March 9

”The truest form of love is how you behave toward someone, not how you feel about them.” Steve Hall

One of the things I am learning to recognize about my behaviours are the triggers behind them. I am starting to be able to look at moments where I feel I am on the defensive and look deeper at what is behind the situation before me. One that has been in evidence lately is that of respect. When I feel like I am not being respected, or someone whom I care about is being poorly treated, it really bothers me and can set me off. In looking at my past, I can certainly see this pattern, especially when the disrespect comes from a child. I can recognize that this is a pattern from childhood, something that my parents used to repeat, that a child should always respect their elders. This was particularly enforced by my father. The punishment for disobeying was a spanking and I have a better sense of why a similar urge comes over me in situations where I am now the adult. It is a step towards putting a better response into action. It’s hard admitting and recognizing that many of my behaviours stem from things learned as a child, engrained into my personality before I could really comprehend. Even more so that what I learned at a young age appears so naturally in my role as a parent. But I know that behaviours can be changed and finding out what needs to be different is an initial step in the process to better living.

Affirmation My growing awareness will allow me to look beyond my initial reactions to the root cause of my learned behaviours and false beliefs and will be another catalyst for change.