The Airplane Mentality: The Road to Self-Respect
Sometimes people are feeling unhappy, but they don’t fully understand why. A lot of times, the root of the problem, is not maintaining one’s self respect. Self respect means having pride and confidence in one’s self. For various reasons one might feel that they aren’t important or they should be putting other people first. This leads to constantly compromising, putting yourself second, and not getting your own needs met. The result of this mindset is often not feeling content and might manifest as symptoms of anxiety or depression.
Increasing self respect can be thought of as “The Airplane Mentality.” If you have ever flown on a plane, you know that before you take off, the stewardess gives a speech about safety protocol. Part of this speech includes what to do if the oxygen masks drop in front of you. The instructions always state “fasten your mask first before assisting a child or another passenger.” This is a great life lesson! It is important that you first take care of yourself before someone else. Not only are you just as important, but you are not fully capable of helping other when you are suffering.
It is also important for one to explore where the roadblocks to self-respect stem from and why they developed this mindset; this can be done through psychotherapy. In the meantime, you can start to change your attitude. Remind yourself that you are important and give yourself permission to take care of your needs! When you are struggling to do so, just remember the airplane speech and the message it teaches us.
Alyssa Mairanz, LMHC, DBTC
Alyssa Mairanz provides counseling and therapy services for life transitions, relationship issues, self esteem, depression, anxiety, and DBT and Psychodynamic therapy in a NYC group practice in the Flatiron District near Madison Square Park. She also serves the Village, Chelsea, Union Square, the Financial District and the surrounding areas.
Empower Your Mind Therapy’s mission is to helps our clients build the life they want and find more happiness and satisfaction.
