The Masquerade Ball Masks We Wear
Most of us have created a persona or social mask that is very different from, and in fact often the polar opposite of, what we feel inside. These masks can lead to misunderstandings and make it difficult for people to connect with one another at an authentic level. Wearing these masks have a clear impact on our health, relationships, and work.
We need to recognize and confront our underlying issues if we’re to transcend them. Our social masks may help us present our best face to others, but only when we accept the fallible, vulnerable being beneath the mask can we form honest bonds of understanding and come alive to our deepest needs, desires and humanity. As we grow into wholeness and authenticity, we can then reveal and integrate all of our qualities: we find out that our life is not positive or negative but positive and negative. With this realization, earned through courage and insight, the qualities we bring into life become a matter of choice rather than of reaction.
Do you wear any of these masks? Do you dance to any of these songs? Take a look and see if you are behind any of these masks:
Mask 1: The Mask of Insecurity
Some people present a confident, calm or even aloof appearance to mask an underlying insecurity. Their competitive nature stems from their fear of inferiority. They may act independent, but they may fear that they cannot make it on their own and need someone to lean on.
Mask 2: The Mask of Confliction
Others may appear to be balanced and analytical, but inside they feel internal contradiction and mental conflicts that can create stress. They may seem rigid when they say no because they are counteracting internal pressures to acquiesce. They find fault with others because they feel responsible inside.
Mask 3: The Mask of Self Doubt & Depression
There are many that present a confident, upbeat persona that hides haunting feelings of self doubt and depression. They can appear logical and intellectual to veil deep and sensitive emotions.
Mask 4: The Mask of Internal Confusion
Someone may appear to have everything figured out, but behind their cool, analytical exterior hides a whirling mind ready to make impulsive decisions based on their internal sense of confusion or disorientation.
Mask 5: The Mask of Dependencies
Maybe you appear independent, but often feel or become dependent or create dependencies. You seem focused but often are fighting a tendency to be scattered; your river of knowledge may run wide rather than deep, due to an internal thirst for many experiences and a fear of boredom.
Mask 6: The Mask of Judgement
Do you project a pleasant public persona that’s cool, smiling, nice, and considerate, doing the right thing even as you experience a thinly veiled tendency to judge yourself and others against high standards? So anger and disappointment at the many faults and wrongs of the world like just beneath the surface.
Mask 7: The Mask of Self Confidence
Do you wear a mask of being very sure of yourself, making decisions impulsively and without consulting others, but your certainty is a reaction to an underlying lack of faith in yourself? Your social mask and quick mind help you hide while you guard your privacy and inner world.
Mask 8: The Mask of Being Passive
Some may appear passive while subtly seeking control. Often they send mixed messages. They seem indifferent even as they overcompensate for frustrated ambition and an innate drive for authority, recognition, influence, and success.
Mask 9: The Mask of Lack of Identity
Others may have a certain depth, magnetic charisma, and strong opinions that belie their unsure sense of identity and vulnerability to other people’s opinions. Often put in leadership positions, they have trouble living in line with the higher principles they believe in or seek outside themselves.
Give yourself grace, love yourself and be kind.