Seeing #metoo written all over social media had a deep impact on me but for some reason, at the time, I felt quiet inside, I couldn’t bring myself to make an open statement. Pardon my pace, I am a slow operator, I tend to take longer than the average to form an opinion, trendsetters surely have no hope with me.
I have personally never been sexually abused, and what it seemed to me something out of a horror movie, it actually happens on a daily basis across all ages and sexes. Outrageous. But still I was quiet, observing the scene, the surroundings and one random day something came to mind.
How could sexual abuse be so spread out in Hollywood and other instances and everybody be non-officially ok with it? Because they all bloody knew! This is something that has gotten way out of hand, and to me the crucial aspect lays on the fact that we have grown accustomed to mistreat at the most basic levels, and we excuse it in the name of trauma, age, stress, exhaustion, social status, you name it.
The standards are so low than only when we are faced with physical transgression (and is made public) we are thrown off guard.
Abuse happens when anyone at any given time has treated you any less than who you are, even a tiny bit, and you must speak up, you must stand up for yourself, because your self worth is non-negotiable.
As human beings we are capable of much more, the benchmark should have never been a negative construe of no-harm , but a positive one of BE KIND.
When abuse happens to children or other powerless populations, we need to teach them early on that it’s not ok, to give or to receive mistreat. They must have tools to confront and protect themselves, and when nothing can be done, to recover from the outcome.
And those tools must me provided by society, they have to become a staple of our evolution, and don’t fool yourself, this is not about inflicting more fear which, we certainly don’t need, is about quite the opposite. It is about creating caring communities, diverse containers where we all fit in, individually and collectively, of course, in my world, I can come up with a hundred ways to achieve this: make meditation, yoga, mindfulness, music, art, nature, compassion, growth mindset, positive psychology part of the mainstream, include them in the curriculum of every school, let them be present in every corporation, big or small.
#bekind: Let that be the new normal.
As a society we cannot accept abuse any longer, when you abuse an animal, a child, the shopkeeper, your peers, your family, and remember passive aggression is abuse, you are contributing to the same consciousness that creates it, it only takes two to tango.
Keep also in mind that not forgiving (you & others) is another form of abuse, so if not having a good day, apologize, let go and try softer 🙂 next time.
Be kind puppies, it’s all we’ve got xx
MR
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