In case you missed the Powerful Epiosde on remembering and becoming your Authentic self!

In this episode of the New Ashla Podcast, Michael and Justin dive deep into the transformative power of authenticity, what it really means, why it’s essential for healing, and how it impacts your mental health, relationships, and spiritual growth.

We explore how being true to yourself isn't just about "being real," but about reclaiming your truth after trauma, people-pleasing, and survival mode. You'll learn what authentic connections feel like, how to start practicing authenticity with yourself, and how to gently release the masks you've worn to be accepted. We close with a powerful self-connection exercise to help you come home to yourself. Whether you’re on a healing journey, navigating identity shifts, or just tired of performing this episode offers insight, support, and tools for walking your truth.

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#authenticity, #healing, #selfacceptance, #personalgrowth, #trauma #recovery, #innerchild, #shadowwork, #vulnerability, #emotionalhealth, #spiritualgrowth, #peoplepleasing, #selfinquiry, #mindfulness, #consciousrelationships

Takeaways

• Authenticity is crucial for connection and fulfillment.
• Many people are unaware of their inauthenticity.
• Courage is essential for expressing one's true self.
• Self-expression fosters deeper connections with others.
• Fear often hinders authenticity and self-acceptance.
• Authentic relationships allow for vulnerability and growth.
• The cost of inauthenticity can lead to mental health struggles.
• Generational shifts are changing perceptions of authenticity.
• Practicing self-compassion is vital in the journey to authenticity.
• Engaging in self-reflection helps uncover hidden truths.

Episode Guide

Why can someone questioning your beliefs feel like they’re questioning your worth? When being right becomes part of who you are, even an honest conversation can feel threatening.

Michael and Justin explore how to remain a student of life while holding your convictions. Through the Path of Ashla, personal stories, and some uncomfortable questions, they unpack defensiveness, echo chambers, and the difference between protecting truth and protecting an identity. You’ll leave with a practical way to examine a belief without making being wrong a verdict on your worth.

In this episode

• How beliefs become identity, and certainty starts feeling like safety.
• Justin’s axioms: “There is strength in acknowledging one’s ignorance” and “The student is the best teacher.”
• Discernment, cognitive dissonance, and listening beyond the delivery.
• Recognizing conversational triggers, pausing, and stepping away before discussion becomes combat.

Key takeaways

• You can hold strong values and still examine whether a belief is incomplete.
• Defensiveness can come from fear. Listening helps you understand what someone is protecting, including yourself.
• Being an eternal student means remaining willing to question, practice, and be corrected, whatever your experience or title.

Try this

Write down one strongly held belief. List three ways it might be incomplete or wrong. Sit with the list for a few minutes, then decide whether to keep, refine, or release the belief. Notice which parts activate your need to defend.

Affirmations

I can be wrong and still be whole.
My growth depends on my willingness to update.
Curiosity is stronger than certainty.
I hold my beliefs. My beliefs do not hold me.
The student in me is the freest part of me.

Journal prompts

• What belief did I inherit that I’ve never actually questioned?
• When was the last time I changed my mind about something that mattered? What did it cost me, and what did it give me?
• Where does discernment stop and defensiveness start in me? How would I know the difference in real time?

References mentioned

The Path of Ashla and Justin’s axioms; Socrates on the limits of knowledge; previous New Ashla conversations on mentorship and communication.

Keywords: eternal student, intellectual humility, questioning beliefs, discernment, defensiveness, cognitive dissonance, identity, curiosity, echo chambers, lifelong learning, spiritual growth, Path of Ashla

Connect: Michael Perry | Justin Gates

Follow: TikTok | New Ashla

Listen: The Eternal Student: Letting Go of Being Right

Episode Companion!

What if the future you fear is already shaping the life you are living now?

In The Expectation Trap: Are You Preparing for the Life You Fear?, we explore how fear based expectations quietly become rehearsals. You brace for rejection, betrayal, failure, loss, disappointment, or disaster, and without realizing it, those expectations begin influencing your perception, your choices, your relationships, and the way you move through the world.

This episode is not about pretending everything will work out perfectly or blaming people for painful things that happen to them. It is about recognizing the difference between reality and prediction, between intuition and fear, and between preparing wisely for life and unconsciously living as though the worst has already happened.

Through psychology, Florence Scovel Shinn’s teachings, and the spiritual philosophy of Ashla, we examine how the lesser self can confuse fear with foresight, how perception can shape experience, and how the Greater Self can bring us back to Truth, stillness, and grounded expectancy.

The goal is not to control the future.

It is to stop sacrificing the present to one that has not happened yet.

You do not need certainty about what is coming. You need the awareness, strength, and alignment to meet whatever actually arrives.

Keywords

The Expectation Trap, Are You Preparing for the Life You Fear, fear based expectations, negative expectations, fear of the future, expecting the worst, anxiety about the future, worst case thinking, anticipatory fear, self fulfilling prophecy, perception and reality, fear versus intuition, intuition versus anxiety, emotional forecasting, catastrophizing, limiting beliefs, subconscious expectations, future anxiety, hypervigilance, trauma patterns, self sabotage, spiritual growth, personal growth, self mastery, Greater Self, lesser self, the Force, Way of Ashla, New Ashla, Florence Scovel Shinn, manifestation, spiritual alignment, conscious living, mindset, resilience, uncertainty, trust, faith, grounded expectancy, emotional regulation, fear of rejection, fear of failure, fear of betrayal, fear of loss, present moment awareness, letting go of control, right action, Sacred Ethos, Truth, Integrity, inner peace, spiritual awakening