I have long thought if we focused less on others and more on ourselves that we would all be a lot happier. And by focused on ourselves, I mean on our own negative perceptions, criticisms, and ingrained discriminations, as well as finding more ways to express our love, compassion, and generosity. If we cannot delve deep within ourselves and face the truth, we will never truly love ourselves – and most definitely not others… for we can only love others as much as we love ourselves.
I have been thinking about how we judge others by what we fear in ourselves. If we see another race, we are afraid of being different like them. If an overweight person walks by, we cringe at the thought that we are too large ourselves. And when we judge a working mother for not being with her kids, we outwardly lash out on tarnishing the traditional role of a woman, but inwardly we are either scared of going into the workplace ourselves or we are jealous of her achievements.
We condemn others for what we feel ourselves… is this fair to them, or to you? We put far too much attention on what others think and not enough contemplation on ourselves. Setting pride, fear, insecurity, and ego aside, I believe if you focus on the root of what truly feels good to you, then you will always make the right decision. If you dig deep enough, the answers are there – one must be quiet enough to hear them.