Today, I’m very pleased to welcome Thibaut who wants to share with us a thought full of kindness about the way we are wearing the mask in the midst of the Covid19 pandemia.
Thibaut is French and the father of a little boy. He is also an Ericksonian Hypnosis professional. He practices in his office Hypnose et Transition. For all the Covid19 pandemia, he kindly supports the teachers who need his help.This morning I realized something that moved me deeply.
It has been almost a year since we began to wear a mask to go out. Until then, I saw it like a coercition, necessary evil but, this morning, everything changed.
I felt so grateful. It was as if my eyes opened. I’ve come to realize that, for most of us, we don’t wear a mask just because we have been told to, because we are respectful to the law or afraid of the fine or the others judgement. We don’t wear a mask because we believe in what we are told. This is not because we feel safer thanks to the mask. Not only. This morning, I’ve realized something else.
Wearing a mask to protect others
I’ve come to realize what seems important is less wearing a mask than protecting others.
The mask, since it’s the first thing you see, witness our will to protect others. The baker where I buy my bread, the teacher and the other parents I meet when I go and pick my son at school, my neighbors on the tram… All protect me despite the obligation and the difficulty to communicate with the others, who have become faceless. And I don’t talk about the childish communications ordering us to wear a mask. If there were only these nuisances, many would have given up.
Wearing a mask as an act of love
We wear a mask in every circumstance and usually without begrudging.
We accept to put away our ego and our comfort. The mask could be a kind of symbol, of herald showing off our altruism. This message could be :
” I want to protect you despite the inconvenience because I think you are worth it. I see you as a person and I respect you as a human being.“
This altruism is one form of love. When we wear a mask that’s what we witness. That’s what moved me the most. Realizing that just wearing a mask we show love. This is almost as if we show without thinking the most sensitive part of our heart. Because for most of us, it is so normal to protect others, even the ones we don’t know.
Why can't we see wearing a mask differently from the negative aspect of Covid19 ?
Unfortunately, this positive and gratifying aspect doesn’t appear in our daily hammered messages. This is even the contrary. People wearing a mask don’t earn credit. It’s supposed to be normal, without any particular value. On the contrary the ones who don’t wear them are supposed to be selfish monsters, blinds and heartless. This way to show things on a negative side only suppresses this act all the beauty, the humanity and the joy to do it.
Even the vocabulary speaks for itself. We talk about “barrier gestures’ ‘. If they are indeed a barrier between the virus and us, they are also a barrier between us and the others. It even creates a kind of rancour between the ones who wear the masks and the ones who don’t. We have chosen to see this situation as “a fight against the virus”. But why can’t we see it as “an opportunity to get closer to each other ?” Can’t we consider this “barrier gesture” as a “gesture of love” ?
Why can’t we choose to see the things on the positive side ? Can’t we get out of the usual schemes and habits we are prisoners for years? Why can’t we just open ourselves up to put away fear ?
Nothing at all.
Choosing to see wearing a mask as proof of love.
This morning,a shift happened, a revolution. I’ve realised it was possible to do it otherwise and to choose.
After all, we live amongst beliefs. So many people deny the existence of the virus. And as we are not in people’s mind, we don’t know what happens there.
That’s why I’ve decided to consider people wearing masks against the Covid19 as people who take care of me, who make an act of love. I’ve chosen that perspective to see the others.
The mask helped me to notice something I’ve never seen before. And even if we usually hear we are more and more selfish and individualistic. Even if we usually hear talking about love as a kind of innocence, you just have to watch people in the street with their mask to think our true nature is to love each other.
But my awareness wasn’t only there.
Liberate ourselves by changing our gaze
I’ve also understood things are valuable regardless of what we think. We can only choose the way we look around us. When we stop to believe in what wrong us, we can stop the power these beliefs have on us. We can therefore choose the vision we want.
Changing the meaning of the mask on me, I stopped to stick to a truth I can’t know. This search locked myself in. Instead of it, I gave myself the opportunity to open myself to the world.
That’s how I liberated myself. I saw people around me showing they care by wearing it on their face. That’s a real shift.
It means you can see hope where there was despair. Just by being conscious of our beliefs, we can only free ourselves from values which are not ours anymore, to choose another way of living in society.
Sharing beauty to live together
I wish you could do this just like me. I wish you could see this as an act of love to you. Maybe then, crossing people in the street would give you this feeling of happiness and gratitude.
And I’d love it if many of us would be aware too and would change their beliefs. It would be a great opportunity to change our way of living together ! Society would fit us better.
If you feel that way, don’t miss the opportunity to be touched by beauty. It’s everywhere in our daily life, even if it’s a desperate situation. We just have to learn how to see it.
Thank you then ! I love you all !
Beside this post about wearing a mask against Covid19, don’t hesitate to follow Thibaut on his blog and on Facebook.
