Authenticity & why you might never stop caring what others think

When I first started my blog, and before I linked it to this page, I showed only a small handful of people and they were strictly sworn to secrecy. 

And then I allowed a few more people to find out. And a couple more and then I just kind of let go of who was going to read what I wrote. 

But the next phase was hard. I was so sensitive about what people would think of my writing. Would I get those mean trolly comments? Why did my Likes just go from 100 to 99? No focus in that moment on the 99 people who stayed - I wanted to know about the one who left. 

It's a Thing, expressing ourselves. Whether we have a blog or write books or give talks or just speak our truth and make a stand for love in the post office queue. It's a Thing. 

And it's a Thing because this stuff has deep roots. Roots into our childhood - and all the ways we learnt to fit in, to go under the radar, or to stand out, or to keep peace, or to help others - all the many ways we learn to get loved rather than rejected. 

I think it's unrealistic (for the majority of us) to think that we will ever reach a point in our development where it simply does not bother us at all what others think of us. 

But we can deepen into a love of truth - and even the smallest inkling of who we really are - that becomes more important than what others think of us. And it doesn't mean we won't get our feelings hurt every now and again or we won't get offended. We might still even obsess over that one person who unsubscribed from our blog. But when truth is more important, we will weather those storms and learn those lessons and process them properly so that we bounce back stronger each time. 

I do think that's possible. And it's also totally necessary if we want to live authentic, loving lives. We need to find a way to listen to what our soul has to say and see ourselves from that perspective as much as we can so that we can show up authentically and in a real, loving way. 

And if this is an area that is tough for you, really, take my hand. Because when we join together, we can stand for love and speak our truth and keep it real. And we are all needed. Only you can say what you want to say in the way you say it. Never mind that others have a larger audience (there will always, always be someone with a larger audience by the way) - the important thing is to be authentic, to show up, to join in the conversation. 

And because we are only ever really talking to ourselves anyway (with others listening in), what really matters is that we speak our truth as clearly as we can.