Notes From The Awareness: 239

Normal is subjective.

Please discuss. How does this play out in life?

I’ll start us out. Most of us have been raised to believe that normal is healthy and desirable. Normal people, we’re told, do and don’t do certain things. Normal human body temperature is 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit—except that number seems to be dropping as our society becomes more sedentary. Certain ways of thinking are considered normal; everything else is abnormal. We assign normality based on what is frequent or common.

Humans believed the Earth to be flat until scientific observation showed it to be round. Until 3 B.C. or so, belief in a flat Earth was normal. Now that same belief is thought to be outré. Normal has nothing to do with truth and everything to do with the herd mentality. Standards about what is considered normal are changed, at the forefront, by deviants. Social and political interactions in this country of recent illustrate this clearly.

Today’s message advises me to steer the course of my life by what feels true, right, and good to me. Chasing after normalcy will only lead me to deny my inner nature in favor of acceptance. If I cannot fully accept myself, why would I expect anyone else would? Being normal is irrelevant to my happiness.

How about you? How important is normal to you?