If you are a parent, you know that child abuse doesn’t require physical or emotional abuse. More commonly, abuse comes in the form of physical and emotional neglect. No good parent sits their young child in front of Netflix for hours and hours, feeds them trash (Chips, Cookies, Candy, Juice), and wonders why their child can’t self-regulate. No need to wonder, the answer is self-evident.
The same law of neglect produces the same results for us as adults. It is not that we abuse ourselves with drugs, alcohol, and toxic relationships. If you are reading this message, you have probably already eliminated all of that self-inflicted abuse from your daily lives… Our own self-abuse primarily comes from our own self-neglect.
Start Neglecting:
But neglect isn’t always a bad thing… In fact neglect, when done properly, can be one of the best things. How is that possible? Most things are better off neglected than invested in. When you give something attention, your brain interprets that as significant… But most things are insignificant, and they deserve to be neglected. Almost every major problem in life can be solved by neglecting the bad things and not neglecting the good things.
Examples:
- Start neglecting Netflix time and stop neglecting family time.
- Start neglecting social media reading and stop neglecting book reading.
- Start neglecting watching sports and stop neglecting playing sports.
- Start neglecting the unhealthy diet and stop neglecting the nutritious diet.
- Start neglecting spending money and stop neglecting saving money.
Reflection Questions:
- What do you need to start neglecting?
- What do you need to stop neglecting?
Final Truth: Neglect is the problem and it is also the solution. Neglect wisely.