Oppression

Good Morning Brilliant and Excellent People,

I look forward to sharing with you Brilliant and Excellent tips for attaining your goals and fulfilling your Purpose.

This week, i will share a thought on oppression.

“Showing off is the fool’s idea of glory” Bruce Lee

Oppression is the exercise of authority, wealth, knowledge or power in a manner as to make people feel uncomfortable or inferior.

The idea of oppression emanates from the opinion that one is superior to another person. This idea is seen all around us, even amongst children. Check out a group children and you’ll find out that the older ones often intentionally cheat and oppress the younger. Needless to say, this exist in our human nature.

But the irony of life is this:

When we have in abundance and live a life after purpose, we don’t feel any pressure to announce it.

When we don’t have, we feel enormous pressure to announce and display a false status.

The question is why? Why do we ever feel the need to show-off and oppress people?

Mostly, when you find people who feel the need to hold on to what they have and consider themselves superior to everybody else, you have found someone who have underlying behavioural problems. Here are a few factors that causes people to show off and oppress people:

ü         Insecurity: Insecurity is a lack of confidence in one’s abilities that makes you behave in spite of yourself. Insecurity is what happens when you feel vulnerable and inadequate. This often results in a push to want to be seen, to want to be adequate, to want to be everything at once.

ü              Small mindedness: a small minded person is someone who is opinionated and has a streamlined way of thinking. People who oppress lack the ability to think out of the box and see the whole picture, these kinds of people are selfish, narrow minded and intolerant of people.

ü            Seeking attention: this is an offshoot of insecurity that grows into a world of self, that is, everything revolving around them.

What messages are in your actions and words?

Our actions or inactions carry hidden messages. Simple activities such as giving and dressing can be tools of oppressing people. Knowledge is great but sometimes, it deceives its possessor to think there is more to him than meets the eye.

Whatever we think we may have, whether material or immaterial, it multiplies when it is invested and the concept of investing is to give it away for a much greater course not for fame or status but for the good of humanity.

Before going ahead with a plan, ask yourself again “why am I doing this?” True motives and intent can reveal the hidden agenda of an action.

A mirror of yourself

Is it possible to be a show off and never realise this? Actually, I believe that the most people who are show offs realises it but never admits it. If change is to occur however, one must have a true reflection of himself. As much as possible, an honest feedback can be gotten from close friends and or families, people who can look you in the face and appraise you.

Not every friend and family will give you an honest opinion however, especially if they are dependants, some people will rather mislead you or deceive you by giving you false ideas.

Emotions on the other side

When we engage in oppression activities, emotions gets fired up. Newton's third law states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. This reaction are vibes from the receiving end of your actions.

Three common reactions are:

·         Jealousy

·         Pride

·         Competition

Whenever you feel these three emotions flaring up around you, slow down and ask yourself critical questions. There are times actually, when people respond to you without you necessarily evolving those reactions. However, for the most part, people’s reaction are in response to your own actions or their perceived opinion of it.

Visit the BPE team on more tips to overcome oppression.