General Information -- Caring for our Relationships
Most of us take our relationships for granted. We describe them with the now hip phrase “It is what it is.” We do not do much to intentionally care for them. We may post a “Happy Birthday” on Facebook or send a card during the Holiday. But mainly, we let them be what they are. They grow or die as we go about living our lives focusing on other things.
This being said, I am closing this discussion about relationships and self-care by repeating what I said at the beginning. While we cannot control most aspects of our relationships, we are accountable to ourselves and others with how we take care of ourselves in relationships.
Staying InTouch, InMind, and InSoul about our relationships allows us to take stock from time to time. When we are busy with work or family, we may lose sight of the people on the margins of our lives. Longtime friends may slip away. Family members may become part of the background. Even our close family and friends may step back into the shadows of our lives. We may wake up one morning and find ourselves terribly alone, isolated, and yearning to sit with an old friend over a cup of coffee. There is a natural ebb and flow in most relationships, but when all our relationships seem to be slipping away it is time to spend some time and energy reclaiming those relationships that mean the most to us.
Draw folks into your circles, forgive and re-member them, cultivate your own soul awareness and capacity for empathy with them.
Be InTouch. Keep InMind. Cultivate InSoul.
This being said, I am closing this discussion about relationships and self-care by repeating what I said at the beginning. While we cannot control most aspects of our relationships, we are accountable to ourselves and others with how we take care of ourselves in relationships.
Staying InTouch, InMind, and InSoul about our relationships allows us to take stock from time to time. When we are busy with work or family, we may lose sight of the people on the margins of our lives. Longtime friends may slip away. Family members may become part of the background. Even our close family and friends may step back into the shadows of our lives. We may wake up one morning and find ourselves terribly alone, isolated, and yearning to sit with an old friend over a cup of coffee. There is a natural ebb and flow in most relationships, but when all our relationships seem to be slipping away it is time to spend some time and energy reclaiming those relationships that mean the most to us.
Draw folks into your circles, forgive and re-member them, cultivate your own soul awareness and capacity for empathy with them.
Be InTouch. Keep InMind. Cultivate InSoul.
Tips - Relationship Inventory – Part Two – How do they make you feel?
We will return to the first exercise we did with our relationships. Return to your list of friends and family from your contacts and ask, once again, “How do they make you feel?”
Draw Three columns on a blank page and write “I need to be InTouch”, … InMind, or … InSoul at the head of each column. Now go through your list and add each name to one of the columns.
This will give you a plan for self-care over the next little while as you focus on tending to your relationships. When it comes to relationships, when we take care of each other we are also taking care of ourselves.
Draw Three columns on a blank page and write “I need to be InTouch”, … InMind, or … InSoul at the head of each column. Now go through your list and add each name to one of the columns.
This will give you a plan for self-care over the next little while as you focus on tending to your relationships. When it comes to relationships, when we take care of each other we are also taking care of ourselves.
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