What Is Your Authentic Expression?

In this episode, we dive deeper into the question of what is really true to you and how you can find your own authentic path which is ultimately what finding your passion and purpose means. We will dive into what it means to be authentic, shadow work and how to connect with the voice of your intuition. These were all things that helped me so much to be more me - imperfect and raw.

Transcript

Hi,

There hasn't been another session for a while that I felt compelled to keep going with the podcast.

Sorry for that.

But there's one thing that really feels authentic to me,

Which is I don't just want to be honest and just want to do the podcast to talk about things that I feel deeply connected with.

But also,

You know,

Maybe you know that you kind of like start putting stuff out there.

And at one point it becomes this,

Oh,

I have to keep going.

And yeah,

There's something about this,

I have to keep going.

That also makes me lose a little bit the reason why I have actually started talking,

You know.

And it doesn't mean that it's not important for me to share that and that I appreciate everyone who is listening.

But at the same time,

I don't want it just to be about that.

I want it to come really truly from the inside of who I am and that the reason is not to attract more listeners or to do it because you have to keep going and do a series every week otherwise people will not listen to it.

Because if that's not feeling authentic to me,

Why keep going?

And you might ask yourself,

Why am I talking about that?

But you know,

I realized that I felt really bad about not keeping going.

And I did three parts and then I just stopped it without saying anything.

And it felt like,

Do I have an obligation to keep going?

Or if I don't keep going,

What does that actually mean?

So in a way,

It fits perfectly to what I want to talk about today,

Which means what's your authentic part?

Yeah,

What feels authentic to you?

And can we actually access our authentic voice?

Do we know what we really want versus what we're supposed to do?

And that sounds really easy,

But it's not.

At least I feel it's a really difficult thing to know what's really authentic for me,

What's an authentic expression of myself every day that I'm walking around.

And what is it that I just do because there's an expectation from the outside?

Even if that expectation is not real,

But that's kind of like in the back of my mind,

I feel that expectation almost like a weight on my shoulders that is kind of like giving me a bad look if I'm not doing it.

A certain thing.

And the other thing is that very often we do things because there's unwritten rules.

And I spoke about that already.

I'm a total business person.

And at the same time,

I also love to just be and to explore how can I just be more,

Which will definitely be another part of the series to look into how does it work to just be and what is that quality about.

But today is all about authenticity.

And what's interesting for me is I've elaborated about this and I want to share it again.

It's been really hard for me to understand in the business world to be really truly authentic.

And what does that even mean to be truly authentic?

And one of the reasons why I think I've always been passionate to support others to find their authentic way is because it was really,

Really hard for me to find my own authentic way.

And I had a really hard time doing it.

And I feel I'm still fighting for it.

So that's funny.

Maybe you know that.

I'm actually sometimes I feel like I have to actually fight to be who I really am.

And at the same time,

There's a sense that if I would be totally 100% the way I am and show it all,

Show myself fully,

There's a sense of I don't think people will like me if I would do that.

Isn't that interesting?

Like we feel like people won't like us when we will really truly show them all parts of ourselves.

And that has a lot to do with maybe you have heard already what helps us to really unravel also those things that we literally neglected about ourselves is shadow work.

But you don't really have to do full on shadow work if you don't want to.

But I just want to bring it in because it fascinates me to look into shadow work.

Because what does that mean?

Shadow work sounds like,

Oh,

These are my shadows.

And we kind of synonymously think shadow work means these are all our bad traits,

Is all the things that are not so good about us.

But really what shadow work means is what are judgments that I put on myself that have literally,

You know,

Cut off from me,

From me as a person the things that I don't like about myself,

The things that I feel even ashamed about myself,

The things that I feel no one should ever see them.

And I give you an example that is really true to me,

Which is anger.

I feel I've always had a lot of rejection about anger in general.

Like anger was for me a bad thing.

Expressing anger was not a good thing because it would hurt myself,

It would hurt others.

So in general,

That was kind of like the thing.

If you think about the business world,

Expressing anger in any form of way is usually felt as inappropriate or much too emotional and it has no space somewhere.

So I feel like people running around having anger but there's no space to really put it.

So what do we do?

We suppress it.

And that's what I did.

I suppressed my anger for a long time and I think I still do it because that's kind of like something I don't want to have.

Also I don't want other people to see me as angry and it's something I'm really ashamed of and I really judge myself when it comes out because what makes me feel about myself is I'm not a good person.

I've been angry at someone.

That's not what you should do.

So I've shamed myself a lot around anger.

So what shadow work suggests and that's really fascinating to me is those things that we literally split apart from our personality,

The things that we don't want to see about ourselves,

The things that we literally put into our own shadows so much that we can't even see them about ourselves anymore.

They are also part of our strength and the most authentic expression,

The most powerful expression of each human being.

Which means,

And that's for me,

I'm using anger because for me it's a really good example and I kind of had a hard moment with it.

Because when I have access to my anger,

Not as like,

Oh there's anger and I'm angry blah blah blah,

But really as a form of energy that comes through my body and wants to express itself.

So when I not push it back,

But rather just let the anger be with me and let it be that kind of like discomfort in my body.

What happens then,

And that's interesting,

Is the anger transforms into something different.

It transforms into,

Actually I feel much more powerful in such a moment when I can access my anger.

Also,

It's a really great boundary setter.

So over time what I've found is that anger is coming up for me whenever I need to set a boundary,

Whenever I need to say a clear no,

Or whenever I need to say stop to a situation.

And when I'm not rejecting it in that moment and say,

Oh I don't want to have that anger,

That anger is not appropriate,

I shouldn't express it,

But really befriend that anger in that moment.

What happens is I can have a real amazing moment of boundary setting or stepping into my full anger,

But at the same time I'm still in love with that person in front of me.

I'm still in compassion with that person,

Which means the anger doesn't go against myself or someone else,

But it's actually just an expression of what's true.

And that's so powerful,

And every time I don't suppress my anger,

But I really connect with it and then take it and have a connection with that and with the other person.

What happens to me is I feel really authentic in that moment because I feel really good about saying my truth,

Setting a clear boundary,

And at the same time I feel good about it because I haven't like literally hurt someone.

So that's a really interesting thing because it took me ages to even allow anger to be there.

And maybe you know that for yourself,

So there's many kind of like character traits or things that we really hate about ourselves or are ashamed of,

That we cannot just open up to and,

You know,

Many of you might ask yourself,

How can I even get into knowing my own shadows?

And that's really not so easy because they are shadows because we can't even see them.

So what helps us to access our shadows is obviously always the interaction with other people because what it does is it kind of reflects the things that we don't want and like about ourselves,

It reflects it in others.

That might sound a bit far back to you,

But maybe you just start observing that.

So whenever you feel really angry about the behavior of a person that you're close to or just like any kind of person that you encounter in your life,

It could be a colleague,

Your boss,

Whatever,

Look into or ask yourself the question,

What part of this do I not like about myself?

It's a really interesting question,

It's fascinating to look into that.

And so I've been doing this for quite a while,

Really like looking into what am I not liking in the outside and then I loop it back and look into what does that mean about inside,

My inside.

Where is the judgment that I carry about myself not being good enough,

Not being nice enough,

Whatever it is,

You know,

Was it that I hate about myself doing it and that's why I point the finger to someone outside doing it because it annoys me.

But when I look deeper,

It's like what really annoys me is the fact that I still carry this inside of me.

Give you another example,

Integrity.

That's I think a good example for me is like integrity is really important to me,

Like to walk my talk,

But you know,

Like everyone who wants to walk their talk,

We all know it's not always so easy.

Why it sounds good on paper,

It sounds good in my,

You know,

In the head of my mind,

But it is in the end so not easy.

It's sometimes the most difficult thing to be in integrity with what we actually want,

You know,

And so sometimes we find ourselves not fully 100% being in integrity or doing the things that we actually talk about.

And that's only human,

But the interesting thing is,

Is so if integrity is a really important value of us,

Then we judge everyone who we see in the outside who is not in integrity and maybe you become a really good spotter of other people's not fully doing what they talk about and I'm a really good spotter of that.

So the fact that I can spot that so well says much more about myself than about the other person because it just means it's really important to me and I'm really strict to myself about not being in integrity,

Which if I go deeper means I'm judging myself very quickly if it's not 100% what I said before or what I want to be in this world.

And so like I think a really interesting learning from that is no judgment of anyone else.

So if someone judges you and you feel really annoyed about that,

Just remember that no judgment of anyone else can be more than the judgment that we give ourselves,

Which means if someone judges my integrity and I get really hurt by that,

It means I inside of myself judge myself 100 times more about not being in that integrity.

And that's why it's hurt so much because I believe it's true and I believe even if you could see the whole person of me,

You would see much more of those places where I'm not in integrity and I hate myself for that.

So I kind of like,

I hope you get my point here.

And so we all have these hidden stories,

We all have these hidden judgments about ourselves and when other people bring them up,

They make us furious.

So the good thing about it is the more we can actually integrate these shadows,

Integrate,

Learn from others what we hide about ourselves,

We can make peace with them,

We can make peace,

We can love about them,

But also we can accept them as a part of us and accept them as a really beautiful part of us.

Maybe even as something that makes us special,

Something that makes us the character that we are.

When it comes to being authentic,

Walking our authentic way,

It's so interesting that as humans and I think it's very,

Very deeply rooted in the business world,

There's something about we want to be 100%.

We want to be the perfect person.

Because that's what is valued.

The better we become,

The more we succeed,

The more we achieve,

That's when people say,

Wow,

That's amazing.

But if we haven't actually done something,

People wouldn't give us that.

So for some reason,

What becomes deeply ingrained inside of us is,

Oh,

That's the only way I'm being loved fully.

It's the only way I get the recognition.

But it's obviously also inside of us that we maybe think sometimes we're not lovable when we are not achieving something,

Achieving the perfection.

And what we do is we start hating our imperfection.

So one call out to everyone who hears that and feels similar to that,

We are all imperfect.

No one of us is ever going to be perfect.

And to allow ourselves to be imperfect is such a relief.

I always feel like it gives me such a deep,

Deep,

Deep relief,

Such a deep relief of I can just be myself.

I don't have to pretend.

I don't have to be better,

Succeed or anything.

I can just be myself.

And I can fail.

And that's the interesting thing about being authentic,

Which means sometimes we fail.

And part of being authentic is we're not good in everything.

And no one is good in everything.

I don't know where we came to believe that everyone has to be good in everything.

That's like so unrealistic.

No human being is good in everything.

And like,

So instead of trying to be good in everything because everyone else,

We feel everyone else is so good in everything,

We could just allow us to not be as good in this,

And this,

But we are really good in this,

This,

And this.

And together we can complement each other.

So in the business world,

It's the same thing.

We feel like,

Oh,

If I'm the boss,

I have to know it all.

I have to stand beyond everything.

I can't be a failure.

My team always has to think or I always have to pretend in front of my team that I know everything.

I know the answer to everything and I know how to deal with every situation.

And what that does is it puts a lot of pressure to the leader.

And also what it does is it lets the leader becoming really inauthentic,

You know,

Because the leader can't show their real feelings.

They can't show that they are vulnerable sometimes as well.

They can't show,

Wow,

This situation,

X,

Y,

Z,

Really pressures me right now.

It doesn't feel good to me.

And so one of the things that was important for me when I became a team manager was to actually start talking about the things I'm not good at,

Start being open about my weaknesses.

And you know,

It was kind of like just an experiment.

I just wanted to,

You know,

Almost release myself from the burden of having to be good in everything.

And I totally forgot about doing it actually at one point.

So I just kept doing it,

But not because I consciously did it.

I just forgot about that I once tried to do that.

And what happened to me was really incredible.

Or I think that was one of my biggest aha moments.

So we had a new member in our team.

And after a week,

This person,

I had a conversation with him and I wanted to know how is it going?

How was your first week so far?

And what he said was incredible.

He said to me,

You know what,

I was so nervous to work here and I thought everyone is so good and I don't know if I'm good enough,

But you all are so honest about what you can't do and what you're not good at that I feel I can just be myself.

Wow.

And I thought in that moment,

I thought,

Wow,

That's such an amazing moment.

That's such an amazing moment that someone says that.

They can just be themselves.

And when I looked around,

Because I wasn't really recognizing that the whole team was speaking openly about their weaknesses,

Their problems,

The things that didn't go well,

The failures,

Because without really consciously doing it,

The fact that I did that gave somehow permission to everyone else to do it and that became our culture.

It was really interesting.

What was also interesting is when I handed over my job to,

You know,

Like I quit my job and I handed it over,

That the person that came after me was like,

Why is everyone speaking so much about problems?

It's almost feeling like very negative culture.

And I was like,

That's really interesting because I thought we're just authentically talking about what's there.

So it was interesting to me to see also how some people think that's very negative and it's not constructive.

And so I just want to make a pledge for let's be more authentic about how it's going for us in work,

In life,

Talking about the fact that work nowadays and life nowadays can be challenging and it can be really overwhelming because there's so much going on.

There's so much more information out there.

It's so fast that we can't take a break once in a while.

And what it does is it makes us less authentic,

Of course,

Because what does it mean?

We have to function.

We have to function no matter what.

So it means we can't really truly be with what's going on for us.

We can't really dive into the feelings of exhaustion or overwhelm or whatever it is,

Or maybe I can't do it.

I'm not good right now.

Whatever it is,

Because we feel we have to always be in hundred percent functioning.

But people,

My pledge is we are not a machine.

No one of us is a machine.

We're human beings and it means we cannot handle everything the same way.

And there's sometimes phases in our lives when we can't do as much as in other phases.

And to allow that to ourselves,

To be honest with,

You know what,

Right now I'm not feeling really a lot of energy.

Or right now I'm not really inspired.

Or today I am super inspired and I want to rock this today.

So whatever it is,

It's not only the negative,

But the real authenticity comes when we drop all these outside expectations that we allow to control our behavior and our own.

So I would say the expectations,

Even if we feel they're coming from other people,

Mainly they are our own expectations that were put on us.

But of course,

If we look back into our childhood,

What created these expectations very often is a behavior that our parents gave us,

Right?

When we did certain things,

Our parents said,

Good boy,

Good girl,

Or bad boy,

Bad girl,

Right?

And not something that deeply ingrains in us.

Or when our parents only gave us attention when we did something,

What we obviously,

You know,

Save in our minds and in our system is we are only worth something if we do something.

If we are,

If our parents were only,

You know,

Telling us that we are the good girl,

If we were behaving and doing exactly what their rules wanted us to do,

That's then what we save.

But that's not always true to ourselves.

That's not really what we want in life.

Very often what's really important to us goes against that.

That's why it's so hard for us,

For every one of us,

To step outside of that.

Because we haven't learned that no matter what,

We are lovable.

Which means no matter what people will see about us,

No matter what we are bringing out of the hiding,

Out of the shadow,

We are still lovable.

And maybe even more lovable.

So my pledge goes also into,

I believe,

We are even more lovable when we show us with our full spectrum of imperfection,

Of authenticity,

Of not having great hair every day.

Sometimes having not such a nice skin.

Whatever,

Not having,

You know,

A body like in movies.

You know,

All these things that we don't want people to see about ourselves.

That's what makes us pretty.

That's what makes us special.

And maybe sometimes you see these people where you're like,

Where does this person have that self-confidence?

Where there is no such perfection that I see in that person.

And I strongly believe it's because they have made their peace with themselves.

Saying I'm exactly the way I am.

I love myself the way I am.

And I know this sounds so cheesy.

But that's really something.

Like the authenticity comes from true self-love and kindness to ourselves.

From allowing ourselves to be exactly as we are.

And authenticity is something that we can feel when we are in it.

We know when we are in our own authenticity because it feels real.

We know when we are in our authenticity when we feel like I don't even have to put effort into pretending or being something.

I can just be myself.

I don't have to dress in a certain way.

My hair doesn't have to look in a certain way.

One of the things that made it really hard for me to find my authentic way in childhood was I grew up in Bavaria,

In Germany,

As one of the only foreigners in this region.

So it was very clear to me,

Okay,

I'm different than anyone else.

Like I had a real identity crisis because I didn't really know who I was.

In Germany everyone asked me where I was from because it was very obvious optically,

You know,

When you looked at me,

Okay,

I have dark hair,

Darker skin than everyone else,

My name was different.

So it was clear to people that I wasn't German.

When I went to Tunisia,

It was clear to people that I wasn't Tunisian because I didn't look like that.

But what it did over time was really like questioning for myself who am I.

And I always wanted to belong.

So what I did is I hated the fact that I had these curly hair and I started to straighten my curly hair.

For a long time I started to straighten them because I wanted to look like everyone else.

I wanted to have these straight,

Ideally blonde hair,

But I did never get to blonde because it just didn't,

It just looked ridiculous on my hair.

Anyway,

So one of the biggest steps for me to be authentically me was to actually not straighten my hair anymore.

And every time I didn't straighten my hair but I had them curly as they were,

I didn't like it.

I did not like it.

I hated these curly hairs and I always felt I don't look as beautiful when they are curly.

That was my belief.

But what it did is in so many situations I couldn't fully be myself because think about that it started to rain and I died and straightened my hair which meant I could never run around in the rain.

Also,

It was really difficult for me to go swimming and all that stuff because I knew I had to straighten my hairs afterwards.

So there was this constant thing of straightening my hair that actually controlled so many parts of my life.

It controlled so many parts of my life.

And like only when I said,

You know what,

I'm just not gonna straighten them anymore,

Did I realize how much time I spent day in,

Day out thinking about can I go out?

Do I have an umbrella?

Do I have the right jacket in case it rains?

Blah,

Blah,

Blah.

So many thoughts and so much energy went into hiding my curls.

Yeah,

And you know today I'm like I'm never gonna straighten them again.

Of course like occasionally maybe I would do that but it's not coming into my mind anymore that there's something I have to do every day.

And I love that.

I really love the fact that I was able to accept my curly hair and it wasn't an easy one.

It really wasn't.

I mean people only knew me with these straight hairs so I felt really embarrassed when I came to the office and you know the first time with these curly hair.

And you know at that time I already you know taught mindfulness as a 20% project within Google and I still remember that people already thought I was a little bit like you know becoming a hippie but then I came in with these curly hair and I'm pretty sure people thought okay now she's totally getting the hippie person you know.

I think some people even thought that I just curled them to look more like that.

It's ridiculous but anyways you know I can't believe it took me so many years.

I was in my 30s already until I could actually say you know what?

Fuck it.

I'm just gonna wear my curls in the way they are.

Full stop.

And that's what means being authentic to myself as well.

What is it?

How do my actual hair look like?

You know how does my face look like when I don't wear any makeup?

And do I still think I'm beautiful when I don't?

And this is not a you know I'm not saying don't wear makeup.

Do that if you feel good with that.

But once in a while just start experimenting with what how would it be like if you just wouldn't wear any makeup today?

What would happen?

What are you uncovering literally or the other way around?

What are you covering with the makeup?

Is there maybe a part of you that always feels I'm not beautiful not unless I have this makeup on?

And I think that's a really profound thing to find yourself beautiful with all there is.

And you might say yeah but logically or if I look at the facts I'm not as beautiful as XYZ.

But what's really interesting for me is I've been seeing so many women that I hugely find attractive women and men especially when they're just their authentic selves.

And even if they have stuff in their face like you know some some you know like yeah whatever it is you know even if this the skin is not perfect even if the hair is not perfect even if the figure is not perfect perfect in the form of what our you know society means being perfect because I don't believe in that perfection at all anyways.

But I've seen people who were just their authentic selves and through that they were so amazingly beautiful no model with perfect hair and perfect makeup could have had that same beauty.

Because that person would just be themselves and would just honestly say what's in their hearts and in their minds and that's for me walking the authentic path.

And when it comes to what's my passion and purpose I strongly believe that finding your passion and purpose ultimately leads you to walk your authentic path.

It's not only about the outside you know it's not about the outside looks any only it's about the things that we say the kind of voice that we're using if we are feeling like we can really actually say our truth or if we're holding back if we say the things that are really true to us if we do the things that are true to us.

And so many people might say yeah but sometimes I really don't know what's authentic what's really mine and what I find really interesting is that our body tells us quite clearly what's what's good for us or not.

So it's kind of like we can feel it we can feel it when we are doing something that's authentic to us and when we are doing something that's not and because as you might know if you have if that's the first time you're listening to the podcast so I'm trying to give some content and some ideas but also the other part is I'd like to do exercises along the way and so one exercise I would like to do with all of you now in a second is to understand what is it that is a yes and a no internally in our body how does that feel to really try out starting to speak and understand the voice of our intuition and understand what it means when it says yes so we can walk our path more authentically over time if that makes sense and I mean there's so much more to say about authenticity but I want to make this podcast short and crisp and if you have more questions on that if there's something that I haven't covered please write to me and I'm just gonna make another one about authenticity because basically the whole podcast is anyways about walking you finding your passion and purpose and walking your authentic path so it's gonna come along the way okay let's close here thanks so much and we'll do an exercise now so what you can do is already prepare yourself to just find a silent spot where you can just sit for a few minutes to do the exercise and to close your eyes so if you're in the car or anything just like find a way to to be in silence not driving right now okay okay so this is one exercise that I found really helpful to find a way to connect more with what is authentic to you and what it's not as I said there is like one of the things that helps you to understand your own shadows and the things you reject about yourselves is people in the outside that trigger you to really ask that question what's what are they triggering about me and the other exercise is really like accessing your own intuition and the voice of your intuition and for this I want to use a slightly adjusted meditation that I took from Christy Marie Sheldon so if you want to go deeper into yeah raising your vibration she's really a great teacher in this so find a way to sit in a way that is comfortable and that gives you some space now take three very deep breaths deeply into your nose and out through your mouth deeply into your nose and out through your mouth and start fully arriving with yourself and wherever you are in your seat you just like fully allowing yourself to arrive nothing you have to change nothing to do just be for a moment with your look inside and we want to find out when your body says yes so just think about yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes and if you had a closet right in front of you and you open that closet and you open that closet and this closet is full of yes yes yes clothes what kind of clothes would be in that yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes clothes and then you put one of these yes yes yes clothes on so what does it feel to be fully in yes where do you feel that in your body what kind of body sensations do you notice when everything is just yes yes yes how does your mood feel like what's your inner weather when it's all yes yes yes and if yes would have a color what kind of color would yes be for you and also how would yes smell or what would yes taste like in your mouth and bring it all in no matter if you can access all of these questions maybe you only can access one of them that's totally fine how does it feel to be fully in yes yes yes and you're going back to the cupboard of clothes and you let go of your yes yes yes clothes and there's another one in front of you that is no no no how does it feel to go into fully no no no no no no no no no you open that door and you see all these no no no clothes a whole variety of no no no clothes in front of you and you put one of those on how does no no no feel inside of you if you look into your inner weather what a body reactions that you notice with no no no what's opening what's contracting in your body when you say no no no no no no no and what color would no no no be like and how does no no no smell for you how does no taste for you no no no what is it that you observe when you're in no no no mode what's coming up for you and now you let go of the no no no cloth and you're coming back to yes yes yes go back to yes yes yes and put on the yes yes yes clothes how does it feel to be back in yes yes yes what's opening up inside of you how do you feel and yes yes yes where in the body do you feel and sense yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes now let go of the yes yes yes clothes and just take a moment to just be neutrally and remind yourself again how was it to be in no mode compared to yes and if you want to you can even kind of like just quickly switch from yes yes yes yes to no just notice how it's different in your body when you even do that quickly and go back to yes now let go of that bring your attention back to your breathing and take three very deep breaths deeply in through your nose and now through your mouth now take a last deep in breath and a slow long out breath and when you hear the end of the gong slowly open your eyes so maybe you have noticed that this exercise helped you to access your yes and your no and maybe it was really hard for you to access that right now so my experience is at first i had to really do these kinds of exercises more often and the other experience is that you know sometimes it's a good day to do that and sometimes i can't just access it because it's a very intuitive thing and what you saw is we're kind of drawing on the wisdom of our emotions what's really interesting is we think that you know a factual decision about what we want to do or not has to do with our mind and all the pros and cons but really what's happening throughout our life is our emotions have so much more information that we don't access and this exercise helps us to understand all the information you know to have the full big picture which doesn't mean that you're not using your ratio anymore and you're thinking it just means use all the information you have in front of you very often the pro and con list doesn't 100% give us a clear yes or no but when we're feeling into it when we walk into our intuition we know exactly how a yes or a no feels and why we're doing this exercise to walk our authentic path is because the yes and the no feel differently and so is it when you're doing something that is authentic to you and that you know is part of your path versus something that doesn't feel right and so what helped me the most was to gain not only with that exercise but with many ways of practicing to really access how does my body feel like what what's really going on to understand my no much clearer and to feel into no it doesn't feel good to do this right now it doesn't feel good to say this right now sometimes it's as clear as that I can't meet this person right now because it doesn't feel like a yes right now and what's interesting is the more you start to listen to that voice which is your own voice anyways the more signs it will give you much easier it's almost like the moment you say okay I'm gonna listen to you it's it's coming and it's saying okay I have so much to tell you I hope this was a helpful exercise for you and let me know what you felt let me know what came up for you and all the best and I'm looking forward to see you next time and it might not be in a week time because I really want to keep this in flow and for me keeping this in flow means that I want to speak to you and with you in moments when I feel it's true and authentic to me not because I have to because there's an expectation on that and I hope you understand that and I hope every time I do it it comes from that space of of you know creativity and from that space of now I'm ready to share something because it feels deeply true to me all the best and see you soon.

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Reviews

Fantastic talk and inspiring exercise at the end.

Very good thanks and a lot of issues relevant to me 🙏

You were so very helpful. Now I feel I am on the right path. ❤️

Thanks for showing up so much as yourself and sharing that vulnerable you with us. I share with you being grown up in Munich, felt as an white outsider and being very much in tune with authenticity. Thanks!

Powerful! Thank you for supporting the authenticity of others through your own beautiful example.

This resonated so much with me as I have recently come to recognize the importance of being authentic in all facets of my life, including work life. Thank you so much for sharing!

I found this to be quite engaging as an exploration of authenticity, but resonated for me even more so as a way of understanding the parts of ourselves we resign to the shadows. Having used the shortcut language of shadow self to mean all of those parts of myself from which I sought deliverance because they were less noble, I can appreciate better that these are areas where I am challenged by my own perfectionism and the stories of Self I wish to project. I'm definitely looking forward to future episodes on this!

Also, bonus points for including a meditative exercise to wrap up the episode!