Our Authentic Selves

We often complain when something that we perceive to be wrong happens in our lives. We do not realize that when these things happen, it is to bring out the best in us and to teach us a spiritual principle that we are yet to learn. Whatever happens to us is always for our best interest and to develop our selves spiritually in order to be our authentic selves. Some of us live our lives as if we are playing a part, always acting out what we think other people would accept from us. We seem to be hungry and thirsty for attention and to be accepted by other persons. In so doing, we live our lives for other people and become actors and actresses in our own right. We perform our distinct roles in a number of different occasions, and we perform well. Unfortunately, in the process, our real selves are lost. We have hidden it in such a secret place that we ourselves cannot seem to find it. At times we never even realize that we once possessed it. What many of us don’t recognize is that when our real selves are lost, our happiness also gets lost along with it. We can never be really happy living in pretence, we might seem to be happy but this happiness is as fake as the person that we present to the world. A lot of this pretense happens subconsciously; it is not something that we purposefully go out there to do. It just happens! Believe it or not, we have ingrained fears, biases, irrational beliefs that act as defence mechanisms preventing our real selves from dealing with a particular situation as it is. Hiding behind a façade is easier on our egos; it is also a common misconception that we need that façade or defence mechanism in order to survive. One may ask; how can we break free from this repressive state? Well here is one simple exercise that you can begin to do, it is a gradual exercise in the sense that you will not see the results one time but it does challenge yourself, your soul and your whole train of thought. It is something that Yogis and Zen practitioners often practice, here is it: “Look at yourself, eyeball to eyeball in your mirror without having any expectations!