What are the benefits of being socially ostracized?
I have experienced these benefits myself and so can speak about them. I will list them below:
- Enough time for myself and my hobbies and interests
- No financial worries
- Avoiding the aggravation and inconvenience involved in having a career and a family
- Changing and growing as a person as a result of reading good books. It is certain that I would not have been able to do the amount of reading I have done if I had been working at a job and supporting a family.
- Being able to deal with my mental complexes with minimum harm to others and becoming sane and rational.
I used to read a lot of self help books when I was young and one sentence in a book by Napoleon Hill really stands out. He says, “Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.”
I don’t have much time for self help books now but the above sentence is certainly true. But you have to work at it and make it happen.
Napoleon Hill also did me the immense favour of introducing me to the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson. I have already quoted Emerson many times in my earlier articles. But here I have no choice but to quote him again:
The good are befriended even by weakness and defect. As no man had ever a point of pride that was not injurious to him, so no man had ever a defect that was not somewhere made useful to him. The stag in the fable admired his horns and blamed his feet, but when the hunter came, his feet saved him, and afterwards, caught in the thicket, his horns destroyed him. Every man in his lifetime needs to thank his faults. As no man thoroughly understands a truth until he has contended against it, so no man has a thorough acquaintance with the hindrances or talents of men, until he has suffered from the one, and seen the triumph of the other over his own want of the same. Has he a defect of temper that unfits him to live in society? Thereby he is driven to entertain himself alone, and acquire habits of self-help; and thus, like the wounded oyster, he mends his shell with pearl.
Sourced from:
https://archive.vcu.edu/english/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/emerson/essays/compensation.html
The works of Emerson have been praised by no less a person than Mahatma Gandhi who said that his writings contain the message of the Hindu scriptures. Please read his works and take him seriously. It can transform your life.
At the same time use your judgment regarding how to implement his advice. I was a young kid when I read Emerson and had psychological problems. I should not have taken Emerson seriously and instead should have seen a psychiatrist. Try to understand and judge whether his advice is relevant to you and your situation.
Emerson and Hindu teachings are meant for people who are take spirituality seriously. They are not meant for people with psychological problems.
I have gotten into enough trouble by trying to apply the advice of philosophy books literally when I was young and foolish so I know that this will get you into mischief. In the long run though it definitely did me more good than harm.
Below are links to some earlier related blogs:
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