R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Respect, where does it come from? Who has the ability to give or remove respect? From time to time I ask such questions of myself to make sure I am not allowing my self-respect to diminish under any circumstances other than through my own beliefs, morals, and actions. I also ask, what is respect?

What is respect? It is that feeling one develops and feels that provides spirit of the mind, body and soul. I believe it is an internal feeling I create as I grew/grow up. It is a cumulative of qualities, abilities and achievements that provide me the self-esteem level that promotes a healthy self-respect.

It promotes in others a modicum of feelings, wishes, rights, or traditions that say "I respect this person." Others feel a form of admiration for their abilities, qualities and achievements. Others have regard for the person.

Who can give or take away respect? Only that individual. No other person can give it or remove it no matter what. Giving a person due regard, respect, and admiration does not give respect and a lack of a person giving these same things cannot remove that respect. Only you, the person, can give or remove respect.

It all begins with your self-respect. You have to earn it from within. Your actions, your deeds, your beliefs, your morals and all those other positive traits can only be learned and lived by you. They are yours and unique to you. You cannot transfer them onto others for others have their own system created through their unique perspective filtering systems.

If you say or do something that causes me to tell myself, "Hey, he dissed me and showed me no respect," then what I have done is allowed my own self-respect to be diminished by my expectations of others. Much like our desires, we have no influence on the expectations of others. We therefor shall not allow the expectations of others to influence our self-respect. The moment I make such a statement is the moment I have allowed myself, the monkey brain, to lose self-respect and the monkey therefor drives me to such thoughts and resulting actions.

Respect comes from within each of us. We control it all and develop it all ourselves. We may receive mentoring from others who may have achieved such levels of self-respect we see it as a trait we wish to emulate and therefore meld it into ourselves and all without direct influence to our self-respect. If it does not fit, ignore and discard it.

Respect! My efforts in karate gave me confidence, ability, and respect. Not true, I did it all myself and used karate and other studies as a study guide to  see, hear and feel what I want and need for self-respect, self-esteem, and self-confidence.