Living it

So, what is it like, in a practical sense, to live an authentic life? Living authentically is living inside out. It is living as if the source of everything is within. We've been taught just the opposite. We've been taught to believe that the source of all of our needs and desires is outside of us and we must work, strive and struggle to achieve or obtain it. We work hard for the money. We work hard to gain the power. We work, compromise and sacrifice for relationships. We work to learn all of the appropriate ways of interacting with others, so that we will gain social status, prestige or just a sense of belonging. All of these things are external goals, which we've been taught are worthy of attainment. These things, once achieved, will bring us peace of mind and happiness.

But living authentically means just the opposite. No, it doesn't mean that we forgo all of these desires and learn to live on a rarefied plane of existence in which we are not interested in any of these "worldly" things. It means that instead of seeking these external things as the source of our happiness and peace of mind, instead we go within and live from there. We find all of the resources we need, all of the peace, all of the joy, all of the love, within. And once we have found it within, then we can carry what we have received within, out into the external world.

This means that instead of striving for external rewards, we "cease striving" by coming to know our own I AM. So, we are not reacting to the external as if it were the basis for our survival; we are responding to internal messages, stimuli and urgings--because they truly are the basis for more than survival. These internal messages, urgings and stimuli are leading us to LIFE. Not survival--Life.

So, in a given day, as you waken and get up to brush your teeth, you are not stressing over whether or not you'll get to work on time, and planning out your day based on the agenda of "what ifs" and fears. Rather, you are looking within, remembering your dreams, dialoguing with yourself to learn of the secret meanings behind the images in your dreams. And as you get into the routine of your day, you are not living with fear in the pit of your stomach all day, as you speed through trying to meet deadlines and please others, who seem to have the power to control at least your happiness, if not your entire well-being. Rather, you are "coming from" within, so that your actions are driven by a deep inner base of peace. You are doing the things that come from that peace. You are creating the opportunities for yourself and others that come from that peace. As you interact with others, you are not reacting based on trying to please them, control them, appease them, save them, fix them or otherwise externalize your sense of mission. Rather, you are responding to them from that deep inner place of peace and joy within you, so that your words, body language and choices are led by that inner structure of peace, joy and love.

We've spent whole lifetimes outsourcing our happiness. But it isn't out there. It is within. And not just within for 15-30 minutes a day as we meditate and then forget all about it. Within is without, when we are living authentically.

This means that we do not attract from the outside in, as our current understanding of the law of attraction implies. In fact, we are challenged to go much deeper and live much higher, from the true law of attraction. And what we attract is much bigger, much wider, much deeper than our current understanding implies.

This is why I wrote the book, soon to be published by O Books, and currently titled "The Law of Attraction: The Unadulterated Truth About Why it isn't Working and How it Can." While it doesn't debunk the law of attraction, what it does do is completely revise our understanding of it. So, stay tuned, that book will be coming out in the summer or fall of 2011.

Until then, look within. Your job, should you choose to accept it, is to give birth to your Self.

Love,
Andrea.