Well, I say there's only one life, but about a trillion different masks that life can put on at any one moment. It's because of putting most of our collective attention and energy into making these "characters" (personas) believable for so long that we tend to lose our footing on who we really are, at the core.

Because so many people are "external-focused", the majority tend to think that people stay more or less the same person for all, or most, of their lives. Of course, we can know by studying ourselves (our memories) that the personality is fickle and nearly in a constant state of evolving, if not entirely transforming.

Really, the only thing that keeps any consistency at all between the "self" of yesterday and that of today is our fear of having our social/ political/ financial achievements and status, among other things, unravel. We fear so much about who, or what, we might become if we stop trying to stay consistent that our psychological energies are almost constantly directed at keeping the "persona" congruent with the past, at the very least, in the context of whom we're spending our time with and/or what we happen to be doing. The more persistent we are at "staying in character" the more demanding we are on our body's resources, particularly the mental faculty, and the more tiring it becomes.

Over time, these habits can lead to chronic anxiety, fatigue, and, eventually, depression. From there, we may become quite sickly, as the immune system becomes weakened as the mind tires. Yet, most people would rather face these types of symptoms than take a chance at exposing their true identity to the world.

To be real is to risk being exposed like an open book to the world for all to read, judge and condemn. It's the ultimate state of vulnerability. It's a top fear for most of us, a great number of which will never confront, due to the belief that there's too much to lose on taking a chance.

That's why it takes real courage to be psychologically free - to not care what other people think about us and to value our own authenticity over making good impressions on others.

It's one of my greatest wishes that all of humanity be able to taste the freedom from fear of judgments, both from others and from oneself. I want everybody to be the strong individuals that they are.