When you hear the word ‘abuse’ you mostly assume it is what is done to others or something that happens to others.

Indulging in habits that are classified as ‘bad habits’, for example smoking, drinking, doing drugs or even eating non-vegetarian food or any food and drink in excess are classified as self-abuse.

If you don’t indulge in any of these, and you assume that you eat and sleep right, exercise regularly, drink water and ‘do the right rights’ you are confident that you don’t abuse yourself.

What about stress? Or resentment. Mental self-castigation? Or keeping your feelings bottled up? Or keeping a sunny façade even as dark clouds loom inside you or anger is threatening to bubble forth like lava if you just let it. What about when you need medication to sleep or need to pop a pill to just go through the day?

To Abuse Yourself, means to hurt or injure oneself. Or any sort of physical maltreatment towards yourself or to demoralize oneself.

You could eat right, you could sleep well and you could exercise all you want, but when there is no peace within you, you are abusing yourself. When you don’t respect yourself. When you are not kind to yourself. When you don’t put yourself first where it is truly required. When you allow yourself to be a doormat. That is when you are abusing yourself. Click To Tweet

You must love people. You must respect relationships. However, you must love and respect yourself the most. Your thoughts, actions and words must align right, and complement each other.

Saying ‘yes’ to everything and everyone will not make you a universally loved person, it will only make you a yes-man, and someone people stop respecting over time.

Saying ‘No’ when you don’t feel like doing something might not make you wildly popular, but you’ll feel better for it.

Nurture yourself instead of abusing yourself. That is the way to grow well and grow right.