Recently I have crossed over to a new season of my life – into the 5 series. I have crossed over to 50 years old. It is a remarkable new chapter and I have reflected quite a bit about how to move forward with authenticity.

One of the the highlights of 50th anniversary is to be “true to myself” or to be “authentic “

The humble and wise USA basketball coach, the late Coach John Wooden, has 7 guiding principles for his life. One of the principles reads ” Be True to Yourself”

Dr Paul Tournier , a Swiss physician in the early 20th century, who emphasized holistic medicine, wrote the book ” Meaning of Persons” in 1957. The book stresses that there are 2 parts of an individual, firstly the real Person inside us and the Personage which is the outer appearance of a person. Dr Paul challenges each one of us to strive to express the real Person and live truthfully.

In the book entitled The Top Five Regrets of the Dying – A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departing by Bronnie Ware, who works as palliative nurse caring for the dying. One of the top 5 regrets of the Dying is ”  I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.

What does it really mean to be True to yourself?

It means several levels of understanding.

1. Know yourself : Know your personality style, your needs, your dreams, your fears, hopes and deep desires.
2. Take time to quiet down and really listen to your inner voice, your beliefs, thoughts and real feelings.
3. Be aware and be careful of all the “Noise”, the opinions from other people, cultural expectations, family expectations, social or religious expectations.
4. Follow your heart, your mind and your soul and do what you think is right. And not what other people expects from you or what other people think it is right for you.
5. You have the courage to speak up and live up your true passions and dreams.
6. You stop pretending, stop suppressing your feelings and start saying what your want to say.
7. Being true to yourself also means allowing yourself be happier and simply be yourself regardless of what people think.
8. Always be gentle and kind to yourself, practice self compassion and live your life without fear of the voices or rather noise of rejection out there.
9. Learn when to say NO and draw boundaries especially towards people with Toxic attitudes and nasty intentions towards you.

However, being true to yourself also requires living by the Universal Truth. The Truth or Universal values of humanity which includes being honest, kind, responsible, respectful and care for others and the environment.

Two of my favourite songs which sings about being true to ourselves are ” Say ” by John Meyer and “Sound of Silence” by Simon and Garfunkle