Reclaiming your Wild, Authentic, Radiant Self

Do you find yourself hiding Parts of yourself at times? Maybe you leave your Playful Self at home when you go to work. Or you have great ideas, but depending on who you're with, sometimes you're afraid to share them.

When I was a teenager, my mom, who was single and raising 4 kids in a small town, always cautioned me not to spend time with certain people whom she said were "wild." She meant well. She didn't want me to fall in with the partying crowd.  

I also felt like being wild was frowned upon by the community. I knew some of the popular girls who I thought pretended they weren’t wild, but their actions proved otherwise, because I saw them at drinking parties. That’s when I learned to suppress the wild part of myself, and the message, DON’T BE WILD was ingrained in my being.

These, and countless other messages and experiences shaped the way I showed up in the world. But after a while, I began to challenge some of those paradigms, because the old “rules” were holding me back. For example, the message DON’T BE DIFFERENT really held me back when I went to art school, because I found it hard to tap into my creativity.

I soon came to realize that, depending on who I was with or where I was at, there were certain aspects of myself that I wouldn’t let show. I wasn’t being the authentic, whole, me.

What about you?

What messages did you absorb from your family or society that no longer serve you?

When do you hold back, depending on where you are at or who you are with? 

What parts of yourself do you hide from others?

It’s time for each of us to reclaim our wild, authentic, radiant selves.

Wild, not in the sense that you’re a party animal. But rather, untamed. Not afraid to speak your truth, regardless of what others might think.

Authentic, because you will be your true self, like you were before you tamed down and hid parts of yourself to meet real and imagined expectations that your family and society had of you.

Radiant because when you’ve embraced your Authentic Self again—when you allow all parts of yourself to show up no matter where you are or who you are with, you will shine your light brightly like you are meant to.

Is it time for you to Reclaim your Wild, Authentic, Radiant Self?

If you want to explore how your Authentic Self might have been impacted by the expectations of others/society, there is a fun exercise you can try to begin reclaiming your Wild, Authentic, Radiant Self.

First, do some journaling. Reflect back on times in your life when parts of the Authentic You got curbed. It may be helpful to look through old photos of yourself. Think about times when now, you don’t show up as who you truly are. Make a list of the Parts of yourself that you keep hidden under certain circumstances.

Now, watch this video to get a clear impact of how not being Authentic is impacting the fabric of your Being and how you can change that.