Unveiling faces is a true art of self-awareness, and vulnerability. Within our humanity, masks are worn and celebrated often. We celebrate the masks worn by entertainers, politicians, athletes, etc., who are all rarely genuine. Our current culture allows those who wear masks
to wear them as if they are authentic, even though we know they are fake. Masks have been desired, inspired, and even required. With the current mandates being lifted on mask requirements, the question is how will you both unmask emotionally and physically. What does your authentic face look like? Some of us don’t know. Often we take one mask off just to have another mask underneath it. The following will walk us through the beginning of unmasking with the utilization of self-awareness and vulnerability as tools.
Some masks that I have seen on clients are the happy mask, the I have it all together mask, the tuff guy mask, the I am highly favored mask, the I am mad (but I am actually sad) mask, the social media mask, and the selfie mask just to name a few.
SELF-AWARENESS:
The ability to recognize and understand your personal moods, emotions, and drives, as well as their effect on others is a hallmark of self-awareness. Self-awareness depends on your ability to monitor your own emotional state and to correctly identify it, knowing your true thoughts and feelings. When we don’t take the time to self-assess, we then put on masks for others and ourselves: fake smiles, hiding tears, or allowing sadness and hurt to play out through rage and anger. The self-awareness tool is a focal interest that I utilize as a coach to access the client’s creative and intuitive reflection that is so necessary to achieve success internally and externally.
VULNERABILITY:
Allowing Vulnerability to be your foundation to have compassion and become a more empathic person is a necessity for building healthy relationships with both self and others. Being vulnerable is the act of selflessness, kindness, love and humanity. It is the decision to be bravely open to getting hurt or disappointed in hopes of being authentic. Vulnerability is courage, bravery, and honesty all wrapped in one. It is the essence of being authentic, owning your truth and “keeping it real”.
How do you define the word Vulnerable? Webster defines vulnerable as susceptible to physical or emotional attack or harm; in need of special care, support, or protection because of age, disability, or risk of abuse or neglect. What do you associate that word with? Often people equate being vulnerable to a risk of being taken advantage of. Many times, we hear and relate that word to being in love or having a disability. Most people will define being vulnerable as having a weakness, but on the contrary, vulnerability should be reframed and redefined as courage and authentic. The key to vulnerability is often empathy. Empathy is the capacity to feel another person’s feelings, thoughts, or emotions vicariously. “Self-empathy” is allowing yourself to feel for you, and it is imperative.
I believe that we’ll all look back in a few decades and wonder how we ever thought a “successful person” who wore masks to hide pain, shame, insecurities, and guilt could be the iconic symbols of people whose lives we coveted and desired to “follow”. Authenticity, humility and vulnerability allow us to be our true, unmasked selves. It takes a very strong person to lay bare their insecurities and still be able to exude and exert leadership. Those are the ones that people love to follow!
Consider unmasking thoughts and feelings of your past and current self. Learn and understand that self-awareness is the beginning of self-love, and when we learn to authentically love ourselves, we then learn to love others. Identify being vulnerable as courage and not weakness. It’s brave to be vulnerable, and its brave to unmask.