EGO vs Self Respect
I know many people struggle to understand the difference between the two. I have struggled with this too. From my understanding of the two, here's what I live by
EGO
EGO is everything that you believe about yourself and the world you live in. It's the belief system that you identify with as your gospel truth - that which can never change.
"I am amazing" , "I am useless" , "I am a terrible person" , "I am not enough", are all your EGO. Anything that comes after "I am" which you feel cannot change in this lifetime is EGO. Pride is EGO too.
We believe that these definitions can never change. That's is why over time, as we try evolving, these become the biggest limitations. Because definitions evolve as we evolve.
We are a piece of the divine which means we are full of creation and possibilities. So no conclusion can be forever.
We are more of "I can" than "I am" 😊
Self Respect
Before I say something about respect, I want to define sympathy vs empathy my way.
Sympathy is when you understand the other or yourself through the lens of superior and inferior. It's seeing the pain / any emotion through the lens of judgement.
Empathy is the intellectual + heartful (Definition from google - An amount of emotion considered to be present in the heart) way, where you understand the pain / the emotion behind it without any form of judgement. It is also, feeling the amount of emotion one is living through without attachment.
R Any form of respect stems from compassion. When I say compassion , I don't mean sympathy. For me compassion is empathy + love.
Self respect is understanding your boundaries, stretching beyond which will hurt. It is having empathy for your boundaries. Holding it sacred for you and empathetically for the other. It's more about how much of yourself can you offer to another in any given moment and less to do with a rigid belief system.
Are EGO and Self respect the same ?
It doesn't have to be at all. But it is for most people because of the limiting beliefs we identify with. Since we identify with it as who we are, it unfortunately becomes our boundary. Because we believe and identify with it so firmly , we defend it as if it's a do or die.
Awareness & Empathy is what creates the shift.