5 Ways to Awaken Your Authentic Self and Set Your Voice Free from Doubt

One of the most important journeys you will ever make is from the inauthenticity to your authentic self. The more you work at just being yourself, the more you’ll feel a deeper sense of purpose and significance in your own life and in the world.

For artists and musicians, it is important when carving your path in the world to reach those deeper layers of yourself to get your authentic voice into your work. Without it, you are sitting up on the surface too much, not allowing for your deeper parts to be heard.

The best artists have learned how to tap this part of themselves and put it into their work.

Here is an example of artists (and songwriters) whose authenticity is deeply connected to their work: Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Nick Cave, Adele, Brandi Carlile, John Mayer, Nirvana, Foo Fighters (Dave Grohl), Sara Bareilles, Radiohead, David Bowie, Stevie Nicks, Chrissie Hynde (Pretenders), Dolly Parton, just to name a few.

Being authentic in your work is about being more true to your creative soul. To who you really are. In your songwriting an example would be to say what you really mean instead of what you think people want to hear.

In our work with artists have a process for helping people find the deeper more authentic parts of themselves, freeing them from anxiety and self-doubt. They emerge, freer, clearer about who they are, what they have to say and what they have to bring. It’s pure magic really. We call it alchemy. Turning lead into gold. Turning dreams into reality.

We start the process in The Artist Alchemy Sessions, an intimate journey of self-discovery, reconnection and transformation. A private session experience with me where you emerge renewed and on course for your music.

Click here for more info:

And then we go deeper into the songwriting process where we teach you to write with your authentic voice in our Signature Songwriting Circle that we hold throughout the year.

How do we become more authentic?

Artists, of any kind, need experiences to find it. But many artists and musicians have few places to truly develop and incubate. Social media has stolen from artists today. It steals time from the artists’ creations. In the rush to market, artists can lose valuable ground in making great art, and end up releasing material that doesn’t reach its full potential, that is half baked.

We need time and space to find this inner well. We have to go in to find it. And that requires taking the time to know ourselves.

As a singer, songwriter, recording and performing artist myself, I always longed for more creative processes for us. The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron was a bible for me as an artist. Voice lessons, performance classes, acting class, dance lessons, appointments with my therapist, artist dates – they all fed my artist heart. As I became a professional, I longed for bandmates and producers to create with, and longed for retreat-like settings to turn out the world and immerse myself into my art.

I am always focused on developing creative processes for musicians and music artists. It’s something I love to do.

Here are some ways to awaken your authentic voice and remove the voice of fear and doubt:

1. Using your life experience as the canvas

Try writing from real-life experiences. Real-life experiences, especially one’s close to the bone have more charge in them – more electricity. You don’t have to tell the literal story, but the story should be in the background for you as a writer to draw from.

Throughout the year we have workshops on songwriting and we have a lyric workshop we give that addresses the power of the word and writing authentic lyrics. We have one coming up on Writing Authentic Lyrics: The Power of the Written Word: Approaches, Styles and Perspectives.

For more information, stay tuned!

2. Get vulnerable in your songwriting

Vulnerability and honesty is your superpower as a writer. Unless of cours,e you want to be a meaningless pop star (then this blog most likely isn’t for you). But good luck with that, because the world is changing, celebrity culture is dying, and people want meaning. As our values change being authentic will be more important.

3. Personal growth

Spend time on personal growth. Stop measuring, evaluating yourself against others. Get to know yourself. Go more in the direction of who you really are and what you love.

For example, if you love being alone, spend more time alone and stop beating yourself up for it. Just accept that part of yourself. When you can do that, you will naturally go in the direction of what is natural to you and step into the flow of your intuition. When you go against yourself or your instincts to hold up an image of yourself, it tends to break you down and weaken your feelings about yourself.

Study personal growth. Read self-help books, videos, documentaries. Surround yourself with it. It will serve your creative pursuits ten-fold.

4. Creative time

All creatives need creative time to nurture their art. But with our busy lives, it can often go on the back burner. Creating pockets of time to explore your creativity will help you to awaken your talents. I recommend scheduling a private solo writing retreat where you can dive into your creativity uninterrupted. Or if you can’t get away for a week, schedule an uninterrupted afternoon or an hour where you can get it. More regularly scheduled creative time helps to open up your creativity and awaken your authentic self.

5. Write down your fears and doubts

Make a list of your fears and doubts. Don’t overthink it, or judge it. This is just an exercise. Next to each fear and doubt, write its opposite. Something you can do or think to counteract each fear or doubt on your list. Every time it arises, you now have a new reaction to take its place. Baby steps.

Never doubt that your authentic self is the part of you that is always there. It just settles underneath the surface and sometimes under layers and layers of life. Like the Princess and the Pea sleeping upon many mattresses, we all feel the pea whether we are conscious of it or not. Becoming aware, helps us return to our authentic self – our innate birthright.

To take a deeper dive into the experience of awakening your authentic self in your songs, come join our Signature Songwriting Circle.

In my Signature Songwriting Circle we teach artists the power of writing from their life experiences resulting in emotionally compelling songs laced with their authenticity. We find that when a real-life experience is at the core of the concept it holds more relatability and more emotion for the artist – resulting in more emotional experience for the listener.