Mind Mastery

Respect comes in two forms.

Self respect and respect for others.

Essentially, they are the same thing.

Self respect is believing that you have worth and your life has value.

Respect for others is believing they have worth and their life has value.

Now, you could say a slave owner respects his slaves, seeing as they have a monetary worth and are valuable servants.

Although, is this really respect? No of course not. If one was to respect others, he would treat them the same as himself. The slave owner would not like to be a slave, so therefore he cannot be displaying respect for others he treats as slaves, even if he feeds them, shelters them and pays for the medical treatment.

Respect stems from consciousness.

When one realises they are conscious, they implicitly realise there is a host of things which make them conscious and what that consciousness means to them as an aware and living being.

First and foremost that being of pleasure and pain.

When you stick your hand on something hot, you sure respect the fact that you can feel pain and don’t want to do that again!

When you realise pleasurable things feel better than painful ones, you make the choice to have your actions move towards pleasure and move away from pain.

To do this successfully obviously requires a lot of thought and experience and an understanding of long term pleasure vs immediate pleasure.

For example the immediate pleasure of eating junk food everyday vs the long term pleasure of a healthy, fit and attractive body.

When a conscious being becomes aware of pain and pleasure, in the physical, emotional and mental, then they can begin to respect themselves because know they have valid reason to.

When one gets angry as a child and throws a tantrum, they can learn that anger is an emotion that needs to be respected and there are particular methods they can learn that help them control their emotions. 

One can and should respect the fact that if they do not control themselves, they can do great harm that they may regret.

When one begins to contemplate the nature of life, reality and society, they can suffer great mental anguish at the complexity, unfairness and evil they perceive. This shows them that they must respect the fact that they can only control what they can control and to respect the fact that some things are just outside of their control.

Self respect is about wanting the absolute best for yourself because you recognise that you’re a self aware and intelligent being that can experience pain and pleasure and which has desires, goals and aspirations.

By recognising that fact of your essence, one can then choose to take actions that respect the truth of oneself.

These actions are mental and physical. A self respecting man will use his power to create a mindset that better suits his goals in a self orientated way. The same is said for external action.

If a man only eats unhealthy food and does not exercise, he is disrespecting his body.

If a man never thinks for himself and allows others to make important choices for him, he is disrespecting his mind.

To respect oneself is to take beneficial action for oneself. It is to treat oneself as one should be treated, with utmost care and respect because the fact is, if you are alive and intelligent, there is no rational argument that can be made that you should disrespect yourself.

It is irrational to say that one should become overweight, sickly, diseased, poor, stupid, desperate, hopeless, useless, lazy or any other negative attribute which is clearly a sign of disrespect.

The only rational perspective on how one should treat themselves is in a way which positively enhances their life over the course of their life.

When you’re able to figure respect out for yourself, then you can easily apply it to others. If you can’t respect yourself, it becomes very difficult to respect others, because one who disrespects themselves doesn't even know how to treat themselves correctly, let alone others.

It’s best to start with yourself always and then you can apply what you learn to the outside world.

Another way to view self respect is believing you’re worthy because you have something beneficial to contribute.

You’ll find when someone doesn't respect themself it’s because they don't feel like they have something to contribute or simply aren't, or because they aren't deliberately and actively pursuing what makes them happy.

If someone isn't able to pursue what makes them happy in their own life, for whatever reason, then it makes it difficult for them to believe that their life has value, because they can’t see the value in their life if they aren't happy.

If someone was contributing, making a difference and pursuing what made them happy at the same time, how could they not respect themself?

If you respect someone else, it’s because you can see they are contributing in some way and are pursuing the things they want.

When you see or think someone else is not contributing in a positive way, it’s very hard to show them respect.

If you see or think someone else is not pursuing what makes them happy, it’s also difficult to respect them.

When you see someone making an impact and sparking positive change while simultaneously pursuing their own happiness, it’s hard not to respect them.

If you want to respect yourself more, you can contribute more and give yourself more reasons to respect yourself.

You can also take more action and initiative to pursue that which makes you happy.

If you want to be happier, do more of the things that make you happy and less of the things that don't.

If you don't know what makes you happy, experiment and find out.

If you want to respect others more, help bring out the best in them and discover ways you can assist them to contribute more and pursue their own goals.

Normally when we consider morality, we only judge peoples actions towards others as immoral or moral and not towards themselves as immoral or moral.

When one disrespects themselves, it can be considered an act of immorality, an inwards immoral act directed towards oneself.

Is it possible that by treating oneself with disrespect, which is to treat one poorly, wrong or badly, can lead to worse crimes against others?

Is treating oneself with respect only for oneself or is it also for the benefit of others that you treat yourself right?

One may be able to be honest with themself when abusing drugs, drinking alcohol or eating junk food.

They may tell themselves 'I know what I'm doing is wrong and bad for my body and mind, but I don't care'.

Does this change the facts and do these actions then become respectful if one is being integral to their values and honest about their actions?

They may even say, 'alright I'll follow the rules, I don't want to wear this mask or inject this thing into my body, but I want to fit in so I'll do it'.

Can self harming actions become respectful if one does them because they want to fit in or get on with their life?

One may be a corrupt policeman, lawyer, banker or politician and say "I know what I'm doing is wrong and hurting people, but I don't care".

When one doesn't care about themselves, why would or should they care about others?

Lack of self respect can very quickly turn into disrespect for others and can turn men into monsters.

All humans are in possession of the most powerful creation that is known, the human mind and body.

Humans are beings who have immense potential for good and for evil.

We can consider what we are fundamentally (a body and mind) as a 'tool' to assist and build our own lives and that of society's, or as a weapon to destroy ourselves and everything.

An atom bomb without a human to direct and detonate it is powerless, it's very existence dependent on something far more powerful than it.

A tool when disrespected can become a dangerous weapon.

Tools are designed for growth, weapons are designed for death.

If one is not growing and living as a tool, crafting and shaping their own destiny and playing their part within the greater world, then by logic, they must be a weapon, aiding in their own and the worlds destruction.

If something is not growing, it's dying.

What happens to a tree when it stops growing?

It falls.

If you aren't actively building yourself up, and the only way to do that is with self respect, then you are actively destroying yourself, with no self respect.

When one respects themself, when they treat themself like the most important thing in the world, then they benefit by growth.

If one were to put their partner before their own relationship skills and happiness, are they really as good as a partner as they could be?

If one is to properly care for their child, they must consider themselves first, that's why in a plane emergency, you must place your oxygen mask on first.

With growth comes increased potential.

With increased potential comes more opportunities to effect your fellow man and community in a positive way.

When one has no self respect, they feel like they're not worthy of growth, that they don't deserve to be truly happy, they treat themself with further disrespect.

They keep on eating big macs, continue to crack open another beer and have no desire to stop wearing uniforms of malevolence.

When one treats oneself with disrespect, they begin to break their body and mind.

When one breaks their body with disease, injuries and other ailments, they now must affect others with their dependency.

They become a burden on others, or at the very least, an energy and time expenditure.

The same thing is said when one disrespects their mind.

Many old people in aged care facilities would not be there if they had greater respect for their body and minds. Or it may take another 20-30 years until they did arrive to spend their final days.

If one disrespects their mind and begins to conform to inappropriate standards of behaviour, they are not only contributing to their own devolution and destruction, but also everyone else's.

No self respecting man or woman would reject the opportunity to question the word of anyone who suggests they should be punished for disobedience.

Anyone with even a modicum of self respect would never delegate their thinking to a stranger.

The ability to think, reason and apply logic to ones own actions when dealing with ones self or others is only possible when someone believes they are worthy of calculation and computation.

When one believes they have no worth and no value, they will not respect themselves enough to take the time to consider the consequences of their actions.

If one were to seriously consider, calculate and computate the consequences of eating junk food every day for years, they would arrive at the logical conclusion that they would be causing massive damage to their body, which not only becomes a problem for themself, but their immediate family and friends and other people who may need to care for them.

The same can be said for smoking, drinking alcohol, gossiping, following "rules", fitting in with everyone else, being lazy or any other bad self destructive habit.

For all these actions, there are negative consequences that come down the line.

A man or woman who has self respect is able to dedicate enough time to think about possibilities and probabilities for long enough to arrive at logical conclusions.

They don't believe, they know they are worthy of the necessary calculations required to fully contemplate a particular course of action.

If one has no care for themself, they are unable to dedicate appropriate time to the well being of their own life.

How can one be respected if they don't respect themself first?

How can one even know what respect is if they are unable to show it to themselves?

One is not fit to talk about respect until they first honour themself with it.

True respect isn't just about your physical appearance or state of mind, it's both.

True self respect is acknowledging you are a divinely powerful miracle to even exist and to have no care for your mind or body is a form of sacrilege.

If one has no care for their own well being, then why are they still here, what is their purpose, what do they want?

Hopefully, deep down, it's because they know they have the potential to start seeing their actual inherent value, seeing their true worth, and with that, being able to respect themself.

No one who has any real self respect ever 'serves' anyone else but themself.

For to serve someone else means that you must place yourself beneath them, be at their every beck and whim.

It means you must be living a lie, because the truth is you are not beneath anyone, you are equal in value in your right to life and freedom just as much as anyone else.

Helping others is a beautiful choice, serving another is something servants do when they have no choice.

Humans are the closest things to gods on this planet, with the power to create life and to destroy it.

Look how many species our race has caused to go extinct and we were hardly even trying.

We have the combined power to make heaven on earth, or hell on earth.

With that kind of power, how could we be anything less than some form of god?

It doesn't matter what you believe about the nature of god, what matters is that you believe in yourself, your own sovereignty, your own right to own and rule yourself, your own self worth, value and enormous potential.

Because that is simply the truth.

If you believe anything else, you are not showing yourself the respect you deserve and you will suffer, and with your suffering, you will drag down the rest of humanity with you.

Choose to live by what is true and what is good, know your worth and respect yourself.

It's the morally right thing to do.