We're told and generally led to believe that masking is bad, but is it really?
Everybody uses masks or faces to go about thier everyday lives, there could be a inner looking blank face for when we're on publc transport. A Work face that looks professional and in control. The face we show in private to our nearest and dearest, a slightly despairing face when we need help. If everybody does this NT's as well as ND's then why's it bad when we do it, or more importantly why are we made to feel bad for doing it?
All our masks and faces are an authentic part of us, just a different facet, a diamond is no less a diamond for being multifaceted.
Maybe we should start to see masks and faces as a dressing up box and using them to help us do the things we need to do. Be a bit like Mr Ben, go into the changing room with a costume and come out through the door as a lion tamer, or a train driver. I've found this approach to be really empowering and I think its how I've survived my first 50 undiagnosed years. One of my most important masks is my brass necked one, I put it on like a collar and it allows me to say things that I would think outrageous and unsayable if I wasn't wearing it, sometimes what comes out of my mouth when wearing it can get me in trouble, but because I've got brass neck I usually come away unscathed. But it's also what allows me to speak the truth to power, to ask for what I want and need, to not be victim. I still come home and take it off and put it back in the dressing up box and go through all the usual worrying about what I said and did etc whilst I was wearing it, but then I think I'd feel that anyway, so I make it serve a purpose, in helping me to stand up for myself.
