Inauthenticity and Unnecessary Suffering.
We all experience hardship,
And much of it undue,
And even more self-inflicted.
But what is the origin of, the why behind, such hardship?
I don’t have all the answers,
But one that resonates with me revealed itself.
To briefly address any space to misconstrue,
Of course not all hardship is self-inflicted.
What I am speaking to is the space from which some internal idea of self creates and perpetuates suffering unnecessarily.
We ALL experience this to some degree.
So what is the “why” that undermines much of our suffering?
INAUTHENTICITY.
Many of the manifestation of problems we face are the product of being inauthentic to our true nature.
Inauthenticity arises for a number of reasons.
- Fear of being seen
- Fear of judgement
- Fear of “what if”
- Fear of making others uncomfortable
And I would even reduce all of these down to the fear of death, to some degree.
We sacrifice our authenticity so that we can create a sense of safety, albeit an often false sense of safety.
We certainly live a world where it seems like the tall poppies get cut down.
So naturally,
It becomes an adaptation to blend in, dim your light, and sacrifice some of the fire inside of you in attempts to feel a little more safe.
The things we do and say from an inauthentic sense of self create extra burdens in our life because the are in direct disharmony with the truth of who you are.
It might feel like the real you acting from inauthenticity after a while, but that does not mean it is the true you.
Much of our life is condensing the space between truth and reality in whatever way we see fit.
I am a “glass is always full” type of person and believe strongly in the human potential and our ability to transcend limitations to discover pure freedom.
Inauthenticity, very crudely spoken, is a behavioral adaptation to survive.
“I am more safe when I am not myself.”
The fallacy of this is that because I try to be something that I am not, I will constantly be met with problems that arise from going unnaturally against the grain.
Don’t get me wrong,
My whole life is against the grain.
What I am speaking to is the small voice within that only you know you are listening to or not.
Going against that is going against the grain of who you truly are,
Thus, suffering is inevitable.
Inauthenticity is like chaining your life to someone else’s but still wondering why you don’t feel free.
The real problem is how do we unlearn and deprogram from this behavioral adaptation?
If we can learn, I wholeheartedly believe we can unlearn.
The return to authenticity can often be seen as climbing the second mountain.
Which by virtue means climbing down from the one we find ourselves upon.
The second mountain is the siren that was softly calling to you this whole time.
It is default in culture today to climb the mountain of inauthenticity.
It can provide beautiful things for us.
Wealth,
Experience,
But most importantly,
It can show us what we don’t want which is an immensely valuable tool in discovering what you do want.
Many of us don’t know what we truly want, and its quite okay not to.
We place so much pressure on ourselves to know the answers that we often create more hardship upon ourselves to choose the right answer.
Life is about learning one step at a time and being able to look at your life with the awareness that it all happened to perfectly make you who you are right now.
Who you are right now is the most truth you will ever find.
Not who you were yesterday, nor who you will be tomorrow.
Inauthenticity is the only voice you can give your power to that will take away your truth right now.
So what is the BIG idea, the secret sauce?
The paradox of it all is that there is no one answer.
It is simply taking inquiry upon our lives and noticing where we are giving power to voice of inauthenticity.
You don’t even need to do anything in specific.
Simply observe where the disharmony arises from, and where you feel it.
Is it in your gut?
Your heart?
Your mind?
Full body?
When we really begin to consciously feel what we learned to feel unconsciously,
Much becomes illuminated.
It’s often triggering for people when I say that you don’t need to do anything.
Which is true,
However it is a “Yes, and…” type of answer.
Yes, you need to do nothing,
and when you finally allow yourself to do nothing, you will see where you are acting out of alignment with your authentic self.
From a place where you consciously observe that you can speak and act from a higher place within yourself, I encourage you to start doing so at whatever pace feels right for you.
Becoming authentic in an inauthentic world feels very unsafe.
But it possesses the energy of feeling alive as opposed to not feeling dead.
Huge difference, and another crude example I know.
But there is truth in the fact that it is easy to forget to fully live your own life.
That’s what you came here to do right?
Now go live more of your best life now.