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Practicing Self-Respect As a Form of Self-Care!
Although you may not be aware of this in your everyday life, how you take care of yourself is critical to your quality of life. Self-respect is indicative of how you view yourself. And showing self-respect keeps your positive feelings about yourself flowing and growing.
Feeling good about yourself and demonstrating self-respect is “a chicken and egg situation:” it can be difficult to tell which comes first. Do positive emotions and thoughts about yourself lead to self-respect, or is it the other way around? Your experience will tell you which of these feels most true to you.
Follow these tips to help you increase your self-respect:
- Consider your own feelings. Your emotions are at least as important as everyone else’s. So, if you’re uncomfortable, act on that information. Take your feelings into account in your everyday life and your decisions. There is nothing wrong with considering the feelings of others, but it should not be a situation where everyone else always comes first.
- Avoid making self-deprecating comments. Such remarks are often used as humor, building rapport between people. However, if you’re uncertain about whether you treat yourself with respect you deserve, avoid making them until you’re more sure of yourself. What you say about yourself over and over becomes what you believe. Your self-talk will be the program your brain (the world’s most powerful supercomputer) will run.
- Take care of your emotional needs. Self-respect is apparent through what you do to make yourself comfortable, content, and happy within the constructs of your moral character. If a relationship constantly makes you feel emotionally upset or out of balance, perhaps it’s time to do something about it. You are the only person you can be absolutely sure will be there to take care of yourself emotionally. In a healthy environment, others will consider you, but you should depend entirely on anyone else to have your best interest at heart.
- Acknowledge to yourself that you deserve respectful treatment. This self-acknowledgment is as simple as it gets: because you’re a human being, you deserve to be treated with fundamental human courtesies, including respect. Recognize your own value. As with love, respect is something that starts within. It is virtually impossible to demand respect from others when you aren’t respecting yourself.
- Avoid allowing anyone to treat you disrespectfully. Be clear that you expect to be treated with kindness and care, whether interacting with a co-worker, partner, or child. The boundaries you set for respect should be non-negotiable.
- Sometimes, you might think you’re giving someone a break by not insisting on being treated well. However, when you allow others to treat you poorly, you’re slacking on your self-care and enabling them to practice negative interpersonal habits.
- Behave in ways that show you care. How you conduct yourself sends a strong message to the world.
- Taking care of your body, watching the language you use, and refraining from engaging in socially unacceptable behaviors (such as eating or drinking too much, losing your temper, and speaking inappropriately) show that you have a certain measure of respect for yourself. Displaying social etiquette is also a sign of emotional intelligence—a reflection of personal and intentional growth.
- Think of someone you admire and respect. What is it about the person that earns your respect? Strive to emulate this person. You’ll be amazed how your self-respect will grow.
- Treat others with respect. To treat others with respect, you need to have a clear idea about how to act in respectful ways. Then, you can turn those same responses toward yourself. Make showing respect a way of life.
Try out some of these strategies for practicing self-respect today. As you make these practices habitual, you’ll automatically treat yourself and others in respectful ways. You’ll be amazed at how much your quality of life will increase!
We live in a world where social acceptability lines are constantly blurred. Always remember that you are not obligated to sacrifice your personal sanctity to align with new social norms often resulting from social decline. Self-respect, like self-love, is a form of self-care. Self-care is one of your most inherent responsibilities. Don’t lose yourself chasing things that lack intrinsic value and end up losing yourself. Maintaining self-respect will always keep you close to your sense of self. Always be true to yourself! Always! ~ Rick Wallace, Ph.D., Psy.D.
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