Awakening From the Dream of Abuse

From the book and the chapter called 'Love Without Conditions':
"...if the soul awakens to the truth that its worth is not dependent on anything or anyone outside its mind or experience, it will establish itself  in the Source of Love and awaken from the dream of abuse. 
"Awakening from the dream of abuse means rejecting the illusion that you are not lovable as you are."
    This is the excerpt I want to attempt to expound upon today because this is a very important transformation for us to strive for in our lives. When you carry with you memories of abuse or of being shunned by your peers for being different, you start to believe, as I put it, that if no one outside of you can see your worth, then maybe it isn't there.
    Since my adoptive parents became the exception to the rule that I was too strange to receive love from others, this is the false belief I had internalized. Letting this false belief go after years of internalizing other people's view of you is not easy. Repeated exposure to mistreatment creates multiple layers of rock hard doubt since you begin to wonder, "if I have worth then why did so-and-so do x to me?" or "If I have worth, why did this happen?"
    For me it meant that I started doubting that I had anything of value to offer, partly because I began to believe that everyone found me annoying.  So how do we turn the rock of doubt into sand and let the wind take it away? As with every ingrained thought pattern, we must begin by identifying all of those events and circumstances that made us feel less than and send each one love and compassion. Be sure to give each version of you loving compassion as well, even for your own mistakes.
    In time, you will eventually feel ready to extend your love, compassion, and eventually forgiveness, to the people who mistreated you. Start with the smaller transgressions before attempting to do this with traumatic events. The key to handling the big stuff is to remember that nothing anyone does to you lessens your worthiness/deservingness and to try to view the person who harmed you as a wounded child who feels abandoned by love. Know that when people are taught that they are better than others, they will feel they have the right (and even a need) to demonstrate their power over some subgroup. This is because they believe if they don't prove themselves to be the shark, they will be the minnow, they will be preyed upon.