Sunday, October 28, 2012

Simply Authentic...your soul voice is calling. Authenticity

The Definition of Authenticity
 

Dictionary.com defines “authentic” as 1. Not false or copied; genuine; real: an authentic antique. 2. Having the origin supported by unquestionable evidence; authenticated; certified: an authentic document of the Middle Ages; an authentic work of the old master. 3. Entitled to acceptance or belief because of agreement with known facts or experience; reliable; trustworthy: an authentic report on poverty in Africa. 4. Law, executed with all due formalities: an authentic deed. And then it goes on to talk about music and cadence.


Thomas B. Macaulay wrote that the measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.

 
I don’t know about you, but I remember many times I’ve done things when nobody is watching I would have never told anybody about! I don’t think I ever stuck a booger or piece of gum under the desk in grade school, but I did sneak cookies from my piano teacher’s kitchen cabinet while I was waiting for my lesson to start.

 
As an adult – good grief – it can be SO embarrassing to do exactly what you feel drawn to do in any given moment. I have felt held back so many times in the past, which is of course precisely why Spirit gave me the prompting to write about authenticity! I realize now no-one can hold me back but ME.

 
I’m thinking about this guy who regularly practices with a rope with weighted balls at either end (I’m Googling; it may be called a bolo) on the lawn outside my office building. He typically wears a fedora type hat over his dreadlocks. This may not seem unusual – especially if you are, say, on a college campus – but this is just outside a big complex of Shorenstein office buildings. There you’re more likely to see smokers on their breaks in business attire. This would also be unusual in my home town of Raymond, South Dakota, population 50. (No, I’m not kidding. As of the 2010 census.) 

 
This young man seems completely unconcerned with what anyone thinks about him, and completely free. I’m drawn to his spirit, and now know that I will stop and talk with him the next time I see him.

 
Personally, I’m okay with embarrassing myself at karaoke. Stretching as a singer and voice teacher. Taking on new clients at the office. Making a new dish I don’t know how will turn out for a dinner guest. Dancing like no-one is watching. Making dress designs just for the fun of it. I sure as hell don’t want to go sky-diving or bungee-jumping. I might want to learn to ride a motorcycle rather than just being a passenger. Maybe try water-skiing again. And do more with art again other than just collages. Although I totally love my collages!
 
 
This is the first dress I designed on paper that got made into a real dress!
 
 

This is the physical representation of that dress design!
 
 
 
A sketch I did in 1994.
 
 
 
A sketch I did in 1999.
 
 
 
 
Collage circa 2010.
 
 
 
 
At the Sacred Success workshop, after a guided visualization, we were invited to go on a walk-about and find something in nature that would be meaningful for each of us. I knew within a couple of minutes that my meaningful “thing” was a dragonfly. The dragonfly is a symbol of Archangel Michael, and has been meaningful to me for years now. So it was no surprise I saw one within a minute or two of starting my walk-about. It immediately flew away.

 
I had my camera with me and looked for other dragonflies, seeing another once…running after it, begging for a photo. No dice.

 
After that, I decided to be okay with whatever it was that I saw, and really see what I saw, taking photos of other things. It was completely fine with me if I never saw another dragonfly that day. I was at complete peace with this right up until I was told the walk-about had ended and it was time to go back inside.

 
Guess who showed up? Of course! Interesting enough, in a similar color to the “wise one” who had come to me earlier on a guided visualization.



 
 
What does meeting a dragonfly, asking that dragonfly to sit long enough for a photo session, and the dragonfly doing so, have to do with being simply authentic, you might ask?
 
 

 


That’s your challenge for the coming week. You tell me! Have you had a similar experience? What insights did it bring 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 are 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

Authentically Yours, Laura

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Simply Authentic...your soul voice is calling. Sacred Success

Sacred Success

 
The price we pay for authenticity may seem high, but who among us can truly afford to continue living as a spendthrift of the self? –Sara Ban Breathnach

 
In late September, I attended a Sacred Success workshop retreat hosted by Barbara Stanny (www.barbarastanny.com.) I have been following Barbara’s work for several years, since reading her book SECRETS OF SIX FIGURE WOMEN. This book so deeply reached me, I used it to co-create a women’s group known as ACE (Abundance Circle Experience.) We met twice a month for something like a year and a half. And then I read more of Barbara’s books. My relationship with money has changed dramatically (for the better) since then.

 


This is Barbara dumping out the water that represented all our "old shit."
 
 


This is the group, minus one woman who had to leave early to meet her ride.
 

But Sacred Success is about so much more than the number of zeros in your bank account balances, your investment portfolio, or your net worth.

 
In this Thursday – Monday workshop at the beautiful Cedarbrook Lodge in Seatac, WA, I developed and embraced a purpose statement (and way more else than I can possibly share here), stood in awe of the courage and beauty of the other 16 women in attendance, and walked out with a song in my heart and a fire in my belly. And several next steps to take.

 
Those of you who know me well know I am a list person, that I compartmentalize my time so I can accomplish all the things I “need to do.” And you all know the routine, right? We don’t want to be a human “doing” all the time rather than a human “being.” I don’t know about you, but it’s far too easy for me to slip into hamster-on-a-wheel mode.  

 
Yet, after Sacred Success, I am VERY excited about what’s on my to-do list, including getting back to writing. I now have a theme for this blog: Simply Authentic…your soul voice is calling.

 
Sweet, huh?

 
That came to me on a Godwalk. (For more information on the Godwalk, see the January 2010 Wishweaving Word issue #35, Take a Risk. http://wishweavers.com/ww/index.php?option=com_letterman&task=view&Itemid=32&id=44.)

 
Shortly after I decided to take a break from writing, themes from Sara Ban Breathnach’s SIMPLE ABUNDANCE started coming to me. This extraordinary year-long daily mediation practice is essentially an instruction manual on living in alignment with your authentic self. So…the word “authentic” was already in my consciousness this last spring.

 


 

We’ll get more into what Simply Authentic means, some Simply Authentic examples from my life, and some ideas for your Simple Authenticity, in future posts. For now I challenge you to reflect on: Where in your life do you feel the most authentic? The least? What does authenticity (either for you personally, or in general) at this juncture, mean to you?

 
Feel free to post comments – the juicier, the better! J

 
Many of us squander precious natural resources – time, creative energy, emotion – comparing the size of our talents to those of others. Today, ask Spirit to call forth your authentic gifts, so that you might know them, acknowledge them, and own them. Do you want to live more abundantly? Have you buried your talents? How can we live richer, deeper, and more passionately if we aren’t willing to invest in ourselves? Many of us have played it safe for too long and wonder why we are miserable.

 
Playing it safe is the riskiest choice we can ever make. –Sara Ban Breathnach