Today we ask that you feel a deep respect for yourself.
Respect yourself.
Most people do not treat themselves with any respect. They do not believe they are worthy of such a thing.
Respect simply means treating life with an appropriate reverence for its miraculous nature.
A flower deserves respect. A tree deserves respect. These are miraculous life forms.
Your planet deserves respect. Of course, there is a great lack of respect for the planet and its resources in your reality. Alien cultures would be quite confounded by your behavior!
But it is easy to explain. Humans do not respect their planet, because they do not respect themselves. How can they respect anything if they do not even know what respect is?
You do not respect children. You do not respect the elderly. You do not respect men. You do not respect women. You do not respect anything.
Respect does not mean “lacking a sense of humor.” Plenty of humorless, morally righteous people have no respect for themselves or anything.
It is very possible to be a deeply self-respecting person with a wonderful, playful sense of humor. In fact, the two go hand in hand.
Respect means “reverence for life.”
To respect life is to have reverence for it. To be in awe of its utter miraculousness.
When you respect something, you do not abuse it. You do not call it “worthless.”
And yet how many of you constantly struggle with inner feelings of worthlessness.
How many of you were treated without respect as children, and so grew up feeling powerless, and not worthy of respect.
How many of you learned that the only way to command respect in this dog-eat-dog world is by behaving disrespectfully toward others — “putting them in their place.”
Most of you dislike it when you are treated disrespectfully.
And yet you do not respect yourselves. So why should anyone else respect you?
You are worthy of respect. No matter what you have or haven’t done in this lifetime, you are worthy of respect.
In order to command respect from anyone else, you must first respect yourself. And you must treat others with respect.
No one respects a bully. They may fear a bully, but what do they say behind his back? Bullying is never the way to command true respect from anyone. People despise a bully; they do not respect him.
If you wish to be respected in this lifetime, first look at the ways you do not respect yourself, and your body. Then look at the ways you do not respect other people. Then look at the ways you do not respect life on this planet.
Generally, when you respect yourself, your body, other people, and life on this planet, respect will no longer be an issue for you.
wordfromthewell 