The Answers Within

Many of us spend large amounts of energy tending to other’s expectations. We wake up in the morning and we pick up our collection of masks. Each mask has its context of use. We have masks for our family, for our neighbours, for other drivers in traffic, for the work place, for different collegues, for friends, for strangers, for those we see as our opponents, and we have a mask for our selves.

Our masks are our own way of «taking care» of others and our selves, no matter if in a positive or negative way. Our first instinct when meeting someone new, is to do our best to be liked. We want to please others. We want them to feel safe and comfortable around us. Even when we are not. Nowadays, the constant attempt to please others has caused a great deal of pain for many, and the same deal of pain is still on hold, waiting to drop, for many others. Social Media has been keeping it on hold, but it will eventually cave in for all of us.

From a very young age, we learn the rules and conventions of the society we live in. These rules and conventions make us conform. Demands and expectations are the structure keeping it all together. And keeping us all together as we struggle to accept differences. Until it does not. Some of us challenge the rules and conventions already in childhood, others later. Some consciously, others unconsciously. We expand the boundaries of understanding of our societies. But we all, both the ones who challenge and the ones who don’t, have our masks on most of the time.

But what happens if we drop our masks? What would that look like? Being our raw selves everywhere. It may sound frightening. In dropping our masks, we wear our feelings right under our skin. We expand our hearts, and feel everything. And we get to know our real selves. It’s a frightening and wonderful journey in which we get to experience life as it is. Just imagine for a minute being yourself in a given situation, the one you normally play pretend, without the fear of being rejected or «cancelled». What a wonderful feeling.

We are all projecting our subconscious onto others at any given time if we are not aware of who we are. And we are reactive. We are all reacting to these projections. Once we know our selves, we can use that knowledge to asses if that projection has any truth to us. If it doesn’t, there’s no need to react and maybe no need to respond either. If it does, we can go within and work it out. «The other» is there to help you see your own self. Like a reflection. They are ultimately helpers. When you look at them, you see yourself. They present you with an opportunity to learn and grow. Or to teach. A good or bad situation involving «the other» does not happen to us, it happens for us.

In the theatre of life, we are all main characters. As such, we should shine our most truthful light. The one that irradiates from our hearts through our feelings. To allow our selves to unmask first and foremost to our own selves in private, being truthful to our hearts, can be a great place to start. For the best gift we can ever give each other is to present them with our natural selves.

«To say the truth is easy, but to live the truth is something else. The truth is love.
Love yourself.»

Love and light, The TAW Team