People view the behavior of others as a sign of who they are as people. Our behaviors result from our beliefs, emotions, and experiences from the past. Behaviors are the physical manifestations of our mental health. We judge others by their behavior, but we know our own behavior is not always who we are inside. Examining the behaviors of other people shows who they are most of the time. We have to piece together their behaviors as clues to their mental state.
I grew up with an inability to ignore others. My sensory overload problems made me abundantly aware of my effect on others. This insured my behavior was appropriate most of the time and increased my awareness of what behavior was appropriate. As an adult, I understand the motivations for people’s behaviors better than most people. Our emotions have more to do with our behavior than the behavior of others. Behaving inappropriately shows emotional problems. If we ignore or deny our emotional problems, our inappropriate behavior will continue.
Understanding the behavior of others requires understanding our own behavior. A single behavior is not enough to judge them by. If we have a series of strange behaviors throughout our day, people who know us can piece together explanations for our behavior. Strangers can behave differently, but we would not know it. Putting yourself in their shoes will help, but we will never understand others by their behavior alone.
Judging the behavior of others requires examining multiple behaviors. If you are not aware of your own behavior, you cannot judge the behavior of others. Translating their behavior into an evaluation of them as people takes skill and is never fully accurate. You must consider the time, place, and circumstances of their behavior. Your experiences, knowledge, and understanding of human nature will influence the factors you consider. Quick judgments will only lead to misunderstandings.
The amount of reality you accept will affect your behavior. It will influence your health, beliefs, thinking, and relationships with others. Our behavior stems from all these things, but it can also influence them. Poor health can lead to denying science. This can cause denial of other realities. Denying reality can lead to a belief that your behavior does not affect others. Your behavior affects everyone you interact with. Believing differently denies the reality that other people exist.
Repeated behaviors will eventually become habits. Negative habits will lead to more negative habits. A lifetime of negative habits will make you a negative person. When others try to change your behavior, you will retreat further into denying the need for change. Accepting the negativity of your habits is the first step. If you are unwilling to examine your own behavior, you will never accept it as negative. Accepting how your behavior affects other people will allow you to identify negative behaviors you are unaware of. Examining the source of each behavior is not as important as identifying the triggers of the behaviors.
We can trigger positive habits as easily as negative ones. We form positive habits from our knowledge. Negative habits come from our beliefs. We continue negative habits because we do not see them as negative. If you smoke, overeat, or have another habit you know is unhealthy, you will avoid examining it. You convince yourself the behavior makes you happy, regardless of the health consequences. These unexamined habits will eventually become addictions you cannot easily change.
Addictions are dangerous for ourselves and the people in our lives. They negatively affect our health, shorten our lives, and decrease the quality of our lives. As behaviors go, they are probably the most destructive. Addictions can range from alcohol to gambling, but any repeated negative behavior can become an addiction. An unexamined reality is the leading cause of our addictions. Only others can see the damage we are doing to ourselves. Even if we recognize the damage we are doing, it may be too late to recover from it.
One addiction many people have is hurrying through life. If you are often in a hurry, always trying to find shortcuts, and get frustrated when others are not going fast enough, you are hurrying through life. The destination you are speeding to will never arrive because you are always speeding to the next destination. You are speeding your way to your death. Ignoring your addiction to speed will lead to ignoring the reality of your health. You will miss the genuine cause of your health problems while you are running through life.