to finish the inquiry in a moment.

Remember that whatever it is that's coming up is based on experiences that you've had in the past and what felt risky at one point might not any longer be the truth.

There might be some updating that could happen.

Sometimes we have these fallback positions that aren't really the truth anymore.

We have more resources now.

Just notice as you're finishing what might need to be looked at some more,

What might be useful to go back into again.

Reviews

That was the first time I ever looked at a reasoning behind how I hide.

Very clear and straightforward inquiry, and very helpful

Like your voice. Churned up past. giving myself permission to forgive

Brilliant! I especially loved your fallback comment.

Delivered! Authentic teacher leading an insightful self-inquiry. This is exactly, wonderfully what it says.

Very nice words to work further on the topic of being authentic. Thank you!

Interesting ☮☯Namaste 🕉 💜 💚 💙 💛 🕉

I like the enquiry method in this piece. Thank you.

Really makes you think