Sometimes you wear a mask, avoiding to be yourself. In fact, you adapt your behaviour to the situation or to fit in, even though you would like to do it differently.

Each of us has developed different behaviours and personalities over time and under the influence of the environment (family, friends, school, society, media). Adjusting our behaviour to the circumstance enables us to better deal with various situations. Or perhaps we just feel that we protect ourselves better this way.

So we develop different personalities.
“Persona” = aspect of the being presented or perceived by others, a role adopted by an author or an actor.
It’s a role you play, not you.

You are the author and actor in your life. 

And you choose, not always consciously, the role you play.

And in your props, you have a lot of masks. You want to look happy, successful, eternally young and beautiful. Then you put on the proper mask. And you share the most successful pieces of your daily life, vacations … everywhere you smile and look joyful. You want to be perceived as strong and perfect. And you can easily create this image of yourself behind the screen because very few people do really know you.

And if you are, for real, successful, strong, happy and fulfiled, then it’s fantastic! Congratulations!

But some of you, after posting those marvellous pics on social media, pay a visit to the shrink. By the way, I’ve met people perceived as strong and powerful who burst into tears in a private environment. There were them, without a mask.

So, how would you feel without your mask?

Weak, flawed, unhappy?

Then it’s maybe the time to ask yourself who you really are. To look in the mirror and see who is looking back at you.

As long as when you take off your masks, you know exactly who you are and don’t bend or pervert your true self, it’s okay.

But when these masks stick to your face, and you start identifying them with yourself, or when you bend too much, it becomes a problem! You no longer know who you are, and this will tear you apart.

The moment you can ask, “Who am I?” is revelatory.

You realise you are more than the image, the reflection, the mask.
Then begins the quest, the struggle, fight with your masks which want to stay there, be seen on your face.

Trying to please people around me, I was putting on masks, too. Until it felt too much. The true self busted down all those masks. Still, I continued putting on new ones … until I realised that it is futile to continue to want to be something or someone else. I am not yet free from all the masks. But I work on this, and I cannot wait until I can feel complete just being myself.

So, rediscovering and freeing the self from these masks, from the ego, leads you to realise your uniqueness and wholeness and that all what you need … to be yourself.