I was beginning to write about ego and persona. How it’s our persona that communicates our essence to the world, and although we might think of it as a facade and that it’s different from our inner landscape, in relating to others, it’s really our persona that is the true carrier of our essential being into the world.
It’s not our inner landscape that the world gets to see us through…
Unless we are able to bridge the gap between the inner world and our projection to the outer world.
It’s a contrasting way of being in the modern world, where many feel more inclined to identity with their inner world and see the concept of their persona as a necessary evil.
That is dangerous because it builds a distance between the essence and the communication of that essence. And it’s this negativity towards that persona being somehow less than 100% that casts it in a poor light.
When you see a rose, you know its essence. It’s unabashedly a rose.
When you see an oak tree, you know its essence. It’s unabashedly a tree.
When you are at a coffee shop, you know its essence. It unabashedly serves coffee.
And when you encounter each of these things, you know exactly the experience that you’re about to have.
When others see you, do they know your essence?
Are you unabashedly…yourself?
That’s what my writing was going to about. It was going to have a few slides. Lots of good content.
And then I remembered this photo that someone took of me before I went on my vision quest.
When I saw this photo, I felt shame.
I looked happy. I had this unabashed quality of joy and play. I looked light and full of vigor.
The shame was because I didn’t project the toughness and wildness that I guide others in. I wanted to delete the photo right away because of my dissonance between who sometimes I project, and who I am.
As I thought of this photo, I realized that this is my post in a thousand words. I am the wild man. I am the one who fasts. And I am the one who is soft and smiles, and gets his battery charged through quality interactions.
Your persona isn’t your ego.
And there’s a gift that we can offer others when we fully identify and personify who we are, in our fullest spectrum.