AUTHENTICITY - The Holistic Blueprint

Authenticity. We hear it a lot. Nice concept. But when you get down into it - what does authenticity mean? What does it look like? How do you do it? What does it feel like? And what are the benefits of it? In simplest of terms - your authenticity is your liberation. It is your freedom. It is the purest expression of the timeless essence that is you. In embodying this authentic version of you - there is a momentum and a power behind your presence that is untouched by any "should" based dogma coming from the outside world.Your authenticity enables you to live a life of fulfillment, of meaning, of joy, and of EASE. Where there is authenticity, there can be no struggle. There can be challenge, but the challenge is met with a joyful knowing that nothing can threaten your peace, and therefore, there is a deep willingness to meet that challenge and move through it, rather than try to bypass it.Authenticity is akin to the breath your body requires to live. Without authenticity, the Soul can't survive. Most of us are giving our Soul just enough authenticity that it doesn't pass out on us, and are feeling the pain of it gasping for more.Use the Blueprint below to find your way back to that deep breath of the most Authentic YOU - enjoy!

Journal Prompts:

I feel fully free to be me when...

These are the times when I have felt fully and completely me:

If I were fully and freely me, these are the things in my life that would no longer be relevant:

If I were fully and freely me, these are the things I would automatically welcome into my life:

Today, I will be a little bit more of ME by:

On our Bookshelf:

Braving the Wildnerness by Brene Brown“Belonging so fully to yourself that you're willing to stand alone is a wilderness -- an untamed, unpredictable place of solitude and searching. It is a place as dangerous as it is breathtaking, a place as sought after as it is feared. The wilderness can often feel unholy because we can't control it, or what people think about our choice of whether to venture into that vastness or not. But it turns out to be the place of true belonging, and it's the bravest and most sacred place you will ever stand.”Click here to grab your copy.

Things We LOVE:

Time in nature. There is literally NOTHING that brings you home to that authentic place of expression with more ease and joy than some solid time alone in the forest.Choose a day this month to take yourself on a hiking/nature exploration. Leave your phone away. And just listen. With each step, sync up your breath. Be fully present for the experience of the smells, the sounds, the sights, and the feelings that the calm and majestic surroundings you're in have to offer.

Sacred Space:

If you don't have a meditation pillow - it's time to get one! Most of us city dwellers can't get out into the forest everyday to remember who we are - but that doesn't mean that time in stillness isn't still essential!Having a meditation pillow and a little nook in your home solely devoted to self reflection and peeling away the layers of facade will not only provide you with greater mental ease and clarity - but it will give you that direct confidence and unshakeable knowing that can only come from fully and completely knowing all that you are.Click here to grab one of our faves!

Crystal:

Amazonite - Remember when you were a kid and you just were who you were? The kid you who existed before the blankets of fear and "should" started to pile on? The one who didn't have a filter, who played and sang and danced and said hello to everyone, the one who didn't know there were things that were "acceptable" and "not acceptable" when it comes to embodying your own essence?Tapping into that kid is one of the biggest keys to living authentically. Not that you abandon all that you've learned along the way, but that you reconnect with that flow, that sense of timelessness, that abandon of social constructs that hinder your truest expression of pure intentioned creativity and expression.Amazonite is a powerful crystal that taps us back into that space of flow, helps us release control, and sit in the seat of wonder and joy at the ride of life.

Chakra:

Throat chakra - our throat is the meeting point between our heart and our head. Our infinite essence pulsing through our finite reality. Generally when we think of the throat chakra, we think of speaking and how we use language. It's so much more than that! Our throat chakra relates us to how we interface with the moment, how we express ourselves in our body language, clothing, and how we direct our creative energy.If we're following the mold of anyone or anything but our own true essence, our throat chakra starts to get out of whack and things like unexplained anger, depression, overwhelm, creative blocks, and a lenience on dishonesty to wiggle our way out of things begins to happen.How do you balance your throat chakra? Start with exploring the journal prompts above, and begin singing in your car, or in the shower more! Let your voice fly. Begin to create little moments of beauty (more ideas on that here) for yourself everyday. And notice when you feel most like YOU, and when you feel most trapped in a false version of you.

Animal Totem:

The Swan - A huge part of authenticity is a connection to flow - to living a life outside of the straight and narrow of logic and statistics and facts. Swans have long been mystical totems of grace and transformation. Transforming from darkness and into light.Calling on the energy of the Swan opens the heart back up to that childlike space of innocence, paired with fierce protection. Protection over the most authentic expression of who you are. With the swan by your side, you are safe to soften into all that you are, knowing you can never be harmed for it. You've got the swiftest, prettiest body guard in all of the land.