At first glance, this statement certainly makes sense to most of us! However…why is it we need to DARE to be ourselves? Is being ourselves something so dangerous? Scary and frightening? Something one doesn’t usually do? Something that requires great courage? For most of us, it is probably at least some of those things.  But why should this be so? Whatever happened so that simply being ourselves is not the conventional way of being, even though in the end this is all we are and ever can be?

We live out our lives behind a mask, acting out a role we have been playing for so long that it becomes ingrained.  We hardly notice it anymore…yet this hiding from, our repression of,  our true natures is the root of many of our issues, insecurities and fears. We keep masking our selves according to society’s acceptable facets, because this seems a lot easier that daring to be our true selves, that which we simply are!  Yet it is only by being our authentic selves that we can connect truly with others, feel at one with the universe and reach our full potential.

This process of being our selves may be lengthy, challenging and not always comfortable… but it is certainly worth the pain! I speak from personal experience.  After having been what can only be described as a particularly wayward teen, in my early 20s I decided that I would do everything perfectly from now on, that I would be the perfect daughter, granddaughter, sister, friend, student.  In short, I did not want to disappoint anyone ever again but rather aspired to meet everyone’s expectations of me – not an easy feat by anyone’s standards! However, it worked for a while – I studied hard and earned my doctorate at the world’s best universities, after which I moved into a great job.. this of course made everyone happy and so proud of me!

Although this was certainly quite pleasant, I realised that for me it was clearly not sufficient in the long term. So, with the help of Charles and his Unitive® approach I have now moved back, at least a bit closer to my real self – that which I truly am.

After all, I’m miles better at being that than anyone else.

Dr Ann Katrin Schlag  Unitive®  coaching team