Authenticity, Self-Actualisation, and Liberation: Exploring the Path to Being Fully Alive in your Essential Self.

There’s a lot of talk about authenticity these days. It’s become something of a buzzword, but what does it really mean? Is it just being honest about who you are, or is it something deeper - something closer to freedom? In therapy, we’re not just talking about being “authentic” in the Instagram sense, where you show the world a curated version of your quirks. What we’re really pointing to is an alignment with the self - the essential, unfiltered you - and, in turn, a connection with life itself.

Maslow positioned self-actualisation as the pinnacle of his hierarchy of needs.. Self-actualisation isn’t about achieving external markers of success, like status, possessions, or recognition. Instead, it represents a shift from an external locus of evaluation to an internal one.

This means no longer measuring your worth by what you own, how much money you have, the relationship you are in, how others perceive you etc etc, or any societal benchmarks. It is about aligning with your true values and embodying the truth of who you are. An internal locus of evaluation represents a deep trust in your own truth - an innate sense of value that is not contingent on external validation or circumstances.

This is not about ego-driven pride or narcissism, which depend on external reinforcement to maintain a fragile sense of self-worth. Rather, it is a quiet, grounded knowing - a recognition of your intrinsic worth simply by being. When you are self-actualised, you live from this place of alignment, embodying your truth fully and freely. Your choices, actions, and way of being flow naturally from this inner clarity. You no longer need external approval or material symbols to feel whole. This allows you to move through the world authentically and with purpose, free from the fear of judgment or the need for validation.

Jung spoke about individuation as the process of becoming whole, a psychological integration of all the parts of ourselves - conscious and unconscious. Then there’s the concept of awakening, often linked to spiritual practices, which is about waking up to reality as it is, without the distortions of our own projections.

The thread running through all of these ideas - authenticity, self-actualisation, individuation, awakening - is consciousness. Specifically, it’s about our unconscious becoming more conscious. But what does that mean?

We’re all shaped by the sum of our experiences. Every interaction, every belief we’ve absorbed, every relationship we’ve had - these are all stored somewhere in the psyche. Whether you call it the ego, unconscious, the subconscious, or simply your “stuff,” it’s there, forming the lens through which you see the world. Often, we’re not aware of how much this lens distorts things. It’s like wearing tinted glasses you’ve had on for so long you forget they’re there.

Therapy - or rigorous self-examination, or spiritual practice - can help to clear that lens. It doesn’t erase your past, but it does help you become aware of the way it’s shaped your patterns, your perceptions, and your reactions. And when you see those things clearly, they stop running the show. You’re no longer filtering the present through the distortions of your history.

What’s left when that lens is clear? Presence. Freedom. A connection to the essential self - the part of you that exists beneath all the noise of conditioning and expectation. This is where authenticity lives, and it’s not performative or neatly packaged. It’s raw, unfiltered, alive.

Therapy, when it’s at its best, is about liberation. It’s about creating the space for you to see what’s there, to feel it, and to release it. It’s not about fixing you - because you’re not broken - but about peeling back the layers so you can step into your life with clarity and intention. And it’s not a one-time thing; it’s a process, a commitment to living consciously.

In the end, authenticity is not just a state of being. It’s an act of courage. It’s the willingness to confront what’s stored in the depths of the psyche, to do the work of clearing it out, and to step forward as the person you were always meant to be. That’s liberation. That’s the heart of therapy.

In our journey toward authenticity and self-actualisation, we often encounter internal blockages - what ancient Indian philosophy refers to as “samskaras.” These are mental impressions or psychological imprints formed from past experiences and actions, shaping our current behaviors and thought patterns.

To clear these blockages, we must confront and fully experience the associated pain, a process akin to “sitting in the fire.” This means allowing ourselves to feel deep emotional discomfort without avoidance or repression. Carl Jung aptly stated, “One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.”

Avoidance can take many forms, including some spiritual practices we may use to convince ourselves we are facing ourselves, when in fact there is a bypassing of the deep internal work necessary to confront our history and unprocesed pain. True healing requires intentional engagement with these messy painful parts of ourselves - for their truth and energy to be confronted and allowed to move through us - Energy in Motion - E Motion - emotions exist to be felt, to be acknowledged, experienced, expressed and processed through us and to transform us in so doing. When we have pushed them down, repressed, or deflected or avoided them - they stand in the way of a joyous, authentic life. And how do we know if we've done this..? because echoes of the same patterns and the same feelings and the same experiences happen in different iterations in different relationships and in slightly different configurations.. over and over again.. that is what we call enactments - and that is our indication that we have work to do.. we have detective work to do.. to follow that pattern to its root.. compassionately and to finally feel and to release ourselves from our past.. and from our patterns and step into a new life without these shackles.

As Michael A. Singer notes, “If old energies come back up because you were unable to process them before… Be happy that this samskara, which has been stored down there for all this time, has the opportunity to make it through you.” The real work lies in facing and releasing these old unconscious wounds.

When we allow ourselves to fully experience these unresolved emotions, they no longer remain trapped within us. Avoiding directly facing and feeling the depth of them - otherwise known as repressing them - leads to stagnation, much like food rotting at the bottom of a bin, though this time it's within your psyche / your ego that has rotten old material festering in it that stops you seeing through a clear lens the present moment. Confronting and processing the pain clears this “emotional residue,” enabling us to move forward with greater clarity and internal spaciousness, an openness to the present moment and alignment with the essential self. This frees up your life force or as Jung called it libido - your energy is then reclaimed to be enjoyed to experience your life in real time. What more important work could there be? Perhaps this is what Socrates meant by Know Thyself.. See yourself clearly, feel directly.. this knowing of yourself allows you to be truly alive to the present moment.

It’s noteworthy that humans are the only animals known to shed tears linked to emotional states. This capacity underscores the importance of embracing our emotional experiences as a core aspect of being human. Suppressing these natural responses denies us an essential part of our existence.

If you feel called to start the journey of aligning with your essential self - book a session with me to discuss more.