Chris Forte reveals how he made the tough decision to stay authentic in difficult times.
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I always enjoying writing for Good Men Project and when a certain writing prompt touches my heart, I write. What does in a mean to be an authentic man? To be authentic means to be genuine, to be real. To be an authentic man today means to be genuine to our true self.
Practicing spiritual fitness can help you get to such a place. In order to get to one’s true self is getting to know yourself. We must put certain practices in place where we can quiet the mind to get to our heart. We need support from certain holistic practitioners that can help us on our path.
As men, we are supposed to play the role that everything is OK when in truth, it might not be.
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When I was going through this a spiritual mentor told me to hold up my hand. She went on to say that in the middle of my hand the palm is me, and the fingers represent the roles we play—for example, husband, father, boss, employee, son, brother, etc. When we play all these roles we could lose a sense of who we really our true self, our authentic self.
As men, we are supposed to play the role that everything is OK when in truth, it might not be. Here is an example from my life. Since the age of twenty-five I’ve always been an entrepreneur (I’m forty-five today). I have had both success and failure. During the difficult times, I kept the stresses to myself, not sharing them with my former wife. This isn’t being authentic. I thought I was doing the right thing by not having her worry, but in truth, I wasn’t honoring myself nor my former wife.
Being authentic is expressing vulnerability, which I have had to learn through my own mistakes. The commitment to becoming authentic is challenging but is worth the effort. Being authentic is a feeling in your heart that you’re being genuine, even in difficult situations, and whatever the outcome will be. I have found since I have made the commitment to be authentic that my life is more freeing. It’s been a huge leap in loving myself unconditionally and is enhancing my spiritual growth process.
In order for me to get to this authentic place I had to take some brave steps and put my spiritual fitness practice to work.
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I will finish by stating that in order for me to get to this authentic place I had to take some brave steps and put my spiritual fitness practice to work. First, my 17-year marriage was struggling and I wanted to do whatever means necessary to keep it. We both went to counseling, and being authentic to all the readers here, but most importantly to me, I tried my best. The day I filed for divorce in November 2014, I went to my partners and told them I wanted out of the business. I was mentally and emotionally distraught, but I was being authentic. Because of my spiritual fitness practice, which includes taken care of yourself physically, this became the priority.
Well, here we are starting 2016. In October 2015 we launched our spiritual resource center which includes my website, our podcast , and my book to be published later this year.
Many blessings on your journey to living an authentic life.
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Photo: Pexels/jaymantri.com
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