The world is full of fakes and frauds nowadays. It is a breath of fresh air to meet someone who lives an authentic life. But how do you achieve authentic living? I believe that there are some secrets of authentic living.
7 Secrets of Authentic Living
#1 Acceptance
Nobody’s perfect. You are flawed, just like everybody else. The sooner you accept your imperfections, the sooner you will be liberated. Authentic living means being able to accept who you are, warts, scars, quirks and all.
#2 Honesty
An authentic life is an honest life; a life free of pretentions. A genuine and honest person is honest to himself and to the people around him. He does not hide his opinion, his ideas, and his feelings, but he knows his limitations and keeps it tactful. Just because you’re honest does not give you the excuse to be an insensitive jerk.
That inner voice has both gentleness and clarity. So to get to authenticity, you really keep going down to the bone, to the honesty, and the inevitability of something.
Meredith Monk
#3 Self-awareness
Know who you are and who you want to be. If you choose to live a well thought of authentic life, it is important to be aware of it all the time. Self-awareness is being aware of your shortcomings and knowing which part of your life needs improvement, which ultimately leads to an authentic lifestyle.
#4 Purpose
To be conscious and deliberate of one’s action is to decide what one must choose. Be purposeful in your decisions. Be resolute in the kind of life you want to live. Live with a purpose and drive.
#5 Self-security
We need to find the courage to say NO to the things and people that are not serving us if we want to rediscover ourselves and live our lives with authenticity.
Barbara de Angelis
An authentic life is a life not based on other people’s opinion. You live a life of self-awareness and sense of purpose. But most of all you need to live a life of self-security. Meaning you don’t let criticisms change who you are. You don’t let naysayers stop you from fulfilling your purpose. You are secured to your identity.
#6 Open mind
Self-security is not enough to live authentically. You also need to be open minded. There’s a thin line between being self-secured to being stubborn and narrow minded. You may be unconsciously shutting down a positive criticism and suggestion for your improvement if you don’t have an open mind. Be open to new learning as well—be an eternal student.
#7 Connection
Stay connected with the people in your life. Stay connected with nature, for in truth, we are all connected to each other. Stay true to yourself by staying connected to what makes your nature who you are; a piece of the puzzle in the universe. Leading a secular life is disconnecting yourself from what nature has meant for you.
Be your authentic self. Your authentic self is who you are when you have no fear of judgment, or before the world starts pushing you around and telling you who you’re supposed to be. Your fictional self is who you are when you have a social mask on to please everyone else. Give yourself permission to be your authentic self.
Dr Phil
The more authentic you are with yourself, the more you will attract authentic people in your life. Adopt these secrets of authentic living and be free from the unnecessary baggage of a fake life.
Would you like to take part in #MondayMusings? Here’s how it works:
- Write a post sharing your thoughts with us – happy, sad, philosophical, ‘silly’ even. Make it as personal as possible.
- Use the hashtag #MondayMusings.
- Add your link to the linky which you will find here below.
- Use the #MondayMusings badge to encourage other bloggers join in too.
- Visit and comment on the posts of other bloggers linked here.
- Share the love.
Such simple things and yet how easily we lose sight of them. A reminder is always in order.
Obsessivemom recently posted..Red, White & Royal Blue #BookReview
So true, Tulika. Sorry it’s taken me such a while to respond to you.
Corinne Rodrigues recently posted..10 Ways To Handle Toxic Family Members
This is what my thought of an ideal way of living too. I think, being honest to oneself, open minded and not allow criticism to hurt us are not easy but very helpful for a happy life.
Being honest with oneself is key! Sorry I too so long to respond to your comment, Mahati.
Corinne Rodrigues recently posted..10 Ways To Handle Toxic Family Members
First of all I love the new look. Dapper, clean and visually appealing.
In this world of masked, pretentious existences more often than not authenticity gets lost.
But the points you have made, Cory are very relevant and a must remember.
In the last few months, the thought that we are all just specks in the universe and connected as one big fabric of life has paved way for a lot of acceptance and realisation.
Self awareness is key! As is the ability to say no and draw ones boundaries.
Natasha recently posted..Bloom Where You are Planted: #WordlessWednesday #WednesdayWisdom
All the valid points. Thanks for this post.
Hi Corinne – Authenticity has been my catchcry since I turned 50. Before that I spent so much of my time trying to be the perfect person who met everyone else’s needs. There are still elements of that in me, but I’m learning that being true to myself and surrounding myself with people who love me for who I am, means that I’m growing and becoming more “real” every day. It’s been a journey but I’m so glad I’m not that wishy-washy person I used to be.
I’ve joined your link party seeing #MLSTL has now been put to bed xx
I too was a people-pleaser, Leanne. Some people find it hard to reconcile the straight talking me with the woman I was before. But I’m enjoy being as authentic as I possibly can in my relationships.
Thanks for joining in. I hope #MLSTL comes back after a good rest! 🙂
Simple things in life are not that simple afterall. What you have listed here is something we have to work on everyday – it’s a process, a journey. Thank you for the to-the-point reminder
I think the only thing that I lack is a true purpose. I am still searching my Ikigai. Apart from that I think I can tick all the other points. I may not be rich and famous but I have lived my life is honesty. Beautiful and inspiring post Cory.
Hi Corinne,
I really enjoyed reading your post especially as I seem to come across a lot of debate about what it means to be authentic. I thought you summarised it really well and I think sometimes people overthink it. The main one for me is accepting who we are, including all our flaws and imperfections. I think it’s about being vulnerable and being ok with sharing those imperfections. Others seem them more clearly than we do anyway 😉 And I liked ‘self-security’ … thank you!
Another very thoughtful post from you Corinne and as I was reading, I was check marking against it 🙂 Happy to see my score off it.
You are bang on the spot about every point you have mentioned here. Too often we give into our inner demons or the person next door who undermines us by filtering our life through their standards. We need to be stronger to overcome that and these points make a very valid check list for doing just that.
Shalzmojo recently posted..10 Minutes 38 seconds in this Strange World by Elif Shafak | Book Review |
Wonderful information, thanks a lot for sharing the kind of information.
Yes, honest to yourself and others but honest but honest doesn’t have to be mean.
An authentic post touching on so many things to be genuine and not losing one’s individuality, Corinne. I enjoyed reading and for sure will take into account the tips in the post.