Authenticity in Action

Reclaiming and establishing an authentic life requires action on your part. If you’re wanting to have the authentic life you’re longing for, you must make it a priority.

Below are some suggestions of ways in which you might bring more authenticity into your life. I challenge you to try at least three of these and to make it a regular practice for 30 days. After that time, evaluate. Are you enjoying your new connections? Do you feel more connected to yourself, your life, and the people around you then you did before? If so, keep going. If not, try three of the other options.

The best results will come from actually setting a clear intention of behaving more authentically yourself, and creating more authenticity in your life. Then, it’s up to you to take this out into the world.

• Sit, in quiet reflection, for at least 10-15 minutes a day. Notice your breath, quiet your busy mind, just sit and notice who you are. Invite your truest self into this moment. Feel the energy of your existence…….key here is to quiet your busy mind. This takes practice and by doing this every day you’re bound to get better. Whatever is going on in your mind you can pick backup at the end of your meditation.
• Go for a quiet walk in nature. There is nothing like being in nature to remind us of our true self, to connect us with something larger then ourselves, to inspired and to refresh. Spend at least 15 minutes in nature every day. More is better! For this practice, I suggest you do this alone but if you are going to share this experience with others, please take time for silence.
• Pick up the phone and call someone. Choose one person a week that you’ve been meaning to touch base with and call them. Don’t email or text but actually talk to them person to person. This is such a wonderful way to stay connected and such an easy thing to avoid due to the convenience of technology. There’s nothing like hearing someones voice and real laughter just can’t be translated in any other way.
• Journal. Spend at least ten minutes a day writing in a journal. Write whatever comes to mind. Funny stories, concerns, inspirations, affirmations, poems. There is no need to write a novel in your journal or to strive for anything other then speaking from, and listening to, your authentic voice.
• Make a spontaneous coffee date with friends. Spend 30 minutes sitting face to face with friends over coffee/tea, etc. Nothing can replace this. Make it easy. Be spontaneous. Last thing some of us need these days is more “plans.” Just call someone, see if they can meet for coffee, if they can’t call someone else.
• Go through the check-out line at the grocery store. Try to avoid self-checkout. Have a brief conversation with people in line or with the clerk. Avoid the urge to text or email while standing in line. Be present. Thank the clerk for their time. Do you know how many faceless people they help every day? Don’t’ be one of them.
• Do your shopping in person. If you want a coffee and you have a drive-thru option, choose to go inside instead. Go into the drug store, Target, the Apple store, Banana Republic. Go into the Aveda store and have a “hands on experience.” Touch things, feel things, smell things, try clothing on and products out. Become an informed consumer. Ordering online is convenient but you definitely miss out on this sensory experience.
• Play a game with your husband, wife, roommates or friends rather then watching TV. Games bring out the kid in us that is, if we can play for just “playing” and not just to WIN. Have some fun. Lighten up. All things that really need doing will eventually get done.
• Dance! At least once a week. Let yourself move freely though time and space. Go to a club, a class, a Sunday morning Sweat Your Prayers or a Zumba class at your gym. Get out of your head and into your body…..it’s both transformative and liberating, I promise.
• Do Art……of any kind 15 minutes a day. Draw, paint, collage, sew, anything! Allow yourself to spend time in this creative space where your busy mind is suspended and your imagination can flourish. There is nothing like losing ourselves in an artistic project in order to find ourselves.

We have so many easy opportunities every day to remember who we are. It only takes 10 to 30 minutes a day for you to build authentic experiences into your life and, seeing how our life is made up of a collection of our experiences, you will soon remember what it is to be living an authentic life.

You can do this. You’ll be so happy you did!

“Our power lies in our small daily choices, one after another, to create eternal ripples of a life well lived.” —Mollie Marti