Behind The Mask....

Behind The Mask....

2020 has been weird, hard, and generally a really tough year for all of us. When January first reared its head to us, the worst we were expecting was Brexit! Little did we know what was to come. Who would have thought getting behind a mask would be the new fashion trend! We were scared, unwell, bereaved, locked down, furloughed, made redundant and indeed isolated as home prisoners. The mask metaphorically forced us into near incarceration, a grim every day inescapable reminder of our morbidity as a society, and indeed as the world. The mask was there on social media, every TV channel and even in the backdrop of the presidential election debates. However, talking to many friends, I have also come to understand that this very mask, symbolic of the isolation, has been in many ways oxymoronically fortuitous too! As we were forced by regulation and fear to cower behind our masks, breathing our own selves in and out again. It has turned out to be an opportunity to have ‘more than enough of our own selves’ at our own disposal.

The way the world has evolved over the centuries has resulted in indoctrination and enslavement of the human mind and spirit. The human being, was born to be indomitable by nature; poised and destined to find his highest potential. However, collective mechanisms of the family, society, organised religion and the state have crushed this spirit, moulding everyone into homogenised products designed to be productive and efficient conformists. Failure to protect his fragile inner being from these forces, on whom he is helplessly reliant to survive, has been truly challenging. Loss of individuality in this manner as well as the monotony and repetition of a day job has led to inner conflict. This is to such a degree that he has lost the will to thrive and forgotten the real reason for him to be here in the first place. Yardsticks of achievements and celebration of talents are conditional to what is worthy and celebratable by the society. He therefore, suppresses himself in a desire ‘to stay safe’ by wearing layers and layers of masks as he or she grows up, to find acceptance and validation. It is too risky to peel away the mask and much safer to be and remain an imposter! This is ever so true in the world of social media, where everyone is wearing a virtual mask and leading an ostensibly perfect life with a beautiful face processed through filters. But is one truly living or is one simply masking a crushed and a crippled soul? Like a blighted cocooned pupa, never to metamorphose as a butterfly who can soar and fly? Is this living sustainable? We create these elaborate illusional stories perhaps out of a false sense of self satisfaction, but also to please others. I suggest we do not get so lost in our masks that we forget the who the human being behind them truly is.

What this pandemic has done collectively for everyone, is reset the clock by pausing it briefly. It has given us the opportunity to take stock of where we have come and what has led to this terrible mess. It is questioning our paradigms, be it our relationships with our others, or be it our education and financial systems. But most importantly, it has changed the way we are now looking at own ourselves. It has hopefully made us realise how fragile we actually are, that there is nothing really at stake ever and that everything is so impermanent. Most importantly, it has brought into sharp focus the fact that it takes very little actually to bring happiness into our daily lives. That cherishing all that we and simply realising we are still alive can bring us genuine joy. As someone once said that as flowers we have too long felt too fragile and fearful, that we forget to bloom to our potential and bring joy and fragrance to others. Is it still truly worth living in facade? The more time we consciously spend in self-care and feel overwhelming love in the company of ourselves, the more comprehensive we will feel. The truer and more congruent we feel within ourselves, the more authentic a presence we will be to others, becoming a change that we wish to see around us. Therefore, even as we don the mask every day for the physical safety of others and ourselves, now is the time for self-awareness and to delve back unto ourselves, to let the mask of pretence come undone and to live our authentic selves. It is now time to unmask our real selves…..