Building and maintaining healthy relationships can bring us a sense of connection, fulfillment and safety also infinite joy and happiness.
Relationships however are not easy at all, in fact, they can make our lives miserable sometimes.
In my work with people across various cultures I found 7 common threats in our relationships.
COMMUNICATION
We find it difficult to openly communicate our needs so the others understand exactly what we want, when we want it and how we want it done. We imagine our partners and others know us enough to read our minds and we build up internal tension when we don’t get the desired response.
SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS
We believe there is only one reality in this world. That’s a faulty belief. In fact, each person has their own reality and should be accepted as a valid perspective by all of the others. There is no ultimate right and wrong. Everything and everyone is right and wrong in their own way.
UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS
We set unrealistic expectations and get angry, frustrated and bitter when the others fail to deliver to our standard. In these times we focus on the shortcomings and not on the overall exchange between us which is a superficial and dysfunctional approach.
LITTLE CONFLICT ATTUNEMENT
We forget that our human nature is prone to conflicts and we do not learn to limit the damage when problems arise. This is creating an accumulation of distress and puts a lot of strain on our relationships which are always ready for a trigger to explode.
STUCKNESS
We tend to get stuck in a painful inner experience and we do not embrace healthy ways of dealing with it. We find it difficult to make amends also to give and receive forgiveness which perpetuates the negative thinking cycle and stays in the way of healing.
LACK OF AWARENESS
We learn to function by observing the world around us and continue to live by default, on automatic pilot, following the crowds. We waste significant parts of our lives in darkness, not knowing that we can edit our beings and create stable, caring and compassionate relationships with the ones around us.
IMPATIENCE
We rush into decisions and we do not invest in our relationships properly, running away too early, without giving ourselves the time and space to figure out what we actually have going on together. Sadly, by doing that we carry with us the loses and unhealthy patterns of relating into our next relationships and this way the vicious cycle continues.
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