![]() MaryAnn Gramig , CEO, AuthenticA Coaching & Consulting When we do, not only will we pull ourselves out of the quicksand, we will find the strength to lift up our world. Let’s use our authentic voices to do our part in our own communities and neighborhoods toward that purpose. The emotional climate of our world can feel very stormy and overwhelming. We’ve got a lot of work to do, a lot of serving our brothers and sisters better to do. We all need to call our highest and best authentic self forward now more than ever. When we wake each morning with that as our purpose, we make space for others to do the same. But never are we called to give up on living fully as our fearless authentic self. Sometimes it calls us to take a step back, so we don’t contribute to the chaos. Sometimes our authentic self calls us to stand firm with respect. Your life experiences give you a perspective that needs to be part of this dialogue.ĭuring times of stress, we all can tend to either lash out or retreat. The next time I feel like letting other voices take over, I will step up and be a voice of calm and respect.” I won’t be sucked into disrespecting my brothers and sisters just because others are.” Right now, you can look in the mirror and say, “Enough. You can take a pause and tell your inner critic to calm down. You can choose differently in the next situation you are faced with that is in true alignment with what authentic you really think, feels, and believes while honoring your character. That is the true strength of your authenticity. Keeping your authentic voice small can take the form of dismissing and shouting over others’ or shrinking into the background and not contributing at all. But your inner critic knows exactly what button to push to keep you small. Just because you feel powerless doesn’t mean you are. Can you relate to this approach? Well, you’re not doing yourself or the rest of us any favors. It’s just not worth it.” “I have to work with her.” “I have to see him at church.” Lately I’ve heard things from my clients like, “I’ll be judged or ridiculed if I try to share my thoughts. So, we choke on the lie that we have nothing of value to say and in this climate, who would even want to try? Be honest- have you clawed along the side of the quicksand trap of self-righteousness and judgment? Now stop, take a deep breath, and think before you answer, “Not me.”Īlternatively, our inner critic can begin to push us down into the quicksand until the breath to express our authentic voice is smothered. Our inner critic tells us to get louder and make “them” know that they’re wrong and we’re right overriding the better judgment of our authentic voice. That can take the form of raised voices, unkind social media posts or emails, and rude comments. To assert ourselves, perhaps we think to even save ourselves, we can think of no other way but to claw and scratch our way out of the quicksand. We can begin to feel powerless as if we are sinking in quicksand. ![]() Our inner critic seizes these exact moments to deal with us even more harshly while it also moves us to deal with others just as harshly. And it seems we are determined to make each other wrong.Īuthenticity can very quickly get mired in the quicksand of such stress, chaos, and anxiety. All you have to do to be “wrong”, is to think “differently” than me. The underlying bottom line that has crept into every community. It goes without saying the situation has continued to digress to shocking levels this first month of the new year. ![]() By the summer we found ourselves in an even more contentious environment with social unrest, and by fall full on political dissention, all magnified by entities on all sides hard at work to silence thoughtful discussion, urging friend against friend, and brother against brother. Last spring news of a global pandemic hit, the realization of its seriousness became apparent and confusion seemed to reign in how to best address it. Authenticity in Quicksand When we feel like we are sinking in the quicksand of a world in chaos how can we use our authentic voice? ![]()
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