institutionalised, Are We?

A dear friend introduced me to this term “Institutionalised” and I haven’t been able to get it out of my head ever since.

Institutionalised, as he put it, is when we become so used to certain unnecessary and unrealistic elements of our environment we are in that we stop questioning anything and accept everything just as it is. We somehow give up on our own free thought and decide to follow the herd because it looks easy. We become so accustomed to being told what to do and what not to do that we forget to actually see the rationale behind our own actions. I’m sure this doesn’t sound like something you think you’ve been doing but think again.

Over the past couple of months, I have come across such things as I always wished for but didn’t know were possible. I have met people and had conversations that have given me such perspective as I didn’t even realise I was lacking. And that is exactly what being ‘institutionalised’ is. It is our inability to realise to just what extent we have isolated ourselves in our bubbles of the same old same old routines. We feel it right to go by what has been going on for so long as the right way because we have never known any other route and we refuse to look for one.

Bursting your bubble doesn’t have to mean anything big, it simply means making an effort to get out of your comfort zone, both physically and psychologically. Break the shell of stereotypes and prejudice and look around you. Talk to people and try to really listen to what they are saying and understand why they are saying so without the clouds of judgement. Take a moment to see if what you have been doing really holds the kind of value you intend it to or are you just doing so out of convenience.

I’m not trying to instigate anything here or prove that experience has no value. Far from it. What I’m saying is, there is a whole world of interactions and experiences to be had beyond what we have been doing till now. Past matters, experience matters, rules matter, but they are not above a fresh perspective and original ideas. You feel something in your system is broken, take a step to fix it. That step can mean a conversation with the person responsible or an action on your own behalf. It doesn't matter if you fail or succeed, what matters is that you think about how the issue affects you and how a change may influence not just you, but others as well. Stop doing things just for the sake of doing it but do them because you feel it is the right thing to do.