Nobody is perfect. Especially not me. But one thing I pride myself on is not hurting people; not on purpose, at least. More than half the world takes for granted, the damage they cause, to people who have nothing to do with their issues. I’d like to think I am evolved from such pettiness, but I do have my moments. Every situation I come across, just brings me closer and closer to the person I have always aimed to be: better.

For a really long time, I have been on the kindness movement. Be kind to those who are even unkind to you. In the past, I retaliated, I took out my stinger and stung where it hurt; sometimes, I still do. Because some people truly deserve it. I know I can’t expect people to be the same as me, have the same heart as me, the same empathetic vibration filled with love- I know that. But to see how emotionally unintelligent people are, how vindictive and thirsty to hurt others, it is clear to me, more than ever, how much mental health education is necessary, not only for those who live with mental illness but for those who don’t, just to be a better version of themselves; to find peace- to find happiness.

Hurt people, hurt people. It doesn’t matter who hurt them or why; hurt people just want to hurt anyone. How sad, this ugly vicious cycle. Someone hurt you, so the only logical explanation is to hurt someone else. ::eyeroll::

You’d think it is common sense. It’s not. We have to begin to create a society where anger, resentment, and revenge doesn’t fuel the purpose of our being. I– I lead with love. I will always try my best to lead with love. People make mistakes. Sometimes, they make multiple mistakes, as I have. But the only way to provoke any change in the world is to give the opportunity for change; the change to be better. Easier said than done, I know. No one has ever given me the opportunity to be a better person, so I hid in my isolated hole, alone, and did it myself. Maybe if someone came along, in my life, and held my hand, it wouldn’t have been so painful or difficult to forgive the unforgivable, including myself.

Something inside of me hurts, still. Something inside of me rages to hurt those whose intention was to hurt me, but I fight it, daily. I fight it because it does not make any situation better, it does not make any situation easier, and it most certainly does not make any situation different. I will tell the truth, the blunt truth, to those who need to hear it, but what I will not do, is run on the hamster wheel cycle of continuing to brew more hurt people with hate.

Lead your life with love, and you will find peace.

Lead your life with love, and you will be just a little bit better than you were yesterday.

Lead your life with love, and you will finally learn to love yourself in a way no one else ever can.

Lead your life with love, and you will find the happiness you have always yearned for with yourself, by yourself, and for yourself.

Be a better version of yourself, with love.