Being You: How to Live Authentically

The sole aim of this book is to assist you to live a full, complete, authentic life, exercising your own choices, making your own decisions, feeling and acting with confidence and effectiveness in every situation. To have a life free of fear and doubt, a life filled with meaning, success and happiness. Being You is the simple and clear objective but also the great challenge for everyone who practices the principles and techniques in this book. It is based on the fundamental concept that within each of us is an underlying trend toward the fulfillment of our inherent potential. This means living an authentic life as a ‘whole person’—a full, meaningful, successful and happy life. It implies that your self-concept and experience of life are in harmony with your vision and purpose. There is coherence between what you think you are and the way you are living your life every day. Your behavior reflects your values and your life-as-lived reveals what you intuitively know you are capable of becoming. With this comes the freedom to live your life according to your own unique needs, personality, purpose and values. To be accepted unconditionally for who and what you are. To feel all life's pain as well as its joys. To live from the heart—trusting your inner nature and your experience of the world—and willing to accept responsibility for all your actions. Even though the focus of this book is on the individual the reality is that there is no such thing as an isolated individual. You are in constant interaction with others: family, friends, colleagues, and society in general. Your authentic life is lived in companionship of others. They shape you and you in turn shape them. This book is based on the philosophy of Adaptive Freedom which suggests that the ability to adapt, adjust, change and grow is the essence of freedom and freedom is the basis of authenticity. You need to be adaptive to be truly free and live authentically in the modern world. Freedom heightens your capacity for adaptability and both make it easier to sustain the unfolding process of realizing the power of your true potential in the act of becoming more authentic. Adaptive Freedom is a liberation path to self-fulfillment. It is a journey through knowledge to self-awareness and understanding. It offers a systematic and holistic framework to help you lead a meaningful, successful, happy and authentic life. Adaptive Freedom has twelve core principles: 1. You have an inherent and irrepressible urge to Be You—to live authentically and in the process to achieve your highest potential. 2. Authentic living is purposive action—you shape your authentic self by the way you live your life. 3. Your authentic life is grounded in your needs, and built on the unfolding vision of the ideal you which creates a high degree of self-direction and a strong sense of commitment. 4. Your happiness is found not in pleasure or possessions alone but in the quality of being deeply connected in your relationships and the satisfaction of living in perceptive awareness. 5. Your natural disposition is towards the good—acting in ways that are pleasing, valuable and useful, and grounded in the inherent interconnection of all beings and a strong sense of compassion. 6. You have the courage to honor your personal values which you have clarified and you subscribe to universal values which you freely accept. 7. You possess personal power for your own benefit and that of the community, and you live autonomously as a participating member of the community. 8. You pursue success and personal excellence in all areas of your life, not merely for their results but for the sense of achievement in how you attained them. 9. You understand that mind is intrinsic to all matter and is the engine of authenticity; and you are aligned with the universal flow of energy and information in the superabundant field of Quintessence. 10. You have a high degree of self-acceptance and a willingness to accept others and life in a way that facilitates your growth. 11. You can exercise self-control and effectively manage your emotions, and your decisions and behavior are informed by your adaptive intuition and your values. 12. You have a balanced approach to the demands of life and your life is animated by joy, enthusiasm and appreciation for all its wonders. In Part 1: The Challenge of Authentic Living - you are introduced to the inspirational groundwork for the overall theory of Adaptive Freedom—the call to an authentic life and how to respond to it and what role freedom plays in the process. This part also describes the seven qualities of authenticity, a set of challenging perspectives to measure your progress. In Part 2: The Core Concepts of Adaptive Freedom - you are introduced to a particular understanding of the nature of the human person, the human condition, your social, holistic and participatory nature and the concepts of personhood and personality. The primacy of values and honorable behavior is emphasized and the mental, emotional and spiritual nature of human functioning are explored. This part ends with some exciting and fresh perspectives on personal power, success and wellbeing. In Part 3: The Freedom Code - you are introduced to the seven pillars of the Freedom Code—the core of the philosophy of Adaptive Freedom and the process for its practical implementation. The Freedom Code is the key that unlocks your inherent potential and guides you in the process of authentic living. The focus in this part is on putting into action the knowledge and understanding gained in the first two parts. The Freedom Code contains seven interconnected Pillars of Practice, which are as follows (each pillar has a short version in brackets after the title): 1st Pillar: Develop Perceptive Awareness (Awareness) develop the power of attention, clear perception and accurate awareness. 2nd Pillar: Become Aligned with Universal Energy (Alignment) align your Vision and Life-plan with the universal flow of energy and information in the superabundant field of Quintessence. 3rd Pillar: Pursue Purposive Action (Action) continually engage in meaningful and purposive action grounded in personal excellence. 4th Pillar: Connect and Communicate Effectively (Connection) connect and communicate effectively with the human family. 5th Pillar: Develop Acceptance (Acceptance) accept yourself, others and life. 6th Pillar: Become Adaptable (Adaptability) develop adaptive emotions and behavior and become comfortable with change. 7th Pillar: Be Animated and Appreciative (Animation) find balance, joy and enthusiasm in your life. In helping you to grow towards your highest potential Adaptive Freedom does not purport to be a guide with answers to every one of life’s problems. Most of the great challenges that we face are probably insoluble. But if they cannot be solved they can be outgrown. Practicing Adaptive Freedom helps you to grow beyond where we are, beyond your blockages and your limitations and grow towards your potentialities even if they are unknown to you right now. Everyone, according to the Swiss psychotherapist Carl Jung possesses a “higher level” capability at least in embryonic form and, under favorable conditions is able to develop towards their full potentiality. People can as if unconsciously, outgrow themselves. Sometimes the new strength or wisdom or the courage to change comes from within and sometimes from outside yourself. The journey to the authentic core of your nature can start at any time of life. Some only make the journey when faced by a crisis. Perhaps this book can help you to be prepared for that inevitable moment when crisis comes, and face it more resourcefully. The secret is to accept what comes and transform it so that you continue to grow with its help rather than resisting, denying or hiding from it.