JaKia Russell
Expository Essay 2

The new generation has a different aspect on self-respect now. People no longer have the save respect for themselves as they did centuries ago. It is something that you can see everywhere you go and in everything you do, you will always see self-respect or lack of self-respect somewhere. Have you ever noticed that the self-respect has changed dramatically in younger and older people today? People do not realize the real meaning of self-respect today and that is a sad situation. If you don’t have respect for yourself who is going to respect you?
What exactly is self-respect? Self-respect is when you value yourself whether it’s your mind; way of thinking, or the way you carry yourself. Self-respect would be having proper esteem or dignity of your character. By that I mean your character is defined by your own moral values how you came up in life has a lot to do with this. When you look at what is going on in the world today, you can see all kinds of people with the lack of self-respect for themselves. On the Internet, on the streets, no matter where it is that you may go. For example: on the internet you will find teenage or some women who claim to love themselves so much but they degrade themselves over the internet by putting unnecessary pictures of themselves on websites for attention. This is not self-respect at all.
Self-respect is based on what you do and can be an ongoing effort. It is not about what you did in the past it is really about what you are doing now. It not about you telling people “Hey I have self-respect”, It’s about you talking the talk and walking the walk. It is important to realize that your actions do add up. People who have little self-respect care very little about themselves and others. They just do things and they don’t consider how others will see their actions, which is a lack of self-respect for themselves and respect for others. Lack of self-respect could prevent you from developing your full potential of having healthy relationships. There are ways that you can learn to respect yourself for instance you could try practicing basic respect towards yourself for example: sometimes we tend to things to ourselves that we would not do to others that we care about. Whatever it is that you believe self-respect to be you can start by applying that to yourself. Don’t harm yourself which is a lack of self-respect for yourself. Try being honest with yourself, sometimes we tend to lie to ourselves and fool ourselves into thinking that something is okay when it really is not. Instead of doing what other people advise you to do you can also try developing your own opinions and do not be afraid to stand by them. I know it can be hard, but it can be done it just takes some time. I used to just go with the flow and let people do and say what they pleased to me and I would not stand up for myself. I took me some time to learn because I just wanted to be the peace keeper, but after a while I got it after trying some new things and going through a lot of things. As I continued to go on with my life I began to have more respect for myself and set boundaries and standards for others to respect me as well.
Another way that people can practice having respect for themselves is by recognizing when people disrespect you. If you are not able to stand up for yourself when someone is disrespecting you, this could also be one way of lacking respect. A person that has self-respect does not allow others to run over them and treat them badly. I learned this when I finally gained more self-respect for myself. When you have respect for yourself you will tend to not want to associate with people who seem to disrespectful or prude. Sometimes when it comes to self-respect we tend to accept being treated badly because we think that we don’t know any better, we may think we can’t let a person go, or we don’t believe that we deserve better. When in actuality no one deserves to be disrespected in any way at all. One way you can try practicing a little self-respect is for example say for instance someone disrespects you and you don’t like it you can tell them in a polite way you don’t have to be rude about it. You can say “Hey you just disrespected me and that bothers me or is unacceptable to me.” Once you try this which is a way of standing up for yourself you may feel your sense of self-respect go up and realize it’s not that hard after all.
Another way you can practice having self-respect is by taking more care of yourself. Sometimes we tend to put others before ourselves placing ourselves on the backburner, which is not good. Before we can care for someone else we must be able to care for ourselves after all if we don’t do it who will? No one can take care of you better than yourself. Make an effort to keep your body in order. Focus on the things that you can improve with yourself and that could increase your sense of self-respect as well. Get to know yourself look at yourself in the mirror and give yourself compliments. The more you tend to understand yourself the more you will appreciate the time you spend getting to know yourself. Discover your on personality or talent. Look into yourself and figure out the things you will and will not tolerate from yourself and others. Do not let other people’s approval stop you from doing what you want to do.
All of the examples of lack of self-respect given are things that we all have had to deal with and learn from. Self-respect can take you a long way with your relationships. If you respect yourself then others will respect you as well. Self-respect is a sense of pride and dignity within yourself. Allow yourself to learn more about your personality and learn to stand up for yourself. This will take you a long way. If you practice having self-respect. You will notice a difference in your attitude and your day to day thinking. With self-respect comes longevity in all of your relationships even with yourself.