May 25, 1998

Chakra: Rekindling Our Authenticity
Therese Rowley, Ph.D. - CEO Consultants

Who are we when we are authentic? And, how does our being inauthentic affect our mind, body and spirit? "I pray a lot in tight situations," Therese Rowley told the ODN/C participants Thursday night. It's a pleasure to be completely open about the work I do with clients. Close your eyes; tune in. Later she told us she'd prayed regularly for the last twenty years; although her clients don't necessarily know it. OD consultants are closet ministers. We focus on values; stand up for the ethics and for authenticity.

An authentic person acts on her/his own authority, according to Webster's. Authority, which come from the same Latin root, means one who causes to grow. Ergo, when we are authentic, we act on our own authority to cause ourselves to grow.

Our clients count on us to model authenticity. In too many corporate environments, they are diverted from being their authentic selves by the perceived need to live up to what other people expect of them. Some of the symptoms include: 1) pretending, 2) the assumption that your reality is greater than mine, 3) acting in ways that are politically smart, or 4) looking good.

The apparent rewards for inauthentic behaviors include: perceived power, immediate gratification, job security, promotion, access to opportunities, avoiding conflict, approval, the ability to manipulate, or get what you think you want. There are costs, or downsides to these rewards. They include stress, lack of trust, lost self-identity in the service of looking good at all costs, pretense, depression, and divisiveness.

The inherent message built into the typical reward structure is you're not OK the way you are. That message sells a lot of toothpaste, mascara, cologne and anti-depressants. We need love, but we act to gain approval instead. We become numb, bland, and boring. Our bodies get sick.

Therese offered the 7,000-year-old Hindu-founded Chakra System as a useful map to diagnose our client's inauthentic behavior, as well as our own. Working in small groups she had us experience how our bodies felt when we visualized ourselves engaged in inauthentic and then authentic behavior.

When a situation becomes intolerable, she said, we tend to become numb. Numbness is the most sophisticated form of denial. Other symptoms to pay attention to include tummy aches, backaches, puffing up. Listen to your body and the messages can be loud and clear.

Hints for staying centered and authentic include: Tell your stories. Listening to others and having them listen to your stories can help you get in touch with yourself, and help others get in touch with themselves. Use meditation to notice your state of being. It often helps to have a teacher to make meditation most effective. A grounding technique to avoid or eliminate your own hysteria is to imagine a cord running from the end of your spine to the center of the earth. It can be an unconscious channel for grounding your feelings.

Dr. Rowley proposes a 21st Century Paradigm of unity, uniqueness and connection. We can respect each other's uniqueness, while affirming that we are all fully connected. That's our work for the coming century. Thank you for the work you do in the world.

- David Jewell