Thursday Thoughtfulness: July 20, 2017

/ saraletourneau

(Look for this week’s #ThursdayThoughtfulness questions after the jump.)

This Week’s Questions: How do you express your authenticity? Do you find it’s easy or challenging to have the courage to be yourself in all settings, or to feel comfortable expressing yourself completely? How important or necessary do you think authenticity is (or should be) in our world today? What other thoughts do you have when you read this quote?

Follow #ThursdayThoughtfulness at the blog and on Twitter at 11:00 AM Eastern. Feel free to spread the thoughtfulness by reblogging this post, writing your own post on this topic, or sharing the quote image on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

20 thoughts on “Thursday Thoughtfulness: July 20, 2017”

  1. This is a really interesting question – while I’ve recently celebrated a BIG birthday with a zero on the end…a birthday, in truth, I was dreading as it suddenly seems OLD – I realise these days that I don’t need courage to be me. I simply am. And as I watch my granddaughter start floundering as she begins to question who she is and what she stands for, on the cusp of teenagerhood (is that a word?) I realise what a lot of energy it takes… Maybe those extra lines… that extra flab… the diminishing physical ability is the price I pay for the experience of my previous life with its highs and lows, pleasure and pain – to know what my strengths and weaknesses are. To know who I am and not feel afraid to simply Be. Me.

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    • I love this, Sarah. I personally was delighted by your birthday related posts last month, and especially the news that you dyed your hair purple. It’s not something I’d ever do for myself, but for some people, colors like that simply WORK. Yours works beautifully for you. It’s a great expression of your creativity and personality. 🙂

      And I can relate to your granddaughter’s struggle. It sounds a lot like what I went through during my teenage years: wondering where I fit it, learning to feel comfortable in my own skin, worrying whether who I am will please other people (I tended to rely too much on people’s opinions of myself when I was younger)… In the years since then, I’ve learned that it takes time for us to embrace our own authenticity and to love ourselves for who we are. I’m not sure if that’s what you meant in the latter half of your comment, especially since you have about three more decades on me in terms of wisdom. But I’d like to think I’m closer to embracing my authenticity now than when I was a teenager.

      Also, teenagerhood sounds like a real word to me. 😉

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  2. I’ve done a lot of thinking about authenticity lately. Just today, I chose to wear a hat I never wear. The girls think it’s corny. But I felt confident enough to give it a try.

    I heard nice things from people, but one group was kind of dismissive. I just laughed it off. I knew that I wore the hat as an expression of self, not for any validation.

    True authenticity works this way. There’s no external reward for it; it has to be something that means something to you first. If that’s the case, others who are receptive to and appreciative of such an expression will see you for who you beautifully are.

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    • Exactly. Being authentic means starting with the self. You have to like it and feel comfortable with it first. Validation from others is, and always should be, secondary. And I love your hat experiment. It’s a great example of the quote in question, and I bet you rocked it. 😉

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  3. Pingback: Writing Links…7/24/17 – Where Genres Collide

  4. This quote makes me want to be braver and be myself a lot more. I think we should all feel comfortable to be our authentic selves, but society can make that hard. When you don’t fit into the role society automatically puts you in, and you’re constantly stepping out of it, it’s harder to be yourself, I think. But the more of us who are ourselves, the easier it will be for everyone else. 🙂

    I personally am on a journey to get more comfortable with myself right now, and that’s not easy. But I don’t want to feel like I have to be the social norm in order to have a life and be liked. I am what I am and hiding that, or trying to change it, won’t make me happy.

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    • I agree – society can make it difficult for us to embrace our authenticity. It also (in my experience, at least) makes it challenging to simply be yourself in front of the people in your life who have criticized you for being different. I still don’t talk about my writing much with my parents. Even though they were generally supportive of my trip to Iceland in April, and they were proud of me when some of my poems were published… I don’t know. Maybe it’s because they still don’t understand how vital writing is to me, and that I’d feel like I was neglecting the greatest part of me if I ever stopped.

      So I can relate to your second paragraph. Our struggles might be very different, but I think we both know deep down that our choices will be worth it in the end, despite any hardship that happens along the way. I’m rooting for your, Phoenix. *hugs*

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      • I guess it’s hard to understand the drive writers have when you’re not a writer. I don’t understand how making money drives people (obviously need enough to live but that’s it for me), so I understand how others don’t understand. Did that sentence make sense?

        Thanks. I’m rooting for you too. I think it will all be worth it in the end, and we will get there. *hugs* too.

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  5. It’s really hard to be the real me in all settings. I tend to have different modes of myself. Me in the workplace, me around family, me around acquaintances, and me around friends. I feel like the me around friends is the real one. I don’t cognitively make the switch. It just happens automatically.

    storitorigrace.blogspot.com

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    • I hear you, Tori. I don’t feel comfortable being my true self in every setting, too. It depends on the people, the place, the mood… But around my closest friends, and around other writers, I feel like my true self. Sort of like how you described for yourself. How did you feel when you were at Realm Makers recently?

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  6. I never really thought about it. I’m being myself and I try to do things I like and the way I like them. I don’t think I have desire for people to see me in a specific way, and their judgement of whether I’m “authentic” or not, holds little weight in the end, as it might not be accurate to the truth.

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