The Challenge of Being Yourself
The path to personal fulfillment is often revealed when you give yourself permission to know your own heart and be yourself. However, the road to full self-expression is fraught with potential road blocks. As much you may crave a sense of self-authority, such achievement often gives voice to a series of fears about what will happen to you if you heed our inner guidance.
- Loss of love
- Loss of security
- Loss of income
- Loss of face
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs says that first and foremost, and before self-actualization, we must tend to our basic needs, our physiological needs and safety needs, followed by social and esteem. Yet, as I observe my own experience, and that of the many people in my life (friends and clients), the very act of pursuing “self-actualization” seems to threaten all our elementary needs.
Today, in place of a full post, I offer you a 3.5 minute video short, The Challenge of Being Yourself. It’s not polished, not rehearsed and not fancy, but it is from my heart. I hope you enjoy it.
Andrea Howard
I love Maslow’s Hierarchy – it is a paradigm that explains the need to satisfy lower base needs prior to being able to address the higher order needs of belonging and self actualization. When it comes to being our authentic selves we need to feel safe and secure that there will not be repercussions causing us harm. This is true for any kind of self- improvement or process moving us closer to actualization – we need to feel confident that our efforts and advancement will not end up causing more harm than good. How likely would we sustain a meditation/yoga practice in the face of getting evicted from our home and warding off homelessness. The longer the practice has been a part of our lifestyle, the more likely we sustain it in the face of risk and danger.