The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself — Friedrich Nietzsche
It’s a bit of an untold story that has slowly found its way to the people who need it most.
Since your birth date, you have been surrounded by family, friends, and those who you have cherished along the way. Within those environments, you have come to develop certain habits, patterns, and mindsets that have helped you navigate your life.
With each habit, pattern, and mindset, you have carved an identity that is yours but has the makings of many. It is a collection of experiences that, for the most part, have involved other people in addition to yourself.
In these experiences, you learn to value others and are given an opportunity to value the outside input in particular. In the preliminary stages of your education, this can occur in the form of a preschool teacher. You learn that your teacher is someone to be respected, and someone that you should consider an authority to a certain extent, on how you experience life.
Of course, being so young, it won’t occur to you that you are not living life through your primary lens, but that of your teacher. You will grow accustomed to utilizing and depending on the input of your teacher to form certain conclusions about how the world works.
And on average, you repeat this experience for 12 more years.
Throughout the following 12 years, you encounter opportunities where you get to make “original” assertions. These assertions, whether right or wrong, become the building blocks of what you consider the formation of your individuality.
From your haircut or the way you dress, you start to fall into a groove that sounds like yours. You start to appreciate different things than your friends or family and slowly, they notice your behavior. You know that they have noticed because things feel off. You can feel it in your gut but can’t quite articulate why you feel a distance between yourself and those you care about.
