"When falsehood can look so like the truth, who can assure themselves of certain happiness?” Frankenstein ‘Though so profound a double-dealer, I was in no sense a hypocrite; both sides of me were in dead earnest; I was no more myself when I had laid aside restraint and plunged in shame, than when I laboured, in the eye of day, at the furtherance of knowledge or the relief of sorrow and suffering.’ Stange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde “I love acting. It is so much more real than life.” The Potrait of Dorian Gray Read the following article on how we wear masks today in our everyday lives and ask yourself the highlighted questions. ‘Imagine, for just a moment, a world where no one cared what car you drove, what designer handbag you carried, or what job you worked at. Can you sense the freedom? But this isn’t reality, because we do care. And because we care we’ve developed habitual masks to please and impress others. We all wear masks. There’s a good chance, too, you change your masks so habitually you don’t even notice doing it. Maybe you’ve done it your entire life. What mask do you wear? How do you feel about the face you’re portraying for the world to see? Are you truly yourself? Do you feel that you can be you, no matter what social situation you’re in? In your mind, gather up everyone you know and put them in a room, friends, family, co-workers, and acquaintances. Everyone is surely cautiously mingling with their masks perfectly placed. But then, imagine a strong wind gust sweeps through the party, blowing all masks off. It’s mayhem, faces are exposed, for maybe the first time, wrinkles and all. Now imagine that instead of using this vulnerability against one another you patted each other on the back, encouraged uniqueness and supported one another. Why are we so afraid to be authentic? Even when our masks irritate our skin, and we can’t relax or be ourselves, we still resist change. This epic performance is a huge drain on our minds, bodies and souls. It’s a hard act to constantly pretend to be, or feel like you need to be, someone else. Similarly, it’s very draining to regularly act like you feel one way when you really feel another. Becoming authentic is a process to begin knowing ourselves. To understand our own personality traits, behaviors, values, beliefs, needs, goals and motives. It’s having the courage to acknowledge our limitations, and embrace our own vulnerability. Make a list of words that describe the person you want to be. Look deep inside and concentrate on who you are, not what you do. Are you passionate, nerdy, curious, loving? You’ll know when you’ve discovered authenticity because your thoughts, beliefs and actions will originate deep from within and they’ll be resistant to external pressures. The result of this authenticity is a genuine, quiet, vitalizing fulfilment and confidence that resists anxiety, self-doubt and stress. Wearing a mask protects us from vulnerability. I fear that if I stand tall and exposed, I’ll be “weak” in some way. But when you wear a mask you stand in resistance to your true life and end up attracting realities that conflict with who you really are.' Adapted from huffingtonpost.com THE BLOG 5 Masks We Wear and Why We Should Take Them Off By Tina Williamson We all wear masks, disguising parts of ourselves from other people. How we act depends on our clothes, envirnonment and the people around us. Why do you believe it’s easier for people to people to wear masks than to be themselves? Let me know in the comments. We wear the mas
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What is this?When I started lostinclassics I looked for language lessons in the books I was reading, such as for example the use of phrasal verbs or inversion in conditionals and I explained them through examples found in the text. I also did reviews of the books I read and tried to give some advice on how to read classics using the various resources I know of. Then I switched to just reviews and lately I have been doing a bit of creative writing inspired by my reading. Who knows what I will come up with next! Archives
September 2020
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