How Do People Make You Feel?
Maya Angelou is one of my heroines. A beautiful soul who inspired so many people globally.
Many years ago, before The Athena Network was a twinkle in my eye I was given a book, ‘I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings’ by Maya Angelou. It felt like I held my breath whilst I read it. Everything about it touched my heart.
Maya Angelou is a gifted story teller, raw and honest and the book evoked a kaleidoscope of emotions for me. Laughing, crying, angry, helpless, powerless and joyful all through her words.
I came across her quote;
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.“
… and how we communicate with people and how they respond to us just fell into place.
Whilst being trained in NLP I learnt the premise “the meaning of communication is the response you get”, this went deeper, it wasn’t just about changing the language I used, or the way that I was expressing myself. This was about connecting at a deep and emotional level.
Treat people with anger and you will likely get it back, treat people with love and you will likely get it back. In short, how you treat people will be how you are treated. Our words and our interactions can have such an effective on people that we become memorable to them and they will never really know why.
Have you ever met someone who you are in awe of? They made you feel amazing, there was nothing so different about the words, you have probably heard them so many times before from someone else, it was more that the energy they omitted was giving you a warm glow and you were drawn to them. It was an irresistible attraction.
Those are the people who were able to evoke an emotion in you. Just being with them lifted you up, made you feel that you could achieve the impossible and that you were possible … and you are.
Maya is one of my heroines, she is one of the women who always has my back even though she is no longer with us physically, I feel connected to her emotionally. I simply need to read her words and I remember to be human and to treat others so that they feel important.
‘I write about being a Black American woman, however, I am always talking about what it’s like to be a human being. This is how we are, what makes us laugh, and this is how we fall and how we somehow, amazingly, stand up again’ ~ Maya Angelou
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