I know I talk about it a lot, but it's probably because it comes up a lot. Bullying is so much a part of what I see and hear about that it is just something that seems to never go away.
I get emails and messages from fans every week that talk about their experience with bullying. A lot of them talk about being bullied and the things they do to cope with it.
I look at my situation of being bullied in the past and find that my experiences were hard at the time, but not as serious as some of the one's I read about. It doesn't mean that what I went through wasn't real or being bullied, but it's like what my fans share is sometimes life threatening stuff.
I've been skyping into classrooms lately and hearing what students are doing to prevent bullying and I think it's just awesome to see so many inspired to make a difference.
I would love to hear stories of how my fans have prevented bullying with the actions they took to stand up for someone, or to be a part of a local bullying prevention campaign. Maybe even to hear about how sharing my music has encouraged them or someone else to stand against bullying.
Probably the worst bullying I see over and over again is what I call "SELF BULLYING". It's where someone starts saying bad things about themselves. Things like "I'm ugly. I'm dumb. Nobody likes me." Those things are what a bully would say to you and I read a lot of messages and emails where fans actually say that about themselves. I want you to know that it is actually the same as if you're being a bully. You're just choosing to say those mean things to yourself instead of someone else.
Bullying prevention starts with you choosing to not participate in bullying in any way, either as a bully, or someone who stands by while a bully is being mean to someone... or even calling yourself mean things because you think they are true.
I believe kindness is the answer to bullying. Be kind to others and yourself and you'll begin to see a big difference in your life.
Let me know what acts of kindness you're doing in your school, home, or community.
