How to embrace being an outsider.

Many times in your life you are not part of the tribe. You have feelings, thoughts, emotions, viewpoints, and beliefs which don't harmonize with the norm. That can be a difficult spot to live in because you are in a sense ridiculed, ostracized and made to feel unusual and weird for having a viewpoint not aligned with the status quo. The natural tendency when this happens is to have a "F__ everyone" mentality and separate yourself from everyone and feel as though you are alone in the world. Those are all valid feelings, instincts, and emotions which arise in this circumstance. But you can adopt a different point of view which allows you to go forth and follow your heart without having to take a combative stance towards the rest of the world. You can adopt the viewpoint that regardless of what people think of your viewpoints, opinions, lifestyle, or beliefs, it doesn't matter because all these things are flexible and don't define who you are or who anyone else is. Feelings change, beliefs change, viewpoints change, and people change. And even if people make fun of you for being "different", you and everyone else are not very different at all other than on a really superficial level. We often as a society tend to get obsessed with looks and social customs, but these are the most flimsy, transient, shallow, and unimportant of aspects of life. Sure there are unique personalities, but regardless of the colourful glows of different personas which exists in the world, we all want the same thing, which is to be happy and avoid suffering. Everyone does a myriad of different things to achieve these ends, but that's the root of what we are all getting too. A million different people are taking a million unique routes to the same destination.

As for the physical aspect of human beings, sure people look different, but who are for the most part is generally the same. We have flesh, blood, organs like a heart, lungs, brain, kidneys, a circulatory system, and composed of trillions of cells. We need food, water, oxygen, and shelter from harsh conditions of nature.

So the societal pressure and egoic mind will incessantly bring up thoughts and feelings of being an outsider, and allow those feelings to arise, remain, and cease. Accept who you are, and accept everyone around you. This will create an energy of acceptance around you. And despite those feelings of being different, consciously know and cultivate the truth that you are pretty much at the core just like everyone else. We are all composed of the same "star stuff" and can work harmoniously together like cells in the blood and molecules of water in the ocean.