Not just a good question for Halloween, but an interesting one regarding the armor you unconsciously use to protect your authentic self. What are these masks you speak of? They are the filter, influence, and theme running inside and out of your soul expression. Masks are often archetypes , (I use these interchangeably in this article)   and they are the ways in which we act out soul lessons like an actor or actress. As "the tough cookie, " for example, we play the role of bold, and unbreakable, hanging our hat and identity on how strong we are. However, is it not important to allow fragility? And what's this tough girl hiding behind all that muscle anyway? In many cases, our archetypes represent our soul wounds, sensitivities, and areas of needed growth. They can be literal, or opposites of what they're protecting. They can also be helpful, useful, and represent the lemonade from negative experience like the "the advocate, "-who once lived voiceless and

Sometimes the distance between souls is far, other times it's a step away. In either scenario, we must be brave enough to create, and walk, the bridge of empathy to connect with others to meet our vulnerability, and their vulnerability, with authenticity. Why? Well because relationship repair doesn't happen without this, and we don't change or heal our karmic issues without it either. Unless you are hoping to stay the same in steadfast patterns, you've got to stop running, and stretch that courage, when it comes to empathy, love, trust and forgiveness. A great travesty indeed is the presence of fear permeating in our society now more than ever. People can be incredibly defensive, guarded, selfish and afraid. These behaviors, all rooted in fear, are congruent to the wounded state of the soul experiencing them. Why do we act this way? Here are some common reasons... We protect fiercely within us that is most hurt. Our wounded child takes over, so instead of being b