Chapter 13: Authenticity

There is something in every one of you

that waits and listens for the sound of

the genuine in yourself. It is the only

true guide you will ever have. And 

if you cannot hear it, you will all of

your life spend your days on the ends

of strings that somebody else pulls.

~ Howard Thurman

Authentic means real.

The inner Kid is the source of feeling, honesty, spontaneity, joy, creativity and growth.

Carl Jung wrote,

In every adult there lurks a child, an eternal child, something that is always becoming, is never completed, and calls for unceasing care, attention, and education.  That is the part of the human personality which wants to develop and become whole. [i]

Other writers have echoed Jung’s view of the child as the source of all human authenticity and potential:

Psychologist Margaret Paul writes,

[The inner child] is who we are when we were born, our core self, our natural personality, with all its talent, instinct, intuition and emotion.

Physician and therapist Charles Whitfield writes,

[The inner child is] that part of each of us which is ultimately alive, energetic, creative and fulfilled; it is our Real Self — who we truly are.

Coach and author Barbara Sher:

All the people we call ‘geniuses’ are men and women who somehow escaped having to put that curious, wondering child in themselves to sleep.

And musician and artist Stephen Nachmanovich:

The most potent muse of all is our own inner child. 

I also think of the Kid as the animal part, the part of us that has healthy instinctual reactions to what it experiences.

Occasionally when a client is trying to make a difficult decision, I’ll suggest they visualize each of the two alternatives they face.  Then I ask “What does your stomach want?”  That’s my way of checking in with the Kid.

Usually the stomach tenses when the person thinks of one alternative and relaxes when they think of the other. 

That’s the Kid, voting.

The Kid is that part of us that knows what we really need and isn’t afraid to tell us.

Unfortunately, most of us have been trained not to listen.