How to be yourself... to be your authentic self!

Authentic... what does it mean? Does it mean to be yourself? But what does “yourself” mean? Doesn’t it mean to say and do as you wish? But how do we know what we want and if the things we want to say and do are truly what we want?

From the moment we are born, all we do is seek attention to satisfy our basic survival needs, such as being fed… So that means that no matter what we do, we are asking or begging for attention and no matter what our parents or guardians do or don’t do, it is imprinted again on our behavior making us react accordingly but again to get more attention!

Some of us become the “good kid” to get heard, and some become the opposite "the naughty kid". So how can we stay authentic when for so many important years of our lives we have been the “attention-seeking puppets”, and said and done everything with the reason for seeking attention? How can we know what we want is really ours and ours alone?

As a child, I was a very low profile and probably a loner… I used to believe that agreeing with everyone and doing as they wanted would get people’s attention and I would be “loved” more! I remember crying in front of the mirror, as you can understand that I had achieved the complete opposite of being popular, when my sister came in I confronted her and she advised me the complete opposite of what I had thought all those important years of my young life; to say what I wanted and to give my opinion no-matter-what! So, I changed my act and started expressing my opinion out loud and more often, and it worked!

But when you start expressing your opinion and without having the experience or knowledge of who you are and what you want, don’t you get lost in the “race” and end up with layers and layers BS? Things that you don’t know why you support and represent? Qualities that if you stop and think about, you will find yourself wondering: do I really believe in that? And you become like an onion that needs peeling to find the juicy and fresh center that you really love! (Yep I am an onion lover! Hahaha!)

So how can we stay pure and authentic?
Well, nowadays I tend to trust my instincts... my gut feeling! And to hear my instinct, I try to find a quiet time with myself. To shut all the noises in my head and the environment around me…to listen to my heartbeat, to my breath and the flow of energy in my body… and the answer always pops up and I know that’s the right one! You are going to ask me how can we be authentic and true to ourselves in every moment, every decision of our life with all the noises around us… with social media, messages, phone calls, emails, proposals, meetings, outings... and the answer would be: everything in life is a practice and a habit… if you make it a habit to listen to your instinct, it will give you the answers every time.