Mask on 🤿 or Mask off ?! 🎭

Why almost everyone enjoys Halloween? Well, it is the time of the year where we can play fun dress up by choosing whoever we want to be- a character or just ourselves. 

Perhaps, we had like to play a role or a persona for a day, like a superhero, a monster, a badass Catwoman, a fierce boss, a wealthy person or even a combination of many characters.

While the main idea behind dressing up is to have fun and enjoy ourselves, there could be other psychological reasons behind choosing the character or role we want to play. Maybe we identify with a certain aspect of the character ‘s personalities, qualities or traits that we may possess ourselves, such as power, drive, ambition, strengths, resilience, courage, independence, kindness, free spirit, open- minded, skills, beauty or charisma. It could also be that we aspire to be or find an aspect of the character’s being that we would like to possess or develop, like courage or assertiveness, but we perhaps maybe lacking it in our own life.

Halloween allows us to dress up in the craziest, funniest or scariest way possible without worry, fear of judgment or rejections from others or consequences because everyone expect it.

But, while Halloween is all about the fun, can it also be a time of reflection to start uncovering who we truly are, by choosing to take off the many layers beneath our masks we have been using as protection to avoid been truly seen. Putting on mask here, means to not fully represent ourselves as who we are on the consistent basis. 

Every day, we wear a mask as part of life to present ourselves differently to the world depending on the role we are playing. Often this is done unconsciously as it becomes a habit and we do not even think about it much, but at other times, it can be intentional. For instance, one may act with more authority or be reserved while at work but will play a non-leadership role while spending time with family and friends or is more outgoing. Most of the time, we are just playing a role, have not intention to deceive others or ourselves because our true nature remain. Rather, we are just adapting to different environment or people- like choosing to communicate at a slow pace with a client who maybe absorb information slowly than you maybe use to, and in this case, this is just adjusting yourself to circumstances, and not an act of putting on a mask. This act of adaptation can also be seen as having emotional intelligence, through understanding how and when to positively adapt. 

For example, when a person state they enjoy a certain food or music, but they do not, maybe a form of putting on a mask, and not being ourselves.  or one can pretend to li nice and respectful toward another, but is dismissive toward another person boss in the office, but can barely notice the 

Sometimes, we may put on masks to cover or hide our flaws, limitations or something that we do not like about ourselves, and it seems to protect us from being truly seen. But the reality is that we can only be our best self through accepting everything about us, because this is who we have become at that time in our life, and recognizing that we can change or improve. However, through acceptance, we can then choose to work on those parts of ourselves that we do not like or no longer identify with, and slowly, the need to mask disappear.

It is necessary to choose to start lifting masks off us to avoid the risk of losing who we are or our identity by wearing many masks trying to be something different to everyone else or trying to please others. We work very hard to wear different personalities by trying to suit ourselves to different environment making us unable to present ourselves truly to the world. For instance, appearing differently to try to connect with someone for ulterior motive instead of genuinely connecting with them and let things flow naturally if it was meant to be. 

Many of us have learned to live with different masks on for so long that we may not even know which mask is truly ours. It’s simpler and less exhausting to be ourselves than to pretend to be someone else.  

The truth maybe that masking ourselves is a form of control of how we want others see us. But this is all an illusion because we cannot control others’ opinions, and if we do it is only temporary and soon or later, they will find us out.

Another truth is if we are putting on mask, we can be certain that other may do the same or we may set ourselves for more painful experiences or sufferance later down the road because we are presenting an idea of ourselves to others that we cannot sustain. Also, we risk facing with something that we do not like because we presented a false image, and it can be unpleasant and even cause lost. For instance, if you keep presenting yourself as a nice person, helping everyone at work and you keep getting more work, and then get upset because of it, people will see the real you, because it may not have been genuine.  

The idea here is to come to the realization that although we all put on many masks depending on different situation or roles we are in, we can still consistently present ourselves as who we are in general, without trying to mask who we truly are. 

Finally, Halloween can also remind us to face our fears of being seen, being who we truly are, who we want and can become, and not let it hinder our potential. Halloween supposed to be a fun scary event, but if we can get a good laugh at being spooked, we can certainly learn to face ourselves and embrace who we truly are in the inside and give others the chance to experience it too.

Taking the mask off is not an easy process, but we can start small by choosing to start showing up authentically with ourselves and with others, making life more enjoyable in the process. What is the worst that can happen? Rejection, mockery, but at what cost? Because the cost of wearing a mask every day is exhausting, draining and not a healthy way to enjoy life. We can start small by taking off small layers of who we no longer identify with and make showing up fully in life a fun process. Then, we start to rely in our inner self without the need to coverup so much of ourselves.

Because taking off the mask is freeing and liberating. 

Let’s Halloween remains us that while we can enjoy being someone else for a day, we can also start taking off some of the layers that can help us develop to who we truly aspire to be and unveil much of ourselves that is worth discovering. Let’s get taking masks off. Happy Halloween! 🎭.