Do you live your life authentically?

Your experiences in life shapes the way you are. That perhaps is not surprising, but have you ever wondered how authentically you live your life? There is a very quick way of measuring this. Write down in one column how you are with others. How do you think others experience you? Then in the other column write down how you would like to be. Compare the two lists. How different are they? Sometimes they can be very extreme. Let's use this as an example. In the first list, you could have put down that you are cautious and in the other you may have put you are carefree. Stop for a moment and think to yourself, how can I live life one way, but actually want to be the other? What stops you from being carefree in life? Why are you always cautious? Do you have a sense that you are really carefree, deep down inside? That is who you really are. But some how you have ended up a cautious person. So there is this disparity between you being one way, but really wanting and indeed knowing you are in fact the other. How does that effect you living your life? I'm guessing it must be very frustrating at times. You may have ended up a cautious person because of life's 'conditioning'. But it does not mean you have to stay that way. Living authentically is possible. Change is possible, but it takes commitment and courage. It also depends on how much you really want to change. 

Once you have identified the disparities within you, then the work begins. What made you cautious for instance? Is your life being ruled by 'learned' behaviors that you did not even want or ask for in the first place? Perhaps you just accepted them from significant people around you or maybe you conform to what society deems as 'normal' behavior. 'Big boys don't cry', as an example. What stops you living the life you really want to? Counselling will give you the time and space to question the areas of your life that are causing you unhappiness. It will give you tools and methods to work towards finding the real you. 

Living authentically allows us all to live a more happy, fulfilling life. It's experiencing life the way we were born to experience it. It is a feeling that is just natural to us. A feeling of freedom and of being in harmony with the world. Living unauthentically can be very, very hard and frustrating. It can also manifest into depression and anxiety. This is not surprising, because you cannot express yourself the way you want to. Take time to understand why you allow yourself to live unauthentically. Sometimes we imprison ourselves mentally and we might not even know why or how it's happened. We either lock ourselves in and stay there, or use the key that's always within us, to open the door. Why keep yourself imprisoned? You owe it to your authentic self to be who you were meant to be. Or at the very least, try to strive towards living as authentically as you possibly can.