Dropping the Masks
I was the wearer of masks, masks that defined many roles in my life: daughter, sister, aunt, wife, caregiver, career woman, but none of these masks exemplified the person I was on the inside.
Sound familiar?
How did you respond the last time you got asked the age-old question, “So what do you do?” Most people answer by stating: “I work at (____),” tying our identity to what we do.
But what if that job does not define who you really are?
My story: Corporate Job, Big Company. I was proud of that job, it felt like a badge of honour. Until it wasn’t.
My life outside the job felt like an afterthought. I could not recognize myself in it. I was tired, bored, grumpy, living each day on auto pilot (like my own version of the movie Groundhog Day, you know the one with Bill Murray?) – each day the same as the one before it.
I lamented to my sister once, “I’m not passionate about anything!” and her response kicked off a complete shift in my way of thinking. She said, “You light up when you talk about your students.” She was referring to the co-op students I managed by mentoring and coaching them outside of what the job required. She was right – those conversations were my most favourite thing in the world.
Then the light flicked on in my head. I was tired, bored and grumpy because I was yearning for a better way to interact with myself and with the world around me, and I knew the job I had would never enable me to do that. My job was not who I was.
This realization was a game-changer for me. I started down a path of self-exploration that ended with becoming a certified life coach and embracing aspects of myself that I did not even know existed before. This was not just about changing my job; it went much deeper than that. The catalyst for my change came about when I realized that the job, and how I identified with it, did not suit me anymore.
I did my work with the support of life coaches and this enabled me to become reconnected to who I am at my core mentally, physically and spiritually. Now I am engaged in all aspects of my life instead of being focused on what I was doing for other people at the expense of what was in my best interests.
I dropped all my masks.
I aligned to my values which is one of the most important things I did, because every decision I make now is grounded in what I know is right for me.
All this because of a shift in the way I was thinking.
Why am I telling you this?
Because I see You. The You hiding behind your masks. You want more for yourself, but you are not sure how to go about getting it.
You and I are multi-dimensional people. We have a physical, mental and spiritual presence in this world, and more often than not, we show up only expressing one or two sides of what makes us who we are in our totality.We suppress what we intuitively know we need (mind, body and soul connection) because of the busyness of our day to day life. We rush from one thing to next without giving ourselves permission to prioritize what we know we need.
We get so good at saying, I don’t have the time for this.
The outcome is that we become an afterthought in our own lives – burnt out, resentful and disconnected from who we really are. And this has a negative ripple effect on all of our relationships, but especially the relationship we have with ourselves.
I’m guessing you don’t want that.
The way out of this cycle is to change what you think about yourself and how you show up in the world. By opening yourself up to experience a deep transformation that makes you a priority enables a reconnection to your multi-dimensional self and an awakening to the possibilities that await you.
It’s time to throw away the masks that you are hiding behind and give yourself the permission to embrace who you really are because you are absolutely amazing. There is so much more to you than the masks you wear each and every day.
Don’t wait. You deserve to live your best life right now.
Unsinkable Storytelling Author: