Masks are instruments that we use to try to adapt to certain circumstances and thus reinvent ourselves to continue following. They allow us to act as if we are capable of anything and protect ourselves from what we believe can harm us.
That is, masks are unconscious defense mechanisms that try to protect our real one when he may be in danger. It is a gear that allows us to survive; therefore, wearing a mask doesn’t necessarily hurt us.
- However.
- There are circumstances in which this mask we adopt does not fulfill this adaptive function.
- Quite the opposite.
- These masks embedded in our real faces have been widely studied in psychopathology.
- They’re known as ego? In the psychology of Gestalt or?Psychodrama.
You learn to wear masks from an early age when you realize that in certain situations you can’t behave the way you’d like if you want to be accepted.
Thus, we learn that we must control, for example, our frustrations and tantrums so that our parents give us their approval or we have to be patient and friendly to our peers to achieve that acceptance.
These masks mark the limits of the relationship with others and the learning of the different roles that we will have to play in our life, allow us to think about our impulses, to develop superior skills, such as empathy.
In addition, we must also use these masks or internal characters in specific situations, for example, we may need a force mask in the face of adversity or difficult times, and then allow ourselves to abandon it and rest from the heavy burden.
We learned to wear masks from childhood to death, some save us, others hurt us. It is curious that many of us share some of these masks, let’s look at some of the best known ones:
All the above masks have one thing in common: do they allow us to protect our real?Me, possible threats. Sometimes we wear these masks for so long that they stick to our skin and wonder: am I really like that?Is this mask part of my essence?
If we ask ourselves this question, our precious mask has probably been with us for a long time, perhaps it is the remnant of that wounded child who wanted to be loved and seen by others.
The masks that once protected us have stopped working and have become a way to disconnect from our emotions, forgetting our true desires and values. The loss of fuel and emotional connection can lead us to a dead end, trying to wear the same mask over and over again. once again, even if life has changed.
It can be difficult to remove certain masks. For example, if we play hard, we might think that people appreciate us for this feature and will abandon us when they realize our vulnerability; however, it is a mirror of our own thoughts.
Once our daily function is over, we can go home and take off all the masks and look in the mirror, see each other and connect with our authentic ‘I’. See who you really are, in your own light and darkness, to love you above everything else Only then will it be possible to show your face naked to others.