Ugh. If Leonardo DiCaprio was in my head, I would shoot myself.
I sort of think everyone keeps their child self within them.
Interesting. Like our innocent, pure self that is still untainted by the world?
Isn't this basically the idea of the persona? That we all wear a mask and hide our true selves?
I don't know, honestly. I wear so many masks and my mood fluctuates so frequently that I'm not really sure what my "true self" is anymore...
Mm, I am trying to think of this is in other terms instead of the usual "masks" and "personas."
Like inside of all of us is a star waiting to burst out in all its shiny glory, but because of experiences we have in this world, we learn to encase that star so much we can only see poky bits of fluffy light every now and again.
I definitely keep a large part of my true self hidden. I keep the most vulnerable part inside. It's a self preservation thing. I'm my experience, most people can't be trusted...so, I don't.
Yes. I constantly have to relearn how untrustworthy people are. Each time it's like the first time all over again.
But I keep on trusting because if I don't then I am letting them win.
It is very difficult to expose those tender bits, however, and so uncomfortable.
I don't like the idea of masks personally... I don't feel that I wear them. It's more like armor than a mask. I'm super sensitive actually so it's just to protect the squishy bits.
Or like I said earlier... It's just the child and the outer self is the parent.
Maybe... Idk lady! What do you think?
Hmm, I like this idea of armor versus masks. I think that is quite true for me too. I am always, ridiculously so, myself with people. But with some I let them wander around freely in my Ne shrubbery and flower maze, and other people the maze is made of stone walls.
Imo your "true self" is only allowed to emerge if it is nurtured. Unfortunately the various stressors of life tend to obfuscate hidden gems as we try to protect our core.
Yes, I can definitely see that. Our hidden selves often need to be coaxed out into the open like frightened fawns who have lost their mothers. At the first hint of wing above they scatter back into the forest.
True self is often confused with inner self.
True self is like an orange. It has an outside and an inside, but together it is the whole orange.
Or a less tasty and more accurate example would be an onion. It has many layers. The whole thing is the onion, right down to the middle. All the layers are onion, there is no 'true onion' but the onion itself. Some parts of it are just deeper inside.
Your outer self is still part of yourself because yourself has it - it's not somebody else's outer self, it is yours.
I tend to show a quiet, pleasant side where I smile more than speak, and try to stay positive in what I say to people. My more private aspects have to do with parts of me that fall outside the norm, the negative feelings, the humor and childlike aspects, the parts that would surprise people. I show more of that online than in person.
Interesting perspective. I feel that I have more to say on this but I wish to think further.
Can a person really know their own true self? Something tells me there's just something about us that we can't see by necessity, like trying to catch seeing ourselves blink in the mirror. There also has to be something we just can't show, but I bet we indicate it, even if we don't know what it is.
I think we can know parts of our true selves. I think the most we learn about ourselves, the more we can become our true selves. Eventually we will cross the event horizon and the gravity over who we are will take over and we can't help but be simply our truest self without external taint.
Well, technically, since our own vision is subjected and clouded, there are parts of ourselves we can't really see (kind of like if we're sitting inside an airplane, we can't see all of the airplane in ways that people standing a distance away can see it). So to have our best chance, we're always triangulating data. But I don't think we ever totally "know ourselves," even if we can get a good general idea of who we are and also experience misery when we are consistently being forced to behave in ways that run counter to our own inclinations.
At times, also, I thought I knew myself, but then I would do or say something that exposed a new part of me not just to others but to myself as well -- those moments were discoveries for me as well.
It is always so delightful to be surprised by oneself. I am both alarmed and excited when I blindside myself on a part of me that I hadn't considered before.
It's nice to think that we are our own last frontier to be explored in life.
