"To thine own self be true"William Shakespeare - "Hamlet", Act I, Scene 3
How often do you find yourself acting or behaving in a manner that isn't true? How often do you find yourself saying something that is what someone else needs to hear instead of speaking your truth? How often do you ignore how you are feeling because it doesn't fit in with your personality or what is acceptable behavior for you? If we look closely, we find ourselves wearing a lot of masks. There is the mask for family members and the mask for friends. There is the mask for our spouse and the mask for our co-workers. Masks assist us in carrying out our day-to-day lives, but most masks can be spiritually exhausting. Masks keep us from experiencing our authenticity and our authentic selves. A mask says, "This is who I am and who I am supposed to be." A mask also says, "I'm not sure if you'll accept the real me and your opinion matters more to me than how I feel about myself so I'm going to show you what you want to see." Masks come up in new relationships all the time. We put on the mask of the girlfriend or boyfriend and pretend to be what we think the other person wants. Masks in relationships work for a little while and then one of the parties removes the mask. This removal of the mask is what triggers all the problems because suddenly the authentic self emerges and it is not what we were expecting. The removal of a mask is usually a shock, but then again we aren't too comfortable with our own authenticity so seeing someone else's authentic self can be unsettling. We should choose to reveal and present the true self at all times. By showing our authenticity in all facets of our lives, we can eliminate the big REVEAL.