The Challenge

What I'm doing:

I am compiling a list of all of the moments in my life - happy, sad, angry, etc... - where I felt genuinely myself, and completely unashamed of that fact. The most important part of this for me, is that in these moments, I was not wearing the mask that I so often wore to hide my true self. Looking back to these moments has made me begin to redefine who I am as a person, and what I want out of life.

Once I have come up with these moments, I will recreate them in comic form. I'll try to be funny, but I can't promise you won't groan after the 20th tearable pun in a row. I am hoping that these Genuine Me comics only make up a tiny fraction of this blog, because while those are mostly just for my own self-improvement, I am here to help others too! And that's where YOU come in.

Coming up with these Genuine Me moments is a way that I have learned to work on my own mental health, specifically my depression and anxiety.


What you can do:

Here is my challenge to you; I want you to spend some time - it could be 10 minutes, an hour, or a week - looking back on your life to find the moments when you felt the most genuinely yourself. You can do this with the intent of rediscovering who you are, like myself, or you can just reminisce in those meaningful times of your life.

Once you have done that, you might think to yourself, wait, this is way too personal/embarrassing/whatever for me to share it with the world! And that is totally fine; this exercise is for you, not me and not anyone else. Now if you didn't think that, then you might want to share your experience with others who are doing the same. To do that, just go to the Contact Me page for information about how to submit a story, and I will work with you to publish your very own Genuinely You comic (can be drawn by you, me, or anyone else you want and who is willing)!

If you aren't interested in coming up with your own Genuine You moments, don't worry, you can still help the cause by spreading the word! Just post on your favorite social media site with #GenuineYou to help out. I am on Twitter @FindTheGenuineU, so feel free to tweet @ me there.