experiencing different cultures

If you’re someone like me who has lived among diverse cultures, you may find yourself in a weird situation. Your ideas, thoughts and beliefs would be an amalgamation of different inputs you have received so far in your journey. You may feel a sense of accomplishment having lived in different environments, and in different cultural incubators. But you may also go through a never-ending struggle of not being able to relate completely to all of them.

In these times, when exposing ourselves to different cultures has become relatively easier, we need to also build a healthy sense of detachment towards each of them. We all change with time and there’s no need to put pressure on ourselves to continue loving and appreciating certain aspects of a particular culture like we used to.

Even though we may have defined our identity based on the culture that we grew up in, we may find it hard relating to the same culture if we’ve lived away from it for a considerable amount of time.

The best thing that we can do for ourselves is to define our identity as a global passenger rather than limiting ourselves to a particular geographical region, area or country. Secondly, we must understand that no one culture is supreme. All cultures have their pros and cons, and it’s best to imbibe the goodness that resonates with us from each culture. Only, then, we’ll able to make peace with ourselves as we live in different places and go through different phases in our life.

Instead of viewing ourselves and people that we come across as citizens and residents of any particular country, we can look at ourselves and others through the lens of humanity. Our world is getting smaller with time, and as we experience different cultures, we all have a beautiful opportunity to craft our unique identity that is free of any limitations, judgments and prejudices. Instead of feeling confused and anxious about not knowing where we truly belong, we can simply let go of it. We can all take a broader perspective believing that we are exactly where we are supposed to be and trust that we will find our home soon.