Last update: May 02, 2016
Most people like Carnival - we enjoy wearing a mask or even two during the festivities. We like to dedicate that time of year to hiding the truth, pretending to be what we are not, escaping by playing another character or finding ourselves in other faces of reality and fantasy.
But perhaps we do not realize that, even when it is not Carnival, we continue to wear a mask, both when we are in front of others and in front of ourselves. What others see of us is just an image, which tries to be the best it can be when in public. We do it out of fear of being alone, perhaps, or simply because we follow social rules that force us to hide behind more or less elaborate disguises.
“The terrible thing is that, if you want to establish contact, if you want to communicate with others, you have to invent a character who can communicate, which is not the same person who is inside you. And slowly you start to believe more and more in that character, you forget about the person and you believe in the character. "
-Manuel Puig-
When the mask reveals the truth more than the face
Certainly a mask is a disguise, an object that hides our real face and distorts our physical appearance. But precisely for this reason, on a metaphorical level, a mask is also a way of covering our personality and showing an identity different from the real one.
One of the most frequent unconscious causes of the need to present ourselves to others as who we are not is the fear of not being respected, loved or accepted. It is normal to pretend a little bit and not be entirely honest, because we feel more accepted by others when we are what they expect of us.
Hiding is an initial human reaction that occurs due to the fear of being judged, as we just told you. We can be acidic for fear of showing our vulnerability; behave politely, because we are interested in keeping our job; soften our point of view to be more diplomatic, etc.
Instead of pretending to be, be what you pretend!
Sometimes we try so hard to pretend that we don't realize that it would be much better to accept ourselves for who we are and try to improve ourselves.. It is much more natural for us to lie and not be natural, to move in superficiality.
This mechanism, however, leads us to create an environment based on appearances, which count much more than real feelings: we let ourselves be carried away by prejudices, images and assumptions. It would be good, however, to learn to take off the mask and look at what is under it, when we find one in front of us.
The best way to remove it is to know ourselves and give our essence a chance. In this way, we will be able to introduce ourselves to others without tricks, but only with our magic. Without illusions and without unfounded judgments we will be happier, because we will give each person and everything the place it deserves in our life.
In some cases the mask does not cover, but reveals
We must know that, contrary to what we usually believe, that mask that we believed so safe will sooner or later fall or begin to crumble. And, from those small holes, the whole truth of our essence will come out. This is what happens to many people: the masks reveal them, because time betrays them.
In other words, the more we engage in the construction of our disguise, the more that disguise will end up resembling ourselves. The dangerous thing in all of this is that not only will we be fooling ourselves, but we will also be fooling others. Relationships should be founded on sincerity and trust, and pretending to be who we are not undermines these two virtues.
It will have happened to all of you at least once to be disappointed by a person you thought you knew, and who for some reason is no longer "what we thought". What may have happened is that the truth has come out and that some traits of his personality that he previously tried to hide from you are now visible.
“When he looked at us, he seemed to be looking for the truth within us. She seemed to know that behind everything there is something else. "
-Clara Sanchez-
