Becoming authentic, then, isn’t just about revealing your true self to others, it is about learning to love and accept yourself as you are. It is about discovering what you love in life, what nurtures your mind, body and soul and having the conviction to pursue those things.

Until you can accept who you are and value yourself deeply enough to bring your true, authentic self to others, you will experience an incongruence between your values and your actions.

The HPA axis is associated with our response to stress and the initiation of our “fight or flight” response. It is suggested that dysregulation of a mother’s HPA axis may affect the developing fetal brain15 and a dysregulated HPA axis is also more common in people with autism16.