*** Show Up Naked - Honor Your Authenticity

"A poem is a naked person... Some people say that I am a poet." - Bob Dylan

When you show up naked, vulnerable, authentic and open, you allow others to genuinely see who you are. You've heard the old adage, "Actions Speak Louder than Words". It's true. When you fully realize that what you do ..."A poem is a naked person... Some people say that I am a poet." - Bob Dylan

When you show up naked, vulnerable, authentic and open, you allow others to genuinely see who you are. You've heard the old adage, "Actions Speak Louder than Words". It's true. When you fully realize that what you do is the fullest expression of who you are, you are enlightened. You honor the integrity of you. What you do honors your authenticity. You live consistently with the highest realization of what you know to be true.

Is your life experience is a reflection of your deepest authenticity?

"No legacy is so rich as honesty." - Shakespeare

When you live from a place of deep authenticity and let others to see your true self you a free. The proverbial chains of self-doubt and fear that hold you back from your fullest expression as a person, an artist, a creative spirit, are dissolved. You are free to create with abandon abundantly. Your inner most thoughts inspire you to fulfill your unlimited potentiality. You are energetically and enthusiastically engaged in each moment of your life. You feel good!

"No one man can, for any considerable time, wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which is the true one." - Hawthorne

Living an inauthentic life doesn't feel good. My people cover themselves up with trappings of who they are not, or who they think they 'should be'. And in the pretending comes the despair of the lie. The despair isn't created from lying to others, it is delivered through the lie to oneself. Dishonoring who you are. Doing inauthentically. Being a lie.

"To contact the deeper truth of who we are, we must engage in some activity or practice that questions what we assume to be true about ourselves." - A. H. Almaas

So, who are you? Who is this true self? Your true nature is the unconditioned part of the self that lies buried beneath the acquired traits, characteristics, and habitual patterns of your personality. It speaks through you as your Intuition, your Higher Self, or what I lovingly call your Inner Wizard. The conditioned part of you, the "supposed to be, should be, unexpressed" part of you is the ego, the Inner Critic. Unlike the inspired Wizard Within, the Inner Critic is full of self-doubt and fear. These to parts of you are integral a physical being, a human. Both play a role.

The question is, which part of you is showing up in your life expression? You may be asking, "If both parts are integral to me as a human being, am I not both the Higher Self and the Inner Critic? And the answer is no, who you are is the Higher Self, a full expression of your truth and potential. As a human in physical form, you've created this misguided Inner Critic to keep you safe, hold you back from fear and pain.

And now you might be thinking, "I need to feel fear, pain, self-doubt in order to create my art. I won't be the artist I am if I don't have fear, pain and self-doubt."

True. You can travel to the deepest depths of pain, fear and self-doubt, totally immerse yourself in those emotions to create your art without showing up in your life from that place. When you show up in the costume of pain, fear and self-doubt you are presenting yourself to the world inauthentically. You can remain authentic to your Higher Self and use the expressions of the Inner Critic as a tool rather than a way of being.

I invite you to explore the Inner Critic beliefs, expectations and vows that do not represent your truth. Try showing up naked in your life. Realize that when you fully connect with the Higher Self, the Wizard within, the one you've always known was there, you can create a profound meaningful relevant impact in your art and in your life experience.

"Be who you are and say what you feel. Those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." - Dr. Seuss