Authentic: An Evolution of Meaning Tied to the Evolution of Self
What does it mean to be authentic? When I chose the word “Authentic” to be my Word of The Year at the beginning of 2026, I took the task too lightly, in retrospect. At the time, I had only ever contemplated what authentic would mean from a simplified perspective. One that saw the epitome of authenticity as being genuine or real and when applied to ourselves – becoming more aware of our own values and having unshakeable confidence in them.
This year challenged my commitment to the Word of The Year practice. With this practice, I select a new word each year and throughout the year, I evaluate how well I have integrated its meaning into my rituals. The challenge posed this year was because the word authentic turns out to mean a whole lot more than simply gaining clarity about yourself and standing your ground about it. I learned that being authentic includes connecting with the deepest, truest parts of ourselves – beyond the programming, beyond the coping mechanisms we put in place – and honoring ourselves by choosing ourselves over the comfort of others, even when it seems unimaginable. I also learned that this can come with a heavy price – the cost of losing the very foundation you constructed your entire world upon.
Understanding a word and having the lived experience of said word are two completely different experiences. I suppose it’s like hearing how fun the waterslide park is from a friend. You know what fun means, but the meaning of fun is tied directly to your own experience with it. And then you go to the waterslide park yourself and create your own experience. Now you can apply your own definition of fun to the experience.
The events that unfolded following the clarity I gained this year aren’t as important as the lessons I learned. Building a life upon a foundation that has cracks all throughout it will never last as long as you hope it does. Once the foundational cracks become apparent, you have the choice to either address the cracks or ignore them like you always have and hope for the best. This time, I chose different. I chose difficult. I chose to call out the foundational cracks. I chose myself. Even if it meant being blamed, shamed and called all the names. Being authentic requires the kind of courage only a seasoned soul can muster because the clarity gained creates a responsibility that is hard to ignore for the soul that’s here to grow. And once the responsibility is felt, it cannot be unfelt.
Honoring my value, my boundaries and my peace cost me the role I played for way too long – the peacekeeper. I was a version of myself everyone was happy to accept because I didn’t require them to question their own performance. As I enforced my boundaries, the shots fired, but over time, my peace grew and so did my heart. I could almost feel my soul sigh in relief and quietly whisper, “She finally did it. She chose herself.” And that felt like a soul milestone, a life graduation, a threshold into a new timeline.
I once heard someone say that when you finally put up healthy boundaries for yourself, those that had been taking advantage of you all along will be triggered. I find this statement to be painfully accurate. Part of living authentically is integrating the wisdom you have acquired to redefine your boundaries as necessary and then enforcing them when needed. The other part of this is allowing that which is not aligned with you to fall away. That includes people, places and things. And I think most importantly, this calls for bold action to follow what truly excites you. Even if the world or your social circle thinks it’s weird, wild or nonsense. From my own experience, the meaning of Authentic now includes:
- Gaining and integrating acquired wisdom
- Redefining boundaries as necessary and enforcing them as needed
- Allowing unaligned people, places and things to fall away
- Following what truly excites you
Choosing authenticity isn’t the fast path. It’s certainly not the easy path. But it is the one that calls to us our entire lives, hoping one day we’ll listen and choose ourselves, our peace, and our excitement over the comfort and performance of others.
What has your journey to authenticity felt like?