When Strength Becomes a Mask: The Illusion of Invincibility
We live in a world that glorifies strength.
Push through. Keep going. Be the strong one.
But what if that strength we wear — so confidently, so consistently — isn’t actually strength at all?
What if it’s armor?
🐒 The Story of Hanuman’s Forgotten Power
In the great Indian epic, the Ramayana, there is a beautiful story of the monkey god Hanuman.
Born with immense strength and supernatural power, Hanuman was fearless and wild as a child. He once flew to the sun, thinking it was a mango, and caused divine chaos in his mischief. To protect him and teach humility, the gods placed a spell of forgetfulness over him. He would forget his true power until the moment it was truly needed.
Years passed. Hanuman lived modestly, unaware of who he really was.
When Sita, the beloved of Lord Rama, was taken to Lanka and the battle between good and evil loomed, Hanuman was called upon. But he hesitated. He didn’t remember his strength.
It took a wise elder, Jambavan, to remind him:
“Hanuman, you have forgotten. The strength is already within you.”
Only then did Hanuman awaken.
Only then did he rise, leap across the ocean, and fulfill his dharma.
This story is more than myth — it is a mirror.
💭 The Illusion of Invincibility
Many of us are walking around like Hanuman — forgetting who we are, not because the strength isn’t there, but because we’ve buried it beneath trauma, conditioning, and survival.
We’ve been praised for being strong.
We’ve been rewarded for showing up even when our hearts were breaking.
We’ve been told to “bounce back” before our nervous systems have even begun to breathe.
Resilience becomes a mask when it’s used to cover up unprocessed grief, fear, exhaustion, or pain.
It becomes a shield — not a source of empowerment, but a strategy of survival.
🔥 Coping or Surviving?
Many signs of so-called “strength” are actually signs of coping:
Burnout masked as high performance
Dissociation masked as calmness
Perfectionism masked as ambition
These are trauma responses.
They are not flaws. They are evidence that we adapted — and adaptation is a form of brilliance.
But adaptation is not the same as healing.
🧘🏽♀️ Self-Inquiry: What’s Beneath the Armor?
Here are some journal prompts to explore:
What does “being strong” mean to me, and where did I learn that definition?
When was the last time I let myself be truly vulnerable? What happened?
Am I pushing through something that actually needs to be felt or grieved?
What would it look like to take the mask off — even just a little?
Who am I performing strength for — and what would happen if I stopped?
Let your pen be a mirror. Let your breath be the invitation to soften.
🌿 Remembering, Not Reinventing
Like Hanuman, your strength isn’t gone.
It’s only been forgotten — buried under the weight of holding it all together.
You don’t need to become someone new.
You only need to remember who you are underneath the armor.
True resilience is soft.
It allows the heart to break,
the soul to breathe,
and the spirit to rise — not in resistance, but in remembrance.
If this message landed in your bones, I invite you to pause today.
Not to push. Not to perform. But to simply be — soft, human, holy.
You are not here to be invincible.
You are here to be real.
