Meaningful change

Change your inner dialogue
It’s been said that we teach others how to treat us. If we believe that, the message that comes across to others is that we are not worth being liked, loved, or treated with respect. Most of it comes from what we’re not even saying. Choose to believe that you are worth taking care of and that you have the right to be respected and treated with dignity – and act like it!

I got this one from an article over at SparkPeople.com (my fitness and healthy lifestyle website) and it's kind of stuck in my head. If you think about it beyond face value the concept is pretty interesting. How you act to yourself, can change how others act toward you. Normally, you'd think it's how you act toward others that sets the tone for how others treat you. Of course, that plays a part, but social interaction can present lots of difficulty.

Think about it. Unless you're completely self-absorbed or uncaring, most people try to read the other person, adjust their body language, tone of voice, style of speaking and even word choice depending on the situation. Some people can do this effortlessly, for others it's like a game of chess where they try to plot every move. The problem is that the other person might misunderstand what you're trying to say and generally not cooperate.

I'm kind of getting bogged down here but my point is this: It's actually easy to respect yourself and treat yourself better and with more dignity. A "get your mind right" kind of deal. What's amazing how the whole thing is that this causes a cascade effect — and it does — then before you know it, the way others treat you changes, too. I think the trick is not to expect massive change quickly (which is what society has conditioned us to expect these days!), it'll be baby steps and subtle changes. But they do add up :-)