On Authenticity and Self-Love

Happy Valentine’s Day lovers and friends ❤️ 

I hope you’re hanging in there. I’m pretty exhausted to be completely honest so I’ll keep this month’s newsletter on the shorter side.

As I’ve been Kendrick shuffling through my house this week, I’ve been thinking a lot about the dynamic between authenticity and self-love. With the differences (and similarities) between Kendrick and Drake in mind, it’s clear to me that Kendrick has been able to run multiple victory laps around Drake because he’s just being himself. Whether it’s in creating Pulitzer Prize winning work or just being an absolute hater, Kendrick has always chosen to show up fully as himself, deeply rooted in where he comes from. When you contrast that with Drake who has a well-documented history of being a culture vulture, I was not surprised this man was doomed from the start. Even when being yourself and being authentic doesn’t always translate as quickly to commercial success as following trends, it always wins in the end.

I’ve thought a lot about authenticity over the years but becoming an energy work practitioner really shifted my perspective and process for embodying authenticity. People always say “just be yourself” without acknowledging the myriad of challenges that make it deeply difficult to do so. Especially if you are not a white cishet male in today’s society, you are constantly being bombarded with messages that tell you that who you are is not good enough. On top of that, you also probably have to navigate various forms of trauma that reinforce that same story constantly. I don’t blame Drake for trying to adapt and fit into different cultures because oftentimes fitting in equates with safety for many of us. The issue is that belonging in spaces that were never meant for you becomes worthless pretty quickly. On an energetic level, if you’re constantly giving your power away to people, places, and situations and taking on the energy of others, what’s meant for you can’t find you because you’re busy being someone else.

After years of healing, clearing other people’s energy out of my aura, and recalling my energy back, I still had to give myself permission to embody my gifts and feel worthy of my own energy. That’s where self-love comes in. What I’ve realized about the connection between authenticity and self-love, is that you have to love yourself enough to choose to show up authentically. You have to love yourself to choose yourself and be exactly who you are regardless of what other people think. I’m starting to see self-love as the gas in authenticity’s tank so to speak. It is the fuel that allows you to continue investing in yourself, continue trusting your intuition, and continue demanding what you deserve when everything around you is telling you not to.

So my hope for you this Valentine’s Day is that you take a moment to check-in with yourself and see how you would like to be loved today. If you’re stuck with yourself for the rest of your life, you might as well be your own best friend.

Thanks for reading as always! I’ll be staying in hibernation mode until March so I’ll share more updates on events and sessions then.

With love,

Paula