What's Under Your Halloween Mask?

Do you enjoy dressing up or wearing a mask for Halloween?
Letting your alter-ego shine?

Do you wear a mask at other times in your life?

How About at Work?

Perhaps you need to conceal at least some of who you are at work, or in certain situations. Or with certain people.

Halloween is coming. Will you be wearing a mask? Do you wear a mask even when it isn't Halloween?

Early in my work life/ career, I worked for a corporation. In that world, you need to look a certain way. It went deeper than wearing professional clothing. It meant behaving a certain way, following the unwritten rules. I wasn't going to get very far in the company because I drive an import. I could fit into that world, but it never fit me. I was me at home, and another version of me at work. I appreciated it, but eventually I left.

What's Under the Mask?

We often mask fear with anger or confusion. Or grief with other emotions. We may mask almost any emotion that we don't want to feel.

I grew up with several brothers, and saw the social taboo against showing emotion in public, or at all. I adopted that survival technique, feigning indifference, or simply isolating myself to avoid conflict.

As adults, we are often expected to have a public persona. Even if you had the most idyllic upbringing, many workplaces have a culture of stoicism or formality. Who we are to ourselves may or may not be how other people perceive us.

And if you wear a mask too long, you may start to believe that that’s who you really are. Underneath all the roles, responsibilities, and stuff, who’re we really?

Do I remember who I am without all that?

Sitting with My Unmasked Self

I find meditation a wonderful way to remember who I really am. As I breathe deeply and feel the
Presence within, I feel more of who I am at a core level.

There is the impersonal side of that: the felt sense of the bigger I Am from which I appeared and
continue to manifest each day.

And then there’s the personality of me. Kind of the prism through which Spirit shines Its Light.
As I sit in silence with this Presence, I cannot help but feel more in tune with that prism. With the felt sense of I Am.

Without labels. Without roles. Without responsibilities. Without rules, without ideas, without politics, without any of the layers I have learned over the years. Just the Is-ness of Being alive.

Mini-Vacation

After all, I am living with me for my whole life. I may as well give myself the gift of attention, and learn who I really am inside.

Sometimes three deep breaths is enough to center and come home to myself. It’s the best possible mini-vacation, and all it costs is a few minutes of my time.

Ahhh... that's better.