Be Authentic, Be Inspirational!

A Practical Guide to Help You Live a More Authentic LifeBy Tara Wilken

Balboa Press

Copyright © 2012 Tara Wilken
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4525-5848-6

Contents

Acknowledgments......................................................................ixIntroduction.........................................................................xiChapter 1: Discover Your Authenticity................................................1Chapter 2: Find Your Daily Treasure..................................................5Chapter 3: What You Wear Matters (and It Is Not What You Think!).....................13Chapter 4: Accessing Divine Love.....................................................19Chapter 5: The Universe Is Talking; Are You Listening?...............................25Chapter 6: Help! I Have No Control In My Life!.......................................33Chapter 7: Manifestation.............................................................39Chapter 8: Intuition.................................................................57Chapter 9: Dreams....................................................................68Chapter 10: Technology as a Tool, and Only a Tool....................................73Chapter 11: Play Date!...............................................................81Chapter 12: Sending Love Instead of Hate.............................................85Chapter 13: Learning to Trust and Surrender..........................................99Chapter 14: Final Encounter..........................................................103Chapter 15: Connecting With Self and Others..........................................107Book Resources.......................................................................111

Chapter One

Discover Your Authenticity

As you begin to find and embrace your authentic self, you will find there are aspects of your personality that can be brought to the surface and that you want to incorporate into your life.

Are you rationalizing right now; "I have too many responsibilities; I could not possibly take that risk!" Are you thinking; "Who am I to be able to jump off that metaphorical ledge and pursue my dreams?" Fear is a powerful inhibitor. It holds individuals back from achieving greatness. It hampers the ability to live authentically; it conditions the mind to start to believe in the fear of failure and fear of ridicule.

If you cannot see beyond the ledge of fear, how can you live a truly authentic life? If you are too afraid to live as authentically as possible, how can you encourage your children and others to live their own authentic lives?

What limitations have been placed on you that convince you your dreams and authenticity no longer matter? Who has placed those limitations on you? Family? Friends? Society? Yourself? Allow yourself to recognize and acknowledge some of those limitations. Then begin to be willing to entertain the idea that those limitations can be removed as part of your journey.

Most misconceptions about changing your life to become who you are meant to be are based in fear. All limitations seem overwhelming to tackle and none can be addressed in a single day. Therefore, it makes sense to work on the smallest or most accessible limitations first.

The first couple of years that I started realizing I could cultivate my adult life into one of joy and love, of being me—a unique person—it never crossed my mind that I would become confident enough to leap off metaphorical ledges.

By taking small steps to the metaphorical ledge the realization of being able to conquer those ledges becomes easier and not so scary after all. The fear never completely goes away; in fact, some fear is healthy. Nothing beats the accomplishment of conquering a particular fear, even if you are the only one who knows about it.

Every person creates his or her own journey within the greater whole of humanity. As you embark on your life's journey, remember that no two paths will ever be identical. Be wary of the assumption that because you are not a public figure, you have no effect on the greater whole. As you positively change one item in your life that may seem insignificant to you, someone else may notice the change and realize they have the ability to change as well. By being yourself, you will inspire authenticity in others.

If each person changes a little at a time, changing seems less overwhelming. As those small changes accumulate, every person becomes more of his or her authentic self. As you walk the journey to becoming your authentic self, you must remember to appreciate the journey as well. It is easy to get caught up in the end goal. However, by only focusing on the final destination, you may forget your achievements, your progress, and your curiosity along the way. If you start to value the journey just as much as the ultimate goal, you automatically lead a more abundant life.

Consider, for example, a parent making a cake for his or her child's birthday party. By only focusing on having a perfect cake, they miss the journey of making the cake. Maybe the child wanted to help grease and flour the pan. Perhaps the child got flour everywhere. The goal-oriented parent may have missed the opportunity to be present in the situation and laugh, even while knowing that more clean-up would be needed. How many special moments filled with laughter will you miss if you only focus on the finished project and not the journey?

As a society, we also tend to think of success as an end goal. There is still a widely recognized perception of growing up, getting married, buying a house, and having kids as signatures of success. This definition may be accurate for some though others may have a completely different notion of success. It is most important to embrace the journey that you are on and to have the journey define who you are.

You have to decipher what defines success for you. If you strive to be just like your neighbors, are you truly living up to your own potential or authenticity? On the other hand, are you holding yourself to someone else's standards? I would rather be enthusiastic about being my authentic self than be miserable in trying to conform to someone else's ideals.

Below is the first encounter in the book. This encounter aims to help you define what success is for you. Answer the questions the best you can. Do not worry about constructing the perfect answer. The answers you create for this encounter will be referenced and expanded upon in a later chapter of the book.

* * *

First Encounter

Materials needed: Writing Instrument, paper or computer. Write down the answers to the following questions:

* What is your definition of success?

* If you had no limitations, placed on you by your family, by society, by yourself, what would your life look like?

* Who would you become as an individual?

* What would you create in your ideal life?

* What is truly important to you?

Chapter Two

Find Your Daily Treasure

Every moment you have some awareness what is happening around you. If you increase your awareness, the moment becomes even more vibrant and worthwhile. You may begin to perceive events differently and become more appreciative to what is happening. You actually experience being in the moment in a much more engaged role!

The more present you are in any given moment, the more authenticity you bring out in yourself. As you experience the moment as it is happening, you begin to appreciate the smaller...