I recently found myself confronted with a challenging situation. I was having a conversation with someone I didn’t know very well and I said my friend Priscilla had been staying with me for a while as part of her couch-surfing, spiritual journey.

‘What does she do?’ he asked.

‘She’s a healer,’ I said.

‘What do you mean a healer?’

As I explained a little about Priscilla – she is a cranio-sacral practitioner and a spiritual healer, I could see his mind struggling to comprehend my words.

‘Do you mean like crystal skulls and things?’ he asked.

‘Um, not quite.’

Our conversation progressed with me eventually saying, ‘You know I’m like that too, right? I’m a psychic.’

The look on his face was pretty interesting.

At that point, our conversation could have gone downhill. You see, this man only knew me as a university tutor and freelancer. He had no understanding of this other part of me and didn’t know what to do. For a moment or two, I thought he might try to laugh it off. He came pretty close. So I sat there to see what would happen next.

I also experienced a feeling I haven’t had for a while and it was something close to fear – fear of not being accepted for who I am.

I’ve become pretty good at being open about my ‘extra gifts’ for a while now. Usually people are incredibly open and curiosity is their first point of call. But still there are moments when I’m not sure how people are going to react and that snaky fear of judgement sneaks its head out.

Fortunately, curiosity won the day. The man didn’t laugh and my fears abated.

It’s a challenge to be your true self and live an authentic life. People will understand life based own perspectives and experiences and your choices may challenge where they’re coming from. That can be uncomfortable.

But if you’re going to live your truth and walk your soul’s path, then you have to be honest about who you are and know that even if others judge you, it doesn’t really matter. The most important thing is that you are being true to yourself.