Our society has many invitations to be something you're not. Whether it comes from magazines, the media, our classmates, or society as a whole, we are regularly bombarded with information and relationships that want us to feel like we need to be someone other than who we are. We need to be cool, we need to be hot, we need to be successful, we need to be smart, we need to be tough, we need to be perfect. All these images in our heads act as an un-centering, and un-grounding force within us that makes us feel like we are less than.
The only way to overcome this feeling is to let go of these false idols and let yourself be who you truly are. Who you truly are doesn't take effort: it's easy, natural, and restful. Its just being yourself. This is authenticity.
Being honest and expressing your true self not only rids you of the burden of insecurity and false idols, it also fully empowers you to accomplish your goals. When we seek to do something from a place of insecurity and pretending to be someone, we come from a place of weakness within us, since we are against ourselves. On the other hand, when we are truly openly expressing ourselves naturally, we align with our whole self and therefore our whole power. From this power of authenticity we are able to do things with grace and ease, being guided by our natural intelligence that comes from a restful heart.
Authenticity is one of the many prerequisites for genuine spiritual development. To be spiritually in tune you cannot simultaneously be against yourself. To be against yourself is in truth the root of an un-spiritual mind, one that is ignorant, and in denial, without alignment with your truth. Your truth and the Truth of all existence are already in union. Like a wave to the ocean, your truth is an expression of the Universal Truth of reality. You cannot come to know the Universal Truth, the Transcendent, without knowing yourself as well. To know the Transcendent is to know your true self as well. Spiritual practice aims to recognize the fact that the personal truth and the Transcendent truth are ultimately united, although ignorance and other negative factors of the mind mire us in separation and block our ability to know this.
In authenticity we pave the way for release from falsehood, allowing ourselves to recognize our unity with the Universal Truth of life. May you come to be your most authentic self, that you can take the road that leads to liberation.