Quotes About Authenticity

Self-kindness is both more difficult and more revolutionary than we think.

The courage to be vulnerable is not about winning or losing, it's about the courage to show up when you can't predict or control the outcome

To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody but yourself means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight and never stop fighting." "Staying real" is one of the most courageous battles that we'll ever fight.

Tell me more—what are you thinking?" and respect his truth as a full truth, not just an off version of my truth.

Shame is basically the fear of being unlovable—it's the total opposite of owning our story and feeling worthy. In fact, the definition of shame that I developed from my research is: Shame is the intensely painful feeling or experience of believing that we are flawed and therefore unworthy of love, belonging, and connection.1 Shame keeps worthiness away by convincing us that owning our stories will lead to people thinking less of us. Shame is all about fear.

Heroics is important and we certainly need heroes, but I think we've lost touch with the idea that speaking honestly and openly about who we are, about what we're feeling, and about our experiences (good and bad) is the definition of courage.

Perfection is an unattainable goal.

Owning our story and loving ourselves through that process is the bravest thing we'll ever do." I still believe in this quote from two of

Shame thrives on secrecy, silence, and judgment.

Building the grounded confidence to rumble with vulnerability and discomfort rather than armoring up, running away, shutting down, or tapping out, completely prepares you for living into your values, building trust, and learning to rise.

The stories of our struggles are difficult for everyone to own, and if we've worked hard to make sure everything looks "just right" on the outside, the stakes are high when it comes to truth-telling. This is why shame loves perfectionists—it's so easy to keep us quiet.

How much we know and understand ourselves is critically important, but there is something that is even more essential to living a Wholehearted life: loving ourselves.

In our technology-crazed world, we've confused being communicative with feeling connected. Just because we're plugged in, doesn't mean we feel seen and heard. In fact, hyper-communication can mean we spend more time on Facebook than we do face-to-face with the people we care about.

Get a one-inch by one-inch piece of paper and write down the names of the people whose opinions of you matter ... the people on your list should be the people who love you not despite your vulnerability and imperfections, but because of them.

From gangs to gossiping, we'll do what it takes to fit in if we believe it will meet our need for belonging. But it doesn't. We can only belong when we offer our most authentic selves and when we're embraced for who we are.

When we stop numbing and start feeling and learning again, we have to reevaluate everything, especially how to

So the next time you're shutting down or angry, ask yourself what lies beneath.

Developing our empathy skills is not easy. Shame is a complex problem that requires a complex solution. Each of the four attributes of empathy requires us to know ourselves, act authentically and engage with others using our minds and our hearts. This act of empathy produces resilience to shame by countering fear and disconnection.

Courage originally meant "To speak one's mind by telling all one's heart." Over time, this definition has changed, and, today, courage is more synonymous with being heroic.

Creativity, which is the expression of our originality, helps us stay mindful that what we bring to the world is completely original and cannot be compared. And, without comparison, concepts like ahead or behind or worst lose their meaning.

I woke up with one of the worst vulnerability hangovers of my life. You know that feeling when you wake up and everything feels fine until the memory of laying yourself open washes over you and you want to hide under the covers? What did I do?

Fess up to experiencing shame or admit that you're a sociopath. Quick note: This is the only time that shame seems like a good option.

Heroics is often about putting our life on the line. Ordinary courage is about putting our vulnerability on the line. In today's world, that's pretty extraordinary.1

Just because you're standing in your office or your classroom or your studio doesn't mean that you can take emotion out of this process. You cannot. (P.8)