I woke up today with a thought in mind. I wondered to myself, why do we, sometimes set ridiculous expectations for ourselves. Is it because we have created this idea of ourselves that we want to be, and we have confused it with layers of goals and life purpose, telling ourselves that if we achieve just one of it, we can be who we want to be- the idea that we have of ourselves that we have created in our head
How did we get here? How is this formed?
As I was listening to Brene Brown's The Gifts of Imperfection audio book, a particular quote caught my attention. It goes, "Wholehearted living is a journey, not a destination."
How can we experience wholehearted living if it requires us to be authentic? How exactly do we BE authentic? What is being authentic?
Often, we hear self-help articles, books and quotes talk about living and being authentic. Authentic means original. Uttering the words Be Authentic seem to sound cool to many that right now we see it being over used, spread across Instagram as an Insta-Worthy Quote of the Day- again, with the idea of positive living.
An idea is a thought, and everything that we have created in our lives is based on a single thought that has led to an idea of how we should or could be.
So here's something to ponder on.
What if, who we are right now, is not who we are supposed to be.
Who we are, right now, is simply we thought we are supposed to be?
We are, very likely, have become who we have created. Where does it come from? How did this happened? Well, I presume, from how we were raised, our social constructs or the world we live in, even when we have that realization that this is not who I want to be, that too is an idea that we create of ourselves thinking this is what we are supposed to be.
So how are we able to be authentic?
Only when we are able to remove layers after layers of who we thought we are supposed to be, and truly connect within, then perhaps we are able to tap into our truest self.
What do we do? Well, we start by doing the inner work.