What makes you feel like your most authentic self?
Maybe it’s dancing to your favorite song or creating art. Maybe it’s being with your friends or your partner. Maybe it’s writing a poem, painting on a canvas, dancing alone, or reading your favorite book. Or sometimes it’s our environment — where we choose to live, who we choose to be with, the space we create, and the routines that keep us grounded can also help us feel more like ourselves.
Nowadays, we’re constantly bombarded by shiny, pixelated squares begging for our attention. And we often spend time molding digital avatar versions of ourselves — but are we truly showing up as our real selves? Or are we just becoming a hologram of what we think we should be?
Social media aims to make us feel connected and seen — but sometimes it’s hard to feel that way through an app designed to enhance or eliminate our flaws while profiting from our attention. People post their life highlights and sometimes compare the best of someone’s days to their worst days. But the truth is, life is not a series of perfectly curated moments and captions; life can often get messy and dark. We will always have our good days but we also have bad days too, and we must learn how to be at peace with both. We have to allow ourselves to just sit with whatever comes up for us in the moment, and to simply let ourselves be. When we’re vulnerable and brave enough to share some hard truths about ourselves it also inspires others to share theirs. By being the truest version of ourselves, we are liberating each other.
Authenticity, at its core, thrives when you allow others and especially yourself to be completely human. By letting yourself be exactly who you are, you naturally give others the permission to be wholly and unapologetically real. And that’s what the world needs — the real you.
