“Two men look out through the same bars
One see mud, the other sees stars”
Ogden Nash
Have you ever thought that we confuse ourselves with our many roles in life?
Soul versus Personality?
Banker, plumber, mother, tinker, tailor, IT expert, politician, thief verses the whole person that we, in essence, really are. All day long we bounce from role to role, exchanging masks and fulfilling tasks as we go, but at the end of the day, who are you?
We spend so much time pretending to be someone else that we eventually forget who we really are. If you were to study your performance expectation – perceived or real within each role, you will soon find that the majority of your stress comes from performance issues relating you your mask, and not you!
Great spiritual teachings infer that we should become like children, no mask, just us!
From early childhood we begin to define ourselves in relation to the world around us, the people around us and more importantly how they interact with us. The opinions and behaviour patterns transferred by our principle conditioners – our role models, parents, teachers, religious elders, TV and movie ‘hero’s, become our opinions and behaviour patterns, about the world and more importantly about ourselves.
This is a natural enculturation process, one effectively employed by nature all around us, but unlike nature, if we are confused to start with, what are we transferring?
Left unobserved, it very easily leads to isolation, confusion, internal judgments and depression later in life.
There is a direct correlation between the mask you wear, how seriously you believe in your role in the mask and your experience of life!
As Neale Donald Walsch says in his Conversations with God trilogy – “There is no expectation, God has no expectation of you. All you get to do is decide who you want to be and create your life to support that experience.”
So who are you really?
Who would you like to be?
Can you read between your lines?
Can you enjoy your masks for what they are?
Can you be yourself for a moment?
Go head, try!
