Reading Corner

Links related to the weekly posts.

 

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This week, we wrote that you should rely on relationships to stay sane in an insane world. Here are three of our earlier posts on supporting each other.

How Your Peaceful Relationships Are a Shelter From the Storm “I won’t pretend that this does not bring me to tears sometimes, but I do want to stress that as troubled by all this as I am, this is not my inner reality. I am quietly, calmly peaceful inside. I have joy in my heart and gratefulness for every moment and every connection with others. I am buoyed up by those people who are willing to live in peace and love while standing firm in this world and doing whatever they can to make things better.”

How to Find Peace and Hope Through Your Relationships “We found ourselves in a very special part of nature, far away from the deluge of projections, divisive storylines and media outpourings. One of the days we walked along the cliffs of Montana de Oro, a California State Park with over 6000 acres and over 7 miles of coastline. It was foggy and pretty empty of people. We’d been walking for quite some time, breathing in the air and the atmosphere, when I grabbed Phil’s hand and motioned for him to stop. I realized our footsteps were the only sound other than occasional bird noises. We stood there wrapped in stillness, in an intense sense of quiet…The peace that permeated both of us was profound. I felt my hope and a sense of belief in goodness and love flooding through me. It was palpable. It was okay. It was more than okay. It was wonderful. We were wonderful together…All it took was to remove ourselves from the hammering from pundits and mainstream media and replace that with a few days of concentration on ourselves, our relationship, and of course, the healing power of nature.”

Why It’s Important to Support Each Other in Your Relationships “We each have a strong feeling of being supported by the other person. It pervades our togetherness and is one of the underpinnings of the peace that characterizes our relationship. It is a feeling, an experience, rather than a thought…It feels good to give support, too. It feels good to wish the other the best, share their enjoyment, and savor their growth. It feels natural and effortless: it is not transactional, there is no quid pro quo, there is no invoice being prepared….This experience of both giving and receiving support is mutual, and this mutuality is a large part of the peace that we experience together. We do not express it in the same ways. We are different people with different skills, and we do not expect the other to act and express themselves as we do. Yet we are equally invested in giving and getting that feeling.”

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This week, we wrote about why acknowledgment is a magic charm for relationships. Here are some of our earlier writings on acceptance, appreciation and acknowledgment.

How to Strengthen Your Relationships with Appreciation and Acknowledgment “I had an experience the other day that brought up for me just how meaningful it can be to let another person know that you see them and appreciate them. I was texting back and forth with a friend, when all of a sudden, right in the midst of a rather mundane text about little things we were sharing, she wrote “I just have to tell you how much I relish that you’re in my life.” It took my breath away for a moment to receive this comment. It stopped me and turned my mind to thinking about the importance of these kinds of acknowledgments. I know my friend feels this way without her saying it, but it still had a strong impact on me to hear her state it.”

Why Relationships Last: Acceptance, Acknowledgment, Appreciation “It is an amazing feeling when someone truly sees you, hears you, and celebrates who you are; when the feedback you receive is acknowledging, accepting, and appreciative. There is a sense of warmth and relief that comes over you and a calm relaxation that engulfs you when you are offered this gift. This is the actual experience of peace that descends upon you when interactions are devoid of criticism, rejection, or attempts to change you. There is a similar experience of peacefulness within you when you can accept, acknowledge and appreciate the uniqueness, the otherness of someone you are relating to. When you approach them with this attitude, it changes you. When you experience actions or statements that are different from the way you usually act and can still recognize the commonality, it is transformative.”

3 Things That Every Person Wants in Their Relationships “In any relationship, it is important to be accepted for who we are, to be appreciated for who we are, and to be acknowledged for who we are. Most relationships will blossom when they have this group of responses as an underpinning…The question then becomes how do you use this awareness, how do you apply this way of being and seeing each other directly in your relationships. The first thing is to speak it out loud to each other. If you never communicate it, the other person has no idea; your good feelings stay locked within you. Just because you see it doesn’t mean that they telepathically know it. When you acknowledge the good things in your relationships, the feeling of being seen and appreciated is powerful. Say it in words and show it in actions.”

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This week, we wrote about how to let conflicts go until you can talk without charge. Here are some articles from us on how to handle conflicts in your relationships.

How To Avoid Relationship Conflicts With One Little Word “This technique was designed to be used in situations where you are feeling responses like irritation, impatience, or anger in your relationships. The simple, yet very effective technique, is to ask yourself in such a situation, “What is important here?” This helps you to calm down and to think about where you want to put your emphasis in responding to a situation you are finding challenging. When I recounted this story, I unconsciously added a word to it. I said. “Stop, and ask yourself what is important here.” One of the women shared that hearing me say stop gave her something she could understand working with when things were getting heated in a relationship.”

How to Create Peace Instead of Conflict in Your Relationships “Current culture and leading relationship experts hold that conflict within relationships is inevitable, and that lack of conflict is a danger sign for a relationship. They say if you don’t have conflicts, it means that you are suppressing your emotions and heading for trouble. The conflict arises inevitably from innate differences between each person (see last week’s blog on this issue). There is a prevailing opinion that suggests that you can balance criticisms and injuries within a relationship by having at least five compliments for every criticism. We have a very different view about this.”

What Makes Up a Conflict-free Relationship? “Critical to having a peaceful conflict-free relationship is an attitude we refer to as total acceptance. Understanding that the other person is a full and separate individual, with different ways of expressing themselves and unique preferences, is a necessary foundation for peaceful relating. Total acceptance is the practical application of this understanding. It is an act of trust in the other, a belief in their positive intentions. Unfortunately, this is something that many people are not familiar with. This is an experience rather than a concept, and so it is something you must learn about through doing. How can you approach this?”

 

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This week, we suggested paying attention; it’s how to best support each other. Here are some other blogs we’ve written about paying attention in your relationships.

Make Sure You Pay Attention to Your Relationships “Strangely, there is a tendency to stop seeing and appreciating that which becomes familiar. With time, you might even stop feeling and valuing the connection within your relationships. To keep those connections in the present, you have to create shared experiences and take time to just be and to relate to one another. There are many ways to do this. To bring a relationship into your current experience, you must bring it into your present life.”

Why is Attention Important in Your Relationship? “your relationships with other people, whether acquaintances or your lover. If you’re not paying attention, you won’t see them. If you’re continually switching attention, you will only see them a little. When you give them your full attention, they become, for that time, your entire world. You see them for who they are, though of course filtered by your beliefs and prejudices. And this other person, whether a checkout clerk or your lover, can feel your gaze, will respond to your attention, because our reactions are very much social in nature.”

How to Remove Tension and Find Peace in Your Relationships “From this kind of mutual willingness to meet and embrace each other’s wants and needs, and not see them as oppositional or challenging to your own, an uncharged atmosphere is created that encourages openness. A gentle path emerges where talking, making decisions, and finding solutions is not fraught or loaded with resistance. The potential for a minefield is removed, and in its place is ever-increasing intimacy and connection. You can communicate your desires much better if you know what they are. It helps to listen inside yourself and really find out what you want in a particular situation. Once you’ve done that, you can more readily find a way to put it into words to share with another.”

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This week, we wrote about talking to each other, and how important that is. Here are some earlier writings of ours on talking and listening to one another.

Don’t interrupt! I’m talking! How to Keep the Peace in Relationships “We went out to breakfast to come up with a blog topic, the first time we’ve done that in a long time. We noticed that we were interrupting each other, something that has happened many times before: “Wait, I haven’t finished saying what I want to say,” and so we examined it further. What is peculiar is that we have a method for making decisions and resolving differences that involves listening to the other person without judgement, without preparing a response, and instead listening intently to what is being conveyed. This is something we use often and it has worked well for us.”

You Need to Balance Talking and Listening ” We pay less attention to our partner when we are the speaker. Active listening must have both sides – speaker and listener – aware of each other at all times. Sense if your partner has something to say that fits in, and interrupt your speaking or cut short the length to allow their thoughts to enter. Both parties have to find a balance between expression and reception. Both parties have equal roles in maintaining this balance.”

Why It’s Important To See The Other’s Viewpoint In Your Relationship “People get into quarrels over all sorts of things, big and small. They get upset because they feel they’re not going to get what they want; anything from a clean kitchen to another child. They might feel hurt, attacked, insulted, ignored – whatever, some negative feelings are there, yet more often than not, they are unacknowledged and disguised by finding reasons that match. And of course, this is how your partner is seeing you. You can break this impasse by changing the focus from how this affects you to the reasons for why they are taking their position. Ask not just why they think that way, but what they are feeling about it. Bear in mind that they probably don’t know what the feelings behind their position are. In other words, show empathy.”

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