The Power of Recognizing

  Recently, I have found that much of my work as a mental health practitioner has garnered a need to assist people in understanding how some levels of self-hatred plays a part in the negative comments and hostile energy they receive from others; and more-so, how to recognize it .   Several months ago, I was talking to a gentleman who had just got out of prison for the second time in his 29 years of life.   We were engaged in soulful conversation about our experiences with anger and he said, “I don’t even get mad when people say [negative things] to me anymore because I recognize , now, that you’re only showing me how you feel about yourself.”   It is such a basic idea and a redundant concept but it appears that few people have an experiential understanding of it.   During a Hotboxin With Mike Tyson episode, Tyson said (as I attempt to paraphrase), When you hate yourself, you show it by being mean to other peopl e .   TUPAC’s character Bishop in JUICE, il...