This Is How Society Compromises Our Sense Of Self

Since when did it become so difficult to grasp our emotions, to recognize fullness, to be compassionate or apart of a family? We know more about technology, formulas and formatting an essay. We know more about trends, how to fake a smile and to gain the most likes on a selfie, but what is this amounting to? Suddenly we are programmed just like everybody else, taught to be just like everybody else.

What makes us unique is what can’t be learned through a textbook or within the ongoing flood of new social media forms. Our deep thoughts, personal beliefs, emotions and desires we long for are all such precious components to ourselves that tend to be abandoned due to the surrounding culture in which we live in. If we continue listening to only what and who is outside of us, the sense of self will be completely lost. The massive piles of information and junk we are consuming start covering it up. Your true identity is suddenly hidden under meaningless articles, modern technologies and lists of rules on how or who to be.

We spend a lot of time working on our lives through the materials, people and circumstances that exist only within our peripheral view. So much so that we forget the necessary world that is to be manifested inside of us. We become so easily distracted by the sounds of our phones when we receive a text message that our last thought gets ignored. We become driven to get out of bed by the rise of numbers we see on our bank account statements, rather than the excitement brought on just by being alive. We multi-task through fast paced, service jobs without an ability to stop and consider whether that environment is even a right fit for us. No longer do we have the time to create ourselves. No longer do we have time at all. It is as if time has us, owns us. We now must be the most productive, most efficient and most effective, but are we really?

We are not being powered by instincts, feelings or our deepest desires. We are motivated by the expressions of others, commodities and titles. Suddenly, you can’t sit alone because the thoughts you have are telling you that the life you have been building feels wrong. It feels empty. You don’t even want to sit to hear them. We keep moving, working, texting, typing, talking and distracting. Our outside world has officially taken control over our bodies and where does that leave all that’s internal to us? The heart? The brain? The soul?

We are being taught not to trust ourselves. Instead of using our mind, we should Google an answer. Instead of feeling the overwhelming, consuming feeling of sadness, we should shut down our emotions as to not inconvenience others. Instead of knowing when you feel hunger or fullness, we create set guidelines of when, how and what to eat. What we pick out to wear in the morning or what looks good to our own eyes suddenly becomes irrelevant in comparison to what is trending in magazines. We are being taught to ignore our thoughts, feelings and instincts so that we can follow the crowd. We become all in sync and there is suddenly no room for movement, for change or for growth.

We are taught what to think, when to think and how to think, so what is it that happens when we start to think differently? What happens when a thought emerges inside our heads that has not been told to us? Do we shut it down? Call yourself crazy and seek a therapist? We’re supposed to be this, that and over there, but the mind is screaming out something else, something different. Suddenly you engage in the battle of being who you want to be and who society tells you to be.

All that is sensed from the inside tells you something more than any tangible object or another being will ever tell you. It whispers the words in which contrast our current given culture. By listening to these senses, you will be guided to a more fulfilling life that no amount of money or job could even fathom. It’s the clearheaded, deep thoughts, hidden under the countless distractions that pave a pathway towards life of better self-awareness. With the understanding of your inner-self, you will finally be able to create a life of self-assuredness in this world trying so hard to force you into an empty unison.