An Authenticity Movement

All good revivals start with a little doom and gloom.  Sorry.  But, I need you to hear this:  

 

We are starving for meaning.   All around us is a sea of inauthenticity.   People show up to work as someone they are supposed to be and pretend to care about a company to which they are dedicating their soul’s time.  Our “reality” TV is staged and edited to be entertaining.   Most of the food we eat is made of gluten.  What is real anymore?

We live in a world that has been stripped of substance.   We bypass pain as quickly as possible.   We cope with our day through mindless television.  We work to secure our securities.  And, we work so hard.  

We relish in the tiny moments in between when we get to go on vacation and ‘check out’ of our lives for a spell.  

We hug less often.   Eye contact has become difficult for us.   Meaningful conversations about real things – you know, those “deep” things are just too heavy.  

We are allowed to have some discourse or politically correct disagreements about politics, but in all my time in corporate America, I was never asked about the meaning of life at the water cooler.    

Somewhere along the way, the human experience has been numbed in the Novocain of conformity and idealism – but an idealism that has been sold to us through marketing, rather than what feels right in our hearts.  

But, the “big questions” don’t go away.   Instead they sit quietly waiting.   Our soul is patient, resilient, and tenacious. 

So… we cope with our world.  We check out.  We pass by.   We dissolve into routine.  We wait.   Maybe when it’s over, it will get better?  Heaven is waiting on us, right?

I think it’s time for an authenticity movement.  

 

Forget the badge you wear announcing your employment position.   Who are you?  What is the fabric of your soul?  What do you want deeply inside your being?  What do you dream about late at night?  

When is the last time you danced?  Or laughed so hard it hurt? How long has it been since you have tasted that moment when the world slows into the movie reel of perfection – when you look around you and you see the purity of joy, the warmth of love, the smiles of friends, or the laughter of children.  

When is the last time you fell on your face chasing something you believed in?  Or said what was on your mind, rather than what you were supposed to say? 

You are not your job.   You are not your social role.   You are not your position in life.   You are a thriving beacon of love and hope and joy and desire to BE what you are.   A rose is not interested in being a tulip, because she lives in a tulip field.   She is a rose.  

How about we FEEL again?

• to feel intense pain – to move into the center of our own sorrow and be real with it… to acknowledge it.  
• to feel genuine gratitude – for our blessings, our health, our children, our loved ones … to really, really sit in the space of sublime grateful thinking
• to feel loved – to let ourselves be cherished, appreciated, respected… to honor all the goodness within ourselves
• to be touched and to touch one another… to feel the wrinkles and softness in our grandmother’s hands, the aching tenderness of our mother’s hugs, the unbridled squeeze of our children’s cheeks  against our faces…

We have all been hurt.   We should be hurt when we are hurt.  

We have all been in love.   We should announce it to the world when we feel it.

We have passionate feelings about life, religion, and politics.   We should share them openly and respectfully.
We hate our jobs.   Or, we love them.   If we hate them, we should leave them.  If we love them, we should rejoice in them.  

We either live on the razor’s edge of life or we shrivel in the fear of future pain.  

Today, you are human.  You have the greatest gift the universe has ever created – to be alive and to know it.  Use this gift.  Hug a stranger.   Have a conversation with that homeless guy.  Smile at the person making your lunch.   Ask her a question about her life.   Skip.  Skip in the street.   Take in the beauty of a tree.   Breathe in life.   Breathe.   Wiggle your toes.   Smile.   Truly understand the unbelievable goodness of ice cream – what an amazing human creation!

I don’t want to know your story.   I don’t care to share mine.   This is my soul.  I am a sappy romantic.  I am a dreamer.   I am an idealist.   I am a contrarian in order to be contrary.  I am in love with love.  I am playful.  I am capable of being selfish, greedy, protective, defensive, and scared.   I am light and I am shadow.   

I am beautifully human, flawed perfectly.  

And, so are you.  

I can sit alone with myself now.   And, I like the company I am keeping.   Do you?  Can you?

I love you all.  Go be yourself today.  Be authentic.   Be real.   Say what you mean.  Share what you think you are not supposed to share.   Bravely love a stranger.   Remove your invisible personal space boundaries.   Tell your partner something that scares you.   Wake up!  You are alive.   And, as my friend Tim would say… “It’s awesome.”

Namaste,

Ryan

Dr. Ryan Pride is the owner of the Moksha Institute, a firm dedicated to improving the wellbeing of individuals, teams, and organizations through culture transformation and leadership development.   A profit-for-purpose company, the Moksha Institute applies Ancient Teachings for the Modern Time in order to transform striving into thriving.  
For more information, please go to: www.mokshainstitute.com