Protect Yourself by Protecting Others

Ever have a time in your life where you feel you are the protector of those around you? I am not talking about if you have a child or a younger sibling. By nature, most feel the need to protect their kin and those younger, or those who are fragile like grandparents. But when it comes to friends, peers, parents that are not elderly, coworkers, associates, when does that protector feeling ebb?
For me, when I was young, I felt often times that I did not have a protector outside my home. My parents and even my sister (though we have a strained relationship), would always be there to stand up for me but when say, I went to school, those protections disappear and I was left to fend for myself. For years, I spent much of my childhood through my young adult life being a door mat. I generally did not stand up for others because I was either too busy trying to protect myself by being invisible and what not, or I had an ill state of mind that if I wasn't being protected why should I protect others. It was very rare and in extreme cases that I got out of my box to protect others. Generally when physical violence was going or did occur did I step in. That was always what crossed the line for me.
As a grown woman with a child of my own and a family, I have grown much stronger and also in time, learned to stand up for myself. Somehow in that time I had learned to stand up for others I felt couldn't stand up for themselves. Or even if they could, I supported them actively so they knew they could fall back on me if need be.
I am not very much what people call a mother bear towards people I care about and for those who I feel can't do it for themselves. They have the right to experience what I wasn't able to when I grew up. Sometimes having that one person at your back can make a difference in one's self esteem and confidence.
Too many people today do what I saw and did when I was younger, and ignored those who need help and go along with their day. Hell, there have even been news stories where they had people pretending to be physically or sexually assaulted and majority of people would just walk away. It really is a sad state of affairs in our country.
So why am I rambling on about this and protecting others and yourself? This can or may not be a spiritual aspect of your life but can certainly pertain to it. We in the community discuss ways of protecting ourselves magically with crystals, wards, and energy workings but when it comes down to the mundane area, that conversation tends to fall short. I am certainly a person who pushes for mudane resolutions first and then fall back on magic, but do what you have to do. Again, it also seems it is self preservation rather then protecting others that are the focus.
So, I lay a task out for you this week people who read this. Make it a point to get outside your spiritual and individualized box and stand up for a stranger or someone you have not stood up for before that you know needs it. You may feel the person you know you may have issues with but put that aside if you feel they are being done wrong. You would be surprised at how good it feels to put yourself out there and how something as simple as that can change a relationship dynamic as well.