“The Need to Belong vs. the Need to Grow Part 2”

“The groups we belong to are many: our country, our culture, our gender, our class, our age group, our race, our religion, our family of origin, our community, our workplace, and the various organizations that we are members of. All of these groups have rules and belief systems, some written, some silently understood, that must be followed for us to be part of the group. These rules and belief systems are necessary, they are what shape and give the group its identity. As long as these rules don’t conflict with our inner longing to grow more and more into our full self, there is no problem. However, when conflict arises between the need to belong and the need to grow, we have to make a choice. We must either sacrifice a part of ourselves to maintain our belonging, or we must risk the approval and support of the group by growing.”

The Yamas & Niyamas by Deborah Adele