How can I sustain being my authentic self?
It’s a common question I get asked. I’d expand this question to: “How do I sustain being and feeling like my authentic self?”
It’s a big part of what my work is about, because being and feeling like your authentic Self is a profound transformative journey of self-discovery, personal growth, inner harmony, and fulfillment.
As a highly mentally focused culture, we may tend to come up with a version of our authentic self that lives in our logical mind.
However, the authentic version of you is actually much deeper. It is how you feel. Not only how you feel about yourself, but how you feel at any given point in time.
While my process of discovering your authentic self is more than just a set of mental steps, I’ll outline key elements of discovering and sustaining being your authentic self.
The order of these elements can vary depending on the starting point of your journey, where you’re at mentally and emotionally, and what activated the desire and need for your personal growth.
1. Self-discovery and establishing a connection with your authentic self
In my process, your authentic self is your Amazing YOU. We first connect mentally by understanding parts of you that don’t act or feel like your amazing self, and then we tap into how your Amazing YOU feels.
2. Clear and heal parts, false beliefs, and patterns that have been covering up your Amazing YOU
These parts, false beliefs, and patterns have formed your false self-concept, your false self-perception. We need to clear and release them in order to bring your Amazing YOU to the surface.
3. Address specific areas of life and patterns that block your authentic self
Depending on the situation or the part of your life you want to change or improve, we work on connecting with doubts, self-criticism, self-rejection, and other patterns that get activated in various situations.
In essence, it is these patterns that must be healed and cleared in order for you to be and feel like your Amazing YOU - your authentic self.
What’s important here is that we have to do this work not only mentally, but energetically as well - at the feelings level.
Being vs. Feeling Your Authentic Self
Many people strive to be their authentic self by doing all the “right” things: setting boundaries, speaking up more, wearing clothes that reflect their personality, making aligned life choices, or trying to be compassionate and inspiring.
These are powerful steps. But often, even after making these changes, they still don’t feel like themselves. Why?
Because being your authentic self can become a performance if it’s based only on mental decisions or external actions, without an inner shift.
You might:
- Say what you think your authentic self would say
- Try to speak and act like your authentic self
- Follow a script of what authenticity is supposed to look like
- Try to show up as a compassionate and inspiring authentic leader
- Share vulnerability because you were told that’s what makes you real
…but inside, you might still feel disconnected, like you’re faking it. Or you may feel good, confident, as your true Self in one moment, only to feel two steps back in the next.
That’s where the feeling of authenticity comes in.
It’s not something you can force, it arises when inner tension dissolves and your energy, nervous system, and self-perception come into harmony.
So, if you’ve been working on being your authentic self and have found yourself sliding back into old patterns, here are a few possible reasons:
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False beliefs, unresolved blocks, or a false self-concept have not yet been healed and cleared
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Doubts, self-criticism, and self-rejection parts have not yet been healed and cleared
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You haven’t activated your authentic self or worked with the above at the energetic level
When you feel like your authentic self, you feel:
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Naturally at ease in your body
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Emotionally grounded, even if you're unsure or feel scattered
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Quietly confident, not because you're doing it "right," but because there's no inner fight
- Content and at peace
This inner feeling can only emerge when the parts of you that carry fear, shame, self-criticism, or old protective roles are seen, understood, and gently released.
That’s why sustaining your authentic self isn’t about holding on tightly to an image of who you should be. It’s about clearing space for the deeper feeling of "this is me, and I feel home here.”
We continue this process of self-discovery - healing, clearing - elevating into your authentic self I described earlier through various areas of life where you’d like to see change, and through situations that arise. All of these situations are part of the journey and show you what needs to heal and what needs to be released.
With every improvement, you strengthen your sense of your authentic self. You can maintain it for much longer, and over time, it becomes your default state. And from there, a new level of your authentic self is ready to emerge.
We never reach the final version of our authentic Self. It is always evolving, always growing. It is by nature’s design—like a tree that never stops growing. Growth is innate and inevitable when we clear the path for it.
It is the most profound journey we can experience in life.
We’d love to hear what resonated with you in this article, what has become more clear, what opened up. Please share in the comments below.
And if this article and my approach spoke to you, and you’d like to explore how you can experience my guidance to be and feel your authentic self - regardless of circumstances -reach out at team@edelweiss.academy to explore options that would work best for you.
