Every day we wake up, we have the opportunity to choose what clothes we wear and thus how we present ourselves to the world. Sometimes we choose based on the weather or maybe the events to take place that day and certainly, we base our outfits on how we feel.
When you walk down the street, the principal thing you notice about others is what clothes they are wearing. You make judgments, understanding that what they wear dictates how you and others perceive them.
Are they wearing high heels to convey power and status? Do they have a backpack slung over their shoulder with textbooks and a computer inside? Are they wearing glasses? A hat? Maybe some make-up to accompany their style?
There’s a lot that is communicated to us through what people chose to wear. But there is more than what meets the eye.
Underneath the clothes, everyone is wearing armor. Invisible to the eye but detected by our souls, everyone’s armor tells their story and is built by different experiences and people who are or have been a part of their lives.
This armor tells more about us than the outfits we wear, the way we style our hair, and sometimes even the words we speak.
The Armor We All Wear
Whether you care to admit it or not, we are all encapsulated in armor built from years of experiencing and living through life. Because of the vast variety of life experiences, nobody’s armor looks or is built exactly the same way.
The way our armor is built and what it is composed of lies in the intricacies of our emotions, our thoughts, and our actions. Our armor has been made to serve specific purposes, with each component protecting our unhealed wounds and safeguarding our scars.
Maybe your chest plate was built from a romantic relationship that was emotionally taxing and ended in heartbreak. Perhaps your helmet was made to protect your mind from all the negativity life has thrown at you.
Our armor also represents the connection between our minds and our hearts. The only thing that our logical brains can think of to protect our sensitive hearts, precious minds, and weak bodies is outerwear, which is impossible for the outside world to penetrate.
The weight of the armor we bear can be heavy and the clothes that we wear, a distraction. A distraction from the true strength and resilience it takes to build such a protective defense against everything life throws at us.
Understanding What Your Armor Looks Like
To understand what one’s own armor is built from, is to understand the depth of the wounds we have, the visibility of the scars we bear.
Is your armor built from pain and self-defense or from love and strength? Do you don a full set of body armor or merely a chest plate and helmet?
Understanding the key experiences that resulted in the armor you wear reveals how you cope with misfortune, hardships, and pain. It’s an indicator of the emotional barriers you knowingly or unknowingly walk around in your everyday life.
Try to imagine what you have crafted from the experiences and people in your life to protect your heart and your wounds and to keep the pain buried deep inside. Is your armor thick or thin? Is it hard to penetrate? Is it shiny and securely put together, or rusted and falling apart?
Why it Even Matters
In order to deeply understand yourself, you must strive to understand all aspects of your being- the good, the bad, and the ugly. Part of understanding yourself is understanding the ways in which you try to protect yourself from others and the world.
If you don’t understand the protective armor you wear and why you even wear it in the first place, you rob yourself of the ability to deeply understand your authentic self and to let others do the same.
The metaphor of armor demands another question… When do you take that armor off? Who do you let your armor come off around? Is it your family or friends who see beneath the armor? What does it take for someone to have that privilege? Trust? Loyalty? Time?
Not only is it important to understand the armor you adorn every day, but it’s important to recognize the armor other people defend themselves in.
Part of understanding the human race is understanding in what ways people try to protect themselves and why they feel the need to do so.
Real Talk
Knights in shining armor do not exist. Only broken people who have been hurt to the point that they wear armor under the sundresses and business suits.
The armor we wear is a bit rusty and has a few loose screws here and there. It's dented and deteriorated. It’s not worn out of pride and showcased while riding atop a horse. Rather, it’s hidden from sight from those around us and even ourselves sometimes.
In the pursuit of understanding yourself better, come to know the armor you wear. Come to understand why you wear it and how it impacts your perception of yourself, others, and life in general.
Everyone burdens the weight of armor. There’s nothing wrong with that. But consider taking the time and reflection needed to understand your armor and the armor of those around you.