Just because someone is a complete stranger, doesn’t give you the right to judge them, sounds harsh but it’s true. Everyone can be judgmental, no matter what the environment is. Strangers judge strangers, in different situations, in different times of the day and we’re all guilty of it at some points in our lives. To some, it’s become such a common habit they don’t know that they’re actually doing it. This includes me, big time.

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Having a negative judgment on others is actually mentally and emotionally unhealthy. When you judge someone that opens up a window into yourself on how you see yourself. It can say that you are insecure, you are scared, and you are lonely and that you are trying to find a change in your life. The same applies if you judge others positively.

When people judge others, we think that it could build our self-esteem and make us feel better about ourselves. So seeing the good, or at least trying to, in others lifts the weight off your shoulders as well and can turn your whole day around. In an article by Toni Bernhard who is an award winning author, she says “Judging is such a well-ingrained response that I hardly notice when I’m doing it, so I know I have a lifetime of conditioning to overcome. But it’s worth it because when I don’t judge, I feel the benefits in both my mind and my body: I feel as light as a feather”

The worst part is, in my opinion, is that judging others have become more of a social habit that others do to get along. It’s become socially acceptable to make others feel bad about them. What judgment can do is cloud our actual opinion and can make us feel negatively about that person forever. This is what the mind naturally wants to do, and we actually have to make an effort to find the good in others. In his book, The Four Agreements, Don Miguel Ruiz, who is also an award winning author, says “We make the assumption that everyone sees life the way we do. We assume that others think the way we think, feel the way we feel, judge the way we judge…This is the biggest assumption that humans make. And this is why we have a fear of being ourselves around others. Because we think everyone else will judge us, victimize us… and blame us as we do ourselves. So even before others have a chance to reject us, we have already rejected ourselves. That is the way the human mind works.”

I wish I could sit here and say that I don’t judge and that I’m this perfectly loving person who accepts everyone, but I’m not. I judge people and I hate what I think sometimes of others. I’m actually one of the people who do it without really realizing it. I feel like that a lot of people do it. Judging people we don’t even know, not knowing what they are going through. It’s a bad way to go through your day like that, I feel. So that’s why I try to make an effort everyday to get better of what I think of others around me, and I’m challenging you to do the same. If you’re nice to others, then you can start being nice to yourself.