Who doesn't like to be respected? But what IS respect and can we earn respect by reaching certain age or status? In the FALSE world of the Ego yes. In the true world, however, NO, and I will tell you why. Respect isn't about earning brownie points climbing the society ladder towards your own validation, but rather a birthright of each every one of us. Every living Being deserves it!
You may say 'Why would I respect a wild animal or a toddler?' In our mind respect is connected with achievements or knowledge of some sort, leading to a certain position. But you see, respect has NOTHING to do with the mind and everything to do with the heart. Respect is a manifestation of love. Some say it is a higher form of love as it originates from unconditional love. I say, respect is an expression of true love.
DISRESPECT, on the other hand has got all to do with our boundaries, doesn't it?
We have discussed the topic of boundaries in much detail, but let me offer a different, more ADVANCED perpective on this.
Wild spirit, be it an animal or a yet unconditioned child, has no sense of boundaries. Society, culture, religion, imposes restrictions on our boundless, INFINITE energy. And as others limit our self-expression by building artificial walls of their imposed boundaries, telling us how we should be, our sense of Self starts to contract - our light dims with the growth of our shadow Self. In time our True Self gets overshadowed by our False Self, our Ego...
Your Ego manifests as a black hole in your reality. No matter how much stuff, achievements and people it is fed with, it is never enough. And in line with that WE are NEVER ENOUGH. We become irritable, get offended easily. We get thrown off centre by living our life from our mind alone - we stop being loving, tolerant and compassionate.
The more you live from your Ego, the more rigid your boundaries. Love, as much as the energy of spirit, knows no boundaries. The more you are living from your heart, the less dense will your boundaries become, and the more FLEXIBLE you become not allowing others boundary violation attempts to negatively affect you. Imagine the difference between the potentially damaging impact of a bowling ball to compare with a bubble.
Disrespect is just a lack of awareness of what true respect really means, coming from lack of self-love and self-respect. Because we simply cannot unconditionally love nor respect others whilst loving ourselves only conditionally.
So the question above should really go like this: DO YOU DESERVE LOVE ?
Thank you for reading. If my article contributed to understanding yourself, please be generous and share it with others.
Copyright © 2017 Michaela Patel