We all present masks to the world. We are taught to do so at a very early age. Those masks are not who were truly are. If we were able to just simply be who we are, all the time, we might find that we had a lot of energy freed up to do other things. Somehow, this has been made into a very scary prospect. Our egos tell us that people will not like us for who we are (when, really, they probably know us for who we are already, no matter how we think we present ourselves to the world). It is easier for us, in our minds, to be rejected for who we portray ourselves to be than for who we truly are. 

Allow yourself to just be. Stop worrying about what people will think. Stop worrying about keeping up with the trends, the Joneses, or even the standards set forth for you by your parents. Just be. If you lived alone, and no one else were ever going to see the inside of your bedroom, what color would you paint it? If you lived in a cave on the mountain, what music would you listen to? What fabrics and styles are you comfortable wearing? What are your core values? What makes your heart sing? What are the parts of yourself that you really like, that you might never have acknowledged before? What are the aspects of the people in your life that really resonate for you? What parts of yourself do you want to change (because they make you uncomfortable, not because they don’t “measure up”)? 

Just be. Be you. The people who are supposed to be in your life will continue to be in your life and will continue to enjoy you for who you truly are. The last thing that you should have to struggle with is who you innately are. Just be.