Honor Your Authentic Self

It's Jamila. Thanks for being here with me today. I wanna talk about the word authentic. The word authentic comes from a word meaning 'acting on one's own authority.' It means being in your power, being sovereign, and making liberated choices. It's about honoring your truth, being connected to who you are at the base of your being, and living true to your desires, your values, and your passions. It's about living a life that is a beautiful and accurate reflection of who you are at your core. Sometimes we hold ourselves back from a life of authenticity because we believe we are tied to the identities of our past. We're each a product of our programming, the beliefs we inherited as children from our parents and caretakers. We each have a blueprint of thoughts and behaviors that we learned in our early years, in order to please the adults in our lives. Many of us learned that love, safety, and acceptance were conditional. We learned that we have to be a certain way in order to be valued. We learned to suppress our truth to fit in, and to gain the security of belonging. And so, naturally it became a habit to hide ourselves, to perform a version of ourselves we believed would be more digestible for others. Take a moment to breathe and forgive yourself. Take a moment to hold space for the little you that did the best with what they had, and found creative ways to survive. Send loving compassion towards every past version of yourself. We shrink ourselves in order to be safe, but we don't have to do that anymore. We are free to be whoever we are, and we're free to evolve moment to moment. Authenticity allows us to live from a place of wholeness, released from the burden of having to perform and pretend. And it's the secret sauce that makes our connections with others so rich and meaningful. We're able to experience deep love and connection with the people in our lives when we allow ourselves to be seen. We each have the inherent capacity to grow, to learn, to change, and to evolve. Today, we're gonna practice honoring that capacity, and affirming our right to become whoever we want to be. If they aren't closed already, close your eyes, and start to bring your attention to your breath. Notice how it flows in and out, and see if you can slow your breathing down a little bit more, deepening your inhales and exhales. Visualize yourself showing up in the fullness of who you are. Imagine that you have released any fears, self judgments, and inner blocks holding you back from authenticity. Imagine no longer feeling stuck or trapped in any relationships, environments, dynamics, or identities that do not honor your truth, or that obstruct the highest vision for your life. Imagine that you have full permission, and all the support needed to shape shift, to endlessly try on different ways...