As I’ve mentioned earlier I have trained as a counsellor but due to life circumstances I’ve ended up becoming an artist and workshop/teaching assistant. I’m also a chakradancer but that’s another story.

Anyway one of the things that came up for me during training as a counsellor and something in still working on is being authentic or real.

what exactly does that mean? Well it means knowing who you are the good the bad the ugly the vulnerable the brave and being exactly who you are even in front of a wide variety of different people who MIGHT judge you.

simple! Or is it?

We all hide. We all have masks. For women it may be something as superficial as wearing makeup every day. Clothes and accessories. I’m not suggesting go naked but that it’s exactly what it can feel like to just be yourself.

So what else do we hide behind? Jobs- occupation, our work title or roles mother wife husband son. Religion christian Hindu pagan humanistic none. Lifestle choices and hobbies biker sportsman crafter. Those are all things we do, they are part of who we are but they are not us.

So what happens when we lose connection with who we are and be inauthentic. We lose sponteineity, we may feel and act a bit like robots we may pose instead of just smile. Tears may be swallowed with “I’m fine” the world turns and we let others dictate our role and who we are. In short we never LIVE.

so this I’ve decided is something I don’t want to happen to me I want to be as genuine an honest and real as i can be. I want to fufill all my roles in life but not as a robot as an authentic fresh living breathing human being.

So how to do this? Good start is expression get creative! Figure out your favourite creative hobby art writing poetry and see what comes out of the hidden locked away recessed of your heart be it good or bad the results may suprise you.

then show others…bare that part of yourself to the world and don’t care what people think…

Journal. Spend time alone and with others and observe notice yourself and what you observe of others. Write songs! Dance! Next time I feel angry be angry allow it express it (in a safe way) glory in it all… see your life as a masterpiece in technicolour with all its sucesses fears and failures and at the end id it all know what it is to have lived.