Can we have respect for anyone or anything else if we don’t have self-respect? You can easily see whether people have self-respect by how they treat other people or other things, and importantly, how they treat themselves.
Yes, having respect starts with us. When you have respect for yourself, automatically through your own integrity and your own self-respect, you cannot help but have respect for anyone or anything else. If it isn’t evident that someone has respect for other things or other people, you will surely find that they lack self-respect.
Here are just some examples. A lack of self-respect manifests in:
……abuse of ourselves and others, mentally and physically
……abuse of the environment
……manipulation of others
……arrogant behavior
……expecting from others what we might not be willing to do ourselves
When people abuse the environment or in fact abuse anything, can such people possibly have self-respect?
We treat ourselves and others and things with the respect we have for ourselves. So, if anywhere in our behavior there is some form of disrespect (big or small or minute), is it then likely we don’t have respect for ourselves?
Regarding respect, as with everything else, it clearly begins with us: with you and me. Not “them,” or “the government,” or “that group of people,” but with ourselves.
