Art & Badges

Wholehearted living is about engaging in our lives from a place of worthiness. It means cultivating the courage, compassion, and connection to wake up in the morning and think, No matter what gets done and how much is left undone; I am enough.

It’s going to bed at night thinking, Yes, I am imperfect and vulnerable and sometimes afraid, but that doesn’t change the truth that I am also brave and worthy of love and belonging.

Over the past year, we've built an authenticity movement on the blog and I wanted to create a space to honor our work.

We need the momentum and energy of a movement. We need to be surrounded by other authenticity activists who are willing to be imperfect and real. We need to build a community of people who can straddle the truth that we are both afraid and brave (often at the same time).

Choosing authenticity is an act of resistance.

Choosing to live and love with our WholeHearts is an act of defiance.

You’re going to confuse, piss-off, and terrify lots of people – including yourself. One minute you'll pray that the transformation ends, and the next minute you’ll pray that it never ends.

I’m talking about a Wholehearted movement - a movement fueled by the freedom that comes when we stop pretending that everything is okay when it isn’t. A revolution that rises up from our bellies when we find the courage to celebrate those intensely joyful moments even though we’ve convinced ourselves that savoring happiness is inviting disaster.

Right after I wrote the authenticity definition for my academic work, I noticed that I started using it more personally – like a prayer. I thought about tattooing it somewhere, but it would require a lot of space (no comment).

So, I did the next best thing to a tattoo – I created a print-quality definition that I could offer as a free download (a lot of y’all have emailed and asked for this too). We came up with two amazing styles. Both 4X6 designs are on one page. I have one framed in my room and one in my office. You can download yours here!

And, what’s a movement without great art? Just to make it more fun, artists are going to create tributes to the power of authenticity and WholeHearted living and loving. I’ll be offering give-aways on the blog and interviewing the artists. Take a look at some of the art! Click on the image to read more about the artist!