You know me, I love a good proverb, so here's my latest offering for your consideration.
There were two dogs who walked into the same room, but at different times. The first dog came out of the room happy, head up and wagging his tail. The second dog came out growling and snarling.
A woman who watching this was intrigued and went into the room to investigate what could possibly have made one dog happy and wagging, and the other hostile and snarling. The woman was surprised to find a room full of mirrors: the happy dog had encountered a thousand other friendly dogs looking back at him, whilst the angry dog saw only hostile and angry dogs snarling back at him. You get what you give.
What you see in the world around you is a reflection of who you are, so if you don't like what you see around you, the change must start with you. If you're miserly with love, friendship, money, time, attention, care, concern and charity, how can you reasonably expect these valuable gifts from others.
If you choose to hurt, disrespect or disparage others, your offensive behaviour choices will lead others to become defensive around you. Whilst attack may be the best defense for those feeling vulnerable, damaged and weak somehow, playing offence will invariably make others play defense. They in time will close their boundaries to you in the name of self defense, you will subsequently feel (more) lonely, isolated and possibly victimised - and so the vicious cycle continues in perpetuity.
The energy you create and send out into the universe circles around, collecting momentum and magnitude en route, before it comes hurtling back to you. Would you prefer to receive a positive, abundant surplus of loveliness, or a negative, depleting deficit and lack? We've all heard of Karma, and this is essentially how it works, but there is one other key point to remember. If you do choose to send out negative energy, attitudes and behaviours into the universe, it will circle around picking up force, but it might not be returned to you; it might be dumped on to those closest to you. It may be worth a second thought before playing fast and loose and offensive?
Conversely, by always doing your best and being the best version of you possible, by distributing love, friendship, time, money, care, concern and charity liberally, this comes back to you equally. Moreover, you are contributing to the world becoming a better and more harmonious place in which to live: it's win-win! For the life of me, I honestly don't understand why more people can't (or won't) comprehend this concept; which I why I'm writing this article.
Returning to the moral of the proverb, there was no way the hostile, snarling dog was ever going to encounter a room of happy wagging tails. The hostile, snarling dog was only ever going to see the reflection of what he was projecting out into the room, so until the dog's own demeanor changed, he would be forever trapped in an illusory world of hostility.
You must be the change you wish to see in your world.