Being ourselves is as important as changing ourselves. In fact, these are not two different modes of being. When we seek to change and improve ourselves, our purpose is to change from being our lower self to being our higher self, from being our small self to being our big self and then our infinite self.
Our purpose is not to emulate and become someone else, and then lose ourselves. Our purpose is to become more and more of ourselves, in particular, our true selves. Self-acceptance, self-love and self-understanding – and certainly not self-judgment – must therefore supplement and complement our desire for self-improvement.
One way to be more of our higher self than lower self is to become more loved-based than fear-based. Another way to do so is to be more self-empowered and conscious with our choices. Yet another way is to be more self-honest, or authentic. In truth, without authenticity, there can be no true self-empowerment for we will not even know what it is that we truly need or want – and therefore, what really is our passion, vision and mission.
Without authenticity, we cannot have an intimate and firsthand experience of our own higher self, or Who We Truly Are, for we will not be aware of our deepest and truest feelings. Without authenticity, we cannot clearly tell the difference between our higher self and lower self, and more consciously choose one over the other. Without authenticity, we cannot adequately process our emotions for we will not be able to truthfully and thoroughly feel what we are feeling – and to, for instance, really cry when we need to cry and really laugh when we need to laugh. The more authentic we are, the more free we will be from past or external conditioning.
Great it is to be kind and loving because our belief system says we should. Greater still it is to be kind and loving when we are just authentically being ourselves. Just as some types of conditioning can be desirable, some types of authenticity can be undesirable. True (or high-vibrational / higher self) authenticity is living from the core of our heart, the seat of our soul. Superficial (or low-vibrational / lower self) authenticity is living from our emotional body, which is a fear-based energy. True authenticity is acknowledging and accepting that we are each invariably a mixed bag of higher self and lower self energies and will continue to be so until the day we die, and this is an incarnation package applicable to even the most enlightened person on earth.
It is impossible to be our higher self all the time (and our higher self knows that as well), so we mustn’t be too hard on ourselves – but constant practice can certainly help to improve our batting average. In effect, we are always ourselves and can never stop being ourselves, it is only a question of whether we are being our higher self or lower self.
Even when we aren’t trying to be ourselves, we are still being the selves that aren’t trying to be ourselves. Even when we are wearing masks and faking ourselves, we are still being the selves that have chosen to wear masks and fake ourselves. Ultimately, not only are we always ourselves, we are in fact always our true selves and can never stop being our true selves; even when we are being our lower self, we are in fact still our higher self – who only via the veil of amnesia has voluntarily and temporarily forgotten that Love is Who We Truly Are.