Many people are finding themselves caught between following their hearts and what other people might think of them.

Ego and Cognitive Dissonance

Sometimes our ego prevents us from expressing who we truly are.  Since birth, many of us were programmed to follow the flock and to conform to society's expectations.  This is where people experience cognitive dissonance. 

Cognitive dissonance occurs when you get an uncomfortable feeling caused by holding conflicting ideas simultaneously. In this case, our hearts may be telling us to follow a spiritual path but our egos are afraid of being hurt by our friends or family who don't understand our interests in this genre.

Hiding From Yourself

Some people may hide behind a fake or alternate profile on Facebook because they are afraid of what their friends and family might think about them and their newly found, spiritual Facebook friends. This, too, will cause cognitive dissonance.

Here is an example:  Your friend posts an article on Facebook that you really like but you won't "Like" it or post it on your FB wall because you are afraid of what your unawakened friends might think. 

Chances are, we will lose some long-time friends along the way in this awakening, but we will gain many more who are like-minded.  Plus, we are being true to our authentic selves of who we really are, "Spiritual beings having a human experience."

The friends that we lose are simply not ready to be awakened at this point in time.  If they unfriend you or drift away, this is because they are uncomfortable with truly looking at themselves, not you.

For some people, living within a multiple personality schema is the only way to find peace between their true feelings and what society may think of them.  They may pretend to be someone their not in front of friends and family by holding back their true thoughts and feelings but may also find peace, comfort and solace in furthering their spiritual journey behind closed doors.

Ultimately, the only person we are fooling is the reflection in the mirror.

Conformity

In the 1950's, a study was done on conformity called the Asch conformity experiments or the Asch Paradigm. A subject was placed in  room with several other people.  The group of people were shown a series on images that had one line being compared to three other lines of various sizes drawn on a piece of paper and each person was to verbalize which line was most similar to the first line.  The control group were instructed to take the same line that was noticeably smaller than the first line.  The subject, at first, would choose the longest line while looking at the other participants in disbelief.  Eventually, the subject conformed to whatever the group said was the most similar line, knowing in his mind that his choice was not the right selection.

Outside of the fear for what our friends may think about us, the mainstream media is probably the biggest antagonist for conformity by swaying public opinion.  For example, if a celebrity is wearing a certain brand name of clothing while drinking a particular brand of beverage, this person will influence the viewer on his or her taste in clothing and what to drink.

The media rarely ever encourages the exploration of spiritual or metaphysical topics and chooses to entertain us with ego-ladened reality shows or fear propaganda through regular programming, the news and feature length movies, all of which take us away from following our spiritual paths.

When we watch and follow sports on TV, it not only provides us with conformity and aggression, but it also promotes the divide and conquer principle, i.e. my tribe versus your tribe.

The corporate commercials are unknowingly, yet specifically tailored to the demographics of the viewing audience. These commercials mainly show good looking extroverts participating in some asinine group event.  While we may see through this facade, it still makes an imprint on our subconscious collective minds.  In other words, in order to be good looking, sociable and popular, I need to purchase this product.

Who Are You?

Many of us have bought into this reality at some point in our lives, but as we gravitate toward listening to our hearts versus what is being "programmed" into us, we realize that the only thing that matters is being true to ourselves.  Many people will live their entire lives pretending to be what society defines or dictates and will never know who they really are.

By opening up to our true selves, we begin to develop a new circle of spiritual friends who accept us for who we are.  We're able to talk to these people about ANYTHING without judgment or ridicule.

Many of my spiritual friends will call me because their current group of friends don't understand what they are feeling or experiencing during this awakening. I've had a lot of people express gratitude for in5d.com because they feel like they're "not alone" in their thoughts and feelings.  It's not easy to follow this path when you have little or no support from your friends and family so taking that first step requires a lot of courage.

Conversely, we may be surprised at how some of our close friends think similar to us regarding spirituality, yet we may have been to shy or embarrassed to mention these topics to one another.

What is the answer?

Only you know for sure but the answer can be found within a couple questions: 

"Can you be your true, authentic self at all times?"

"Are you able to speak to your friends and family about spiritual or metaphysical issues without being judged or ridiculed?"

Copyright in5d and Gregg Prescott, M.S.

http://www.in5d.com