Life can be pretty miserable when you are being bullied. But let’s look at who is hurting the most – the person being bullied or the person who is bullying others.
You see, bullies are actually scared people hiding inside scary people.
They’re scared people, pretending to be tough and scary to others.
People say and do mean things because they are feeling bad and unhappy about THEMSELVES.
They’ve been hurt or stomped on in some way over and over again. They don’t want to feel hurt and they don’t want to be the only one who is hurting. So, they try to pass their bad feelings onto someone else. Hurting others and bringing others down is their way of protecting themselves from more hurt and of making them feel bigger and more important.
So, when someone is unkind to you, or mean to you, or tries to put you down, just look at them and think ‘someone must’ve really hurt you’.
Because that person’s mean words are actually NOT ABOUT YOU.
You just happened to be in their space at the wrong time, and perhaps you were an easy target. Or perhaps you have something they wish they had.
Don’t let their words into your heart… Say to yourself… ‘It’s not about me’.
When someone is constantly bullying you, and you can’t avoid them – maybe they are in your class or workplace – pluck up the courage to say to them, with confidence, “You don’t like yourself do you, you must be really unhappy.” Or “someone must’ve really hurt you, you must feel really bad”. Because the truth is, if you actually knew what they had been through, and how badly they are hurting, then you really would feel sorry for them.
Your Challenge today is to think about any Bullies you know and think about how much they must be hurting. You will notice now that they don’t seem so tough and scary when you realise they are actually scared and hurt themselves.
If you have been hurt and you are now hurting and bullying others to protect yourself, then we hope that by working through our Positive Mindset Challenge, you will find there are lots of other ways to make yourself feel better, rather than hurting other people. We hope you use the tools in this Challenge to feel happier, to learn to like yourself and to start attracting good things into your day.