Respect. The second most important thing next to love that we as humans need to give to one another if we want this world to flourish.
Respect is a two-way street. And it is indeed the most powerful expression of love. If you want to be treated nicely by others you have to do the same thing for them. If you want to be heard and seen for who you are, you have to be able to accept others the way they are. If you want love and light in your life, you have to share that same love and light with others.
If you want to receive it, you have to be able to give it.
Sadly, this is not always the reality that we live in. As much as we like to practice respect, we don’t always follow these rules as religiously as we promised ourselves we would. Far too often we let people disrespect us and get away with that. We welcome them into our lives, give them the keys to our entire worlds, we put our whole trust in them, and then bang, we get hurt. We get disappointed. And suddenly, we become aware that we are not getting the same care and love that we shower them with. We realize that we are not respected and accepted for who we are…
Do you know why is that? The answer is pretty obvious…
It’s us. The fault is ours. We are the ones guilty of how others see us because we are the ones who determine our own worth. Yes, we are the real culprits only we never realize that truth until it’s too late. Our value depends only on ourselves. It has everything to do with how we see ourselves, how we treat ourselves, how we love and care for ourselves.
Therefore, when a person dares to disrespect you knowing they would definitely get away with their behavior, that is just a clear sign that you are doing something wrong. A red flag that the relationship you have with yourself is not strong enough. It is a hint that you don’t love and respect yourself enough the way you should.
The truth is, you cannot force someone to respect you. You cannot tell a person to treat you a certain way. They will do as they see fit. They will probably treat you the way you treat them, but mostly, they will treat you as you treat yourself. They will love you the way you love yourself, care for you as much as you care for yourself, see you with the exact same eyes you see yourself. Because that is the energy that you manifest.
So, you see… you can’t really force someone to respect you.
But you know what? You can pretty damn well refuse to be disrespected.
You can look at that person in the eyes and decide to walk away from them once and for all. You can choose to cut off those people who disrespect you. You can choose to surround yourself with positivity. You can consciously choose what you’ll focus your energy on. You can change your life from its core…
But the one, most important thing you need to do in order to succeed in that is to first change the way you see yourself… That is something that only you can do. I can talk to you about self-care for hours, but it will all be in vain if you don’t understand that without it, you will never find happiness, nor respect. It will all be for nothing if you don’t free yourself from your cage and embrace yourself the way you are.
It’s your life and your choice only. So, what’s it going to be?
