Hello Again!

First off, apologies for being gone for so long (a month plus seems like a long time to me!), and I wish anyone reading this is still in good health and enjoying life!

Personally I've been discovering and reconnecting to what's important in my life, and that includes family and my hobbies/passions.

Here's a quick cliff notes rundown of what's been going on in this time frame:

• My brother came up for a visit and finally got to connect with our dad after so many years (I can't tell you how great it felt to have all of us together). In showing him around the area and going to new places to eat and sightsee he rekindled my love of exploration and discovery (Thanks bro!)

• We had a trip to Disney planned but things happened and it was postponed (cancelled seems so abrupt and definite which is most certainly not the case here). It was during this time off that I went on a solo venture and discovered life has a way of giving us what we need just when we need it (I'll explore this with you later, but for now let's just say the right people came when I needed them most). This rekindled my love of curiosity, especially when it comes to people.

• Finally completed an education goal I had started back in 1995 (and after many heartaches, setbacks, some stretching of the truth-due to fear, that chapter has finally reached its conclusion!). Going from multiple dismissals due to academic failure to graduating Magna Cum Laude, has rekindled my love of learning and discovery of life and further education of multiple disciplines.

• These few things tie in directly to what I had started exploring before the long hiatus, which is how to live authentically and show up without fear in our everyday lives. This had started the exploration of human behavior and why we do what we do and diving deeper into the subject has fueled my desire to learn more (and pick up where we left off).

Reality Bites.

The article from Forbes (in case you're new or not sure what article I'm talking about, here's a link to that Forbes article ) asked us to "determine exactly where you can't be real and why".

Doing a self-analysis it seems the need to be "fake" comes down to fear: fear of rejection or not fitting in to a desired group, which is certainly understandable. Humans are social creatures and have a desire to connect and feel a sense of belonging with other humans. It's one of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and ranks right up there in priority after safety, nourishment and shelter. If we fear we won't be accepted for who we are, we adjust how we behave so we fall in line with what we perceive as acceptable by the people we want to fit in with just to be accepted.

Sometimes it's easier to just "fit in" for acceptance at the sacrifice of wanting to show up as we truly are. But what potentially can this do to us?

"When one cannot live from this true place of authenticity, then stress is often created in our minds and bodies. This stress may be subconscious at first (since it likely started from a young age), but it eventually builds over time resulting in mental and physical imbalances that can show up as anxiety, depression, chronic anger, fatigue, stomach disturbances, and chronic illness.

Anything that takes us away from who we truly are and who we are meant to be in this world, has the potential of creating immense stress in our bodies as we are denying our true creative expression of our authentic self." (MyUnyte.Com )

This is pretty deep for a return post, but it's something that's been fascinating me since my last few classes of university. I have a feeling that these entry level blogs will be similar to a sculptor faced with a lump of clay. These will be a little rough, somewhat all over the place, but over time the thoughts and writing will be more refined and will make better sense.

I appreciate you being here with me on this journey and thank you for sharing in the experiences!