Healthy Relationships
At this point in my life I am doing some major reconstruction in my primary relationship and my living circumstances. My kids are telling me I am having a mid-life crisis. It almost sounds like a joke, but living in it, I know it’s not. It feels like life is taking a hard left. So for today’s topic I would like to suggest Healthy Relationships. Here is a quote from a book I am reading which really puts some issues I am having in perspective.
You are able to nurture and grow others in a way that promotes their emotional well being and spiritual growth and that promotes their taking responsibility for themselves there by increasing their self-esteem.
When you love yourself, you are able to nurture yourself, focus on your own emotional and spiritual growth, and take responsibility for yourself – thereby increasing your own sense of self-esteem. When a partner asks for acts of intimacy or support from the other, each person can say yes or no in a healthy way without the other partner being diminished. The self-esteem of each individual blossoms when nurtured in a healthy relationship.
I am currently participating in a women’s group where we are reading Drop the Rock and focusing on Steps 6 and 7, to help me through this period. I am sharing regularly with my sponsors, one face-to-face and one online. I am also reaching out to many women who have been and are in my life today.
This prayer also seems to fit my situation, and I use it also: “God, I offer myself to Thee — to build with me and to do with me as Thou wilt. Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will. Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of Thy Power, Thy Love and Thy Way of Life. May I do Thy will always!” (Big Book pg. 63)
Where are your relationships – with yourself, with your higher power, and with others? Of course, if there is anything you need to talk about please share.