REAL-ATIONSHIPS!

 Are you someone who likes to be with yourself?  Do you enjoy your own thoughts?  Do you laugh with yourself?  Do you love your body?  Are you content with yourself?  The way you feel about yourself is one of the most important things in your life, because if you don’t have a good relationship with yourself, then how can you have a good one with someone else?

Author Louise Hay says “If I don’t love myself, I will always be looking for someone else to complete me, to make me happy, to fulfil my dreams.”  Indeed, many would claim that being “needy” is the best way to attract an unsuccessful relationship.  As Dr Wayne Dyer says, you want to really be happy before you enter a relationship!

Life is a mirror.  What we attract always mirrors those qualities or beliefs we have about ourselves and our relationships.  In her beautiful book “Living in the Light” Shakti Gawain states:

“If you judge and criticise yourself, others will judge and criticise you.

If you hurt yourself, others will hurt you.

If you lie to yourself, others will lie to you.

If you are irresponsible to yourself, others will be irresponsible in relation to you.

If you blame yourself, others will blame you.

If you don’t listen to your feelings, no-one will listen to your feelings.”

But conversely:

“If you love yourself, others will love you

If you respect yourself, others will respect you.

If you trust yourself, others will trust you.

If you are honest with yourself, others will be honest with you.

If you appreciate yourself, others will appreciate you.”

Change happens not by trying to make ourselves change, but by becoming conscious of what is not working in our lives.  This often means developing a greater awareness of what we think about ourselves.  Because when we have a strong relationship with ourselves, we can improve – indeed even mend - relationships with all those around us: our family, our friends and our colleagues.