Wear a Mask Made of Nothing

On a clear night take a look at the moon. Isn’t it beautiful? Doesn’t it light up the sky? All poets go crazy writing about the moon when they are looking at it from a distance.

Now, Google pictures of the moon and look at the pictures up close. You will notice that it is gray, has lots of craters and looks plain uninteresting. There is actually nothing spectacular about it.

Ever drive on newly paved asphalt? So new, so smooth. You just can’t believe how good the road is. The tar also shines through giving the path a sparkling look.

Ever get out of your car, bend on your knees, and really look at the road? You will notice it has cracks, scattered tar misplaced on the shoulder of the road, and in many cases small little bumps that are not felt under the weight of your car.

Now look at yourself. Really – get up close and personal – get deep within. What do you see?

In many cases you probably see a whole bunch of things that are internally and externally wrong about you. For instance you may say that are you are not tall, or your face is not perfect, or you are fat, or you are not intelligent. You may see wrinkles, pimples, unwanted hair, freckles, blackheads, dull skin, etc. – the list can continue!

You then start to question why these things are there and the pain just increases inside. You fill yourself with torturous thoughts of imperfection. You ask yourself – what are others going to think of me if I step out into the world like this? You feel you won’t be accepted by others.

You just can’t accept the way you look and need to change it. Then what happens? You start to behave, look and act in ways so that you will be accepted by others – blind to the fact that you haven’t even taken the first baby step – which is finding acceptance of yourself. You now start to cover up your flaws with tons of “make-up” or put on a “social mask” so people can look at you differently. Your intention becomes to cover up your real sense so people can look at you from a distance.

It’s interesting how our intuition works in certain ways to tell us some sort of situation is not right. It’s just a sick feeling that you have, that builds within us over time. I kinda see this form of intuition as our natural guard. It just sprouts naturally in our mind. Many times when I am at parties or networking events, I like to observe people. It’s funny how sometimes I just develop this intuition when I meet new people that they are not being themselves. They are trying to impress me, show me how great they are.

They talk in this fake mumbo jumbo accent to show me how sophisticated they are. They talk about homes, cars, material things as if they are so “upper class.” They behave as if they are the greatest thing on Earth. They figure I would be completely blind to their behavior. It’s clear they are not acting naturally as the behavior seems more like an act from a play rather than genuine dialogue.

It’s as if they are covering something up – their real self. The irony of the whole situation is that they are doing so much more work to obtain acceptance from me, and I am intuitively doing so little work to accept them as real.

Listen, nothing in this world is perfect, including yourself. Take your mask off. Drop it in the trash! It’s of no use to you and to those around you. Be yourself! Accept the person you are with all the flaws you have. Don’t look at these flaws as imperfections. They are not! You are being led to believe they are because you constantly compare yourself with others.

You are beautiful just the way you are and you don’t have to change it.  Don’t put on masks just to impress people and have them look at you from a distance. Take the mask off and let them look at your transparent real self – up close and personal. It doesn’t matter if they don’t accept you. You are not doing this because of them – you are doing this because of you!

Accept yourself just the way you are. Don’t ever say you are imperfect. Be yourself and let people accept you for who you are – your genuine self.