The Art Of Being Authentic: 5 Simple Habits Of Naturally Authentic People
The goal is to be yourself — all of yourself.
Blake Cheek | Unsplash Our daily lives consist of absorbing unrealistic expectations from the media for what we should look like and how our romantic relationships should be. It’s no wonder that our social media is merely presentations of who we think we should be and not authentic reflections of who we really are.
We’re just trying to fit in, be liked, and be accepted by other human beings. Being 100% authentically yourself can feel risky, and it is. But if you have to hide who you really are, you can end up feeling lost, lonely, or even worthless, because you are basically telling yourself that who you really are isn’t okay.
So rather than letting fear drive our self-expression, we need to learn how to accept ourselves so we can truly be who we are at our core.
Here are 5 simple habits of naturally authentic people:
1. They own their identity without apology
Media (and social media) can make us feel unattractive. Models and actors are attractive, of course, but now even our friends on social media have photoshopped their pictures to perfection, often making us feel unattractive in comparison.
Lots of evidence shows that the more media we consume with attractive people in it, the worse we feel about ourselves. But because we don’t want to give up our addiction to media — an addiction that provides us with companionship, entertainment, and so many good memories — we don’t quit.
It subtly tells us we’re not good enough so many times that we start to believe it’s true. The media wouldn’t lie to us, right? Wrong! The media sets the bar impossibly high, so no matter how hard we try to improve ourselves, we always feel like we're falling short.
Instead of trying to present a version of yourself, the media and people online convince you that you're supposed to be, we need to accept ourselves for who we truly are, inside and out. We can pinpoint our "flaws" (we all have them, after all) and then let them go — they are part of what makes us whole.
2. They stop talking crap about themselves
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One of the ways we can better accept ourselves is to identify and challenge our negative self-talk. We always have these inner monologues chirping away at us, interpreting the events happening all around us. For many of us, this self-talk is mostly negative.
For example, we might think, "I’m ugly" or "My life sucks," when we watch TV shows or look at our social media. Or, we might think, "He hates me," if a friend posts a picture of a fun time that we weren’t invited to.
We could stop some of this painful ruminating by simply limiting our media and social media time, but we also need to practice stopping the negative self-talk. And we can do so by re-wiring our brains by acknowledging the negative thoughts, being kind to ourselves, and letting healing take priority. Once we remove negative self-talk, we're one step closer to becoming our authentic selves.
Research indicates that negative self-talk creates a disconnect between your inner experience and outer expression. By challenging and reframing these detrimental thought patterns, you can align your actions with your core beliefs and values.
3. They lean into their gifts
We can easily slide into the habit of focusing on our weaknesses instead of celebrating our strengths. We all stink at things. In fact, we all suck at most things, and that’s okay. It's just part of being human. But it can really get us down when we focus on these things instead of focusing on what we’re good at.
For example, I sometimes put myself down because I’m not great at maintaining friendships long-term. It’s true. I’m an introvert. I don’t like texting and often feel shy about asking people to meet in person.
But if we get down on ourselves regularly for the things we’re not good at, it’s going to be hard to like ourselves as much as we could. So, in addition to trying to improve our weaknesses, we have to remind ourselves of what we are good at.
By regularly reflecting on and using your strengths, you reinforce a genuine sense of self. Research has found that this boosts confidence and encourages you to act in ways that align with your core values.
If we think about it, each of us has many strengths, even if these strengths seem small and insignificant. By identifying them, we realize, hey, our weird, one-of-a-kind self is pretty awesome after all!
4. They speak from the heart
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What else stops us from being ourselves? Mostly, it’s our fear of what other people might think about us if we showed our true selves.
For example, maybe our friends all have the same opinion about a political topic, so we decide not to share our different points of view. Maybe our friends like a particular genre of music, so we decide not to talk about the kinds of music we like. Or maybe our friends enjoy dining at fancy restaurants, so we decide not to invite them to our house for the cozy dinner we'd really prefer.
We hold back because we are afraid of the possible consequences — consequences like them thinking we're weird or ditching us.
It’s human nature for us to want to show the best sides of ourselves. And holding back our opinions occasionally is a necessary part of life; in fact, it can help make our relationships a bit easier and more enjoyable.
As social beings, we have all navigated the challenge of balancing self-expression with social harmony in our face-to-face interactions. But now, we are having to navigate this challenge in a whole new environment — on the Internet, through text, images, or video. And we have no model to follow, so we do what everybody else does. We show only a sliver of who we really are — the best sliver of ourselves.
We don’t share everything about ourselves — in part, for good reason. We don’t want everyone we’ve ever met to know every little thing about us, and that’s OK. Where we get into trouble is when our self-expression becomes a performance designed to evoke some kind of response in others.
The result? Few of the people in our lives know who we really are deep down, and we might even start to forget who we really are.
So how do we know whether our expressions have become presentations for an audience rather than creative expressions of who we really are? Well, we might start to wonder: Who is that person we pretend to be on social media — the one with the perfect clothes, photoshopped body, with the biggest smile you’ve ever seen?
Or we might start to notice that we post pictures online not to show to others, but to make others think something specific about us. We’ll have to start paying attention to whether we are acting to be ourselves or whether we are putting on a show.
Research has argued that the effort to be someone you're not can be a source of stress and anxiety. By allowing yourself to be your true self, you eliminate any internal conflicts, which leads to improved mental health.
5. They let others in, even when it feels risky
Another important step to being ourselves is showing our vulnerability. Most of us don’t really want to show the parts of us that we don’t like — the parts that scare us or make us feel ashamed, embarrassed, or weak.
It’s not so easy to share these parts of ourselves. We worry: What if others change their opinion of us, reject us, or abandon us?
It’s scary to be so openly vulnerable. It’s like opening up an old wound and telling others right where to poke you. But to fully be ourselves, we have to be our full selves. We can’t just pick and choose the parts that we like; we can’t just show the manicured, photoshopped version of ourselves. So we have to be vulnerable from time to time.
If we’re more comfortable, we can choose specific people or opportune moments to show our vulnerability. Whether we share our personal stories with everyone or just a few people we feel close to is up to us; the goal is to be able to be all of yourself, at least some of the time.
Tchiki Davis, Ph.D., is a writer, consultant, and well-being expert. Davis is the founder of The Berkeley Well-Being Institute, translating the science of well-being into useful content and programs for the general public. Her work has appeared on Psychology Today, Glint Inc., Jhana, and The Greater Good Science Center.
