Self respect is all about honoring your Self and the Truth of who you are. Because when you honor your Self and your Truth, you can honor all people by treating them with the dignity, love, and respect we all need and deserve.
How to build Self Respect
I once saw deep into the Heart of mine – into my own Core and Being, and what I saw and what I felt made me realize that there is a huge difference between who we think we are – our perceived value and self-worth, and who we truly are – our True Value and Real Worth.
Today I would like to share with you a couple of things that helped me to build self respect so that you can live a better life and see yourself for who you truly are, and not for who the world tells you should be.
How to Build Self Respect: 7 Steps to a Healthy Self-image
1. Accept that You already are Enough
For a long time, I have tried to please everyone around me. I wanted to feel like I belonged and I wanted to make people love me. And in my innocent ignorance, I failed to realize that trying to make other people happy and going out of your way just to be liked and approved by others is a sure way to misery and unhappiness.
We don’t need the love and validation of those around us in order for us to feel worthy, whole, and enough.
We are already that!
We were born whole, worthy, and enough. And no matter what the world might tell us, and no matter how hard our fears, doubts, and insecurities might try to convince us otherwise, we never stopped being worthy, whole, and enough, and we never will!
2. Know that you are not a beggar
I know you were conditioned from a young age to believe that you have to constantly beg for love, respect, validation, worth, and approval from those around you. And that you constantly have to prove yourself and your worth, to yourself and to the whole world.
But that’s just a lie!
You don’t need anything, or anyone external to you to help you realize your Worth nor do you need to Do or Have anything in order for you to become who you already are – Whole, Worthy, and Enough!
You already have it all! You already are it all!
3. Rebuild your self respect by not doing what others do
If you look around you, you will realize that we live in a world where people have forgotten what it means to have dignity, morals, and self respect; a world where self-degrading and self-destructive behaviors have become trendy and normal, while common sense and self respect, abnormal.
These are some strange times we are living in. And even though the tendency is to look around you and do what the majority is doing, to build self respect and realize our own Truth, Beauty, and Perfection, we need to take a few steps back and do, not what the majority is doing, but what we know in our hearts we should be doing.
4. Look beyond glamorous appearances
One of the most powerful gifts life entrusted us with was this ability to discern between Truth and falsehood, Love and fear, and Light and darkness.
Deep down inside, we all know what are the things that can bring us peace and what are the things that will torment our hearts by damaging our self-image and self respect. But the tricky thing is to listen to our hearts by going beyond the glamour of things and see people, places, things, and experiences – for what they truly are – and not for what they present themselves to be.
Look beyond glamorous appearances.
Connect with that space between what is being said and what is being done – where we can hear a soft and gentle voice within our hearts, and learn to tell Truth from falsehood, fear from Love, and Light from darkness.
5. Trust your instincts and rebuild self respect
If you ever get into a situation where your eyes see nothing but beauty, glitter, glamour, and shine, while your heart tells you that something is wrong, listen to your Heart and do what your Heart asks you to do.
Trust your instincts more than your trust your mind or the colorful words, actions, and behaviors of others. And know that your Heart is much wiser than your mind and it knows things that the mind does not.
6. Say ‘no’ to nonsense
When you Heart tells you to say ‘no’ – in a soft and gentle voice, while your mind demands that you say ‘yes’ – in a loud, noisy, and aggressive voice, listen to your Heart and say ‘no’:
‘No’ to all that is false and untrustworthy;
‘No’ to all that could disturb your joy and peace of mind;
‘No’ to all those people who want you to be something other than yourself;
‘No’ to all those who try to convince you that who you are is not enough and that you need them and what they have to offer in order to feel worthy, valued, and enough;
‘No’ to all the nonsense that this world may throw at you;
And ‘no’ to all the pain and suffering that your fearful mind might try to put you through.
Say ‘no’ and let go.
7. Commit to your Worth
Make a commitment to your Self to honor yourself for who you truly are and for all that Life created you to be.
Don’t settle for anything less than your Worth. Don’t settle for anything less than Joy, Peace, Love, Beauty, and Truth.
Seek to live in alignment with your Light, your Truth, your Beauty, and your Worth, and don’t let anything or anyone tell you that you are not worthy of Love, Dignity, and self Respect.
Because you are!
You are Worthy!
You Powerful!
You are Loved!
~love, Luminita💫
What about you? Are your words and action in alignment with who you know in your Heart to be?
Do you love, honor, and respect yourself as much as you should? You can share below 🙂