The YOU who came into this world with all your quirky and awesome personality traits, talents, and hardships is the YOU the world needs most. Many times our family, culture, environment, teachers, therapists, countries, and religions start to shape us at a very young age. We are like sponges taking our cues for what's acceptable, appreciated, rewarded, and respected. Little by little, far too many of us decide to ignore the golden nuggets of our very own unique and marvelous characteristics.
We may get the courage, on rare occasions, to express our untapped unique interest in something near and dear to our hearts, then some dumbass person barks at us telling us not to think, feel or say this again. Instantly shame is downloaded and instead of encouraging us to explore this admitted interest, we shut down wanting to spare ourselves any further shame or embarrassment.
The authority figure, who was -in their opinion- thinking this slapdown was in your best interest, may have experienced being shamed by influential superiors in their own life. It makes perfect sense that they'd ask you to swallow the same pill of suppression they to were imprisoned with.
The result of this outdated model is that it created a world of unhappy, angry, and bitter people. The other result of this suppression is that it can and may lead to perversion.
Let's use a common international conflict to illustrate this probability. Sexuality has been a mainstage issue forever. The case of the Catholic church, along with many other religious institutions, requires a priest, sister, and nuns to suppress their sexuality. This unnatural expectation has resulted in the historical worldwide molestation by the clergy.
It was once said that a priest needs a sinner as much as a sinner needs a priest. For the sake of illustration, a priest is a man who has been asked/required to suppress all sexual desires. Out of the love of God. No true God would impose something so opposite to the nature of one he created. This is the perfect storm for perpetrators and victims. It should be stated that everyone is a victim in this situation.
The knowledge of this matter within the church has been on record since the 11 century. Church records shamelessly admitted this: In 1531, Martin Luther claimed that Pope Leo X had vetoed a measure that cardinals should restrict the number of boys they kept for their pleasure, "otherwise it would have been spread throughout the world how openly and shamelessly the Pope and the cardinals in Rome practice sodomy."
This is simply one example of how suppression by a figurehead leads to perversion. So what is the answer?
One way out of Hell is education. As a note to the reader Hell was actually a garbage dump near Jerusalem. This nightmare was made up and most Christian religions nowadays no longer preach this BS. Ye,t the shame of these past 1500 years, lives within our bodies of our collective consciousness. So the way out of a deeply terrifying situation is by education, be it out of podcasts, books, seminars, blog posts, the classroom, or your own critical thinking and research.
The answer is simple but not easy. Be You! Be You with dignity and respect.
Grab every self-development book, you can get to learn tips and tricks for becoming a driving force.
Next, find your tribe. You may ask, how will I know it's my tribe? Answer: you'll feel right at home hanging out with these people. That's how you know it's your tribe.
Next read-read-read. Never stop reading and being curious. Books like How To Win Friends and Influence People, The Untethered Soul, Talking To Strangers, You'll See It When You Believe It.
Learn how to manage your unique personality and ways to navigate this mighty incredible situation.
We know that no matter our differences we are 99.0 all the same. If we all do our part to disrupt the norms and learn how to love ourselves, and others who may not be like us or look like us, our highest hopes for peace will prevail.
So let us reach a higher consciousness by remaining curious, loving, and striving to be the happiest people in all of history. It's in your hands and I have the greatest trust and confidence you can and will overcome any setbacks you may have encountered in your life so far. It's not what's happened which may determine your prosperous future, but the way you deal with the issues in this day and age.
Quite simply, Do Epic Shit together so we can turn this world around.