Our Authenticity Requires Freedom from Our Conditioning

Part of freeing ourselves from our conditioning is bringing awareness to it, naming it and understanding the ways in which it is controlling our lives. Often we take the side of our conditioning, actively participating in and defending what is holding us back, ironically enough. It often requires the allowance of unpleasant emotions to come up, which is a big part of the awakening process that many people futilely try to bypass. Sometimes freeing ourselves from our conditioning takes raw emotion like anger and energy like rebellion and activism...being passive doesn't serve this process well.

Jessica Bahr is a writer who writes about subjects she is passionate about, including: gender, conscious relationships, media literacy, healthy sexuality, grounded spirituality and integral psychology. She writes poetry, quotes, essays and articles and has been published by various online publications, including The Good Men Project, Spirit of Maat, DailyCoudt.com, VividLife, Rebelle Society, and Elephant Journal. She recently won the "The Summer of Love" essay contest, hosted by In The Garden Publishing, and is currently working on her first book on the media's impact on gender relations and sexuality.