The 10 Benefits of Being a Social Outsider

Every form of soul-searching starts off with the sensation of being an outsider. In fact, it is impossible to start the spiritual journey without this feeling. Without feeling like an outsider, what would motivate you to search for a true home or sense of belonging?

The very fact that you feel like an outsider indicates that your soul is trying to guide you towards true love, understanding, and freedom.

Almost every person we've spoken to in our time mentoring others has identified with this feeling of being an outsider looking in. All of these people have expressed a level of soulful maturity that surpasses the average person. In other words, these people saw beyond the pretensions of others, the rat-race of daily living and felt like there was much more to life than meets the eye.

Instead of unquestionably accepting what they had been taught, these outsiders were inquisitive and curious freethinkers.

Unfortunately, we’re often taught that being an outsider is a “bad” thing, and no wonder — biologically we are made to stay within the safe confines of our species’ groups. But there comes a moment in life where “playing by the book” is seen to be a miserable and unfulfilling absurdity. (Just look at all those people who followed the rules, got a good career, wife, children, solid salary, socially-approved status … and ended up miserable, empty, lonely, killing themselves, or dying prematurely due to stress-related illnesses. I’m sure you know one, or a dozen.)

So while being an outsider may seem isolating, it is actually profoundly beneficial for your life.

I wish everyone had the opportunity to feel like an outsider because being an outsider is a catalyst for self-fulfillment, self-mastery, and self-realisation.

If you have ever read the archetypal story of The Hero’s Journey from Joseph Campbell (that is repeated in every culture, time and period), you’ll realize that being an outsider is actually necessary for finding your true meaning and purpose in life. So the very fact that you feel like an outsider is actually a good sign: you’re on the right path!

It’s important that we learn to think of being a lone wolf as a good thing. Many indigenous cultures, such as those in Africa and Australia, actually encourage the younger members to go out alone in the wilderness to find themselves as a rite of passage. Without accepting that isolation is part of experiencing true connectedness, we get lost very easily. We start believing everything is wrong with us, when in fact, we are simply being driven to pursue something of more depth and spiritual significance.

If you are receptive to your soul, it is only natural that you will feel displaced in this world. But that is not necessarily a bad thing.

Here are some major benefits of being an outsider:

• You are no longer constrained by the rules and beliefs of society as you can easily see through them.
• You are no longer brainwashed to think and act in a certain way.
• You have freedom to listen to the voice within yourself more often.
• You have enough solitude to hear and understand what your heart really wants to do.
• You can see the bigger picture and not get lost in the details.
• You can connect with your soul more easily than others.
• You have been given the space and room to grow in whatever way you like.
• You have the opportunity to experience greater connection by finding a like-minded group of people, or soul group.
• The ability to observe others gives you a greater capacity for wisdom and also compassion.
• You have the necessary catalyst to experience self-fulfilment and self-realisation should you choose that path.

Although being an outsider can be terribly lonely, it is a privileged position. Leaving the herd of humanity allows you to flourish and blossom in ways you never could experience while being “normal” and socially “acceptable.”

Source: lonerwolf

The 10 Benefits of Being a Social Outsider is part of an article whose title is Do You Ever Feel Like an Outsider Looking In? Here’s Why …
Author: Aletheia Luna

Aletheia Luna is an influential spiritual writer whose work has changed the lives of thousands of people worldwide. As a child, Aletheia Luna was raised in a fundamentalist Christian church. But after experiencing depression, isolation, and anxiety as a result of their dangerous cult teachings, she experienced a spiritual awakening at the age of 19. Since leaving and picking up the pieces of her life, Luna has dedicated herself to intense inner healing and a process she calls soulwork. Later, in 2012 she co-founded popular spiritual website, lonerwolf.com. As a mystic, spiritual mentor and soulwork therapist, her mission is to help others become conscious of their entrapment, and find joy, empowerment, and liberation in any circumstance.