A central theory to Core Energetics is about the mask, lower self and higher self.  Today I am going to be talking about the mask.  Our mask is constructed throughout our developmental stages.  When we are emotionally wounded as children we form a scar wound over our true essence (higher self) , we also form a negative belief about ourself or the world, then destructive feelings are held in and there is a mask over the top.  For example, if as a child it was too painful to feel the depth of abandoment/betrayal/rejection, a mask was constructed to survive.  Or the mask tried to be what someone else wanted us to be eg. cheerful instead of angry.  Our mask is held in our body in the form of character armouring and our personality.  Our character armouring is also referred to as muscle armouring and holds fixed attitudes, patterned behaviour and blocked energy.

The problem of the mask is that it is a non movement of energy (as the energy is blocked in the character armouring) and it is a distortion of who we really are.  The mask can blame, have spite, demand, judgements,  victim mentality and low self responsibility.  We do not make deep connections from our mask and we are disconnected from our own truth and life flow of energy.  If a person is “stuck” in their life, consider that they are also stuck in their mask around whatever the issue is.

John Pierrakos (Core Energetics, 1986) said that some useful self reflection questions to help penetrate the mask are “does it have to be so?  Do I have to struggle this much?  Do I exaggerate?”.  Such questions lead us to dissolve the mask and to reach our inner core of wisdom.

I look forward to sharing more about the mask…mine and others ….