This past weekend I went to my 20th High School Reunion. It was both as amusing as it was reflective for me. It was fabulous to catch up with all of my old friends and see how great everyone is doing. I loved seeing everyone, and seeing how thank god, 20 years of maturity brings down the walls that are built up in high school, and allows everyone to just connect as people. It really made me think about (and be incredibly grateful for) where I am now as compared to where I was 20 years ago.

One of the many gifts that getting older has brought with it is that my “give a crap meter’ is breaking. It’s not quite broken, but it is getting there – and I’m very excited about this. Don’t get me wrong, I still care fiercely about things I now value to be important, but those priorities have shifted a lot in 20 years, and for that I am grateful.

My musings from this weekend have me thinking about how much time and effort I have placed in my past life trying to “fit in”. Being accepted, being acknowledged, and knowing we belong are things that I believe that everyone in human skin needs on a deeper level, but the extent to which we conform to external standards in order to get these needs met is where I think we can go awry.

I began playing around with the language of “fitting in” (because I am slightly obsessed with language and how it is symbolic and powerful – but that’s another blog article entirely) and started to see how insidious “fitting in” can be in our lives if we don’t catch it early on.

We want to Fit In with social groups (remember cliques in high school?)
We want to Fit In with social norms.
We want to Fit Into a certain clothing size.
We want to Fit In with other people’s idea of what “acceptable” is.
We try to Fit In more than we can in our daily schedule.

It goes on and on, but what I am taking away from this is how trying to “Fit Stuff In” whether it is our self image, what others think of us, our body shape and size, or our schedule isn’t a healthy or compassionate thing. The imagery around the words reminds me of “stuffing” – and stuffing, whether it’s stuffing our emotions or stuffing our selves full of food, is self harming and stunts your ability to connect with yourself on an emotional level.

As I think about the idea of “fitting in”, the image that comes to mind is a square peg and a round hole, and someone shoving and pushing trying to make the peg fit into the hole. That poor, helpless square peg - what did he do to deserve that kind of treatment? The process is harmful, painful, and laborious, and honestly, futile. No fun, and really, no point.

Brene’ Brown, a shame researcher and author writes,

“Fitting In Is Not Belonging. There are so many terms we use every day whose meanings are gauzy, if not downright imprecise -- which makes it hard to get your head around what's really going on in your life. For example, contrary to what most of us think: Belonging is not fitting in. In fact, fitting in is the greatest barrier to belonging. Fitting in, I've discovered during the past decade of research, is assessing situations and groups of people, then twisting yourself into a human pretzel in order to get them to let you hang out with them. Belonging is something else entirely -- it's showing up and letting yourself be seen and known as you really are -- love of gourd painting, intense fear of public speaking and all.

Many us suffer from this split between who we are and who we present to the world in order to be accepted, (Take it from me: I'm an expert fitter-inner!) But we're not letting ourselves be known, and this kind of incongruent living is soul sucking. “

So what is the compassionate and self-affirming thing to do in the face of all of this?

Begin working on fitting in with yourself.

I know, it can sound trite, but its actually really complicated, can be difficult (understatement award of the year for this girl!) and something that requires deliberate and intentional awareness and commitment on a daily basis. All of that said, it is totally possible, so unbelievably worth the effort, and will change the way you look at life (for the better) the moment you make the choice to commit to it.

It starts with asking what I call “internally focused questions”.

Basically, though out the day, make a point to ask yourself:

• What do I want?
• What do I need?
• What do I think about this?
• What do I think about them?
• What are my opinions?

Many of us, if we are honest, have spent a lot of time asking the “externally focused” versions of those questions.

• What do they want from me?
• What do they need me to do?
• What do they think about what’s going on?
• What do they think about me?
• What do they think about this, and how can I affirm that?

People pleasing, conflict avoidance, peace making and caretaking behaviors are all built on the external questions above. For many of us, “fitting in” has been an old defensive mechanism or survival technique. But it’s time to let that go. What once protects you in life, as you grow, often becomes the very thing that begins to choke the life force out of you (imagine trying to “fit in” to the same clothing you wore when you were 9 – not a very comfortable existence).

Make yourself the go-to person, the expert whose acceptance you seek. Make yourself be the benchmark, the gold standard, and then be curious as to who and what in the world around you is similar to you (or not) and see how that feels. Seek to align with yourself. And commit to remembering to do this daily. It’s a journey, not a goal to meet.

Author's Bio: 

I’ve been working as a therapist and coach since 2003. I’ve been in private practice since 2006 working with women who want to heal disordered eating, emotional eating and negative body image issues.
Before going into private practice full time, I practiced throughout Atlanta in hospital and outpatient settings, addressing a variety of mental health issues. During my time in outpatient settings, I worked extensively with eating disorder issues, and gained invaluable experience in helping people heal their relationship with food.
I’ve also worked as a health coach in a medical setting, collaborating with clinical dietitians and physicians to offer an integrated approach to weight loss, nutrition and disease prevention. From my own experience and through working with eating disorders and in weight loss clinics I’ve learned what works and what doesn’t work when it comes to healthy and sustained weight management. Now I share that healthy approach to as many people as I can.
My formal training includes a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Wofford College, and a Master’s degree in Professional Counseling from Georgia State University. In addition to being a Licensed Professional Counselor, I am also a Member of the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA); a Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist; member of the International Certification Board of Clinical Hypnotherapy; and a Nationally Certified Distance Counselor.