Creating the mask
Did it happen that you were acting virtuously and you were hurt? You asked yourself why should you be honest? Why should you take on responsibility if, in the end, all you’re going is to get hurt? You saw the dangers, the betrayal, and the pain.
If your set of rules didn’t help you achieve the goal, maybe some other guidelines can help you do that. Maybe you searched the internet for some tips and tricks that can help you. And as you regurgitated the information you started to build the shield between the world and yourself.
It is important to note that not all tips and suggestions are separating you from the world. Some can be helpful, but if you focus solely on the foreign tactics and if you are constantly dismissing your experience, it can just make you more miserable.
Here I’m focusing on the state when the whole attention is focused on foreign suggestions. Upon reaching this state it is easy to be disillusioned. It is a state of mind where to reach a certain goal you need to put on a mask.
After all, isn’t it better that the mask gets rejected than what’s behind it?
Behaving with mask
As you used more foreign rules the mask became bigger. And as the mask became bigger you became more distanced from the world. The more distanced from the world you felt more anxious and you started to use more tricks.
Stuck in the loop what can you do?
Before we can observe the previous question, we have to first ask ourselves what is actually behind the mask?
What’s behind the mask?
So, think about it: why do we dance?
It seems that we have a deep desire for expression. A deep desire to get into the flow state and to feel connected to the world. A dancer doesn’t expect anything, he just wants to dance.
That means that we should take this artistic expression of our being and implement it into our human everyday relationships.
However, why don’t we do that?
Well, the missing link is courage.
Which means acting in a way aligned with our core principles in spite of all the suffering and pain. It means to say the truth. To stop playing games. To accept your mistakes. To express yourself and shatter the mask.
That doesn’t still mean we can do whatever we want. Otherwise, we are impulsive fools.
Every dance has its own set of rules, but still, there is a lot of freedom that can be found in those bounds. Especially in pair dances, we have to be sensitive to the other dancer’s output. Therefore, we have to still listen to our environment and the people around us.
Shattering the mask
Using this theory we can see that the problem is not that other people can hurt us, but that we don’t have enough trust and courage in ourselves in order to get through the pain.
Therefore, we need to use courage to break the mask and be connected to the world.
But prepare for an adventure and ask yourself:
Are you sacrificing your expression to avoid discomfort?