A Mindful Perspective
Welcome to my podcast! I'm Nick Levesque, and I'm on a mission to help you navigate life's challenges with a mindful perspective. Join me every week as I dive deep into the realms of mindset, spirituality, and personal growth. Drawing from my own experiences, I want to provide you with tools, strategies, insights, and inspiring stories that will help you go from where you are now, to where you want to be.
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A Mindful Perspective
How to Stay True to Yourself
Ever felt that gnawing sense of disconnection from yourself, like you're living someone else's life just to meet expectations? In this episode of A Mindful Perspective, I share my journey from high school to adulthood, navigating the waters of authenticity amidst societal pressures. Discover how embracing who you truly are, through both triumphs and mistakes, can lead to profound personal freedom and fulfillment. Through personal stories and a hypothetical scenario about a boy named Alex, we uncover how living inauthentically can lead to dissatisfaction and disconnection, while highlighting practical strategies to align more closely with your true self.
Uncover the transformative power of accepting all parts of yourself with curiosity and compassion. We dive deep into practical strategies for achieving authenticity, exploring self-reflection, journaling, and identifying core values. Learn to navigate the internal conflicts that arise from societal pressures, past traumas, and fears of judgment. By addressing these barriers, you’ll discover how to lead a more genuine and fulfilling life. I share my own story of embracing my love for anime, illustrating how authenticity can transform relationships and create deeper, more honest connections.
Finally, this episode provides essential tips for prioritizing self-care and cultivating authentic connections. From setting boundaries to choosing your social circle wisely, we discuss the importance of surrounding yourself with supportive and accepting people. I stress the value of speaking honestly and not hiding your true self, even in minor matters. By committing to authenticity in all aspects of your life, you can foster true freedom and personal fulfillment. Share your thoughts in the comments or reviews, and let's continue this journey towards living authentically together.
Hello everyone and welcome to A Mindful Perspective. I'm your host, nick Levesque, certified Spiritual Life Coach, and I'm here to share insights into my journey of mindfulness and self-discovery. Each week, we'll explore mindset, spirituality and personal growth to help you navigate life's challenges, with practical strategies and inspiring stories. Let's dive in. Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of Mindful Perspective. In today's episode, I want us to talk about how to stay true to yourself, because I think this is very important, right? I think living an authentic life and staying true to you is one of the most freeing and important things we can do, right? So we're going to dive into really how to stay true to yourself. So, first and foremost, I personally think that an important component of freedom and when I say freedom, I mean like feeling at peace, feeling like you are living according to your own standards, right, feeling like you're happy as an example, right, obviously, happiness is in motion. We cannot always be happy, but I think you're understanding what I'm saying. But I think an important component of freedom is authenticity, right, and to me, authenticity means you are showing up in the world authentically, right, You're not masking yourself. You are showing the world who you truly are, okay, and an important part of that is that you are living for yourself and not for other people. You are living the life that you know your soul was meant to lead, right. You're really doing things according to your core values and really living the life that you know your soul was meant to lead, right. You're really doing things according to your core values and really living the life that you know you want to live. Okay, even though you may have people not agreeing with you, you're still pursuing the life that you want to live, right, and I think that's a big part of being authentic, right and truly feeling free. It's about staying true to yourself, your beliefs, your own core values Okay. And I think when we show up in the world like this, being authentic also encourages others to do the same, and I feel like that's why, sometimes, you know, people resonate with people who are very authentic or who share stories from their hearts and their souls right, because they're like wow, those people are expressing themselves right, they're showing their vulnerable side, they're doing again what their soul knows it's meant to do right. And I know, for me personally, like I, you know, I admire people who I see living an authentic life and not a fake life, like they're literally living the life that they want to live, and you can see it in their face and how they present themselves. You know I'm not saying they're happy all the time, but at least you know they're doing something, they're living according to their own ideals right now. I think that is truly what authenticity is about, and I really believe that that's an important component of living kind of like that free life that I'm talking about Now. Again, if we define authenticity, I'm going to tell you what it means to me personally.
Speaker 1:But I think authenticity is when we align our actions with our own beliefs and our own values. Right, despite external pressure, it's really about being true to yourself. We don't hide from the world. We show the world exactly who we are, even though sometimes that can be scary, that can be painful, as an example, right, but we don't hide behind a wall, we don't put on a mask to hide who we truly are. Right, authenticity is a commitment to living our truth.
Speaker 1:And I say a commitment because sometimes it can be hard to be authentic, right, especially, like you know, if we look at well, this could be from, you know any walk of life to be quite honest, but sometimes I'm just going to say, like high school, right, when we're in high school, a lot of times is we want to fit in, right, we want to make sure that we're, you know, not rejected and all these things right. Well, for, for a lot of people anyways, I know for me that was that a certain way right, so that I could fit in and, you know, be with the cool kids as an example. Right, and I wasn't living authentically. Right, I wasn't living as my authentic self, and that, for me, has portrayed itself in a variety of different areas of my life, as I'm sure for other people it has as well. Right, but at a certain point I was like, okay, like I need to be myself. Right, I need to show up in the world authentically. Right, and I hope that it can inspire other people to the same. Right, like this podcast, for me personally, is almost like an extension of my authenticity. Right, Because it's something that I genuinely love to do and it's something that I genuinely enjoy putting out into the world, and it feels right to my soul.
Speaker 1:Right, and at a certain point in life this is what I was saying authenticity is when we align our actions with our beliefs and values, because a lot of times and this could stem from childhood as well, by the way, right, just, you know our caregivers. It could be again from high school, it could be different environments as we grow up, right? Well, that you know, sometimes we internalize beliefs and values that aren't necessarily our own right, and this is also called introjection. So, you know, we interject these beliefs. So just an example of that if you had a father, or even a mother, to be quite honest, but like if you had a father figure that would say something along the lines of like, oh, men, don't cry, all these different things, right. And you internalize that as you grow older, you carry that belief throughout your adulthood as well, and when you're about to cry or when you feel like crying, you might suppress that, right, men don't cry, etc. And then you pass that belief on to your children all these different things, right, obviously, if you don't address that belief.
Speaker 1:But what I'm saying is that sometimes, at a certain point in life, I know for me personally what I had to do and we'll talk about self reflection later but is to truly sit with myself and get a better understanding of myself, getting to know ourselves, right, I think the most important thing we can do in life is truly to get curious about who we are and get to know ourselves. Right, and that also means getting to know our beliefs. What beliefs are our own? What do we believe about ourselves and about the world as well? What are our own core values? And all these different things? Right Again, authenticity is a commitment to living our truth.
Speaker 1:But authenticity is not only being honest with other people, right, of course, it's very important to be you know, to show up authentically to say the things that you know you resonate with, and not be worried about what other people think about the things that you like as an example. But authenticity is also about being honest with ourselves. More importantly, right, this requires self-awareness, it requires introspections. Right, it requires the willingness to confront our flaws, our fears, our uncertainties. A big part of authenticity, as well, is it can be uncomfortable, right, it can be uncomfortable, but sometimes we need to go through that.
Speaker 1:Right, when we get to know ourselves, we get to know all different parts of ourselves, which is why I keep saying in every episode, almost, when we get to know ourselves, it's important to do it with curiosity, compassion and kindness, because sometimes we might not like the things that come up or that we find about ourselves right, and there's nothing wrong with that. We're just learning about ourselves. We don't need to get too harsh or too critical, and living like this and living authentically requires us to look at those different parts, and when we do, then we can have kind of that willingness to change. Right now that we've got that information, we can then proceed and be like, okay, these are the things that I'm not living, you know, authentically with, or these are the things that I'm not living you know, authentically with, or these are the things that are stopping me from living authentically right, and sometimes that's all we need to make that shift to start living that authentic life. But now I want to talk about why is it that's so hard to live authentically right?
Speaker 1:Obviously, there are many, many different reasons for that, but a big factor, a big part of that as well social media, societal pressures right, sometimes, due to these societal pressures, we can hide our true nature from the world, because, at the core of it all, we want to be accepted and not rejected. Right, everyone wants to be accepted. Right, no one really wants to be rejected, and this can actually lead us to kind of wear this mask, right, it's also called a persona, and a persona essentially is a mask that we wear to hide from the world as an example, right? So, basically, we kind of mold ourselves, and this could be a people-pleasing tendency, it could be because you're comparing yourself to others. It could be so many different things, right. But again, we want to fit in, we want to be accepted and not rejected. So we mold ourselves, right, we put on this mask and this is what we're displaying to the world, but we're not living authentically.
Speaker 1:Right Underneath that mask is who we really are, but we are putting that mask on. And why are we doing that? First and foremost is we want to be accepted, but secondly, it is a protection mechanism not to get hurt, right. So it is very much a double-edged sword. Sure, you're doing that not to get hurt, but at the same time, it also masks and covers up how we truly feel, right? So this is why I'm saying the use of this mask can help us hide ourselves from others and it shields us from the uncomfortable reflection that we see in the mirror as well. Right, so we can hide, we can push away everything in our shadow. We sweep it under the rug and we carry on as if everything is okay. Right, and for a lot of us, this is what we do.
Speaker 1:Okay, we just we put on this mask, we try to, you know, to please others, to appeal others, and we diminish our own authenticity, we diminish our own lives. We are not showing up authentically in our lives. Right Now, keep in mind, a persona is not always bad. So, as an example, if you're a teacher, when you're teaching in class, no-transcript. And I also wanted to give you an example of how, sometimes, from a family dynamic or family environment, it can lead us to live an inauthentic life or a life that's not aligned with ourselves. Right, so, just a hypothetical scenario here.
Speaker 1:Okay, so, as a child, alex had a passion for painting, drawing, whatever you want right, like, his dream was to become an artist. So, as a child, as a teenager, he spent many, many hours in his room drawing and painting. Right, and when he felt most alive was really when he was doing these things. However, growing up in a family that kind of more valued traditional careers, right, like doctors or engineers or all these different things, alex was always told or often told, I should say by his caregivers, right. So parents and siblings as well. It could be siblings as well. It really depends on the family dynamic.
Speaker 1:But basically what he was told was that pursuing art was not a good choice, right, pursuing art is a useless skill. Pursuing art would never land a real job. It was always compared to others and saying, like, look at how many people failed this, right. So basically, all he internalized growing up was that, hey, this is not going to lead me to a real job. So, of course, as a child, you internalize that and you want what's best for yourself and you also want to please your parents, right? So, basically, listening to his family's advice, he went on to college, got an engineering degree, whatever job doesn't really matter. He was very successful.
Speaker 1:But years down the road he started to feel this big sense of dissatisfaction and disconnection. Right, he felt like, even though he was good at his job, he couldn't stand the routine. He was very, almost like discolored, if you will. Right, like his soul knew there was something missing, and this is what I was talking about earlier as well. Right, at a certain point, if we're living an inauthentic life in whatever way it can be, there's going to be this kind of like intuition, or like this whisper of knowing that's going to tell us all the time like this isn't for you, but we're not listening to it. Right, we're actually not taking the time to listen to it, and that's normal because of, again, what we've internalized as children.
Speaker 1:But again, over time, alex began to feel very unhappy. Right, and At a certain point he was at work and he was just doing this thing and then, all of a sudden, unconsciously, he found himself starting to draw. Right, he was just sketching and doodling and something kind of came up in him. Right, like this, almost like this fiery kind of like this fiery passion that just ignited right, and what that did is it kind of sparked this old passion for art that he had. Right, and basically what had happened is that his creative side was suppressed for so long. Right, it was put into a shadow due to the fear of failure obviously right, not to fail himself and his parents, but also societal disapproval, right, in this case, maybe his family, his friends, weren't really approving of that. But that creative side of him was very much still. There was very much still alive. We were just pushed under the rug and sweep under the rug, and this is why Carl Jung said that 90 to 95% of our shadow is gold. Right, we're sometimes pushing away different things, different parts of ourselves, but again, for him, alex, he loved drawing, he loved painting, he loved whatever in art there could be as an example, right, and what he did was he suppressed that creative side of him, right? So then, you know, obviously there are many ways to work with this, right, you can work with a coach, a therapist, whatever, a counselor, right? And you know, in this case here, maybe Alex started to allocate more time to work on this, on the weekends, et cetera, and then, over time, maybe he switched fully to an art career as an example, right, it doesn't really matter. But basically what he started doing was integrating his shadow, right, integrating that creative part of him in his life as an example, right.
Speaker 1:And again, if I can give a personal example of this, which I've shared before on the podcast, you know, I've always been someone who has enjoyed writing. As a teenager, right, in my teenage years, I loved writing poetry and I remember one time I opened up to someone about this to a few people actually and they laughed at me. They literally laughed at me, and we're like what's like? What are you doing? This is so stupid. All these different things, right? And I remember, at that point, feeling so crushed, right, feeling oh, my goodness, wow, like I was not anticipating that, right? First and foremost, I was scared of you know what people thought. So I put myself out there, I shared my love for writing and it got rejected immediately, right? So guess what I did? I suppressed and I put that creative part of myself into my shadow, right? This is exactly what I mean. And it took years for me to actually be comfortable with writing again and putting stuff on social media and all these different things. Because of that fear, right, because of that fear. And guess what I did? I put on a mask, basically, right, I suppressed that part of myself and I was like, oh, people don't like this, so let me mold myself to how they want me to be, right, put on this mask, put on this persona, and I lived inauthentically for a long time, right, and for me, this is where I could say authenticity came in for me, right? It's like years later.
Speaker 1:Obviously, there's a lot of different factors that you know led to this, but at a certain point in time, there was kind of just this flip that switch for me and I was like I'm living for other people and not myself and I want to live a life that is aligned with who I am right and what I love to do. And I was so afraid all the time of what people would think, because there are a lot of things that I enjoyed doing or didn't enjoy doing that weren't really conforming with societal norms, as an example. Right, and at a certain point I was like I need to start living for myself and I need to really stop caring what other people think. Right, and obviously you know I did more coaching therapy and such, but when I'm right and obviously you know I did more coaching therapy and such, but when I'm, you know, in books as well. But what I'm trying to say is I finally was able to let go of the opinions of others, right, and that is another big part in freedom, right, like if you really want to feel that freedom right, when you live authentically and this is what I'm trying to say when you live an authentic life, the opinions of others really don't bother you as much anymore because you are doing what you know you want to do. You are doing what you know you love to do, right, so, whatever people think, who cares? Right, because you are living what you love to do and you are doing more of the things that bring you joy, contentment and happiness.
Speaker 1:Right, and now, these are just a few examples of challenges to authenticity. Right, and there could be so many other things. Right, there could be comparison. There could be again, like I said, cultural or societal expectations, past trauma as well. Right, that can be a big one as well, depending on the past trauma it can make you. It can make it very challenging to be authentic or trust people, or just it can make it challenging to be open and genuine with others. Right, it could be, again, fear of judgment or criticism, because you fear being rejected, you fear being criticized, so you don't really put yourself out there, or you don't put yourself out there authentically, you don't share your vulnerability with others. Right, it could be perfectionism, all these different things. There are so many different reasons as to why we are not living an authentic life, but I hope that these scenarios and these examples that I've given can really kind of help paint the picture that I'm trying to say here. Right, and I truly believe that true freedom comes when you stay true to yourself.
Speaker 1:Okay, your journey is uniquely yours. How you live your life is on your own terms, right? Not everyone has to like or agree with what you do or the path you choose and, to be quite honest, not everyone will. That's okay. Right, that's perfectly fine. What matters is that it makes sense to you and aligns with your beliefs and your core values. So now let's dive into a few tips and tricks on how to stay true to yourself and how to live more authentically, right?
Speaker 1:So the first one that I want to say, obviously, is curiosity and self-reflection. Right, we need to sit down with ourselves and take some time to really think about our core values. Right, and our personal beliefs deeply. This is crucial because, like I said earlier, you might not actually be holding onto your own beliefs, right, because of what we talked about earlier called introjection. Right, so this can be done through journaling. It can be done through the help of a coach, a therapist, a counselor, whatever it may be. Right.
Speaker 1:But also, if you're not even sure where to begin, like, what are my values in this example? Right, like, you can look online for a list of core values. Like, actually Google that? Right, like core values, or you know a list of values and you'll find things. And then you can start really dissecting, like what is it that you know I'm aligned with, right? And is what I'm doing right now aligning with these values? It could be that you journal as well, right? Obviously there's so many different journals as well, or journaling questions.
Speaker 1:I should say sorry, but again it's about getting to know yourself as well, like, what are your own interests, right? What would you love to be doing? You want to make sure that you're living for yourself and not others. So you want to listen to yourself, and this is not only when I say living authentically, I mean in all aspects of life, right? I'm not talking only specifically about a career goal or something right? Let's say, as an example, that you hang out with people and they party a lot, and then to you that doesn't resonate very much, right? And then sometimes you know you.
Speaker 1:Again you're putting this mask, you're going out partying, you're doing all these different things because you don't want to be rejected, you want to be accepted, right? So again, you go out with them, you have the fun. You put on a mask to make them believe you're having fun, but deep down you are just not not feeling it anymore. Right, you're like, oh, I don't want to be partying every weekend. There's nothing wrong with partying. I'm just saying, like in this example, like, let's say, you don't want to be partying every weekend and you're hanging out with people who are partying every weekend.
Speaker 1:Well, you are not living authentically, right? If your soul knows and trust me, it knows it's like I talked about earlier this whisper of knowing, right, it's got this little voice saying, oh, saying, oh, you know, I really don't want to go. Your body's telling you like it doesn't feel right to go there and you are going anyway. You are not living authentically. You are not living according to your own values, to your own beliefs about whatever it is right, and again, beliefs are about yourself and about the world as well, okay, but again, that's just a practical scenario here that I'm trying to say. But when I'm saying, get curious about yourself, it's in all of these different things, right, all of these different things. Also, maybe you're not doing enough of what you love to be doing, right, maybe there are activities that you would love to be doing more of. Okay, Living authentically is a multifaceted thing.
Speaker 1:It's not only career-oriented, it's not only how you show up in the world. It's about how you show up in the world, yes, but also to yourself, like we talked about earlier, right, it's a commitment to yourself to show up authentically and it's a commitment to living our truth. Tip number two that I want to share with everyone is, honestly, it's about figuring out what's holding you back, and this, of course, requires an honest conversation with yourself, right? Obviously, like we talked about earlier, authenticity again is a two-way streak. It's not only about understanding you know what's, you know what's missing in our lives and such. It's about also confronting those flaws, those fears, those uncertainties. Right, it can be uncomfortable, sometimes even painful, but it's necessary to live an authentic life, okay.
Speaker 1:So what is it that's holding you back? Is it trauma that's holding you back? Right, because you can't be open with anyone. Right, you're building walls around yourself and you cannot be open with anyone, and that could happen. Right, so you're afraid to put yourself out there, for whatever reason. That happened in your childhood. Right, it could be perfectionism, comparison, it could be fear of failure, all these different things. Right, there are so many different reasons why we're not living authentically. Okay.
Speaker 1:But if, as an example, it's because of cultural or societal expectations, then you need to have that conversation with yourself, right. Again, if it's an example like Alex, right, as an example where you know you're wanting to be a singer or an artist, or whatever it may be, an artist of some sort, or maybe you want to be something else but your family wants you to be something else, then again, that could require some deep inner work, some honest conversations with people and, again, showing up for yourself authentically right, because at the end of the day, you are stuck with yourself 24 seven throughout this little journey that we call life. Right. So you might as well do it, doing something that generally sparks up your soul. And again, this is very much easier said than done, right, very much so, and it requires work. But once you do that, in my personal opinion, that's where the freedom comes through, right.
Speaker 1:So, tip number two figure out what's holding you back. Tip number three is to prioritize your own needs and set boundaries. Okay, this one is so important and this one comes back to us. Right, it is not selfish to look after yourself, right? Sometimes I know, again, depending on the circumstances that we were brought up in environment and such sometimes we can think that looking after ourselves is a selfish act, but it is not right, like we should always be our first priority.
Speaker 1:It's something that I talk about in many of the episodes, and it's about prioritizing our needs and setting boundaries. So a question that you can ask yourself is what do I want? And really sit with it. What is it that I truly want? And you can ask this question for many different things careers, whatever, it doesn't matter, right? Let's say, someone invites you to a party or a concert, doesn't matter where it is, and you really don't want to go. Right, you just really don't want to go.
Speaker 1:Then you can start setting boundaries like, hey, I'm not in the mood tonight, or, you know, I just want to have a night in, thanks, anyways, maybe another time is an example, right, it's not necessarily that you don't like concerts or parties. Maybe you just don't feel up to it, right? Or it's about prioritizing your own needs and being honest with yourself about hey, this is what I need in my life right now, this is what I need less of in my life right now. Okay, again, once you start to understand yourself, this is what I'm saying, I think the best tip of advice I could give anyone spend more time getting to know yourself, right? Like, spend more time getting to know yourself. The more you get to know yourself, the more you will be able to live authentically and according to what matters to you, right? The more you get to know yourself, the easier it is to prioritize yourself and set those boundaries right. So, again, tip number three is to prioritize your own needs and set your boundaries.
Speaker 1:Tip number four is to speak honestly and don't hide yourself. Okay, this is so, so, so important. And again, it's about kind of removing that mask and letting your face breathe. Right, it's about showing up more authentically and vulnerably in the world, right? So speaking honestly looks like when someone asks you a question, you reply honestly, right? Whether that's at work, whether that's in a relationship, whether that's with a friend, it doesn't matter, right?
Speaker 1:Obviously, if it's something that you know may offend someone or may, you know, potentially start something, then you know there's always a respectable way to say something. That's what I'm saying, but sometimes it can be in the very minimalistic things, right? So sometimes, as an example, it could even be in a group setting, okay, so someone's asking someone a question and then he's asking kind of the round table, right, like what do you think about this? What do you think about this? Unconsciously, sometimes, what can happen is because we fear what other people will think, we fear not being accepted, we fear being rejected. We will unconsciously go with, kind of like, the group majority, if you will, right, and we do this unconsciously, I know personally, I've done this myself, right. So again, even if it's not aligning with other people, if someone asks you a question, show up authentically, speak honestly, don't hide yourself. Okay, it could be something as simple, as sometimes people will ask us very small questions, right, like what's your favorite game or what do you like to do on the weekends? Okay, and sometimes people will not be authentic. No-transcript. It's helped me profoundly in my life in so many ways.
Speaker 1:Anime goes much deeper than just cartoonish graphics as an example, right, but this is just an example. When someone would ask me stuff before, like you know, I wouldn't be really answering my question or the question authentically. So just a quick scenario, okay, just a quick personal example of this. I remember like a few times where we were, you know, we're in a group setting and people ask like hey, what do you like to watch? Or what do you like to watch. Did you watch any good movies lately, or whatever, right, the old nick would have said like, oh, you know, yeah, I watched this. Or yeah, I haven't been watching too much lately. Or oh, I really like to watch this as an example, right. Or that movie, the new me, right, the authentic me, if you will, will answer that question authentically. Hey, lately I've been watching anime. I haven't really watched many movies, I love anime, right, I love watching anime.
Speaker 1:It's what fills my soul, it's what fills my cup. And I can see in the faces of people. Sometimes, right, they're like oh, I don't really know what that is. Or, oh, really, you watch cartoons, like I said earlier, right, and to me that is completely okay now, because I'm okay with that. Right, I'm showing up authentically. And then sometimes you strike someone as like, hey, I love anime as well. Right, and it's like bam, you start conversation, you made a friend over something that you were worried about, as an example, right. So that's what I mean. Living authentically goes much deeper, right, it's an. Even the little decisions, the little questions that you've been answering dishonestly for so long, right, and when you start doing that, you start claiming your power, right, you really start to live your truth in kind of like I said, right, authenticity is a multifaceted topic, but when you can start doing it everywhere, I would kind of say that's where true freedom comes from.
Speaker 1:Tip number five is choose your company wisely, right? So this, I think, is so important. Okay, who you surround yourself with is everything okay. And just an example if you don't feel safe taking off your mask in the group of friends that you're with, you are in the wrong circle. I'm going to be very honest about that.
Speaker 1:Right, let's go back to anime for a second right. My group of friends that I hang out with right now they don't like anime, they don't watch anime. They don't judge me because I love anime. I talk about anime to them all the time. They don't judge me. Right, they accept me for who I am because I like anime. Other groups that are just you know, acquaintances or whatever, or people you know just having a conversation at a party or something, they don't really accept that response. Right, that to me, is not the group of people that I want to be surrounded with. Right? This is what I mean. Choose your company, your group of friends, with right. This is what I mean. Choose your company, your group of friends, who you surround yourself with, is the most important thing in your life, and if you feel the need to put a mask on with the people you are surrounded by, then you are not in the right group of people, in my personal opinion. So again, tip number five is to choose your company wisely.
Speaker 1:So again, just a quick recap here. Number one curiosity and self-reflection. Right, get to know yourself again with kindness and compassion. Number two figure out what's holding you back. Okay, really, figure out what is stopping you from living an authentic life. A lot of times it is fear. I'll be completely honest with that Fear of something right. For me, that's personally what it was, and obviously that can be paired with trauma, all these different things, but you're understanding what I'm saying here.
Speaker 1:Tip number three prioritize your own needs and set your boundaries right. Looking out for yourself is not selfish, it is an act of self-care. Number four speak honestly and don't hide yourself, even in the little things. And last but not least, tip number five is choose your company wisely, because who you surround yourself with is everything. So, that being said, that's all I've got for you guys on today's episode. If you did like the episode. Please feel free to leave a comment or review, share it. It really helps bring awareness to what I'm trying to do, which is really kind of, you know, spread this podcast on a broader scale to really help people just navigate everyday life challenges. So, again, with that being said, I hope you have a good week and I will catch you guys next week. Thank you.
