DAY 365+50

from behind the mask

While walking over the city along the carnival it´s not strange to stumble upon masks. They are everywhere as a reminder of our true reality: we´re always wearing them. We use them to protect us. And also as a way to please others or to pretend to be that person that we think we should be

They are like shields that prevent us from suffering, from being judged, rejected, feeling inapt or unsafe. They can make us to fit in with people around us. And even when many of them are made of the same material of our deepest layers (they are positive, yet false), some can be completely divorced from our true nature (they are false and negative)

The first ones help us to play roles, and most of the time we can wear them without stopping being ourselves. But the second ones make us feel aliens in our own existence, emotions and wishes. They make us behave strangely and prevent us from living intensely, consciously. They drain us of our essence

Anyway, wearing any type of mask can be dangerous if we end up believing that we are what we show to the rest of the world. So the most important thing is being aware of them and be careful about those which create a feeling of powerless in us

Stripping off the masks we are wearing is not easy because our society (and persons around us) constantly pressures us to use them: we have to fit their. It´s a process. We can learn to recognize them, to indentify which of them are not useful anymore, even which one can be damaging and also, we can learn to remove what makes us to get away from our center

But this calls for practice . We need to  stay true to ourselves (and this means to admit that we are resorting to masks, if we are doing so) to embrace our vulnerability and dare to be mask-free 

This might seem risky. Indeed, it is. Not only because authenticity is always a hazard but because we can find out that our identity is too complex and changeable with and without masks. This also might seem intimidating, awkward. Once again, it is. We have never been this close to lay bare

But if we have been clever enough, strong enough and daring enough to create our own masks and go through our lives wearing them, we´ll be wise enough to accept that we are not our masks. We´ll be brave enough to take off our costumes and go into the intriguing mystery of self

We´ll be generous enough to challenge others to be there with us... in a territory where being simply who we are is admissible and non-duality is a possibility

Today, take a moment to explore your masks compassionately. You´re using them for a reason but maybe you don´t need them as much as you think, you are beautiful just as you are


Walk and Click Wednesday