Authenticity: Vital For Health

[Image 1] Artwork, Thalia Black, mixed media on paper

I was recently listening to the insightful physician, Dr. Gabor Maté, being interviewed by the brilliant podcast host and creator of The Diary of A CEO, Steven Bartlett, (whose voice is hauntingly like the actor Jude Law) as they discussed the effects of childhood traumas on adult health.

Their discussion was fascinating, but about halfway through the interview I was hearing a very familiar tune, how important authenticity is to our health and well-being and I thought, “I’d like to add my voice to this discussion!”

**if you’re interested in listening to the interview, I’ll add the link to the end of this entry.

One of Gabor Maté’s most interesting points, at least from my perspective, was the relationship between trauma, our subconscious minds, and our health. Of course, he’s not the first person to point this out and the idea isn’t novel. Chinese and Ayurvedic practitioners have been operating under this conclusion for thousands of years.

Even with my limited knowledge of medicine and scientific advancements associated with this phenomenon, I had created, of my own accord, a process of emotional mapping that helped me to pinpoint the problem areas in my body and associate them with emotional causation. 

However, despite the topic’s unoriginality, he added his own experience and insights into the mix and I found his perspective on the effects of authenticity on trauma enlightening and validating.

Why Authenticity Matters

As someone who feels a deep connection between my own emotional state and physical health, his thoughts on the most up to date scientific research and those practicing medicine, like himself, both confirmed my suspicions that my current health-related issues are, most likely, associated with stress from trauma.

But the research and Maté’s personal findings, also validated my claims that authenticity is key in both overcoming survival-based trauma and in learning to rise above a survivor-based existence to a plane of transcendent thriving that is devoid of competition, social bullying, and the destructive nature of mass-thought.

Here, I’d like to take a slight detour from Maté and Bartlett’s interview to, like I said, add my own voice to this conversation from the perspective of a creative brand mentor and Anthropology student, to lend even greater support to this idea that authenticity is key in healing trauma, but also in improving overall health and well-being in society at large, and within individuals themselves.

A study on propaganda

In college, I was able to reinforce my years of brand mentorship with research on the harmful effects of propaganda-based branding that has, not surprisingly, been taking place for thousands of years.

Below, are a few basic thoughts on the subject that I’m sure are not by any means new, but, in my opinion, are very interesting and not discussed enough and that makes them worth mentioning.

Generally speaking, propaganda campaigns promote and encourage group-thought through social bullying and alienation tactics, like “If you’re not with us, you’re against us” and if you’re against what is collectively approved of, you will be, at the very least, socially rejected, and therefore, isolated from the basic human need of acceptance.

Certainly, we have observed effects of propaganda that have taken this notion of social rejection to extreme and horrible levels, even genocidal levels, but today, I’m focusing on the more common and less devastating, but still destructive, forms.

The fear associated with social alienation and rejection cause a number of emotional responses, the most prominent is stress, or what we commonly call the fight or flight mechanism, which inadvertently opens a person up to spiritual and emotional influence.

Meaning that when you’re stress is high, you are more vulnerable to peer and social pressure to surrender values and freedoms. I call this value-shifting.

The problem with propaganda and group-think

Value-shifting is when one becomes defenseless against emotional or physical manipulation because of fear and/or stress, and your sense of self and the unique values associated with your identity and authenticity are inadvertently replaced with fear-based, inconsistent and tractable or changing values that subvert your individualistic tendencies for a more generic and easily controlled and mollified state of being.

To put it more plainly, when one is under high levels of stress or fear they are more willing to give up their individual rights and authentic ideals to an outside force, typically a person (or people) they believe hold the power to relieve their stress and suffering.

Under such pressure, one will relinquish sovereign rights to something or someone outside of themselves, and that co-dependent surrendering alters the shape of one’s identity.

When you give power away to someone else you also have to suppress or relinquish your authentic values, principles, and beliefs to do so.

Negative Effects of Stress on Authenticity

In essence, when you are highly stressed or in a state of emotional duress, you become more malleable and moldable, your values become highly vulnerable to change, and like a fish swimming in a school, you are more likely to be directed by group-thought rather than your own ideals, identity, and experiences.

For example, a child who is subject to a raging parent’s unreasonable, yet imperialistic control, may want to defend themselves against the tyranny, they may even feel innately that it is right to do so.

Yet, in highly emotionally-charged moments where fear is prevalent, a child will most often stifle their instinctual defensive tendencies and favor more pragmatic approaches, like absolute obedience and acquiescence, even if the parent’s demands are in direct contrast to the child’s nature, safety, and values.

We see a similar reaction in times of war. Masses of people will surrender their individual values for powerful social agendas they believe will relieve them of suffering, like many did during Hitler’s campaign against the Jews.

Maté, who is Jewish and lost home and certain family members to the Nazi genocide, as well as Bartlett, both shared in the interview mentioned above their own experiences with this tendency of value-shifting as they described how highly stressful moments in their lives subverted their natural and inherent identities, and instead, shaped new perspectives of self that made them more dependent on social acceptance and recognition.

Who hasn’t felt stress-induced peer pressure?

I know I have, as a child and as an adult, and many of those experiences were traumatic and were occurring during the most influential years of my brain development. Those experiences deeply affected my capacity to connect with or express my individual identity, and my health suffered as a result.

The recent pandemic also offers us ample examples of social reactions to stress, propaganda, highly emotionally-charged interactions on social media, and the value-shifting that can and does occur when fear is driving the social bus.

Propaganda in the form of fear-based social pressure seeks to challenge and change authentic preferences, ideals, and belief systems because mass-consensus under the guise of the greater good allows those in power to propagate their agendas with little to no resistance.

When people surrender their authenticity, they are easier to control.

The Most Important Discussion We Can & Should Be Having

Although this perspective on propaganda and branding reek of crazy conspiracy theories, this kind of social manipulation is a well-documented fact.

We see it in all areas of social life from how abusive adults maintain control over so-called loved ones or even when 6th grade girls use identical tactics to tear down someone they see as threatening to their staunch social orders.

Losing one’s authenticity is, in my opinion, the most important discussion on propaganda, freedom of speech, abuse in all of its forms, and social media bullying that we can and should be having.

It is vital that we comprehend the cost of allowing ourselves to surrender our values and individualism, even when one is emotionally peaked by stress in any of its forms—anger, fear, doubt, etc.

To bring this conversation back to our individual health and well-being, if authenticity is a major part of our body’s ability to heal, it is also a vital source of healing for society as well.

As we learn to be authentic and take accountability for our unique health and well-being, in all of areas of our lives, we are less likely to become vulnerable to extreme thinking and behavior that is dictated by harmful and negative social or peer agendas.

Overcoming Trauma With Greater Authenticity

Trauma-induced, chronic stress is, as Gabor Maté affirms, an almost universal human experience, and it doesn’t take much social pressure to raise those levels of stress to the point of fight or flight making the majority of people prone to value-shifting and social manipulation and control, not to mention illness.

How can we reinforce our authentic self against vulnerability and attack, even when we are exposed to trauma?

How to regain your lost authenticity

First, we must realize that survival-based trauma and all that is wrapped up in it is unavoidable, especially when we’re children. Everyone, as Maté affirmed, is prone to experience some sort of identity-deforming trauma.

Next, it is of paramount importance that one reconnects with one’s authentic self and relearns how to independently govern and nurture their own health and happiness.

Maté, like many experts, myself included, suggest getting to know one’s passions, gifts, and preferences, and then work daily to make them a formidable part of one’s life.

For example, explore what you like and develop creative hobbies. Writing, Maté explains, was something he had been drawn to, but hadn’t explored until he was older, and that exploration helped unlock an important way of expressing his innate gifts and learned skills.

From my perspective as a brand mentor and identity coach, spending time with oneself each day in the form of self-exploration and discovery is key to healing the detachment from the authentic self. That is how I healed much of the trauma I experienced, through daily self-exploration practices.

Knowing the importance of discovering one’s authenticity is why I spend so much of my time creating seemingly frivolous forms of self-exploration for myself and others, like StyleScapes, retreats, and the Explorations on my website.

When seeking out the best and most important aspects of self, it shouldn’t be a horrible chore. In fact, if it is, you will most likely give up on it. Make it fun, and it will last.

Finally, feel validated in the now understood scientific fact that authenticity is more than a resource for creativity.

Your individual identity makes you a valuable and vital force for good in this world. The most dangerous thing we can do as humans is surrender our individual values, morals, beliefs, and gifts to a nameless, faceless, mass-identity.

You being you protects and defends the world against tyranny.

Conclusion

According to Gabor Maté and the scientific data he cited, your health and well-being is, in part, dependent on your ability to be authentic. But more than that, freedom and societal health and well-being is also dependent on our individuality and authentic values and perspectives.

Synergy is only possible when two or more sovereign, creative, self-assured individuals come together with a common goal. Following the masses is not synergy. Creation does not happen when people are being led around on leashes of social anxiety.

You matter, and your authentic voice needs to be heard.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the interview and the ramifications of authenticity on health and society at large.

Definitely, leave your thoughts in the comments below, and as always, remember to keep them respectful in order to promote sovereign and authentic thought and communication.

With love.

Resources:

Gabor Mate: The Childhood Lie That’s Ruining All Of Our Lives. | E193 | 1:59:37

Watch on YouTube

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