three faces
weekly story work exercise
If you’re new here, Story Work is the name of my current book-in-progress. It describes a process of reflecting, reclaiming, and reimagining the stories of our lives. It involves looking at your life experiences as creative material that you have the power to shape.
The weekly Story Work topics cover universal life themes with references from literature, philosophy, science, and spirituality; offering perspectives that spark ideas for personal growth and creative expression.
Paid subscribers receive Story Work exercises every Sunday night at 8 pm et. Today’s exercise is open to all subscribers.
Hi everyone,
Our current story work theme is masks we wear, and the paywall is down for this series because it ties in with my promotion efforts for The Creative Courage Writing Intensive summer cohort which is currently open for registration. If you’re interested in learning more, there are three spots left, and you can learn more here.
So far we have explored reasons why we hide, the courage to unmask, and finding your alter egos. This week we are talking about different parts of ourselves that we show to the world (or not) according to the Japanese philosophy of three faces.
The first face you show to the world. This is the public image that you present at work, in social environments, perhaps when you first meet someone. And even that first face has variations depending on the situation. There are both true and false aspects to this presentation. Certain aspects of this face are to avoid being judged and cast out from a group that you want to accept you. You may hide parts of yourself to fit in with your environment.
The second face you show to your close friends and your family. Our loved ones and close friends get a more raw version of us than the first face, but there are still conditions, especially depending on the nature of those environments. This face changes as we transform from child to adult. We might have different personas with different friend groups. The core of who we are is what it is, but what we feel safe to reveal in different relationships can cause us to show up differently.
The third face is the truest reflection of who you are. You may never show this face to anyone, and you may be scared to acknowledge it for yourself. This is who you are without the pain and shame you’ve experienced in life and without the external influence of the world. Many of us forget this part of ourselves because we’ve hidden our vulnerabilities so well.
Let’s see what we can learn about ourselves by looking at how these three faces affect our daily lives and also how we show up in our creative work.
Exercise:
For this week’s exercise, journal about how you would describe your three faces. What are the characteristics of each face? Reflect on what you hide vs. what you show publicly, in different relationships and environments. Approach this like a brain dump and write everything that comes to mind.
Once you collect some thoughts, write a personal or fictional story about a memorable situation that reflects how one or all of these faces have shown up in your life story.
For example, you might write about your social media persona (first face) vs your real life (second face). Or how you show up at work (first face) vs. how you show up with your friends and family (second face). You could write about a time when your third face made a public appearance (perhaps through creative expression) and whether you felt embarrassed or empowered by it. Use your imagination and unique circumstances to see what you can learn about yourself.
…
To learn more about the Creative Courage Writing Intensive, you can get all the details here.