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Masking and Unmasking

a creative prompt by Kara L.C. Jones

In a filmed interview with C.G. Jung, he talked about how some of us are conscious of the various faces of self, but others are not. He explained that in one area of life people may know us one way. In another area of life, people may know a completely different version of us.

He posited that as long as we are conscious of our various versions of self, we can make peace with this. We can keep our integrity and feel grounded. We may even begin the journey of integrating the various truths of self to eventually become known in all spaces in the same way.

But if we are unconscious of our various versions of self, then we battle the demons of always feeling like a fraud. We feel dis-jointed. We may feel a constant undercurrent of resentment for having to mask our various truths in different situations.

All of this is so familiar to me in what I've experienced in my own grief journey and in what I've seen in working with others. Grief changes us. In some spaces, we can bring our newly broken (open) hearts and begin the hard work of re-defining ourselves. In other spaces, the world is impatient and wants us to get over it or go back to "normal" and so we present a different face there.

If we do this consciously, we may be able to do it peacefully. We may do it at work because it isn't a very personal environment, we like the job, and we don't mind others not knowing about our bereaved parenthood.

But if we do this unconsciously, we may be very unsettled. We may put on the mask at family holiday dinners because everyone wants us to "be fine" again. But we are not fine. An undercurrent of resentment and anger runs underneath our masks. We feel unable to be real at these gatherings.

So for today's creative prompt, I encourage you to explore your various selves. You can start with a sort of fill-in list making:

At home I am...
At work I am...
With extended family I am...
At support group I am...
With my partner I am...
When alone I am...
At social gatherings I am...

Try to be as descriptive as possible. Think about it from all your senses. What color are you in each setting? Does the mask of self in each setting have different marks? What kind of texture does each situation feel like? What do you sound like in each setting.

Once you have these descriptives, consider making art of them. Maybe sketch a many-faced being, each face representing each of the settings. Maybe make masks out of paper, one for each setting. Maybe do a painting of the various selves sitting in a circle, talking with each other.

This is just about getting conscious of these various versions of self. Making peace with each. Maybe having our first glimpse at how we might integrate them all and become more whole in every situation.

Try it out this week. Just see what happens. Feel free to share your experiments over on the MotherHenna.blogspot.com or Kotapress.blogspot.com or over at the MISS Creation Station forum!

Take a Home Workshop

The chaos of grief can be disorienting. Even when others try to be helpful, we may feel implicitly or explicitly pressured to grieve in a certain way. But these experiences are unique to each of us. In our "Finding Our Way" home workshop, you'll discover lots of creative tools for experimenting as you learn to live again in the face of loss. For full information, click here...

Original heART-work

MotherHenna's Etsy shop is featuring a few one of a kind, original artworks for sale. These are watercolor illustrations done on 80lb or 140lb paper. Each is artist signed and dated. Note the original does not have the watermark of the website on it! To see piece titled "Waking Up One Eyeball at a Time..." click here...

You Have Permission

Spots are still open for the You Have Permission session. We'll be working small group, meeting on the phone, so you can join from anywhere. We'll also host a private blog available 24/7, and all participants will have access to download all session materials to use locally any time. Join as we practice the art of Permission! Click here for full information...

Woodmont Ave

A new poetry collection from Kara L.C. Jones is now available via Lulu. The Woodmont Ave book is a collection of short, visually oriented poetry, musing on life at Woodmont Ave in the 1920s, 1940s, and 1980s. Click here for full information...

Procrastinator's Sale!

Thru Feb 28th, Lulu is offering 30% off all calendars if you use the code TIMEFLIES when you check out. Now you can get your 2010 MotherHenna heART Calendar. Click here for full information...

Friend Mother Henna aka Kara Chipoletti Jones or become a fan of

Mother Henna's Blog

Or you can join our Grief & Creativity Discussion Group which is a mix of caregivers, artists, and people looking for support in their own processes.

Reiki to all who come across this:
HON SHA ZE SHO NEN
HON SHA ZE SHO NEN
HON SHA ZE SHO NEN

To share the KOTA: Knowing Ourselves Thru Art eZine with others,
click here...