ARE YOU BEING TRUE TO YOURSELF?
What is being true to yourself mean? What immediately comes to mind for me when I ask myself that question, is authenticity, and was something that eluded me for years. It wasn’t until I was recovering from alcohol addiction at the Caron Foundation, that I fully understood that it meant to accept myself as I really am and didn’t have to hide behind masks anymore.
The revelation occurred in what I consider a miracle; images, that were received as spiritual downloads during meditation, appeared as faces with drama masks. The masks melted away the same morning it was my turn to participate in the Psychodrama Therapy, where another person represents you as a child.
After I identified my masks and began to remove them, the person sitting opposite me suddenly shouted, “That was your vision this morning. The masks melted away.” The therapist stood back, amazed, and said, “You’ve had a true spiritual awakening.”
It was an initiation for me; with the death of my egoic self and a rebirth where I called back my authentic soul. From that instant on, I didn’t care who thought what about me— I knew and God knew if I was living true to myself, and that’s all that mattered to me.
I was free—free to be the person I was born to be. Being true to myself means living with integrity, honesty, and unwavering principles. It means I didn’t have to worry about pleasing other people or caring what they think about me, which is none of my business anyway.
It means I know who I am and accept myself as that person; knowing my strengths and my life purpose, and then living in accordance with those truths. I live by Polonius’s words in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, “This above all – to thine ownself be true.”
Suggestions on Living True to Yourself
- Cultivate a deep and trusting relationship with yourself
- Live and speak with integrity
- Be congruent and authentic
- Follow your own value system and beliefs, not others
- Make personal choices for truth
- Be completely honest about what you feel and value
