What's an Authentic Choice?

I’ve asked groups to look back on their lives at the kinds of choices they’ve made that are authentic vs. those that have been inauthentic. I then asked them to compare their sets of answers to clarify what makes for an authentic choice. Their answers have been many and varied, including:
• They put me in the flow and take me into joy vs. pushing the river.
• They come from stopping and letting something come through.
• They’re natural and original like breathing.
• They’re based on values and morals.
• They’re congruent with my highest nature.
• They bring love and beauty to others.
• They use my skills.
• They’re live-giving.
• They align my mind, heart and belly.
• They honor the values of others, including non-human others.
• They’re more heart than head.
• They’re passionate.
• They’re in alignment with what’s internally true, based on my mind, heart and belly. In contrast, they are not based on cultural norms. Making these choices may result in feeling awkward in unsupportive environments. (Being authentic requires knowing how we’re different from cultural norms.)
• They don’t require knowing why we want or don’t want to do something.

While these answers ring reasonable and true, I believe that authentic choices not only align with what’s true in my mind, heart and belly, but they also take into account the surrounding environment. Without necessarily adhering to cultural norms, they include an awareness of and accounting for what’s happening culturally. They include awareness of and accounting for what’s happening beyond what can be sensed through our eyes, ears, skin, nose and taste buds. They include not only what happened in the past, but what the future holds. In other words, authentic choices are made inside a larger context.

This does not mean that when we make an authentic choice, we know all the factors, visible and invisible, that go into our choices. I agree with the last bullet above where authentic choices don’t require knowing why we want or don’t want to do something. Yet, the most authentic choices are felt to be unarguably true deep within our bones.

I believe that authentic choices can only come from authentic presence, In future blogs, I want to explore how do we cultivate that kind of presence.