“Respect yourself and others will respect you.”
Confucius
.
Two priceless personal assets healthy people develop over time are self respect and non-egotistical self love. Self-respect will help you fulfill your potential and develop rewarding relationships that do not devolve into power struggles. Think about what it means to respect someone.
.
The qualities that we respect vary from person to person, and the way we express it varies from culture to culture. Generally, we respect people who have more experience and are more accomplished than ourselves. But there is also a basic level of respect that most people will agree is a right, and does not need to be earned.
.
We often do things to ourselves that we would never dream of doing to someone we care about. When was the last time you called a friend ugly, told them they were not good enough, discouraged them from following their dreams, or sabotaged their happiness? Whatever you believe to be respect, apply it to yourself.
.
A person with self respect does not allow others to treat them badly, and would rather not associate with someone who is disrespectful. This might seem obvious, but there are many times when we accept being treated badly (in both big and small ways) because we believe the person does not know any better, or because we are not willing to let that person go, or because we are too down on ourselves to believe we deserve better.
.
It can be difficult to see when a person close to us is being disrespectful, especially if they are subtle and it has been going on for a long time. Many times in relationships we let people walk all over us because we feel needy. Paying attention to everyone else’s needs but your own is a classic sign of low self respect.
.
The more you understand yourself, the more you will see and appreciate how unique you really are, the more you will respect yourself. Understand your principals, personality, and talents. Stop seeking other people’s approval and start developing your own standards.
.
A person with self-respect simply likes her- or himself. We simply like ourselves or we don’t. With self-respect, you like yourself because of who you are and not because of what you can or cannot do.
.
Respect yourself enough to take a closer look at how you treat yourself…… Do you treat yourself with enough respect and decency?
“If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete.”
Jack Kornfield
appliedalliance 