Being True To Yourself

[sparklekaz]

In spiritual circles an expression that is most frequently used, is "being true to yourself" or "living an authentic life". Ralph Waldo Emerson said “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” My question is: Do you believe you are living an authentic life, or being true to yourself? If you are, how would you describe your journey to reach this point, and was there a cost? Or if you believe you are not, can you share with us why you think this is. What are your thoughts in general about it.

Love and light
Kaz

[milkyway]

At the moment I am not being true to myself, I definitely have things I crave to do, such as this life style that I am living. It is so not me, but I have children to consider so I am true to them. To me I am true to me to some degree in the way I choose to conduct my affairs and express my opinions...but in the society I live in, it is only fair to my children to bring them up alongside their peers in a 'regular' fashion so to speak. Well in my opinion anyway, so they can make friends and lifestyle choices of their own rather than my beliefs of life pushed onto them.
I suppose by being true to my family I am being true to myself because caring about others is one truth that drives me, my family are happy so I am happy.

Haha I mean, not that the lifestyle of being a mother is so not me! In case that was read wrong, this manufactured consumerism lifestyle is so not me is what I meant! 

[gruntal]

At one level being true to yourself might mean a 100% effort. But at another level I can think of many times in the past I hesitated to become completely involved in things. That was a good decision in many cases at the time where I somehow sensed I didn't know enough about the situation. Now in my old age I remind myself it is time to at last go beyond the cynic or doubting Thomas.

If I really believed in things I would want them to happen to the extent I would depend on them and be ready for them to happen. If not then why do I bother? Plus if I do not believe in the Cosmos then why should it believe in me ?

[donq]

Hi Karen,

Very good question! I will try my best to answer it.

Why do I have to " "being true to yourself"?

Because I realized that "we don't see things as they are, we see things as we are," (said Anaïs Nin). And that was my spiritual awakening. I tried to see things as they are, not as I was. And after that, I worked so hard to tell anyone about this. Because I had to "work while you have the light. You are responsible for the talent that has been entrusted to you," (said Henri-Frédéric Amiel). Besides, I did believe that "the greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it," (William James)

However, I always found a dead end when trying to be true to myself. Why? Because, as Aneurin Bevan said, "We knows what happens to people who stay in the middle of the road: they get run over."

I always was run over. Sometimes, I could not be myself at all. It always put me in the same situation like the lawyer in the following story:

A woman consulted her lawyer about a divorce. He asked, "do you have grounds?"
"About half an acre," She replied.
He said, "No, no, that's not what I meant. Do you have a grudge?"
"No, we have a carport."
The lawyer asked, "Does he beat you up?"
"No, I get up in the morning before he does."
The lawyer, exasperated at not making any headway, finally asked, "Please tell me, exactly why do you want a divorce?"
She responded, "Because he doesn't understand me."

Worse than that, sometimes, I even met a bad cop like this one:

Nikita Krushchev addressed the Soviet Communist Party and revealed, for the first time, the full scope of Stalin's atrocities. A voice from the gathering heckled him, "You were one of his colleagues, why didn't you stop him?"
"Who the hell said that?" roared Krushchev. There was silence in the room. No one moved ot spoke.
In a quiet voice, Krushchev said, "Now you know why."

There was a saying in my country which is the same meaning as "Try to sweep back Atlantic with a broom". I was just a broom, what could I do?
So, I inevitably compromised myself bit by bit, to survive. I was not proud of it. But there was no other way. And I also found that most people didn't like to hear the truth and always make scene after hearing it. Sometimes, they even wanted to be deceived!

So to keep being true to myself, I had to choose wisely with whom I could show my true self and being true to myself. As Dinah Shore said,
"Trouble is a part of your life, and if you don't share it, you don't give the person why loves you enough chance to love you enough".

P.S. Sorry about the quotes. It just helped me not to type much. hahaha

[mojomojo]

To be true to yourself,
From my experience, the vast majority of people have this idea of the person they are, and for the large part, this idea of who they are is never in alignment with how they are.
It must be one of the hardest things for people to do, to be honest about who they are, even to themselves.
Great business men, sometimes fall under the blanket of sociopath, these tend to hold that strong to who they think they are, to the point of been delusional.
Many people feel they work from spirit most of the time, only occasionally been caught out by the ego, I think to be honest, we operate from a collaboration of ego, spiritual ego with a dash of spirit thrown in every now and then.

If we were true to ourselves, and by that been our true self to everyone else as we grew up, I might imagine, a very lonely, isolated life, I guess most have had a taste of this growing up,
I would imagine, not bringing children up in the conventional way would lead to further isolation, the difference been, that everyone was educated in that manner, there will always be hardships when going against the norm.

We can only be truthful with ourselves to the point, we are,
What other way could it be.