The right to demand your rights…

The more we emphasise our rights, the less time we spend understanding our responsibilities.

The rights that others have over us is the responsibilities that we have towards them, and vice versa.

The moment we focus on only one side of that equation, we become oppressors.

If we focus on our rights but neglect our responsibilities, we oppress others.

When we focus on our responsibilities without calling to account those who do not fulfil our rights, we not only oppress ourselves, but we enable the oppression against us.

The moment we remain silent to keep the peace, we destroy the peace for the next generation.

Understanding the boundaries of supporting each other in fulfilling our rights and responsibilities is an important step in ensuring that you don’t lose yourself and your peace to your fight for justice with someone who is not invested in justice.

How we conduct ourselves will benefit or harm our bodies, which in turn enables oppression by ourselves against ourselves.

Therefore, the balance to be struck is not only in what we do or what we demand from others, it is most critically in how we establish balance within ourselves.

Approaching rights and responsibilities from a social justice perspective only, or from a perspective of what you should be able to demand from your partner is not about rights at all.

It’s about demanding significance when you feel insignificant.

That’s how our opinion of ourselves results either in our fair and kind treatment of others, or it results in oppression and abuse while we blame them for how we feel about ourselves.

Focus on what you need to do, and most importantly, on who you want to be.

As long as that is your focus, establishing healthy boundaries will come naturally because you’ll be mindful about what is within your control or influence to change, versus what is beyond your ability to change.

It always starts with you.

#hope #expectation #sincerity #selfworth #selfawareness #mentalhealth #mentalhealthawareness #lifecoaching #zaidismail #theegosystem #ownyourlife