To know your true self, remove your headset

Some people are able to move through life with lightness and ease, while others remain uncomfortable and over-stressed.

- NEVILLE HODGKINSON

Psychologists tell us that a key difference between the two is the degree of self-respect, or lack of it, in which we hold ourselves.

Not surprisingly, those who grow up in a loving and supportive environment tend to carry that love and support with them, internally, into adulthood, while early trauma can leave us with an abiding sense of insecurity. The good news is that those who fall into the latter group can overcome their handicaps by making conscious, positive choices in the ways they think, feel, and act. I learned this many years ago while working full-time as a medical correspondent on national newspapers in the UK.

I met doctors who could transform the lives of their patients by teaching them to have more respect for themselves, and how to resist what one cardiologist called 'people poisoning'. When we lack self-respect, we allow others to drag us down further through their negativity, or poison. When we lack the wisdom to see what is going on, we let that poison enter our own psyche.