Authenticity: How to “Be Yourself”

Being Well with Forrest Hanson and Dr. Rick Hanson

Being Well

Education, Self-improvement, Health & Fitness, Mental Health

4.8 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 25 September 2023

⏱️ 69 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We’re often told to “be true to ourselves:” to line-up the person we are on the outside with the person we are on the inside. In a word, to be authentic. But what does it really mean to “be who we are,” “get in touch with ourselves,” or to go full new-age “live in alignment with our higher purpose?” In this episode Dr. Rick and Forrest explore what authenticity is, where it comes from, and whether it’s actually a good thing to be more authentic. They talk about what we really mean when we use the word “authenticity,” the fragmented nature of the self, and problems with unregulated self expression. They then turn towards how we can include all of ourselves, act from our values, and become at peace with who we are. You can watch this episode on YouTube. Key Topics: 0:00: Introduction 2:35: How Rick thinks about authenticity 6:10: Congruence, presentation, and the difference between honest and good 13:45: A personal example of authenticity from Rick and Forrest 17:00: Self-disclosure as a factor of intimacy 19:45: What parts of ourselves are we being authentic to? 23:15: Vulnerability and aspiration 28:10: Carl Rogers’ idea of the perceived self and the ideal self 33:20: Is self-improvement authentic? 36:30: Unconditional positive regard, and embodiment 40:10: Naming what you’re feeling, the vastness of the psyche, and self-honesty 46:25: Having a secure environment for aspirational change 48:45: Individualism, social roles, and intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation 53:05: Archetypes, the shadow, and integration 59:20: Recap Support the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. Sponsors Factor delivers fresh, never-frozen, fully prepared meals right to your door. Head to factormeals.com/beingwell50 and use code beingwell50 to get 50% off. The Turning Points podcast is BACK with a new season. Check out season 3 of Turning Points: Navigating Mental Health wherever you get your podcasts. Zocdoc helps you find expert doctors and medical professionals that specialize in the care you need, and deliver the type of experience you want. Head to zocdoc.com/being and download the Zocdoc app for FREE. Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month! Want to sleep better? Try the Calm app! Visit calm.com/beingwell for 40% off a premium subscription. Finally get that project off the ground with Squarespace! Head to squarespace.com/beingwell for a free trial, and when you’re ready to launch use coupon code BEINGWELL to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Connect with the show: Subscribe on iTunes Follow Forrest on YouTube Follow us on Instagram Follow Forrest on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Visit Forrest's website Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to Being Well. I'm Forest Hanson. If you're new to the podcast, thanks
0:11.8	for listening today, and if you've listened before, welcome back.
0:16.2	Since at least the time of Aristotle, very wise people have been telling us to be true
0:21.6	to ourselves, to line up the person we are on the outside with the person we are on
0:27.3	the inside, in a word, to be authentic. And when I was initially planning for this
0:32.4	episode, I thought, perhaps a bit naively, that we'd just parrot that. Hey, here are some
0:37.7	ways that you can get more in touch with yourself and become more authentic. But what is authenticity
0:44.6	really? What does it mean to be who we are or get in touch with ourselves or to go full
0:50.8	new age here for a moment, to live an alignment with our higher purpose? Do we even have some
0:55.8	kind of a true self that we can be authentic to? Maybe being authentic is just about living
1:00.8	from our values or imagining a more fully realized and aspirational version of ourselves
1:07.0	and trying to be more that way. But if we're doing that, whose values are we choosing?
1:11.4	Where are those values coming from? And as long as we're here, is there really much
1:15.4	of a difference between feeling authentic and just feeling good about ourselves? And
1:20.2	hey, is it even a good thing to be authentic in the first place? As I prepared for this
1:26.4	episode, I learned just how deep the rabbit hole went here. So to help me find the bottom
1:32.1	of it, I'm joined today by Dr. Rick Hanson, Rick is a clinical psychologist, a best-selling
1:37.0	author, and he's my dad. So dad, thanks for doing this with me today. How are you doing?
1:41.2	I'm excited. As we go, spelunking in our cave diving. I'm going to keep my head
1:46.6	lamp on and hopefully leave a trail of breadcrumbs behind us so that we can find our way out
1:52.5	again. So during this episode, here's some things that I want to cover for people. First,
1:57.8	what do we mean by authenticity, including different ways to think about authenticity?
	...

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