It can be widely believed that being different in society is a judgeable offence. A lot of people can be ashamed of their difference or hide it, often believing that their difference is wrong.
However, it is natural to be different. We’re surrounded by difference. Different schools, institutions, groups and workplaces. Acknowledging the ways that you are special and unique can be a gift for every workplace, business, institutions and for yourself and for others as well. But, you need to be willing to embrace and show your difference.
image via pinterest
Being You facilitator, Angéla Kovács shares 4 ways to embrace your difference, to stand out and not disappear in your life.
1. You are not wrong because you are different.
One of the biggest challenges we can face is to stop judging and hurting ourselves for being different. We all think differently, feel differently and function totally differently. The following questions will open you up to the possibilities your uniqueness can create and how you can use it to your advantage. Ask yourself the following:
– What if I am not wrong, just different?
– What can I choose then and how can I show myself to the world?
Difference can often be so inconceivable, unexplainable and inapprehensible that it very quickly takes you to wrongness. If we can’t understand it and can’t categorize it, it must be wrong, right? This is what we’re often taught to believe, but it couldn’t be any further from the truth.
Acknowledgement and gratitude melt self-abuse. Every day acknowledge something about yourself that makes you different. Be grateful for it – whether it is part of your physical appearance, your personality or a skill you possess. Ask what you could create from this difference.
Is it possible that the things you’re judging about yourself, the things that make you different, are exactly where your possibilities lie?
2. Respect and honour the difference.
Do we respect that maybe our own requirements are different in this world? Are we willing to choose it even when others don’t understand it, or don’t agree with it? It doesn’t mean we are right and it doesn’t mean we are wrong. We just function differently. Maybe we like the heat or we like the cold. We might like working at night, or maybe we are not able to do similar things continuously, or in the same way. We might be happy in a different way. It was a great discovery to notice that I am happy in a different way and enjoy different things, and let go of the world’s expectations to have specific things that make me happy. What if happiness is different for me?
Notice and acknowledge what works for you, so that you can explore your difference. What if you would consider your own difference, without looking for justification? What would this difference create if we acknowledged its existence?
3. Be special for yourself and explore You.
We often wait for somebody to discover us and discover that we are different. Wouldn’t it be so great if there would be someone to whom we would be so special to and could belong to?
Don’t wait for someone else to acknowledge what makes you unique and start acknowledging that you can be special for you. When we have our backs and support ourselves, then others can come into play and support us as well.
Ask yourself, “How can I support Myself today?” Asking this question can help open you up to ways you can support yourself more and also to recognise the ways you can support others, and how others can show up for you. Remembr, you need to have a great relationship with yourself first, before you can have one with others.
4. Make the difference live.
Look at what you see in a different way and the different ways you function, and just follow it. When others tell you, “you can’t do this” or “you can’t do it this way”, know that you actually can. Anything is possible when you embrace what makes you different and hold your ground.
Acknowledge you are brave and choose more every day. Accept yourself and focus on living each day the way you want to and do what makes you happy. Ask yourself, “what would work for me today,” and do it!
Support yourself and support others in their uniqueness. Accepting differences and uniqueness can not only help you stand out from the crowd, but also help you, and others, to not feel alone.
What can your unique capacities create in the world? Start creating.
What is something you haven’t chosen yet? Now choose it.
