Today's Meditation:

Authenticity is a goal that can make our lives much simpler, much more fulfilling, and much less liable to give us unpleasant surprises.  But it's often difficult to be authentic because of the pressure that we feel-- real or imagined-- to be what we think other people want us to be.  Personally, I'm much less concerned about forgetting the pose than I am about other people discovering that I am posing, for that would let them know that I'm not the person that I'm trying to make them believe that I am.

That's the main reason I don't pose, and I'm very glad that I learned long ago not to do so.  It makes my life much easier only having to deal with whether people accept me as I am or not, and not having to deal with any fallout if they find out that I've been dishonest in the ways that I present myself.

Some people would like to convince us that we need to put on a different face in order to be accepted, that we need to act in certain ways in order to make other people like us or want to work with us.  If that's true, that would mean that we have to spend most of our time literally lying about who we are, about what we value, about what's important to us.

Who are you?  Do you let that reality shine through, or do you try to hide it behind an inauthentic mask?  If the latter is the case, please remember that you were put on this planet to be a completely unique individual, not a copy of others that someone else thinks that you should be.

Questions to consider:

Do you let the world know you exactly as you are?  What are you like?

Why do so many people feel that it's important to pose as someone else, someone who they're not?

What are some of the traits of the completely authentic you?  Do you let those traits shine through?

For further thought:

It is finally when you let go of what people expect you to be and people's perceptions of you that you're able to be the version of yourself that you're supposed to be-- like in God's eyes.  It doesn't matter if you're half crazy, or eccentric, or whatever it is-- that you have to be true to who you were born to be.

Gwyneth Paltrow

more thoughts and ideas on authenticity.

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