Be Authentic, Be Yourself

Whenever we pretend to be someone that we are not, people can either see through the act or they sense that we are not being authentic. I grew up in an extremely affluent area but my father had a low paying government job. I began to form an opinion about where I fit in this distorted world. It's the only world I knew. I didn't know first hand about the world outside of mine. Then I left home at a young age, and experienced poverty because I had no idea how to make it on my own. I found myself homeless at the age of 19. That experience then shaped a new reality for me. After becoming a social worker, I was exposed to a whole group of people that I had never met personally before. People who grew up on welfare and had parents on disability. When the children hit 18 they applied for disability (SSI). It's just how things were in that community and the people I worked with and came to know, love and respect, didn't know any other way of doing their lives. I began to see their issues in a very different light. I now saw them as strong human beings tackling impossible odds, instead of needy, dependent people. The experiences they were exposed to in terms of abuse, trauma, and deprivation opened my eyes to a whole new reality that so many people grow up in. If a plant is never nurtured and isn't given soil to grow in, it will shrink and die or live marginally. There is always that rare plant that grows under any conditions. For some people, life can be a horror from a very young age.

The point is, we often feel shame as a result of our childhood experiences and that makes us want to pretend that we are someone other than who we are. Once we can see our past for what it was and what it wasn't we can gain more respect for ourselves for having survived what we endured. We can also have more compassion for others who have gone through something different or something that seems worse.

Lack, deprivation, starvation, and poverty are ideas that are instilled in us from birth. We have to heal the wounds and recover in order to move to a higher level of existence. Money, health, quality food and love are all forms of energy that we receive. Those who never learned to receive because of they only knew lack and deprivation in the past have a difficult time in their adult lives unless they seek professional help and take measures toward healing on every level.

We are all enough at birth. We are all enough throughout our live in spite of our experiences. We are perfect as we are and the experiences we are having today are exactly the ones that we are supposed to be having.

Letting go of the hurt and pain of the past is a long process. It takes courage and fortitude to stay on a path of healing. There needs to be a spiritual connection to something that you believe is greater and wiser. Few people are able to face their demons head on and experience the pain necessary to heal.

By Debbie Simon
Source : Be Authentic, Be Yourself