The Many Masks We Wear
We wear many layers of protective masks but what if we could make those representations of ourselves a deliberate and empowering choice?
As we arrive at the time of year when we choose a new mask to wear for a night of fun and revelry on Halloween, I’m wondering how many masks we are already wearing.
The daily mask of makeup as we begin each day reshaping what we confront in the mirror.
The social media filters over our physical image, and the carefully curated words we use to manufacture how we are seen by the outside world.
The mask of socially sanctioned behaviors we use to cover up our vulnerabilities, our securities, and quirkier aspects of our personalities for fear of judgment and being rejected by those we want to fit in with.
The use of our emotions as masks as we push through the day, ‘happy, happy, happy’ so the sadness beneath can’t catch up. Or the alternative option of meeting the people around us with anger to push them back, so they never get close enough to see the hurt and fear that fuel it.
There are so many masks, so many faces and versions of ourselves we show depending on who we are with and how safe we feel. I wonder though, is there a moment when we stand stripped…
