Discovering and Embracing your AUTHENTIC SELF.

The Key to finding True Happiness.

How I found Confidence in my Truth.

"If you choose to live Authentically, you are choosing to live free."

The Power of Authenticity:

I don't think people recognize the power that lies within their Authenticity. Because once you recognize it, you Awaken yourself. Meaning, that you are finally able to separate yourself from the things that you thought defined you. You reach a point where you realize that you have grown enough to be able to discover and understand that the things you may have engaged in, perhaps were told to do or even grown to believe were true, did not actually align with the real you all along. It's as if everything you thought you had to be a part of, take action for or engage in was all just an illusion and you finally see yourself for who you really are. And you'll know that you're in touch with your authenticity when you become unapologetic for it and when you start taking actions to keep stimulating that feeling. Then you'll be even more encouraged to align everything else in your life with that truth to be able to create the lifestyle that you want to live to help you with who you want to be, what you want to do and so fourth.

Stop and think for a second.

Truly allow this to sink in - Out of 7.8 billion people in this world, there is only one you.

Everyone has their own set of unique gifts to offer this world. Therefore, no one is made exactly like you! If we were all given the same characteristics, talents, personalities, goals, dreams, purposes... imagine how boring this world would be?! We need to start getting our act together by owning more of what we are given and proudly put out what uniquely defines us to good use. And it starts by Embracing our Authenticity and Showing up as our Authentic self.

Where does my love for Authenticity come from?

I was once asked, if I could encourage others one thing, what would it be? And this was it.

Looking back on my childhood, I believe the biggest lesson that truly stuck with me and that I took to heart, was the Importance of being yourself. I was fortunate to have parents who always encouraged me to believe in myself and that I could be anything if I set my mind to it. I grew up being drawn to the deeper messages or lessons taught through the tv shows and movies that I was watching and was also drawn to music that I found uplifting or self empowering. At a young age, I was able to shape a bold mentality that inspired me to stay true and to be real for how I carried myself as a person or with anything that I chose to do. Ever since then I have desired to share my strong belief in the importance of this value through my creativity and future work.

At this stage in my life, I believe that I have reached my "Awakening."

Here are the things that I have personally done to help me find my authentic self which I believe has also been leading me down the right path towards finding true happiness:

1. I WAS HONEST WITH MYSELF ABOUT WHY I FELT "STUCK."

For as long as I could remember, I had always felt different.

I know this is such generic thing to say but here's my truth - I've always had really strong emotional stability. I never put too much of my attention into mainstream society. I always enjoyed looking into the deeper meanings of things. I love to critically think. I yearn to understand more of myself, others and the world around me. For anything that I have done I've always chosen to follow my own path. I have a very strong willed personality and I am naturally overloaded with compassion and empathy.

Then one day, I reached a crucial season in my life where everything pretty much fell apart and challenged everything about me. My relationship was facing trials and tribulations, things weren't going very well in my family and my health was put at risk. Through these difficult times I was desperate for a genuine listening ear. I opened up to so many close individuals about my hardships and shared a lot of my really deep thoughts and emotions. I was seeking to be truly heard, looking for support and most of all empathy. But it was difficult because I didn't have the best support system. I come from an amazing family but growing up I lacked emotional support which I've come to acknowledge is difficult to receive in the Filipino/Asian Culture. On top of that, most of my peers who I was close to either disappeared or distanced themselves from me during those tough times. Unfortunately, some even took advantage of my rough season to try to prove some kind of point that "I wasn't so perfect after all." Whatever that means. With too much happening all at once, the strong willed and fiery part of myself began to fade. I had a really hard time dealing with all of my emotions by myself and trying to figure everything out alone. I felt rejected, unimportant and that my feelings didn't matter. I hold no blame, I just feel like there wasn't enough effort put in to truly try and understand where I was coming from.

With time I discovered that this was the reason why I work so hard to provide that emotional stability for others. Although this is a good thing and is backed with a good intentional purpose, I became too invested in doing it. I didn't realize it at the time but I was overextending myself, people pleasing and wasn't doing a good job at protecting my energy. Coming to this realization I was honest with myself by acknowledging that I needed to take more care of me. This caused me to choose to turn inward. I chose to do the inner work and with enough patience and practice, I grew to fall in love with solitude. This was really hard for me to do because I felt like I was being selfish. However deep down I knew it was the right thing to do for myself. During my times in solitude I engaged in activities that helped me better myself, strengthen and shift a more healthier and wiser mindset, and even pushed myself to go the extra mile to understand my triggers and setbacks.

Here are some my"self love / self care activities": - Reading books.

- Listening to podcasts.

- Writing in my journal.

- Taking spin classes.

- Doing Yoga.

- Meditation practices.

- Making calming playlists.

- Engaging in inspirational content.

- Getting back into old hobbies.

- Scheduling self care dates.

If you're interested in trying to learn more about your personality to really get to the root of those triggers and things that may be holding you back or even just interested in getting to understand more about yourself in general, I highly recommend learning about your Enneagram Type and Personality Type through the following:

The Enneagram Test: https://www.eclecticenergies.com/enneagram/test

Personality Test: https://www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test

To be honest with yourself, you need to find out why you are feeling stuck. Everyone has their own set of road blockers that prevents them from getting to their desired destination. So its up to you to navigate your own way out and create a new path.

2. I BUILT MORE SELF CONFIDENCE.

Sometimes we just need to be our own hype beast. I grew to understand more that although its nice to have others lift you up, its not worth sweating or stressing over if they don't recognize my accomplishments, understand my shortcomings or engage in my growth.

The first thing that I started with to build more of my self confidence, was learning to be more kind to myself. We often get in our own heads by filling our minds with all of these negative thoughts which build up because we don't allow ourselves to be satisfied. We get so caught up in this imaginary image of perfection and we brush aside our progress. This causes us to unconsciously say unkind things to ourselves. There would be times where I would catch myself saying things like, "You didn't do that good enough", "You could have done that better", "You could be doing more", "You're still hung up on that?", "You need to be like this... or You need to be more like that" you name it. We have to recognize that we need to train ourselves to treat ourselves better. Treat yourself as if you were to treat any one of your loved ones and ask yourself, would you say the things you say to yourself to them? Because I bet you wouldn't. So why do it to yourself?

The best way to upkeep self encouragement is practicing positive affirmations. By using your own voice you are giving yourself the power to make those desires known and by hearing those words of encouragement out loud, you are giving those desires a better chance at reality.

Here are some affirmations that I created and enjoy:

3. I STAYED TRUE TO MYSELF.

In order to ease myself into living out my truth, I started by asking myself what my core values were. Once I figured that out, I used those values to help me find way back to my center. You can start off by picking at least five. For example, my top five core values are Authenticity, Empathy, Genuine Connection, Family and Service. Once I established those, I went back and asked myself why I valued those so much. The answers to each of those then showed me the foundations of who I really am. They acted as my compasses back to my authentic self when life threw me off track which caused me to feel lost.

Another thing that I tried that I found intriguing, was digging deep into my inner child.

Try to remember things that you used to do when you were young that brought you joy! Pretend that you no longer have obligations or expectations that you have to meet. In fact, anything that comes to mind don't even put pressure on it making any sense. What do you feel in your heart? What did you come up with? Whatever it was, allow it to flow.

4. I ENCOURAGED MY ORIGINALITY.

I've always felt like I had this extra light or extra love that I wanted to share with others. I love to encourage people and I learned that I have a deep calling to inspire. To share what I know and learn, I chose to start with creative writing because it was the best way that I knew how to fully express myself. So I created a space to serve as an inspirational source to share my positive intellect, proposals and ideas; and that was how this platform was born.

If you feel called to do something, don't be afraid to take action toward it because everyone else will see you as different. If there is something about yourself that you can use to your advantage to get others to better connect with you, each other and the world, execute it. Because our world needs more people like that. Start with what you know, and then determine what speaks to you. Find ways to encourage yourself as much as you can until you finally get that nagging feeling out of you and make sure that your purpose and intentions align.

5. I STRIVED TO BE HUMBLY UNAPOLOGETIC FOR WHO I AM.

The worst thing that you could possibly do to yourself, is to allow what other people say about you or even think about you to negatively affect you. More so, get yourself to a point where you question yourself for who you are or hold you back.

I learned to accept my flaws and imperfections.

I learned to not let my past affect me.

I learned to not allow others to use my past against me.

I learned to listen to my heart.

I learned to listen to my intuition.

I learned to find myself in my core values.

I learned to make time for my passions.

I learned that my emotions are valid.

I learned to learn from others.

I learned to create boundaries.

You're never going to stop being a student of life. So embrace life's lessons and keep it moving. There's no room for shame. There's no room for blame. Just learn and be better. Acknowledge yourself and allow yourself to be seen and heard, by You.

The Authentic You, never left you. Take this as a sign to reconnect with it. ♥