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Beyond Happiness: Awakening Your Authenticity & Integrity

by Meghan McChesney Gilroy

As a person on a path of personal and spiritual transformation, you’ve undoubtedly searched for ways to be happier while yearning for an understanding of the timeless questions, “Who am I? Why am I here? What am I meant to do with my life?” All of these questions contain a desire for knowing, or perhaps deeply feeling and experiencing, what is at your core, what is the essence of you. This longing comes from deep within - from your integrity, from an authentic place in your being. Beneath craving a happier and more peaceful life lies a desire to be “who you really are,” to be authentic and live from a place of integrity. By awakening and connecting to your authenticity and integrity, you can move “beyond happiness” to an inner place of centered calmness that transcends the daily up and downs of life.

Integrity is the state of being complete and whole. It lies at the core of you and connects your body, mind, and spirit. Metaphorically it comes from your heart. From this state, which already exists with you, springs your authenticity, your distinctive, individual response to Life. These two forces represent the true, genuine essence of who you are. This is the You that cannot be put into words, responding to Life without thought. This is the truest and most trustworthy part of yourself and yet it is the part of you that is so real and raw that it has been buried underneath layer after layer of protective thought and emotion.

Having an authentic response to Life from your integrity means that you are responding and expressing yourself in a way to is unique to you. Yet this is not possible when you are still living your life based on the beliefs that were given to you by your parents, teachers, society as a whole. When you go through your days based on how you think you should act, how you think you should be, what you think you should be doing, then you are merely a facsilime of the directives, instructions, and rules that you were given as a child and later adopted as your own.

Like all humans, you have been trained to hide who you authentically are. Imagine that you are at the most beautiful beach on the most perfect day, standing at the edge of the crystal clear water. You can’t wait to dive in and yet you look down and notice that you have 20 layers of clothing on. You’ve worn your long johns, mittens, hats, a couple of sweaters, a few turtlenecks, and a scarf - to the beach! You’d love to strip down to bare skin, to be naked, to feel the sand under your feet and the cool water lapping at your toes yet you feel ridiculous at the way you are dressed. At the same time, you’d feel even more uncomfortable if you were buck naked. Everyone has experienced this sensation. This feeling of being fake, or uncomfortable, and yet not wanting to be open, revealed, and vulnerable. 

When your mind, with all its “should’s,” “how dare you’s,” “who do you think you are’s?,” rules of your life with its self-limiting beliefs, you consequently suppress all the information that comes to you from your integrity and from your heart. Yet when you peel all the layers of old patterns, habits, and agreements away from your mind and begin to trust your innermost self, you can live from a place of authenticity and integrity without fear. This is a wondrous state of being. This is living with an open heart.

Your heart is your connection to all of Life. It speaks the language of truth, one that uses no words. Your heart uses emotion as its tool of communication. And your emotions channel a direct, authentic message from your integrity. When you allow your self to feel emotions and no longer judge the sensations that are flowing through your body, then you open the door to the possibility of experiencing pleasure no matter what you are feeling. Authentic happiness then becomes a way of being, a choice in each moment. Even if you are tired or sick or are facing financial uncertainty, you can still experience centered authenticity. You recognize and acknowledge what is present in your body and interpret the sensations as only one part of your whole being. Your mind and soul can stay in a place of well-being no matter what is happening in your external world. You do not have to sacrifice your peace, your center. You can stay in a space of equilibrium as life whirls around you.

By using your awareness, you can let go of the limited mind and connect to your heart. You can strip away what does not serve you in order to unearth the authentic You. By using this deeper understanding of happiness and “who you really are” may just bring you more of what you are searching for – that deep connection to You and to your purpose and direction in Life. Wouldn’t that feel wonderful?

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