The Authenticity Center

12/19/2025

Offering a shortened vision board workshop for teens at The Confidence Campaign of Acadiana!

🌟 TEEN GIRLS, THIS ONE IS FOR YOU! 🌟
We’re SO excited to partner with The Authenticity Centerto bring you our Dream It & Do It Vision Board Workshop! 🎨💖

If you’ve got BIG dreams, bold goals, and a bright future ahead of you… this day is your chance to create it, see it, and BELIEVE IT! ✨

📅 Monday, January 19, 2026
⏰ 8:30 AM – 12:00 PM
📍 InspireHer Center | 1424 St. John St., Lafayette, LA
👧 For Teen Girls Ages 13–17
💸 Only $35 – ALL supplies + snacks included! 🙌

Expect vision boarding, creativity, empowerment, laughter… and a space where girls can dream out loud and DO something amazing with those dreams! 💪💗

🎟 Register here: https://givebutter.com/oHLqjZ

Spots are limited — grab your seat and let’s create some MAGIC together! ✨

12/19/2025

Most time-management advice tells you how to fit everything in.

But true effectiveness isn’t about doing more— it’s about choosing what actually deserves your time, energy, and presence.

When you say yes to everything, you quietly say no to yourself.

At The Authenticity Center, we help you practice a different rhythm—
one where your choices honor your values,
your boundaries support your wellbeing,
and your time reflects what matters most.

What’s one thing you want to intentionally protect time for this season?

12/16/2025

The holiday season can pull us in a hundred directions at once...and when that happens, our bodies often become something we push through rather than something we listen to.

Embodiment invites us back home to ourselves.

It reminds us that our body is not an object to manage, it’s the subject of our experience.
Our guide.
Our first source of wisdom.

If life feels full, fast, or overwhelming right now, pause long enough to check in.

1. Being grounded takes effort. If you really looked at your calendar, you could see it’s always busy! The difference between feeling the joy, the passion, and the comfort within busy seasons is a sense of grounding within yourself.

2. Busy seasons can keep us frantic, overwhelmed, and feeling lonely. That can easily translate to “I have no one”. Taking time to identify those who DO know you well will help.

3. There is always something within us or about us that needs protecting. When working to be embodied during a busy season, it is helpful to know what those things are.

4. Both now and future you will appreciate the effort to know what it is you need! Your brain needs the practice, the effort and the change when it comes to support for later.

Your body is already communicating with you. Your only job is to get curious.

What is your body trying to tell you?

Swipe for simple practices to reconnect with yourself this season. 💛

12/11/2025

Sometimes, an emoji says it best!

Just doing a quick holiday mental health check in, friends.

How are we doing? It’s easy to let the expectations of the season take over. This is your reminder that no matter how you’re feeling this very moment, YOU can take steps toward mental and emotional health:

🛟 Practice self-compassion
🛟 Seek out counseling or support from friends
🛟 Write a list of what is in and out of your control
🛟 Enforce a baby boundary for yourself

It all starts with you knowing what you're experiencing and what you need. And then going back to those actions, over and over again in every season.

You got this, friend!
✌️❤️

12/09/2025

The holidays are not always happy. I personally know many folks currently experiencing the hardest holidays of their lives. Sharing my thoughts on grief in the attached blog. I reflected on it again after my mom passed away a couple years ago, to see if the insights still resonated. They do.

I hope it brings someone comfort, or insight if you're trying to bring comfort to someone else. 💙
~ Melissa Bowen

https://www.theauthenticitycenter.com/post/grieving-happy-holidays

12/08/2025

Based on NAMI research, the average person waits 11 years to seek help after the first signs of a mental health struggle.

Eleven years of pushing through.
Eleven years of telling ourselves we’re fine.
Eleven years of taking care of everyone else first.

You don’t have to carry it that long.

You don’t have to “go it alone.”
And you’re not supposed to have it all together.

Don’t become part of the statistic. Prioritize your mental health.

12/04/2025

✨ Ready to make 2026 your most intentional, purposeful year yet? ✨

Say goodbye to autopilot and overwhelm — and hello to clarity, direction, and real momentum.

At Life By Design, we’re more than a vision-board workshop.

You'll have space to:
• Dream big and define exactly what you want.
• Build a mindset for success.
• Create clear, smart action steps.
• Anticipate obstacles so you stay on track (cause you know life can throw curveballs).

📅 When: January 10, 2026 | 9:00 AM–2:00 PM
📍 Where: UL Student Union, Louisiane Room — Lafayette, LA
💵 Early bird / deposit option available. Lunch is included.
👉 Spots are limited — claim yours now! (link in bio)

https://melissabowen.kartra.com/page/lifebydesign

12/03/2025

🌿 NEW EPISODE: Gap Brain → Gain Brain (Thanksgiving Edition) with Dawn Bouillion, Dottie Griffin and Ashley Woodard, of Embrace Your Brave
✨ Not That Girl Anymore Podcast

As we head into Thanksgiving, I want to offer you something gentle and grounding — something you can actually carry into the holiday with you.

Most of us live in Gap Brain without even realizing it:
➡️ focusing on what isn’t healed
➡️ what we haven’t accomplished
➡️ who hasn’t shown up
➡️ how far we still have to go
➡️ everything that feels like “not enough”

Gap Brain is survival mode. It’s the part of us that was trained to scan for danger instead of goodness.

But there’s another way of being — and this is what this week’s episode is all about:

✨ Gain Brain
➡️ seeing how far you’ve come
➡️ honoring the healing you’ve fought for
➡️ noticing the small wins
➡️ celebrating your resilience
➡️ holding gratitude for the tiny, quiet ways you’re becoming new

This Thanksgiving, I invite you to make the shift to Gain Brain.
Not bypassing your pain.
Not pretending everything is easy.
But remembering you are not who you used to be.

You’ve grown.
You’re healing.
You’ve survived things you never thought you’d make it through.
And you’re becoming more you every single day.

🧡 Listen to the new episode and let it ground you before the holiday.

https://not-that-girl-anymore.captivate.fm/listen

It’s a reminder that gratitude isn’t about perfection — it’s about presence.
It’s about choosing to see the gain, even when the gap tries to speak louder.

You matter.
Your healing matters.
Your progress matters.
And I’m grateful to be on this journey with you.

Let’s celebrate together how far we’ve come!

Quickly and easily listen and subscribe to Not That Girl Anymore for free in your podcast app of choice.

11/27/2025

Gratitude isn’t about pretending everything’s perfect.

It’s about pausing long enough to notice what matters most.

Today, we’re thankful for connection, growth, and the beautiful way gratitude softens even the hardest seasons.

Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at The Authenticity Center. We are truly grateful for the opportunity to serve and support you. 🧡

11/20/2025

Sometimes the hardest part isn’t in the NO — it’s trusting that the “YES” waiting on the other side matters more. 🫶

Protect your time. Protect your peace.

What’s something essential you want to make more room for this season?

11/19/2025

🎉Workshop THIS FRIDAY! 🎉 Becca teaches us how to handle the holiday stress, so we can have more comfort and joy!

Register Below 👇

The most beautiful time of the year is nearly here!
And so is the most stressful.

Between family expectations, packed schedules, and big emotions, it’s easy to lose your sense of peace.

Becca’s pop-up workshop is designed to help you slow down, breathe, and respond with intention...not just react.

Reaction. Response. Recovery.
🗓 Nov 21
🕛 12:00–1:30 PM
💻 Zoom
💲 $25

Let this be a gentle reset before the holiday whirlwind begins.

What part of the holiday season tends to stress you out the most?

11/17/2025

Healing doesn’t mean the past disappears. It means the past no longer controls you.

Sometimes healing looks like tears falling in a safe space.

Sometimes it looks like laughter breaking through after a long season of heaviness.

But so often, it’s quiet.

💛 You notice you respond differently.
💛 You have more compassion for yourself.
💛 You pause instead of spiral.
💛 You soften instead of shut down.

Healing is rarely loud,
but it is always powerful.