3 surprisingly easy ways to access your authenticity with art, according to an Expert Life Coach
We all want to live an authentic life, but how do we get there? The Sparkling Hippie believes that art can be the key. In this article, we'll explore three surprisingly easy ways to access your authenticity through art. Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned soul on this journey, these methods will help you find yourself and live an authentic life.
The Magic Authenticity Triangle
I believe creativity, intuition and authenticity are inexplicably intertwined. They're made of the same stuff that consists of spirituality too. If you work on one of these areas you will automatically be increasing the other areas.
For example, if you focus on developing your own authenticity you will by pure nature also increase your creativity and intuition. It's also true that if you focus on increasing your creativity that you'll come into greater contact with your own intuition and authenticity as well.
That being said, it's important to note that all of these things work together to bring you back to your own wholeness. This is the true wholeness that resides in what it is to be alive. This wholeness is the same wholeness that is in all of us, that connects all of us, that breathes life into all of us.
I heard it said once that Maya Angelou described God as “all”. God is all. He is all knowing, all being, everywhere, in all of us, amongst all things, all. This description of “all” is as best I can think of to describe the benefits of pursuing authenticity. in a way you are pursuing wholeness. you are pursuing all. you are pursuing a connection to the source of life itself. You are connecting to God / universe / source - whatever you want to call it.
Why embracing your authentic self will help you.
You may be wondering how exactly authenticity exercises will help you. You may also wonder what the point of “finding yourself” actually is. (Great questions, by the way.) The truth is that we are all born authentic and whole. You were born perfect, without blemish. Then life happens, as it does.
People, situations, experiences, inputs and outputs happen. Consequently we pick up shame, guilt, fear, embarrassment – and as a result we learn to put on masks. We condition ourselves to behave and interact in ways that aren't congruent to who we really are. We do this because we subconsciously wish to avoid feeling more of the above (shame, guilt, fear, embarrassment.)
This all happens when we are children - sponges absorbing life experiences. Then we grow up and wonder why we are so disconnected from our true joy. We wonder why we always act a certain way even when we don't want to. The reason is because we’ve developed coping mechanisms to keep us “safe.” I use quotations around the word safe because it is all in our subconscious mind.
It's actually perfectly safe to get rejected by someone you love. It sucks. It hurts. But you aren't physically harmed. As a child you put up a defense mechanism so you don't have to feel that way again. As an adult, you have a choice to learn healthy coping tools so that you can both give and receive deep, meaningful love AND be your true self. It’s a matter of learning a different way of being.
Pursuing your own authenticity or authentic self will help you in a million ways, including the following:
Release judgement both of self and others
Let go of feelings of shame
Release overthinking
Drop the habit of constantly Comparing yourself to others
Stop feeling like a fraud
Find more fulfillment in joy in your day to day life
Deeper, more meaningful relationships
There are so many other great reasons why finding your authentic self is the journey of a lifetime. It’s not something you choose. Either you feel the call of it or you dont, and the response is up to you.
Why people fear their authenticity
Perhaps you're reading this and you are completely and utterly terrified of what lies beneath the surface for you personally. Not to worry. Lots of people feel the fear of diving into their most aligned selves.
So why do we fear the truth of who we are? There are a lot of potential reasons for the fear of finding your true self. That's because the truth is, finding yourself, or “facing yourself” rather, can indeed be frightening. You are coming face to face with the truth of who you are, which includes all of your current and past shame, guilt, rejections, wounds, traumas and so much more.
This is the same reason why lots of people choose to avoid therapy and instead live with their stressful, unfulfilling and oftentimes chaotic lives. Sometimes our mind thinks it's easier to deal with the falsity of who we are than it is to face the truth.
The Fear of the Unknown and Avoiding Authenticity
There's also the fear of the unknown. You know what it's like to wear your facade or wear your mask. You know what it's like to perform and be the person people think you are. What you don't know is what it's going to be like when you are your true self. You don't know what it's going to look like when you release the mask that has kept you safe for so long. For this reason it is understandable why the idea of authenticity or authentic living can be frightening to anyone who's new to this journey.
It is perfectly and wonderfully okay to be afraid of what lies on the other side of your gunk. In fact, your ego mind has developed the masks that you wear in order to make you feel safe and protected. That's a good thing - to an extent. It becomes not good when it means forgoing your true calling, your true desires and your true essence in order to hypothetically “stay safe.”
Unraveling the lines that have been twisted all these years is a big, courageous job, but also, in my opinion, it's the reason we’re here. To grow. To become. To reconnect with who we truly are.
The number one regret of those on their deathbed is that they weren't true to themselves. They didn't live authentically. That speaks for itself. We’re here to be who we are and by doing so we make the world a much better place.
As best as you can, push your fear aside and try one of these super simple and not so scary exercises to tap into your own authenticity.
Intuitive Expression for Finding Your Authenticity
The best way to tap into your authentic self is through Intuitive Expression. Intuitive expression simply means letting your body take the lead, rather than your mind. In modern society and especially in western civilization we have a tendency to over accentuate the rational and logical part of the brain.
Everything has to make sense.
Everything has to be logical, and rational, or else it's deemed weird or not worthy of our time.
The problem with this thinking is that it is completely ignoring 2/3 of our human existence. We are each made up of mind, body, emotion and soul. And so to only depend on the mind for everything we are completely ignoring the body, emotion and soul pieces of ourselves which are the exact pieces that connect us to intuition, creativity, authenticity and spirituality. These are the pieces that bring us together. These are the pieces that bring us further down the path to wholeness and spiritual realization as well as self actualization.
Intuitive expression is to tap into your natural expression muscles. This is to say the part of you that responds instantaneously to a piece of art, rather than rationalizing it. Have you ever been driving down the road only to burst into tears because a certain song came on the radio? That is an intuitive expression. Or perhaps you’ve experienced the moment in time when Shakira’s “Hips Don’t Lie” hit your playlist and you can't help but begin to twist and turn your hips in the most fun of ways.
This too is an intuitive expression. In both of these scenarios you didn't stop and think about how you wanted to respond, your body just naturally did.
Intuitive expression is all about tapping into the raw nature of who you are. Your emotions and your body are portals to your intrinsic abilities. You may be thinking that you're not intuitive, you just weren't born with it. This is false. It’s also false if you think you were born without being creative. The truth is, all of us naturally have intuitive and creative gifts - they are simply muscles that must be strengthened and used and depended on in order to be real reliable sources in our daily lives. If you haven't practiced trusting your natural intuitive expression, it may be difficult at first, but lucky for you, just like anything, practice makes performance. We practice in order to become more fully integrated in the intuitive arts.
Here are 4 fabulously easy ways to very easily and painlessly tap into your authenticity through the use of art:
In my corporate art wellness workshops I like to give my clients the opportunity to host experiences that are incredibly accessible to anyone who wants to join. While some classes may require the purchase of a few simple art supplies, many other classes are available for anyone around the world who wants to quickly grab some things lying around the house and have a fantastic time.
In my world, there is no gate keeping people out of art expression, creativity or intuition. We were all born with the ability to access these things. We simply need to practice accessing them. It's also true that there is space for all of us to express this piece of ourselves in whatever way feels right to us.
I’m going to share with you a few of my favorite, most accessible intuitive art exercises for tapping into your own authenticity. These are all very simple and easy to do. The best part is that you can do all of these activities with materials you already have lying around the house. You don't have to go buy a $200 paint set or an easel or a $500 Boombox in order to find your authenticity. you simply have to make an effort to begin.
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Grab a sharpie and scribble!
This first exercise is probably my favorite go to exercise for people who may initially feel intimidated about tapping into their creativity, authenticity or intuition. All you need is a piece of paper and a black Sharpie or a permanent marker. Once you have these two things simply close your eyes and let the Sharpie move around the page in front of you.
You can scribble fast. You can meander slowly. You can make zig zags or up and down lines or polka dots or images.
The point is not to control the outcome of what you are drawing on the page. The goal here is to relax the mind and let yourself focus on the feeling of moving a marker around a page.
Notice the sound of the Sharpie hitting the paper. Notice how you feel as you scribble on a page mindlessly.
(Bonus points if you take a few minutes afterward to reflect in a journal how you felt and what the experience meant to you.)
Non-dominant meandering
Continuing with the exercise described above, the next thing you can do is place the marker in your non-dominant hand and allow yourself to slowly explore the page while your eyes are closed.
Let your marker move aimlessly around the page and let it do what it wants to do. Again, you can make dots or lines or curves or any combination of these.
Try not to overthink it. Let it be what it is. Do not intentionally try to draw anything. Let the marker meander however it wants to around the page.
When you feel complete with your blind scribble, I encourage you to hold your paper at arm's length from you and take a good look at what you see. Relax your mind as you would as if you were staring at clouds in the sky. Look for any type of symbolism. Do you see animals faces? Plants? People? Whatever you see, let it be that.
Then take some colored pencils or crayons or anything you have lying around the house and fill in the spaces of your scribbles in order to allow the mental picture to come forward. If you don't see anything at all, that's okay too. Simply color in the circles in between your scribbles and have some fun with how that feels.
The simple Act of coloring or scribbling taps into the part of the brain where creativity lives. Consequently this allows us to tap into our mind-body connection, our intuition and the most authentic part of ourselves.
Rock your style
One of the most fabulous ways to practice intuitive expression is to create an outfit for yourself that feels fun and playful and totally illogical. Do not focus on whether or not it matches or is in-style. Instead focus on how it makes you feel.
Think about the five-year-olds who wear cowboy boots and a tutu to preschool. This is exactly what you're recreating. Before we learned the rules of how to dress, how to act, who to be, etc. we were naturally intuitively expressive. This includes our style too.
A fun night-in might be to pick out all your favorite fashion pieces and throw them on together. Perhaps you could take photos of yourself and just enjoy feeling how you feel.
Take a few minutes afterward to reflect on your experience in your journal. What emotions came up for you? How did you feel when you were wearing the outfit? What feelings come up when you think about posting the photos or wearing the outfit in public? This all points to the age-old question of: who would you be if no one were looking?
Click to read the blog post about rocking your style.
>>Want to dive deeper into rocking your style? I wrote a whole article on this over here. https://www.thesparklinghippie.com/blog/trust-your-gut-rock-your-style
Journal
Journaling is perhaps one of my favorite exercises for developing authenticity. I believe everyone should keep a journal and that they should journal daily if possible. The gifts that journaling brings are endless. This is how we tap into our deeper selves, our deeper desires, our biggest dreams and our biggest fears.
When we let go of worrying about our grammar, our spelling, our handwriting and whether or not someone's going to read our work or not, then we can allow ourselves to authentically express ourselves through our words in the safety of a notebook. I like to use my journal as a “Dumping Ground” for all of my emotions and feelings and dreams and fears.
No one reads my journals but me and I recommend that you have the same boundary for yourself. In fact you may not even want to read your own journals. That's okay too -in fact- that's a pretty good idea.
Your journal is your judgment-free zone to be who you want to be and to say what you want to say without anyone judging you, including yourself.
That's right, in your journal you are not allowed to judge yourself, you are only allowed to express yourself fully and let it be what it is. This is a great way to practice trusting your intuition and to let your authentic self come to the forefront.
There's no wrong way to journal but I understand it can be intimidating when you're trying to figure out where to start. If you would like to try a guided journal to begin with I have created a few that you can check out here.
These are just a few of my favorite ways to begin the Journey of finding yourself and becoming who you were born to become. remember there's no wrong way to begin your journey of authenticity. you simply have to choose to begin.
If you'd like additional support for either yourself or your team, please know that I am here for you and I have a plethora of tools, experience and opportunities to help you on your path to becoming yourself.
Perhaps the best place to start is by checking out the Brazenly Beautiful Journal which is a guided journal I created on the basics on getting clear + confident in your life’s journey. This can be easily ordered and sent to your door through Amazon.