Genki

Photobucket Gen: Origin or Source Photobucket Ki: Air, Spirit and Energy

Sunday, March 13, 2011

WOTW #10 - AUTHENTICITY

Authenticity was the word of the week last week.  "Add your unique ingredients to the mix.  Be real.  Express yourself.  Uncloak your originality and manifest your pure potential."

This was a hard one for me.  Authenticity.  Being Authentic.  Being me.  All of me.  Nothing hidden.  Self-expression.  Damn!  It was hard, and still is.  I'm struggling with who I am really am.  What do I like?  What don't I like?  What I want?  What don't I want?  Is it what I really want to do?? Or is it something that I think others want me to do??  And there times when I know I want to do something or have something and then I make myself super wrong for wanting them.  A no win situation.   How can I be authentic when I make myself wrong for being me??

What came out of working with my coach this week was perfect timing...although I didn't see it at the time.  She has me working on "Vulnerability".   For homework she wants me to write down what being vulnerable means to me.  Again, DAMN!  Seriously!!  I went researching.  I asked friends what they felt being vulnerable meant.  I got all kinds of answers.  All were very personal, yet they were all the same.  Loving freely and passionately, being open, speaking what is there for them, stepping into the unknown. 

Someone also directed me to a video on TED.  Brene Brown talks about the power of vulnerability (I've added it to the end of the blog).  Not until after watching the video and visiting her website (http://www.brenebrown.com) did I understand that being vulnerable and being authentic goes hand in hand.  To be authentic with who you are you must be vulnerable.  To be vulnerable (according to Brene Brown) you must be seen fully, to love with our whole heart even if there are no guarantees, practice gratitude and joy, and "I am Enough".  

I was so stuck by what Brene Brown wrote that I had to share some of it with you. 
  

 "Wholehearted living is about engaging in our lives from a place of worthiness. It means cultivating the courage, compassion, and connection to wake up in the morning and think, No matter what gets done and how much is left undone; I am enough.
It’s going to bed at night thinking, Yes, I am imperfect and vulnerable and sometimes afraid, but that doesn’t change the truth that I am also brave and worthy of love and belonging."

"How do we learn to embrace our vulnerabilities and imperfections so that we can engage in our lives from a place of authenticity and worthiness? How do we cultivate the courage, compassion, and connection that we need to recognize that we are enough – that we are worthy of love, belonging, and joy?"


So, I am going to look here for awhile. In authenticity and vulnerability. Wholehearted. These will be my words of the week for a couple of weeks.  I am going on holidays down to California to visit some friends and will most likely not be posting while I am away.

Enjoy looking within yourself.  What does being authentic mean to you??  What does being vulnerable mean to you??  What actions can you take in your life to be more of each?


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