In 2019 I was working on my book about how we all wear social masks and the dynamics that lead us to act like and then become the false self. Talk about manifesting in the material life: Covid 19 comes along and everyone literally wears masks! Irony?
It is not lost to me that we are conditioned from birth to act in certain ways, acting being the operative word. Parents say: ‘Don’t act that way’. ‘Sit up straight’. ‘Say thank you and please’, etc., etc.
The real you and the real raw me got pushed down, squeezed tight into the shadow while our false self, created by parents and social conditioning become the masks we wear. Time goes on and we believe the false self is our real self, and in the process, we lose our authentic expression in a million ways. How did I know I was to become a radio host when I was told to shut up as a child?
We practice and adopt roles in this play called life. These roles come in the form of archetypes in relationships: wife, husband, mother, or father. They also come in the form of our professions: nurse, doctor, accountant, chef.
And here we are in 2022, wearing the mask, a false persona we wear to comply and please others; and now the surgical mask hides even more: our facial expressions which is our sacred nonverbal language, hiding another layer of our authentic expressions. In the meantime, it is not a stretch to say there is a deep loneliness brewing in the hearts of many.
If everything happens for a reason, then why not use this time of isolating and incubation to dust off that authentic self, crying out for attention? Get to know who you really are, the real you, not the tapped down, watered down, beige version of your personality, but the real one with a big range of loud, noisy, colorful emotional, and creative expressions. Always wanted to paint, but gave it up for practical life? Pick up the brush. Be more of you. The world is waiting and will be better for it. As always, I am here to help.
Originally posted on Medium.com
