Welcome to the first Spotlight for Authentic Self Blog. The spotlight will be used provide individuals an opportunity to share their intellectual and personal views of authenticity.
Authenticity by Ticking Off The Boxes
"To me, authenticity is the pursuit of peace. We live in a culture that tells us what happiness and success are and that these are the ultimate goals. Our culture conditions us to compare and compete with our peers to define our value. Society teaches us that our worth is external, based on certain criteria established by others. As we strive to attain approval and validation, we let go of and hide pieces of who we are that don't match the standards set for us. The problem is that the further away we move from who we are, the less equipped we are to deal with life's natural ebb and flow. No state of being is permanent. When we are not being authentic and suppress those parts of us we believe are not enough, the fluctuations in life leave us scrambling, grasping at external solutions for stability that rarely sustain us for long. Our authenticity allows us to define our standards of who and what we 'should' be and what happiness and success are; it removes the constant pressure to be someone we are not. Being authentic and knowing our inherent worth can not come from an external source brings us greater joy during those moments of happiness and can provide us peace when happiness and success seem far away."
– Ticking Off The Boxes