Affirmations for Stepping Outside of the Box

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We begin life with the world presenting itself to us as it is. Someone - our parents, teachers, analysts - hypnotizes us to "see" the world and construe it in the "right" way. These others label the world, attach names and give voices to the beings and events in it, so that thereafter, we cannot read the world in any other language or hear it saying other things to us. The task is to break the hypnotic spell, so that we become undeaf, unblind and multilingual, thereby letting the world speak to us in new voices and write all its possible meanings in the new book of our existence.   ~Sidney Jourard

Have you ever tried to change yourself for a man, a group, or a job?  Have you ever tried to be something for someone and forgotten who you really are? Have you ever felt misunderstood? unaccepted? uncool? Do you have ideas and philosophies that are outside of popular opinion?

Perhaps you've been teased and labeled when trying to express yourself? Does your family disagree with how you live or decisions you've made?   Maybe you've failed at something and been told "I told you so".  These things can all quickly rob you of your confidence and motivation.  These things can put out your fire - but only if you let them.

Today, I encourage you to remember what drives you and what makes you different.  If you're not completely fulfilled and inspired by your life, then you have the power to change that.  Consider the following quotes to help you keep an open mind when it comes to creating the unique life that you want:

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

Don't ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. ~Attributed to Howard Thurman

Do not follow where the path may lead. Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail.    ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nothing encourages creativity like the chance to fall flat on one's face. ~James D. Finley

You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus. ~Mark Twain

Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought. ~Albert Szent-Györgyi

It is the eye of ignorance that assigns a fixed and unchangeable color to every object; beware of this stumbling block. ~Paul Gauguin