Respect is a way of treating someone, and often builds trust and implies a feeling of safety. This depends on many factors such as, what that person is doing with their life, how they treat you and others, whether they are honest or not, and if they seem to consistently do good things. In short, respect is a positive view that you form of how someone is living their life. One of the best ways to show respect is having self respect, because if you aren’t able to respect yourself, how can you be expected to respect others?

There are some things that one can do to increase their self respect, such as being nice to yourself. Trying to incorporate positive thinking about small things that you accomplish can create momentum towards respecting yourself more. Remember, no one is perfect, and it is important to be honest with yourself and realize that trying to be perfect is not realistic. Everyone makes mistakes and being able to forgive yourself is a crucial step towards increasing self respect. Being helpful and considerate to those around you will also help boost self esteem which can result in a positive feedback loop. Another way to increase self esteem, as well as others’ respect towards you, is being able to take responsibility for your actions as well as having the ability to apologize when you have to. Having these important skills will help develop your sense of humility. Humility is important because not placing yourself above others is key to acquiring others’ respect. If you need to, keeping a journal to write in can be very useful for keeping track of things that you want to remember, and will help reinforce respect for others, as well as yourself.

Having a basic level of respect for everyone you meet needs to be the default. By giving them this basic respect, you can start off conversations with others with no judgements or convictions. One of the best ways to give this basic respect is just by listening genuinely to what the other person is saying, even if you do not agree with what they are saying. Your level of respect will still vary from person to person, however, starting off on a neutral level of respect allows us to have more mature conversations. Once you begin to adopt and develop the skills mentioned above, you will be much happier with yourself, and have a more positive outlook on the world as a whole.