How to Live a Fulfilled Life - Authentically

Authenticity and the art of life expand personal experience beyond mere existence and mental entertainment to sensing the subtleties of creation. In this expanded space, even the body is transformed from a stifled face and numbed body into a body sculpture that emanates the beauty of presence.

Within the bounds of society and cultural influences, the poetry in the human heart often is pushed out by a never-ending appetite for status and intellectual achievement.

No wonder that in such surroundings the persona loses its way as it is misguided, overwhelmed and undernourished. Anxiety gives a sharp signal of danger to the body and life becomes a struggle or a fight. With energy going to the battle, innocent wonder and playful learning are crippled in a sour, desensitized body. How far away seems the passionate dream when the demands of survival and conformity are beating on the door.

Changing Paths to Live Authentically

"A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself." - Abraham Maslow

One day when life and its 'shaking events' had provoked him enough, the writer took a stand and questioned all that he was taking in unfiltered. He changed his path to follow the stream of his own insights and began to live authentically.

There was discomfort, of course, as he allowed the melting of emotional burdens which had imprisoned him in an armor of ice. Emotions are like untamed elements in a raw material we can learn to sculpt as they sculpt us in the same moment. Clearness of perception is the tool.

When he was willing to let them pass through, he could observe their hidden lessons. With that acceptance he stood face-to-face with his self-labeled failures. Now he saw that each time he had fallen there was a jewel in the dirt.

Jewels in the Dirt

One of the jewels the writer discovered was the innate gift of the intuitive voice, the navigator that guides its listener to the flame of aliveness. Between intuition and the workings of a higher order, he met his complementary equal, soul partner and mate. For both, finding each other is one of many gifts that walking the intuitive path of playfulness, laughter and wonder brought into their experience.

At times the writer still falls into old mental addictions such as an intellectual, goal-oriented approach. Life becomes tasteless instantly.

Then, his complementary equal looks at his taut face and absent eyes and says in a certain tone, "How are you feeling?" That is a sign for him to get out under the sky, play improvised tunes on the flute, hug a tree or let his bare feet be tickled by the skin of the earth. Re-focusing on what is real, what is of value, helps him let go of self-importance and restore the art of life.

Unburdened again, he re-connects to the greater in him. In that expansion, his eyes soften and their spark returns as his muscles relax.

Rooted in the Soil of Being True

Being rooted in the soil of what he is awakens in the Hubwriter the inner poet that speaks from the field beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right-doing. That poetry is the spice of life he cried for, from the moment he was born. It is just a step away, over the bounds of meeting the needs of the persona to merging with the greater existence.

"What a man can be, he must be. He must be true to his own nature." - Abraham Maslow

Below: Maslow's 'Hierarchy of Needs,' often depicted as a triangle, is interpreted in a golden spiral.