Authenticity in a Synthetic World
Discovering What It Means to Live an Authentic Life
Living an Authentic Life. That’s what I named my Substack. If you had a big eye roll at the word authentic, I get it. I was originally going to name this ‘Embrace Your Weird’, but some parts of me are positively ordinary and I wanted to share the wacky, mundane and everything in between with the world.
Once I knew this name was a good fit, it got me thinking. Why does the word authentic feel cringy sometimes? Also, what exactly does it mean to live an authentic life and is it even achievable?
Join me as I prune away the lifeless limbs weighing down this glorious fig tree, and attempt to cultivate a space where authenticity can blossom anew.
Defining Authenticity
So, what is authenticity?
It’s a multi-faceted term, but in the realm of psychology, authenticity is about being true to yourself, acting in alignment with your beliefs and values, and living a life that reflects your true identity.
Sounds pretty straightforward, right? But when you dig deeper, it’s not as simple as you may think.
External influences can be incredibly deafening, and erode your identity over time by telling you what you should do, say, wear, eat, think and even feel. Instead, authenticity is about tuning into your wants, needs and intuition to find a path of fulfilment.
When it comes to living an authentic life, I also see it as acknowledging all parts of your human existence, both the joys and the struggles.
It’s okay to feel all the feelings a human is meant to feel, and appreciate all the joys in life while anguishing over things that go wrong. An authentic human experience is about acknowledging all parts of your existence.
Navigating the Cringe Factor
All of this sounds good on the surface, but I have to ask, has the term ‘authentic’ lost its essence? Some people see the term authentic as being cringey. But is that cringe factor because of the word itself or are external influences warping our interpretation of authenticity?
Coming from a marketing background, authenticity was and has always been a hot term. The more authentic we’re told a brand or business should be, the less substance the term itself seems to have.
Too often the term ‘authentic’ has been slapped onto a slogan, website, or a piece of marketing content to lift that piece of commercial fodder up to be something genuine, something real, but more often than not, it’s simply just another piece of marketing content indistinguishable from the rest.
Too often the marketing content is so far removed from the source that there is nothing authentic there at all, particularly for larger brands disconnected long ago from their meagre roots.
The Lack of Authenticity in the World
Beyond marketing, the world can seem more synthetic than authentic too.
Models posing with gaunt stares in magazines and on catwalks, news presents and politicians talking off a script, seemingly disconnected from day-to-day reality, social media posts and clickbait headlines with no substance, designed to draw you in and keep you scrolling into the void. Even aesthetic and photoshopped social media posts with #authentic dampens the term even further.
We have become numb to our own authentic-seeking culture that has in-turn projected the term ‘authentic’ onto everything that is obviously not so. It seems that the overuse and misuse of ‘authentic’ as a marketing buzzword or carefully curated online persona has led many of us to feel sceptical when encountering the word.
Rediscovering Authenticity
So the word ‘authentic’ may have lost its shine, especially because the world around us feels less authentic some days. But there’s plenty of it out there to go around, as long as you know where to look.
I personally really like the ‘Social Media is Fake’ trend on Instagram and TikTok. This is the kind of authenticity and realness I need in my social media feeds and I find it so relatable.
Substack has been another breath of fresh air. Free of ads and promotions and a focus on authentic creators and writers sharing their unique perspectives and vulnerabilities with the world. I am very proud to join those ranks.
Certain social media platforms can provide much-needed spaces for genuine expression and connection, allowing us to peel back the carefully curated layers and see the real, flawed, human experiences underneath.
But beyond the digital world, you can’t beat the connections we make in the real world with people we love and exploring nature, hobbies, interests and activities that spark joy.
Personal Journey to Authenticity
Still not convinced that the world around you isn’t as authentic as you’d like it to be? Well, that doesn’t mean we can’t recapture authenticity in the most genuine sense of the word and reclaim its true meaning in our own lives.
As I watch my kids grow, I see them forming their unique interests and traits. At the tender age of 3 and 1, they are 100% who they are meant to be and are swayed little by external influences. Their uninhibited authenticity is a powerful reminder of the importance of rediscovering and nurturing that genuine self-expression within each of us. I can feel myself trying to find my way back there, to discover my authentic self.
I also see myself and others struggle emotionally with the ups and downs of life and our perception of self, but I’ve come to realise a lot of it comes down to changing our perspective. The way I see it, life isn’t perfect and it’s never going to be. There’s no such thing as perfect. So I try to make the most of the life I have – fun, flaws, failings and all. It’s a conscious effort and something I still try to master.
Practical Steps to Authentic Living
So how can we actively cultivate more authenticity in our lives? Here are some practical steps I’ve come across in my research:
Self-awareness: Observe yourself objectively. Understand your thoughts, feelings, and behaviours.
Mindfulness: Be present in the moment without judgment.
Self-acceptance: Embrace all aspects of yourself.
Explore Your Values: Identify your core values and let them guide you.
Acknowledge Influences: Recognise external pressures and expectations. Separate them from your own innate desires and values.
Courage & Vulnerability: Face fears, embrace vulnerabilities, and step out of your comfort zone when needed.
Emotional Expression: Fully feel and express a wide range of emotions in a healthy way, without judgment.
Self-Compassion: Treat yourself with kindness, understanding that you are human and imperfect.
Conscious Living: Make conscious choices aligned with your authentic self, instead of following the crowd or expectations of others.
Community: Surround yourself with others who can support, understand and accept you as you are.
What Living an Authentic Life Means to Me
That’s a pretty exhaustive list, but I still think a lot of authenticity is subjective and your version of living an authentic life is dependent on your values. My version of living an authentic life will likely look very different to yours. To me, living an authentic life means:
Accepting who I am, flaws and all.
Being honest and vulnerable with myself and others in my inner circle.
Acknowledging that life is finite and incredibly precious.
Being truly present in the moment as much as possible.
Finding time to indulge in creative hobbies that bring me joy.
Making special memories with loved ones and keeping them to look back on in the future.
Acknowledging that life has its ups and downs. Some days are good, some are bad, but that’s okay. That’s just how life goes.
As for my Substack, my goal here is to be genuine in sharing my unique triumphs, struggles and knowledge, along with my personal and authentic view of the world and my life in it. I do this to connect with a community of other like-minded people like you and to explore together what it means to live an authentic life.
My Authentic Living This Week series is dedicated to my personal authentic living journey and I hope it will prompt you to look at your life in reverence too.
Finding Our Way Back to an Authentic Life
Simply knowing more about authenticity isn’t a red pill that will transform your life and your mindset. Rather it’s just a humble message from one human being to another to be true to yourself and not take your life for granted.
Living authentically isn't about achieving some perfect, constant state of enlightenment. It's about embracing all the messy, complicated, ever-evolving facets of your human experience - the joy, the pain, the strengths, the struggles. It's giving yourself permission to shrug off external expectations and societal masks in order to live by your own code.
So is living an authentic life achievable? Absolutely, but I feel like we’ve barely scratched the surface here. There is so much more packed into that word than we could ever cover in one article. It’s a good thing I have created a whole substack that I will fill with authentic stuff for you!
Want to stay updated? consider subscribing for free!
Become Part of the Authentic Living Journey
Interested in embracing an authentic living mindset? Start by taking small steps each day towards living authentically. Remember, authenticity is about being true to yourself and expressing that truth in your actions and interactions with the world. It’s a personal and ongoing process.
If you’d like to be part of a supportive community while taking on that process, let me know in the poll below if you would be interested in being part of a chat thread in Substack where we explore topics around all things authentic.
What does living an authentic life look like to you?
Really appreciated this topic - I think the idea of authenticity is something so many people grapple with
and something that feels hard to talk about because we grew up being told to ‘fit in’ not necessarily stay true to ourselves and even when I thought I was being true to myself I would begin to uncover even more layers of self that made me question everything I knew to be “true” but everyday I feel like I get a little bit closer to meeting my truest essence of self. It takes a lot of courage to stay the path and not give up on living authentically in a world overrun with synthetics.
That's a beautiful mission! I like your project name: simple, yet very straightforward. Because there's nothing more fulfilling than striving for an authentic life.
But authentic evokes fear. When you think and feel differently, when you create new things, when you don't follow the status quo... It implies misunderstanding and rejection. Pretty terrifying.
You wrote about your children, and that made me think about how we did everything so spontaneously in our younger years. Like magic. So authenticity might just be an innate human trait. And it might be possible to re-access it.