You live, but are you living the way you want to live or the way others want you to live? You choose, but are your choices based on your own decisions or on the decisions imposed on you by society? You act, but are you acting out of your conditioning or out of your conscious will?

Almost everywhere I look I see people who are immensely suppressed and experience tremendous suffering, mainly because they conform to those around them just so that they can feel liked and accepted, afraid that embracing and honestly expressing their individuality might lead them to social ostracism. Their life is a slow torture, and with every step they take they feel the burden of conformity growing heavier and heavier on their shoulders. They sacrifice themselves just so they can please others, unaware that they are committing psychological suicide.

But what is the point of living this way? It’s meaningless and utterly stupid.

Life can be lived in a totally different way — a way that allows us to live up to our fullest potential, that helps us to contentment and peace, that brings us freedom to be spontaneous and make the most out of our life’s journey, that turns existence into a celebration filled with beautiful moments that make life truly worth living.

For this to happen, however, we need a big shift in our consciousness, and a good first step to achieve this is to escape the herd mentality that surrounds us and rebel against anything that is imprisoning our minds and filling our souls with toxic energy.

When you gather the courage to say a big NO to conformity and break free from the mental shackles that were imposed on you since the very day you were born, great things will start happening that may turn your life upside down. Below are some of those things.

When you rebel against the herd…

You develop your critical thinking

Once you turn your back toward the crowd, your way of thinking slowly stops being influenced by it, and you start using your reason more, and this does wonders to increase your intelligence.

Most people don’t think for themselves — instead, they let others do the thinking for them. They are easily persuaded by the herd mentality and never stop for a moment to question anything that they’ve been told by others. They are blinded by belief and follow without doubt what is considered to be a normal way of living. Desiring to be normal, they lose their individuality, and the intellectual consequences of this are enormous: they can barely use their critical thinking and their will power is almost nonexistent. Not surprisingly, when faced with any problems, their only hope is that someone else will help them to overcome them. By themselves, they feel totally helpless.

When you step away from the confines of the herd and start your own quest for truth, you begin to acquire the art of freethinking. You don’t believe anything without evidence, you don’t accept what doesn’t resonate with your own experiences and you try to find out what’s true for yourself. In your efforts to achieve this, you mature, become wiser, and learn to make more conscious choices that contribute to your well-being.

You drop your social masks

Another thing that happens when you decide to rebel against the herd is that you become honest with yourself and others. You let go of the social masks that you had been wearing to pretend that you were someone you never were, and reveal to the world who you truly are. You expose yourself, unafraid of whether others will judge you or not.

In the society we are living, hypocrisy prevails everywhere. People constantly lie to one another just so that they can feel accepted by the mob, but at the same time they experience emotional turbulence because they never managed to accept themselves as they are. And when you don’t like yourself for who you are, what is the point of being liked by others for who you are not?

The moment you stop desiring others’ acceptance, you begin to express yourself without asking for the permission of others. You don’t suppress yourself and naturally your stress levels drop, which makes you feel better than you’ve had ever felt before. In addition, you are able to form genuine relationships with your fellow human beings, who, even if only a few, truly resonate with your being and embrace you just the way you are.

You learn to take responsibility in your hands

Responsibility and freedom always go hand in hand, and so the more responsible one is, the more free one becomes.

People usually like to throw responsibility away from their hands and hold others responsible for their lives. By doing so, however, they are also throwing away their freedom. Not only that, they also blame others whenever something is going wrong with their lives. That’s why you see people believe in saviors of all kinds and allow a few individuals — for example, politicians — to take control over their lives, but once they find out that those people don’t fulfill their expectations, they start blaming them for ruining their lives, not realizing that they themselves are at fault in the first place for allowing them to be in such a powerful position.

The herd always desires a good shepherd to take care of it. A rebel, however, doesn’t allow anyone the freedom to dictate him how to live. On the contrary, he sees himself as the creator of his own destiny and takes full responsibility for his actions. And instead of blaming others when he happens to make mistakes, he fully accepts them and takes immediate action to correct them.

You become the master of your life

In essence, a rebel is one who is the master of his life.

A rebel doesn’t walk on a predetermined path — he creates his own path.

A rebel never lets others control their thought and behavior — he thinks for himself and his actions are the embodiment of his psyche.

A rebel lives to the fullest and squeezes the juice out of life. And although he might make many mistakes in his efforts to turn his dreams into reality, he is not filled with regrets, because, even if he ultimately fails at his attempts, he at least knows that he tried to the best of his ability.

If you conform to the herd, you might be under the impression that you are free, but in reality you are nothing but a puppet who is manipulated by outside forces. You might mistakenly feel strong with the crutches that were offered to you by weak people, but you’ll deep down know that you are powerless to stand on your own feet. You might wear a fake smile and superficially feel secure, but you won’t help but continuously experience immense grief in your heart for the risks you never dared to take.

So what are you waiting for?

Think for yourself.

Tear off your masks.

Act responsibly.

Live your life.

This article (What Happens When You Rebel Against the Herd) was originally published on The Unbounded Spirit and syndicated by The Event Chronicle. Found via Prepare for Change.

http://www.theeventchronicle.com/metaphysics/spiritual/happens-rebel-herd/