WORDS: MARIA BRAMASOL
Have you ever looked in your eyes so deep that you can see your soul?
Have you ever dived inside and observed the vastness of that beautiful ocean? Did you hear that magical nocturne?
Tell me, please, who do you see in front of a mirror? Your true self or someone desperately hidden under one, or even several masks?
Don’t worry, we all have them. Masks are there to protect us. But the problem occurs when they become our reality. Sometimes, and maybe too often, they glue so tight to our face and unite with our skin, put a veil on our lashes, and very strange lipstick on our lips. You must admit – that lipstick speaks on its own sometimes. It gives wings to some words that become birds who are leaving the nest of our tongues without waiting for a permission…
You know, old Greeks were using masks to serve a metaphor about learning a life lessons in several ways. Did you know that one of the reasons to wear masks was a reminder of the importance of expressing our emotions honestly and openly, rather than hiding behind a façade? After a performance is done – the masks are off.
In the modern era, seems we are playing several theatre pieces daily. I am speaking about real, necessarily roles that we are living through. We are all someone’s sisters, brothers, mothers, fathers, friends, students, masters… We all have some titles, labels, descriptions… We are all glued to expectations and wishes, traumas and achievements, strives and craves…
Learning to adapt to these roles while being true to our core values can lead to personal growth and a better understanding of our capabilities. Learning to look beyond these masks can help us connect with ourselves, and others on a deeper level, finding common ground and understanding in our diverse world.
But, not rarely we forget to take off masks and pick up the fruits of the play, to use it to meet ourselves better. What is it beneath? Who are you? Do you know, or have you wondered? Are you even aware of the strengths that are sleeping under?
While peeking beyond, you might wonder – not what but whose role you are playing. Are you just an actor or a playwright as well? Are you acting in your own or others’ theatre pieces?
Very often we recognize that it’s not our piece, and it’s not our mask. Yet, very often we continue walking on strangers’ stage flats, playing a piece that is not ours. Not long after, our face is burning under expected mimicry. Our feet hurts and the pain grows with every bone until it reaches our hears. Mask unite with skin. Lips recite scripts that were not written by our souls. Sorrow we feel is an alarm – we are living the opposite of our truths.
If we do not realize that, we will start with comparisons. We will be preoccupated with who has better mask, costume, or writing, why we do not have their roles or why we do not hear any applause. We will try desperately to copy and reach someone else’s dreams. We will lose ourselves and spend the piece in searching something that we cannot see right in front of us. We will want what we think we want, and we will crave what is expected of us to crave, on that stage flats that are not our own. We will try to fit into someone else’s scenario, banning our own nature.
Isn’t that the moment when we start being always either ‘’not enough’’ or ‘’too much’’? Our mind focuses on all our imperfections and flaws, dissatisfaction is overflowing, compromises are dragging us away from real life nectars, and we are starting to see ourselves through the eyes of people that never saw us.
In the burden of masks, roles, expectations, we find ourselves standing in front of a mirror, tangledly looking in all the names and titles we built: ‘’Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is truest of them all?’’
Now, look deeper.
We didn’t land here, to play what someone else told us to. We came to this planet with stardust in our hearts and the whole universe in our minds. We came here with souls wider than oceans, wilder than waves, free like winds and rich as night skies!
We came here to create, not to fit. We came here to spread the vibes in our own uniqueness and be that super spice that will add a special sweet flavour to life. We came to make our own theatre, to write our own pieces, to learn form own masks, to embrace changes and differences of every role that our soul wished to play. We are a part of a dance of each special stage, where we learn how to accept every imperfection of our steps that actually built our particular moves. Can you imagine how huge is the beauty of diversities growing on this planet? Can you see its potential in the infinity of creativity?
Stand in front of that mirror until you sink into own being, taking off masks one after another. What do you want? What do you truly want? See it. Raise it. Cleanse it. Live it.
Allow yourself to awake the connection between your mind and your heart, and start living your own truth. Breathe in, again, the stardust and be brave to do what makes you happy. Be brave to dream and to believe in every step that leads towards your blue star. Do not fear of freedom and strength to flash like a comet and build your own miracle! Armor yourself with love and the magic that is given to you, to all of us, in that very moment when we landed here. Be brave to play your own true role, listening just one single prompter – your heart.
And do not think whether it’s perfect or not. It is exactly how it needs to be!
Someone once wondered would the tower of Pisa be such beautiful attraction if it wasn’t crooked. Dive deep into your being and think about it.
At this life stage we all came with certain life-long roles and lessons, but there is one task to which we must all remain consistent – living our own truths. Remember, it will be what you will be. Chose then to shine own light and be that miracle which is trying to glow from inside! Chose to be YOUnique.
