Born Authentic
You begin whole.
Expression flows freely.
Needs, emotions, curiosity, appetite, voice, movement all belong.
This no split yet between who you are and how you live.
Your inner language and outer world still speak to each other.
This phase is not naïve innocence.
It is original coherence.
The Narrowing
Gradually, the world asks for edits.
Be quieter.
Be easier.
Be less.
Be more of this.
Less of that.
Here, authenticity and adaptation can no longer fit at the same time.
You begin to translate yourself to survive.
Roles form. Masks appear.
The body holds its breath without being asked.This is where shrinking begins.
The Body Makes Space
What cannot be expressed must be held somewhere.
Feelings are swallowed.
Needs are postponed.
Truth is compressed.
The body becomes the storage unit.
This can show up as chronic pain, weight or inflammation. Autoimmune patterns, fatigue, gut issues, hormonal chaosa, a sense of being “too much” and yet never enough.
Nothing here is random.
The body is doing its best to keep you intact.
The Rocking Point
At some moment, something shifts.
You realise:
“I don’t want to stay here.”
Not through force.
Not through fixing.
But through a subtle rocking.
Sand moves grain by grain.
You start with foundations, not transformations, safety, regulation, gentler inner language, listening instead of overriding.
This is not climbing yet.
It is reclaiming gravity.
Conscious Crossing
You find yourself at the junction again —
but now, with awareness.
You begin to notice the roles you’ve carried.
The masks you learned to wear.
The quiet cost of becoming smaller.
In this noticing, choice appears.
You practice holding
truth alongside belonging,
sensitivity alongside strength,
boundaries alongside connection.
The junction is no longer a place of collapse.
It becomes a threshold.
Embodied Expression
You emerge, not as the person you were before, but as someone integrated.
This is where expressionism begins, your voice carries weight, your body no longer needs to shout through symptoms, your presence becomes your permission
You do not perform authenticity.
You inhabit it.
Life is no longer lived to fit.
It is lived to be felt.