May 23, 2022.
Most people show one picture of themselves to the world yet there are other layers within them. In this case, I am not referring to tailoring which side of your personality to show depending on your audience. I am referring to completely muting parts of yourself. Are there areas that you are hiding from the world? Perhaps you feel some kind of shame or pain? Or you want to prove something?
Why do we do this
We hide areas of our lives that we don’t accept. Perhaps we grew up being told that something is unacceptable, and we learned to hide it to gain approval and maintain belonging with our caregivers and family. Sometimes there is pain and shame associated with it. Or we want to paint this picture of perfection to the world because we live in a highlight society and no one else is embracing themselves fully. We want to fit in.
My salt
Salt are the parts of us that we hide. And here’s my revelation with my salt. I am someone who can switch from being stoic to expressive pretty easily, but my stoicism tends to come out more in my initial stages of meeting someone. I became aware of the fact that I was starting to suppress my stoicism because some people who I once called friends made a comment about how I should behave in certain situations. Fast forward to today, I no longer associate with these people given the negativity they brought into my life. Today someone pointed it out that I am unphased by things that other people would explode about, which is a strength. They pointed it out because they said something that I clearly disapproved of, and my response was ” make sure that’s the last time you ever say that” and I moved on to another conversation. I didn’t dwell on it, and they immediately respected that. I came from being around people who tried to make me think my stoicism is a weakness to realizing that I can use it to my advantage. I can embrace it. Maybe you ‘ve experienced this before. Friends or family made you feel uncomfortable about a certain quality you have, and you started hiding it. It can be attitude, the way you think, or a physical attribute, to name a few.
Everything about you is doing something for you
Your strengths and weaknesses are there to teach you something. They are yours to keep and you can do whatever you want with them. Whilst it’s nice to share the sugar parts of you that are easily accepted, you should be just as comfortable to show your salt. Both make you who you are and have brought you where you are today. Live your life to the fullest by accepting it all.
Question of the day:
- Are there parts of me that I am muting? Why am I hiding them?
Comment your thoughts and share with a friend who might benefit from reading this!