From an early stage in our lives, we find ourselves ‘BOXED’ (labeled) by gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, education, profession, skin tone, life choice preferences, etc., etc. – to name a few. Sometimes these boxes are multi-labeled to further tie one up in knots inside their BOX. There are others who box themselves by choice, for whatever personal reasons. It may be to preserve their identities, avoid total assimilation into a foreign culture, insecurity, not being ready to get out of their box, etc. The latter is by choice, while the former is thrust upon you and governs/dictates how to live your life. My reference today is to the former case, and why it is important for everyone to look inwards and make a conscious call to get OUT of their BOX if you have been put into one.

You get assigned to a box, based on societal norms. I am not implying that this happens to all of us. There is clearly a %age of us who are boxed – and may or may not be aware of it. Everyone in the same box type is assumed to have the same universal characteristics/properties. That is – they are stereo-typed with a broad brush stroke. You are expected to cloak your original individual self and live the life defined by your box parameters.

As an example, think about how society expected individuals to function, based on gender in the early first half of 1900. At that time, women were boxed to function with specific Dos and Don’ts. They were expected to do certain things and clearly frowned upon if they decided to do the Don’ts. Most women decided to not ruffle any feathers and stay in the confines of their boxes. There were the fearsome ones, who followed their passions and helped others see the results of their rebellious actions. I am happy to note that in our times, almost worldwide (except in some dark corners of the world) the gender box has been almost eliminated. Men and women both can reach for the stars – and they do. In a lot of cases, women have surpassed men, and glass ceilings no longer exist.

There are still too many box types around, and many folks living compromised lives in their boxes. Over time, with the (almost) elimination of the gender box other boxes emerged. World-wide the falsely perceived superiority of one race over another created other colored or religion-based boxes. Wars were fought over this and the world seems to have reconciled and realized the falsehoods here – although we do have pockets of folks who will not cast aside these falsehoods.

As globalization flourished and national boundaries were obscured by technology, travel, and commerce – new boxes started mushrooming as ‘nationalism’ started emerging.

Just recognize you are being boxed (if you are) – get out of it and you will see your world open up. You are, what you make yourself to be – not what others may think of you.