Before taking any action or doing any task, have you ever wondered or asked ‘What the ‘normal’ way of doing that task is?’

Have you been anxious about being normal or behaving in a normal way in public?

Have you stopped or have been stopped from doing things, just because it was not ‘normal’?

Who has defined ‘normal’ in your life? Are you happy with the ‘normal’?

Did you realize that this is just not you? What does being normal mean to you?

As it is intrinsic in the word,  being ‘normal’ is about ‘norms’, the rules which have been laid out or followed since ages. Well-articulated, defined, communicated, enforced, and pushed down. When you think of it, over a period of time in your attempt or quest to be ‘normal’, somewhere you have lost your true essence or self.

In fact, you are buried so deep under the set of norms that you have just forgotten what being yourself is and what it means to you. While you believe you are in ‘control’, you are just not. Your path is already defined and laid out and you seem to be just following it.

Come to think of it, it is considered blasphemous to step out of the so called ‘normal’ methods, that you end up leading a life with constant conflict in your mind.

Conflicts of what you truly desire and will be happy about, and the ‘norms’. You tend to dread being called ‘ab-normal’ and are constantly defending yourself against being branded so.

Let me provide you with a list of some of the known ‘normal’ and you will know what I am talking about;

1. Going to school when you are about 3 years old

2. Joining college after your schooling

3. Working 8 hrs. a day at something that gives you no pleasure at all, so that after 30 years you can retire

4. Retiring and discovering that you no longer have the energy to enjoy life

5. Believing that power is more important than money and money is more important than happiness.

6. Making fun of anyone who seeks happiness rather than money, accusing them of ‘lack of ambition’

7. Comparing objects like cars, houses, clothes, and defining life according to those comparisons, instead of trying to discover the real reason for being alive in this life.

8. Getting married, having children, and staying together long after all love has died, saying that it’s for the good of the children.

9. Keeping a smile on your lips even when you’re on the verge of tears. Feeling sorry for those who show their feelings.

10. Wearing a piece of colored cloth around your neck which serves no useful purpose but is called a tie

11. Never laughing too loudly in a restaurant however good the joke is….

12. That men should do all the so-called heavy work outdoors and women should confine themselves to soft one’s like baby-sitting, taking care of the household, cooking etc.

There are so many more which you could add to the above list.

What it all boils down to is that ‘normal’ is anything that makes us forget who we are and what we want.

So what’s your idea of being ‘normal’?  Do you think it has stopped you from being you?