Masked

Masks have been made mandatory in most places and they are becoming a norm in our everyday lives, but we have actually been wearing masks long before Covid came along.

These are the invisible masks that we all wear, they serve as protection from the world, not against viruses or pathogenic substances but rather they are a barrier protecting our vulnerable true selves from hurt.

Just like physical masks restricts our breathing and the ability to show our facial expressions, these invisible masks also restricts us in being our authentic selves.

We all long to be loved for who we are, with all our imperfections, scars and all but there is a belief, a false belief that we will not be loved if we show ourselves just as we are.

In childhood there may have been times when we didn’t feel valued or loved for who we were, this created the belief that we are not good enough, thus a mask gets created. Or perhaps we hurt ourselves but were told to be brave and not cry, this created the belief that it is not accepted to be vulnerable so we put on our brave and tough mask.

We create a persona of the kind of person that we think will be accepted and loved. This could be a person who needs to get everything right (perfectionist) or someone that does really well in school or in the workplace (over-achiever) or perhaps a person that never says no even to their own demise (people-pleaser).

These false projections of ourselves actually take us further away from our true selves which in turn creates more suffering.

This is why life can sometimes seem so hard, when we are not living our authentic selves, imagine going through life trying to be something you’re not. This takes up a lot of energy and we get tired, we tire of constantly trying… trying to please, trying to defend ourselves or trying to be perfect.

But when you are comfortable being who you are and who your soul wants to be, there is no strain and you can go through life with ease, even when life gets complicated.

I wonder what it would be like if we made a commitment to ourselves to always show up, even if it meant that we show up broken…

Perhaps then, this would create an invitation for others to also show up broken and we would realise that we are all wounded, wounded but still lovable…

And when we realise that we are lovable with all our brokenness, only then, can we open up to receive the love that we have been longing for our whole lives.

Every wound, every difficulty and challenge is an opportunity to bring us closer to ourselves…

If we only let it.

I wish I could show you when

you are lonely or in darkness

at the astonishing light of

your own being.

To show you the place you are

right now, God circled on a map

for you.

To remind you that ever since

happiness heard your name, it

has been running through the

streets trying to find you.

Hafiz