We all want to be liked and accepted. This internal need that we have to be loved, sometimes causes us to put on a mask of who we think that they want us to be. The perfect little girl. The shy teenager. The smile pasted on our face, that life is wonderful, when inside we are screaming in frustration.
Your need for acceptance can make you invisible in this world. Don’t let anything stand in the way of the light that shines through this form. Risk being seen in all of your glory.
– Jim Carey
It is hard to show up without any masks, but it is vitally important for us to be true to who we are. These masks are the cause of so much unhappiness. We meet someone we like, but if we are both wearing masks, then neither of us is communicating who we really are. We fall in love with the mask and not the person. We communicate to the mask, and what the person is trying to say never gets heard. We create so much drama and trauma to ourselves and others that way.
If you are not living your truth, you’re living a lie.
– Joseph Curiale
If you just say what you really mean, life gets so much easier. The truth is that I may not be who I want to be yet. But I have come a long way from where I used to be. And I want to continue removing mask after mask and burning them up, so that who I show up as is always the real me.
Loving ourselves through the process of owning our story is the bravest thing we’ll ever do.
– Brene’ Brown
What I loved about this photo is that the people in it are being crazy. They are being stupid and silly and weird. But when you look at each face you see that they are also being happy. How many times do you catch your face in the mirror or a reflection on a window and see that kind of happy expression on your face? On others faces that you love? We all need to be who we are and find those happy faces more often. When we let the world’s conflicts and tragedies be the things we focus on, we lose that happiness. The news focuses on hyping the negative and giving us very little of the positive things that happen every day.
Every day a new mom and dad have this wonderful new baby come into their lives and change them forever. Every day a child does something wonderful, like riding a bike for the first time, or winning a race, or making a home run. And they celebrate with their loved ones what they achieved. Every day a policeman or a fireman or the driver of an ambulance save a loved one’s life, and they celebrate they have another day with their loved ones. Every day someone is doing something wonderful, brave, heroic, and we lose sight of the wonderful. We need to celebrate all of the wonderful things that happen in our lives and the lives of those we love. Don’t let those who are still sleepwalking through their lives stand in the way of your awakening.
Closing with this quote, because “I see you” needs to be something that happens to us and we need to see others.
If there is any need that is perpetually unmet on this planet, it is the need to feel seen. To feel seen in our humanity, in our vulnerability, in our beautiful imperfection. When we are held safe in that, a key turns inside of our hearts, freeing us from our isolation, transforming our inner world. If there is anything we can offer each other, it is the gift of sight. “I SEE YOU” – perhaps the most important words we can utter to another. I See You.
– Jeff Brown
We need to stop being invisible, and we need to let those who are trying to be, know that we see them as a human being deserving of love and respect. We don’t have to agree with everything that they have done in their lives, to still give them love and respect. How many people in nursing homes, living in the street, eating their lunch alone in the café – how many people do we pass by that are not being seen? How many just need a hug, and someone to say, I See You? I SEE YOU!