Challenge Conformity

All of us have heard about and been a victim of conformity. On some occasions, we like to call it peer pressure too. Conformity is a global habit that every human irrespective of their age, gender, or nationality, tends to have.

If you still don’t get the meaning, answer the following few questions with a yes or no:

1. If your group of friends is going to see a movie you don’t necessarily like, will you go with them anyway?

2. Have you started smoking, drinking, or any other habits you didn’t have earlier because your peer group is doing the same?

3. Do you indulge in activities that you don’t feel are right for you, but you do them for the sake of getting along with your buddies?

4. Do you find yourself in uncomfortable situations in a group when all eyes are on you looking for your response, and you give a response not necessarily you believe in?

5. Are most of your statements politically correct and not offensive to anyone?

If the answer to more than 2 of the above questions is a Yes, then you, my friend, are a conformity participant. Conformity, as put simply by an author, is a tendency or an urge to fit in.

Most of our fears stem from within, and conformity helps us avoid many of those fears. Of course, this means that it can be a good thing on a few occasions, but if you conform to everything and everyone around you, you limit yourself to achieve your full potential.

All of us fall for the trap of conformity because we don’t want to project ourselves as an outlier. But this is where we hurt our self-worth and our blissful peace. This is because conforming to people around us makes us anxious, and we consume a lot of mental energy on putting up a facade of fitting in. We all are unique, and we should embrace our uniqueness to achieve greater things in life.

Now, the big question is, how to challenge and defeat a big monster like conformity? The answer is a pretty simple one, if you understand. We need to be Self-Aware. We need to get to know ourselves and our personalities inside out to stand up to others. Here are a few techniques one can use to be self-aware and hence challenge conformity:

1. Relaxation: As simple as it may sound, a key method to get rid of conformity is to relax our minds. Most of the time, we are anxious about missing the bus and fall into conformity to avoid that uncomfortable feeling. A night of good 8-hour sleep is the best way to relax both our mind and body. Deep-sleep sessions at MENTAL OPULENCE are a good method to achieve this. 

2. Meditation: Meditation is a stone that can simultaneously kill multiple birds, and conformity is on such a huge bird. Meditation means to sit quietly and listen to your thoughts, come and go. Guided meditation sessions on MENTAL OPULENCE will help you a lot in this

3. Journaling: This will help you reassess your life and priorities and keep a check on you daily.

If you want to achieve anything in life, getting rid of conformity is a big yes. It is rightly said, “If you conform, you are dead.” Challenging conformity not only brings positive energy into our lives, but it also makes us more resilient and self-disciplined and thus makes our life happier.