I think I fall in love a little bit with anyone who shows me their soul. This world is so guarded and fearful. I appreciate rawness so much.
Emery Allen
For reasons I think are so heartbreaking, though we cannot seem to avoid, we go ahead and hide in whatever version of a person we think another needs us to be.
Somewhere we seem to believe that being vulnerable will lead to our downfall. So when life is ripping us apart, it can be a way of trying to hold our body and our soul together.
We tend to cope by camouflaging ourselves.
I see it in others and I do it myself, we hide truths like:
“Yes please, that would help me so much” behind “Thanks, lovely. You’re so kind, but I’m okay.” Pride is a dangerous villain.
“I’m desperate for someone to listen” behind “I’m good, thanks. But how are you though?” Worthlessness is a terrible thief.
“I’m struggling in my situation right now, it so hard” behind “but there are others who are going through far worse than that.” Minimisation is a wily con-artist.
We do what we know is our best to get through life, don’t we?
There is, however, one obvious truth to a life hidden in protective colouring; it’s hard to be seen when you are blending in. Worst of all, after a while, you can’t even see yourself and the pangs of loneliness can be excruciating.
It’s daring to show up and reveal who we are. To bring our truth into the light and trust it into the hands of another. Fear will try and convince us it’s not worth the risk but life has shown me that it has a beautiful way of opening up when we strip away the camouflage.
I try to look at it this way; our courage to show up authentically is actually a gift. It’s like waving a little white flag that says “I’m here and my guard is down” and then offers an invitation of safety for others to come out of their own hiding too.
love,
Jo-Anne.