Authentic Life

Living true to your own personality, spirit and character. If you have an opportunity, try taking the VIA Survey of Character Strengths.This tool can help to identify the order of your top 24 strengths. Reviewing the top five to ten may provide significant insight into the reasons you do the things you do.  It seems important for a person's core strengths to align with their daily environment. If there is discord, an imbalance exists and conflict is sure to arise. This ultimately is the struggle we face each day.  

Essence

At a recent conference, I participated in a discussion about essence and ego. The facilitator was high energy and spirited. A refreshing change from my typical 9-5 day. Much of her focus was on ESSENCE.  I'll admit, I haven't given this word much thought outside of the occasional Bon Appetit article. It turns out to be rather important, and not just for Aperol cocktails. 

During the workshop, the term essence was described as being joy, love, heart, contentment, peace, response able, servant leader, being and creator.  According to dictionary.com, it is "the basic, real, and invariable nature of a thing or its significant individual feature(s)."  The presenter was encouraging individuals to accept their nature and function with it.  So often we put ourselves in conflict with the essence of being.  Forcing ourselves to fit into roles, duties and lives that are overwhelming, stressful and tiring.  Whether you believe that existence comes before essence, or essence exists first, it is important to know what holds you together at the core.

 ti ên einai - the what it was to be.