Everyone is filled with the desire to fit in, one way or another. We do everything and anything to feel like we belong with the rest of the world, whether it’s with our friends, a community, or even the workplace.
However, even if we manage to fit it and blend with everyone else, you could still feel like you don’t belong. It’s easy to feel like you’re different from everyone else, finding it difficult to blend in with others. In this article, we’ll be talking about 10 reasons why you may feel like you dont belong.
What Does It Mean To Feel Like You Don’t Belong?
The most common answer for not feeling like you belong is that you haven’t found the right people you naturally vibe with.
No matter how much of your personality or characteristics you compromise, there’s no concrete formula for feeling like you belong – it’s either you do or don’t.
The worst part of feeling this way is even when you’re surrounded by people, not belonging in a crowd will make you feel more alone than ever.
When you feel not included among your friends or a community, there’s this realization that they’ll never understand you in the way you expected. You may try to be more like them, but you will never erase that feeling in your chest that you don’t belong.
10 Reasons You May Feel Like You Don’t Belong
1. Your perspective is different
You don’t feel like you belong for the reason that you have a different perspective than your peers or the rest of the world, whether that’s a more mature, wiser, or unique perspective.
When your views are different from a group, it can be hard to blend in, especially when those views are something you strongly stand by.
2. You don’t communicate well
Communication is the core foundation of any functional friendship or relationship so when you don’t exactly express yourself well, this can be the primary barrier in making you fit in.
Whether you’re an introvert or just aren’t an expressive person, you need to work on your communication skills to feel like you fit in with the rest of the world. At some point, you need to meet people halfway.
3. You don’t hear what others are trying to tell you
There’s a huge difference between listening and hearing so maybe you haven’t been hearing what others are trying to tell you and they feel irrelevant to you because of it.
It’s an unpleasant experience to be around people who don’t hear what you’re saying or even don’t bother to understand what you’re saying so if you want to feel like you belong, avoid making people feel misunderstood.
4. You are changing or growing
You’ll be surprised when you realize how fast people change and evolve so maybe you don’t feel like you belong because you grew into someone different from what they’re comfortable with.
People change and sometimes in that change, you also drift apart from friendships that lasted years. You don’t find the same conversations meaningful any longer so this can be a sign you’ve grown.
5. You have different interests
They say opposites attract and while this can be accurate to an extent, your similarities with people are what acts as a foundation for your friendship or relationship. It’s easy to feel like you don’t belong when you have different interests and methods of spending your free time.
For instance, your friends may love partying but you don’t. This is obviously why you’ll never feel you belong unless you compromise your end.
6. You don’t share the same energy and mindsets
The reason why you can naturally vibe with someone after having just met them lies on mindsets and energy.
This is why you can feel comfortable with someone after having just met them, more than someone you’ve known for years. When you don’t share that energy with someone, you’ll have trouble blending with them.
7. You don’t adjust
While certain boundaries have to be made, friendships require meeting each other halfway. If you aren’t willing to adjust even just a portion of what you’re comfortable with, then you won’t blend it with them.
8. Your personality clashes with them
It’s hard to get along with someone when your personality is always in collision with others.
Most often than not, this is a huge tendency when there are several strong personalities in a given group.
9. You have different priorities
When people who have different priorities come together, it can be challenging to find a middle ground.
If you’re someone with a more mature priority than your crowd, it’s hard to feel like you don’t belong because your definition of having fun is different from theirs.
10. You’re mentally struggling
Lastly, we have something that isn’t obvious, but you may have trouble blending in because you’re dealing with something mentally.
You’re so lost in your own head that it’s hard for you to adjust to your environment and socialize.
How To Find Your Way To Belonging
It will be much easier to belong if you adjust certain aspects of your personality to blend in. Don’t worry about being fake, because you’re really just trying to fit in with the crowd, which is sometimes necessary for friendships and socializing events.
Some people have it in their nature to be adaptable while others don’t. If you’re one of those that don’t, listening to what others have to say is also a great way of fitting in with a word.
Not everyone is a good listener so when they see someone with an ear to listen, they’ll want to keep you around.
Final Thoughts
I hope this article was able to give you a clear insight on everything about feeling like you don’t belong. This particular feeling is one of the worst so it’s one of the feelings you want to avoid as much as you can.
As long as you find the right people you’ll naturally get along with, you won’t have to worry yourself about fitting in.