Ep 67 - Why You Feel Like an Imposter (And How to Actually Fix It)

Most of us have been told to fake it till we make it. And most of us have done it. But every time you put on that version of yourself like a costume, you're confirming to yourself that who you want to be isn't really you. That's imposter syndrome on repeat.

In this episode Monty explains the energetic reason that gap keeps widening, and offers a two-step morning practice to start closing it from the inside. Kim also shares a personal story about lying about her age in her early twenties and what that revealed about the mask she was wearing underneath it all.

Topics covered:

• Why faking it reinforces the belief that your aligned self isn't actually you
• The energetic difference between putting on a persona and radiating from within
• A two-step morning practice from Monty to start integrating that version of yourself
• How the solar plexus holds the mental constructs keeping you stuck

Free Meditation: Meet Your Spirit Guides
Book a Session: Channeled Guidance
Free Channeled Course: SoulBrave
Learn to Channel Course: Spirit Guidance for Beginners
Website: kimcharlson.com
Instagram: @kimcharlson
Youtube: @kimcharlson

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Faking it till you make it is probably the worst advice you've ever been given. And it's not because it doesn't work. It's because every time you do it, you're confirming to yourself that who you want to be isn't actually you. What if the reason you can't become the version of yourself you want to be is because you feel like you're trying it on rather than allowing something you already are to come to the surface? I'm Kim Charlson. I'm the voice channel for Monty. And in today's episode, Monty is going to be sharing with us some channeled guidance on what it means to fake it till you make it, how that impacts us energetically, and a two-step process that you can use to allow yourself to bring that version of yourself that you already are to the surface so you can start living your life the way that you've always desired. So let's hear from Monty on what they have to share. We would like to discuss the concept of faking it till you make it, which is a very human idea of I want to be something else, but I do not feel as though that is accessible to me, so I must play and make believe and fake it. The truth is that for many individuals, as we discussed in our previous episode, when they imagine and visualize and connect with the energy of their most aligned, best version of themselves, the version that they wish to be, it feels as though it is a foreign individual. They have difficulty understanding that that energy is themselves. They are one in the same. But yet, when you are in the visualization, you are in your state and you are viewing your future state as something different. It is this mental barrier that you have constructed of I am here and where I want to go is here, and I must change who I am so radically that that identity of me versus my future self are two entirely different individuals. I must change who I am so radically for me to be that version of myself, it is as if I am talking to a stranger because I don't know how I can be that version of me. That is often that when you complete visualizations, you watch your future self as if you are watching a video, as if you are interacting with them, observing them, not truly understanding that you are already the embodiment of that energy in this moment. That is the mental shift that is required to change, is understanding that future self exists within you in this moment. Yes, you may need to change how you are behaving, how you are thinking, how you are moving through the world, but underneath all of those actions is the same essence in this moment, now, as the version of you that you want to be. There is no change in that essence of yourself. It is already present in you. So when you say that you need to fake it, to make it, to play pretend, you are saying that is not me. I do not identify with that version of myself. It is something foreign, it is a cloak I put on, and if anyone sees beneath that cloak, well they will see underneath I am not the way that I wish to be. I am ugly, I am out of alignment, I am not living the way that I want to be. And so you put on the energy of this other version of you as if you are taking on a cloak, that underneath you are still the same. And yes, this is effective to a certain amount of allowing you to wear that energy outside of yourself. It is a construction, in a way, energetically speaking, of a layer of energetic protection around you that says, the world shall see me in this way, I shall be in this energy. No one will see beneath it. Much in the same way as an actor. You see what is on the outside of how they are acting, behaving, maybe even thinking, but underneath is the actor themselves, the essence that is different. The key to this understanding, however, is that with this still comes the mental idea that you and your essence is different than this essence of this concept of playing pretend, that it is trying it on, seeing if you like it, and then going back to the state that you have been in. Yes, there is a certain amount of interaction. You can learn to absorb that energy, to become that identity. But then there will always be that separation at certain points. You will regress back into the version of yourself that you were when you put on the cloak. So instead of resorting to this idea of playing pretend, we offer an alternative. It is a bit different in terms of the energy behind it. Rather than constructing a persona in a way that you will behave outwardly while knowing inside you are different, it is allowing the inner essence to radiate out. And we speak on this many times, but we want to give you a technique today from an energetic exercise that you can do. As we have discussed before, you can center into your soul seat just above your heart, as that is the area that is most deeply connected to your soul essence. Every part of you is connected to your soul essence, but in that area, it is the strongest for most individuals to sense and feel. Rather than constructing something externally and putting it on of ideas of who you think you need to be. Rather, we want you to tune into that soul essence and radiate it out, allowing that essence of who you are to instead fill the space of your embodiment. To do this every morning, we want you to tune into that soul essence, to that space, and to ask yourself one very simple question How shall I behave, act, and think today and allow your soul essence to answer that question. You must take time to allow yourself calmness and focus, but it can be just five minutes. The more that you practice this, the easier it will get. It is normal that when you begin doing this, you will receive no answers. So it is only allowing whatever to arise, to arise if there is something to arise in that moment, and accepting that it will come in the appropriate time. If there is nothing in this moment that is okay. It is not for today, but maybe for tomorrow. To allow yourself to listen to this soul energy, and then once you have this answer that it has shared, no matter how small, insignificant, or obvious it may be, it is all of those things because of your current relationship to it. If it is small or insignificant, it is because you need to develop trust with that sole essence of yourself. So it is starting with small and insignificant things so that way you learn you can trust this part of who you are. If it is something that is obvious, then you are already at the stage of integrating this essence, but need to move it out into the world. Often these things that are obvious to ourselves are things we already know and yet we are not doing or acting on or thinking. The next step we would offer is to focus on the solar plexus, as this is the area of mental energy, mental constructs in terms of your embodiment, who you are in this lifetime. And what we would like you to do as well is to envision a light within your solar plexus and cleaning that light, clearing that light, allowing it to become a bright ball of energy to allow it to come to that point of clarity. Noticing any areas that may feel difficult or sticky or like they need attention, placing your hands on your solar plexus and sending it love, allowing yourself to realize any thoughts that come up about who you are, what you believe about yourself, and to let them pass by. Do not engage with these thoughts, merely let them rise to the surface and move on, whether they are good or bad. It does not matter. It is about allowing energy to move freely through this space so that way your soul energy can radiate from this space to change the mental constructs you have to come into deeper alignment with that version of yourself that you want to be, so that way it is no longer something that you mentally think is separate from you, but is you already. We want you, if you are able to, to try to do this exercise at least once per day in these two steps. First, focusing on the soul energy, allowing it to answer the question, and then clearing away anything, bringing in light to the solar plexus, giving it love, allowing it to come into that openness. Doing this for the next 30 days or so as consistently as you can will be a great help to your progress, to allowing yourself to no longer see that identity is something of a cloak, but rather a playful experience of who you already are. We send you the greatest of loves. That is all. What Monty shared in today's channeled message is that every time we are putting on a persona, we are playing, pretend, and allowing ourselves to believe that we are basically putting on this energetic costume, we are confirming to ourselves that the version that we are underneath that is lesser than, that that version of ourselves that we want to become is also something like being a stranger, something that's inaccessible, something that we can only put on and then we take off, but it's not really part of who we are. It's not fully integrated. Monty gave us a two-step process to be able to implement a different way that instead of putting it on as a costume, we're allowing ourselves to center on our own energy and allow that to radiate out. And it seems pretty easy of just taking some time, tuning into that area of the soul seat and asking that area the question every morning: who is it that I need to be? What do I need to think? How do I need to act? How should I behave? And then just allowing that to come up without forcing it of whatever it is and allowing yourself to follow it. And most of the time I've found in using this advice for myself and also for our students that we teach channeling to, that when we do this, it is most obvious information that we already know, but that we're not implementing. A lot of the time, it's small incremental changes that allow us to reveal more of that self that we really are, but that we're not following through on. The second part is really interesting that Monty gave advice that we should focus on the solar plexus. The solar plexus is the energy center that gives rise to the mental body, the energy body of our aura, basically, that is the center of our thinking mind within the physical world. It is a thought process of who we are and how we get to behave in the world that really needs clearing out. It is the mental energy that we are getting stuck in and that we need to clear out that energy within our solar plexus. So when we start to engage with the solar plexus, often we have thoughts start to bubble up of things that we have held on to, concepts of our identity that are actually not true, but that we have internalized. So taking the action then to just bring light into the solar plexus to allow it to clear out, clears out that mental body and that mental weight of who you believe you need to be, which allows you then to begin to take action on those obvious things that you aren't following through on. Because even though it's obvious, you probably have resistance to it for one reason or another. So clearing out that solar plexus energy allows you then to clear out the thought processes that are holding you back because it's incongruous with the identity of who you currently are and who you want to become. Monty recommends doing this for 30 days, and I'm in the process of doing this myself after I channeled this a couple of weeks ago. And it's been interesting to watch the thoughts that come up of who I think I need to be and how those have integrated into my own energy and how those are now coming out. One thought that I had as I was doing this process was when I was in my early 20s, I used to lie about my age quite often. I was running a big marketing agency at the time and wanted to be taken seriously, but age was a big factor in it. And so a lot of the time I would lie and say I was actually 30 instead of 27, 26 years old. I would boost up my age so that way people would be taking me more seriously. But the thing is, now that I'm older and I'm in my late 30s, I know that age has no bearing on whether or not you're good at your job. And it has more to do with how much information you know and how good you are in implementing it and using it as part of your self-identity. So I was putting on this idea of a mask, basically, of that I was someone who was capable because I was older. Meanwhile, underneath that mask, I was quite capable at that point in time. Obviously, I've learned more the older I've gotten and gotten better at the marketing work that I do. But ultimately, it was that I was shameful inside about my age and thinking that I wasn't enough, that my self-identity at that point in time was that I was not good enough. And so therefore, I was even lying outwardly about my age to people when they would ask. This is a more concrete example of the times that we may fake it till we make it, of that by the time I got to 30, people were a little bit confused. Well, I thought you were 30 years ago. No, actually, I wasn't. Thankfully, I had really good clients at that point in time that trusted me and allowed me to fess up to my actual age. But there can be lots of different ways that we are putting on these masks. Maybe not as obvious as lying about something, but maybe it's that we're lying to ourselves. And that is the key of what Monty's message is today. As you're doing this practice and you implement it, you can pick both parts or just one. Both work best, but each part works independently on their own as well to help you. So as you do this practice, you'll start to notice the ways that maybe you have been faking it with yourself, and that underneath that mask, that costume that you've put on, there's actually an even better, more capable, more able to be the version of yourself that you want to be underneath all of that. Thank you so much for joining us for this episode. You can sign up for our email list to be able to receive the newest updates and resources from Monty and me. Thanks so much. We'll see you in the next one.