When You’re Tired of Wearing Masks
This is where years of mask-wearing got me —
1 – I sometimes hid the best parts of me.
2 – I lost track of the real me — unsure where my mask ended and my skin started.
3 – I alienated friends. I knew it for sure when I got this email the other day: “When I think of you in college … all I remember was a girl who was so together, I was scared to be your friend.”
It’s time to smash our masks. Join me at (In)courage today. (Click here.)
Sometimes it’s hard (for me about myself as well as for others) to tell the difference between a mask and a goal toward which you are striving. When I am a grouch and feeling spiteful, I can yield to my grouch in the name of “reality”, or I can try to act the way I really want to be in my heart of hearts. Surprisingly, a cheerful spirit seems to bloom out of my cheerful actions, because it’s hard to lie a sincere smile.
The best illustration for me has been responding to the alarm clock after a too-short night. I don’t want to get up, but I really want to get to work on time, so I (insincerely?) get myself up and dressed and out the door. I can choose to sincerely be grateful for my job, or sincerely be resentful that I have to work. The mask occurs, I think, when I try to do both at once.