Yes, what people say can serve as a safety check towards your relationship with them but it also serves as a poison that kills you slowly. You lose your individuality in it.
How do you lose your individuality? You do what they do because you want acceptance even if you don’t agree with it. You do it every time. It becomes your pocket bible. Have you ever stood before your mirror trying on a dress, you love it and feel so comfortable in it but you tell yourself "people will point at me when I walk down the road. They’d think the style is bizarre" then you pull the dress off for another.
Let me give you another scenario. You have friends that love partying and staying out late. You enjoy staying home, curled up on your couch with a bowl of potato chips on your lap and watch a movie but you don’t. You keep going out with them every night because you don’t want them to judge you.
How do you lose your individuality? You do what they do because you want acceptance even if you don’t agree with it. You do it every time. It becomes your pocket bible. Have you ever stood before your mirror trying on a dress, you love it and feel so comfortable in it but you tell yourself "people will point at me when I walk down the road. They’d think the style is bizarre" then you pull the dress off for another.
Let me give you another scenario. You have friends that love partying and staying out late. You enjoy staying home, curled up on your couch with a bowl of potato chips on your lap and watch a movie but you don’t. You keep going out with them every night because you don’t want them to judge you.