Authenticity as Medicine

In this powerful year of transformation, my path through ceremony work has brought me face-to-face with the question: What does it truly mean to live authentically? As a facilitator and a devoted student of the sacred, I’ve come to see authenticity not as a fixed trait, but as a living, breathing practice, a continual becoming.

Guided by the Native American Medicine Wheel, I walk the four directions, Fire (Mind), Air (Spirit), Water (Heart), and Earth (Body) to explore how authenticity and inauthenticity live within me. This is not a theoretical map. It’s one I walk in ceremony, in circle, in my life.

East – Fire – Mind

Authenticity (Light): Clarity of thought, aligned beliefs, courageous truth-telling. The mind serves the soul and speaks with integrity.

Inauthenticity (Shadow): Overthinking, self-deception, people-pleasing, mental control. The mind isolates, disconnected from wholeness.

Where am I honest in my thoughts and words? Where do I speak to be liked or accepted?

For much of my life, I said what I thought others wanted to hear. Ceremony revealed how deeply that habit was rooted in fear—how much my “nice girl” persona was masking the truth of my being. But mind-reading isn’t truth-telling. And when we perform politeness at the expense of truth, it erodes connection.

Through ceremonial work, I’ve learned to speak my truth, not to prove, not to persuade, but to reveal. Now, when I speak from the light of Fire, I feel my words as prayers, offered, not imposed.

South – Air – Spirit

Authenticity (Light): Soul freedom, inspired expression, connection to higher purpose. Spirit moves through with clarity and truth.

Inauthenticity (Shadow): Spiritual bypassing, imitation, performing enlightenment, losing the self in collective dogma.

Am I living my soul’s truth or performing it?

In ceremony, I’ve watched myself shape-shift—trying to be the “right kind” of spiritual, the one people would like and want to be friends with, the one who knows. But behind the roles was a woman afraid to be seen for who she really is.

It took many ceremonies and rounds of surrender to drop the masks. To trust that my soul’s truth, raw and unpolished, was enough. These days, I show up without a script. I walk into circles with presence, not performance most of the time (I am a work IN progress). And in that space, Spirit flows with grace I don’t need to shape or force.

West – Water – Heart

Authenticity (Light): Emotional truth, tenderness, real connection. The heart opens without pretense.

Inauthenticity (Shadow): Emotional shutdown, performance of care, false harmony. The heart hides behind protection.

Where do I allow my feelings to move freely and where do I still guard my heart?

I once believed I was being vulnerable. But in ceremony, I was told, “You’re not actually available.” That landed like a truth dart. I felt so vulnerable, but I was guarded—trapped in a story of unworthiness, convinced love had to be earned and I had not earned it.

That moment was a turning point. It broke me open. Now, I offer love without needing it back. I feel everything, joy, grief, longing and let it move through me without shame. The more available I become, the less “vulnerable” I feel. There is strength in softness. That’s what the waters have taught me.

North – Earth – Body

Authenticity (Light): Embodiment, grounded truth, living in alignment with one’s values. The body becomes a sacred vessel, a compass of wisdom.

Inauthenticity (Shadow): Disembodiment, shame, neglect, or control of the body. The body becomes a battleground instead of a home.

Do I listen to my body’s wisdom or try to escape it?

For years, I blamed my body for my pain. I saw it as the problem, the reason I wasn’t happy. I abused it, ignored its cries, and lived in shame, disconnected and exhausted. My body spoke through fatigue and chronic pain, but I didn’t yet know how to listen.

In ceremony, everything changed.

There came a moment where I had to choose: continue abandoning myself or choose life. I chose life. Since then, I’ve tended to my body not as an object, but as a sacred partner. I listen. I care. I move in gratitude. The ceremonial work taught me that my body holds ancient intelligence, and when I honor it, I walk with deeper presence, integrity, and joy.

Authenticity lives in how we stand, breathe, nourish, and move. In how we say yes or no. My body is no longer something I hide. It is where I come home.

The journey of authenticity is one of return. Through the medicine wheel and through the sacred work of sitting in ceremony, holding space, and being held I’ve come to understand authenticity not as something to attain, but something to remember.

It lives in every part of us:

• In the mind that dares to speak clearly, even when the truth feels hard.

• In the spirit that rises through honesty, not performance.

• In the heart that opens again and again to feel everything.

• And in the body that grounds all of it into being.

This is the path I will continue to walk.This is the magic of transformation.This is the medicine of authenticity. This is the work of becoming me. May your path to yourself bring you great joy and peace.