Stand Up and Honor Yourself!

Sometimes it’s difficult learning to stand up for ourselves. We are so used to backing-off because we feel like we don’t really count in this world. Everyone else has a right to their beliefs, opinions and needs—but not us. So we stand silently by and give our power away. We stuff our feelings and lay down like doormats for others. Then, once we’re alone, we allow our feelings to explode all over us. We replay the situation through our heads over and over, we get angry, mad as hell and revengeful.

As we replay the scene again and again, we punish ourselves. We may be angry with the other person(s), but we’re mostly angry with ourselves. Well, it’s time to stop laying down and rolling over before others. It’s time to start owning our power by believing that we are good enough, equal with everyone and that our wants and needs DO COUNT.

I belong to an MP3 service that charges my account every month for $20. I found out the hard way that if I don’t buy $20 worth of MP3s in a given month, the money doesn’t role over. This service pockets the money. I felt abused by this situation and whipped-off an email to their service department. As soon as I hit the “send” button, however, I went from owning my power to feeling like a bad person because I had stood up for myself.

Two days later, when I got a response from the service, I was afraid to open it; fearful that they’d tell me what a horrible person I am. Instead, they told me they understood my feelings and that they’d refund the money that I hadn’t spent the previous month. A huge sense of satisfaction (and a huge smile) came over me. I had owned my power, and despite my feelings of being bad for having done so, I had honored myself.

We have to own our power and stand up for our rights even if it doesn’t feel right. This means sometimes we have to say “wait a minute, that’s not fair to me,” or “No, I can’t be responsible for taking care of your problem.” In these situations we have to go against our gut feelings of worthlessness and voice our needs and concerns. The more we do, the more comfortable we will feel with owning our power. The feelings of being “bad” for protecting or honoring ourselves will gradually go away and they will be replaced with positive feelings of value and proper worth.

Stand up for yourself, take control of your personal power and allow your soul to shine! It works!

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