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Lessons I Learned When I Started to Live an Authentic Life

The truth is, it is not all sunshine and rainbows as some make it seem. Sometimes it’s an arduous path to living your truth.

Angelica Mendez
6 min readAug 3, 2022
Photo by Japheth Mast on Unsplash

I used to think I lived in an authentic way. I thought that my decisions were my own and that questioning myself was normal, even healthy. That taking into account other’s opinion’s was necessary. Because if you want to live a good life, you have to have everyone like you. No matter what it costs you.

But what I’ve learned over the years is I was living a disingenuous life. Making choices based on other people’s wants and opinions, trying my best to make everyone happy. Creating a false sense of acceptance so that I could feel better about myself. Because if everyone liked me, then that must mean I am worthy of love and acceptance.

Turns out that’s not the case. The love and acceptance that we desperately crave needs to come from within first and foremost. Because if you cannot love and accept yourself, how can you expect others to do the same?

This was a hard pill to swallow. I grieved for the time I lost living a life that wasn’t my own. I grieved for the person I was, that believed I didn’t deserve to be loved. The one afraid of being her true self out of fear…

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Angelica Mendez
Angelica Mendez

Written by Angelica Mendez

I'm sharing my journey, struggles, and transformative life lessons as a 29-year-old on my way to accomplishing my purpose in this life. Join me!

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