ERP 124: How To Improve The Climate Of Your Relationship

WHAT IS YOUR CURRENT RELATIONSHIP CLIMATE?

In the lastest episodes, I interviewed two experts in the field of relationship.

Arielle Ford talked with us about How To Turn Your Mate Into Your Soulmate. One of the questions, I asked her was how to use the law of attraction in your relationship. In her response, she focused more on how to attract a partner.

I truly believe that when one partner raises their vibration it attracts a completely different interaction.

What does raising the vibration mean? In law of attraction terms, it is essentially what you focus your attention on, you attract. If you focus on the experience love, you will attract more love. If you focus on the experience of happiness, you will attract more joy. If you focus on gratitude, you will attract more abundance.

(Please listen to the podcast episode or read the transcript to hear explanations, stories and examples.)

In relationship, where do you pay the majority of your attention? What are your habitual thought patterns about your partner or your relationship?

RELATIONSHIP WEATHER IS DIFFERENT THAN RELATIONSHIP CLIMATE

Raising your vibration does not mean you bypass or avoid your concerns. It is important to take clear and conscientious notes of things you feel challenged with or troubled by. Then, you can address the issues with your partner in a constructive way. This gives your partner an opportunity to understand how you feel AND it gives them a chance to help you get your needs met.

If you do not address your issues, it is likely that resentment will build and it will affect the way you experience your partner and your relationship. Issues begin to cloud the overall weather of your relationship, and over time this can drastically affect the climate of your relationship.

What if you were to see your concerns as issues that you and your partner are in process of resolving and still working on getting to creative solutions?

With this framework, there are some key assumptions happening.

• There is a positive solution.
• You and your partner care about each other.
• While it is challenging at times, you want to work together.
• You and your partner are doing the best that you can.
• You both have assets to bring to the relationship. While you have differences, it is not about who is right. It is about how to you learn from each other and work together to get your needs met, in a way that feels good for both of you.

When we get triggered, we tend to perceive things from a protective stance. We are trying to mitigate any chances of injury. Our attempts, while understandable, are often protective strategies to feel safe. These strategies put our partner in the position of being the adversary.

WHEN RELATIONSHIP WEATHER BECOMES THE RELATIONSHIP CLIMATE

If we see our partner as an adversary for any length of time, it can be very difficult to contextualize feelings of protection, control, and fear to just the issue at hand.

With frequency and intensity, the adversary tone starts to globalize to the overall quality of the relationship. In general, we start to see our partner in a negative light. We focus on their negative attributes. We doubt and question their ability to meet our needs, and we wonder if and how the relationship will work.

In the field of psychology, there is a tremendous amount of research that explores how our thinking and beliefs impacts our experience.

Example: Husband makes a lot of effort to give to and please his wife. However, he is very quiet about it. Often, she doesn't know how he is contributing to their life together. His fear is that he is not seen, appreciated, valued, and loved. He hopes that she will recognize his efforts and appreciate him. Yet, she, without knowing what he is doing, misses the opportunities. This hurts and validates his fear that she doesn't really care or value him. He distances and pulls away and she has an even harder time understanding him and acknowledging him. This can be a tragic and vicious cycle.

WHAT IF WE PRIORITIZED THE RELATIONSHIP CLIMATE?

In last week's episode, I interviewed Dr. Fred Luskin on the topic of Forgive for Love. He emphasized that we often protest against others and life, when we do not get what we want. While this initial reaction is natural and understandable, we often get trapped in this state. We tend to resist the honest, emotional work, which is to acknowledge life and love are risky and we are truly vulnerable. The real work is in facing these realities with gentleness, compassion, acceptance, and preemptive forgiveness. Instead we fight with each other, protesting and engaging in all sorts of strategies to attempt to get what we want.

In 2004, during my deep, personal dive of exploring relationship dynamics. I was reading many different books. I cannot remember which one sparked this awareness. But I remember thinking, "Oh, wow. How different it would be if in relationship, we saw each other as kin on this path of life. What if we acknowledged that we are all working through pain, hurt, and injury? What if we recognized that we are all fighting with our inner demons at times? What if we could have this understanding in relationship? Would we be able to have a little more patience with each other? Would we have a little more grace in the matters?"

In a committed intimate relationship, we have the opportunity to hold a very sacred space for each other. With love and intimacy, we let our guard down. We open up our hearts. At the same time, we get in touch with our insecurities, fear and vulnerability. What if we accepted that we are going to have fear, pain, and protection emerge? What if we gave each other space to work it out? What if we held a place of love and belief for one another? A safe, sacred container allows for profound personal work to occur, and there is more permission to explore without the threat of losing love and relationship.

HOW TO IMPROVE THE RELATIONSHIP CLIMATE

How do we nurture this proverbial container? How do we remember that we are human, wounded, and fallible? How do we remember to be compassionate, kind, and patient? People's religious and/or spiritual practices typically help tremendously in this arena. People pray for strength and guidance. People meditate to get perspective and detach from being overly identified with their pain. People reconnect with their essence of love, joy and peace, so that they can reorient their focus. Religious or spiritual communities can give a sense of support, unity, and inspiration to tolerate some of the emotional discomfort and disconnect.

What if you do not have a religious or spiritual practice? Develop a practice. If you do not know what to do, start experimenting. Positive psychology focuses on topics such as happiness, gratitude, love, kindness, compassion, peace, etc. Do a few internet searches which will give you many ideas to start with.

Next week, I will be talking about the power of kindness in relationship. This episode will also give you some specific ideas on how to cultivate more kindness and generosity in your relationship.

Let me know if I can be of any support. Also, check out the Connected Couple program to develop happy, lasting love: For a limited time only, you can use this coupon code for a 20% discount: fall2017

MENTIONED:

• ERP 122: How to Turn Your Mate Into Your Soulmate with Arielle Ford (podcast)
• ERP 123: Forgive For Love With Dr. Fred Luskin (podcast)
• ERP 095: How Your Beliefs Can Destroy Your Relationship (podcast)
• ERP 096: How Your Beliefs Can Destroy Your Relationship – Part Two (podcast)
• Photo by Jeff Sheldon on Unsplash

TRANSCRIPT:

Click on this link to access the transcript for this episode: ERP 124: How To Improve The Climate Of Your Relationship [Transcript]

If you have a topic you would like me to discuss, please reach out to me. Here is my contact information.

I would really appreciate your honest rating and review. Please leave a review by clicking here.

Thank you!

If you are interested in developing new skills to overcome relationship challenges, please consider taking the Empowered Relationship Course or doing relationship coaching work with me.