“They cannot take away our self-respect if we do not give it to them.”
Mahatma Gandhi
I was thinking about this respect issue during these last weeks while moving to a new office (with other 4 women) and having some very demanding family queries.
So what is respect after all?
I found a lot of definitions, but here are the ones that I most liked:
- Deference to a right, privilege, privileged person, or someone or something considered to have certain rights or privileges; proper acceptance or courtesy;
- Disposition to refrain from offensive or harmful acts, implicit in the recognition of a right.
And I would say I am very fond of these definitions.
There are at least two forms of respect: self-respect and respect for the others.
It has much to do with acceptance (self and of the others, it’s understood), getting to know ourselves, maintaining a positive attitude, stopping from keeping up with everyone and of course, forgiving and letting go. Also respect stands for rules. And the lack of it stands for racism, in any form. Do you agree?
I found this video while trying to understand what respect is and for sure it made me think. It relates to Australia. But I guess could be very actual in all countries and all form of lack of respect/racism.
This said, how can we train ourselves to respect?
1. The right mindset
Getting in the right mindset means getting to know yourself, learning to handle criticism (I know this is though and I am also struggling with it), forgiving and accepting (everyone, you included), having a positive attitude towards life and people, believing in the choices you have and as I said in my first article: ask for advice, but decide on your own.
2. Take action
Taking action means respecting others (be honest, don’t harm, insult or judge people and/or any other living being), start listening for real (are you really sure you do that?), don’t accept to be treated badly, take care of yourself (brain and looks), “perfection is a non-standard” – as in “don’t think you are perfect” but always work on the things you want to change once you have analyzed your flaws.
3. Act accordingly
Now that you have understood how to get in the right mindset and how to take action, you can start to act accordingly. This means that you can apply all the things you learned so far and this for sure will make a difference. It will take time, and you may find hard times on your way, but it is worth it!
And now, a challenge for you. Think about one time when you didn’t have respect for you or someone else. And think how can you change what happened, considering the 3 points on training for respect.
Please add your experience or any other comments you might have, in the comment box bellow.
Blessings!
Photo credits: Patrick Marioné
