meaning of life
10/1/19
life is all about relationships.
and relationships entail boundaries, commitment, communication, kindness, attentiveness, and a lot of other components that together either contribute or disrupt the endurance of the bond. how bonds are initially formed is circumstantial. some bonds are born between parents and children, other through common activities. and others through services between people.
people have a relationship with others, with themselves, with a higher power, with their bodies, with their thoughts, with their food, with anything that is a part of their lives.
some relationships last a long time, even over the course of an entire lifetime. others are brief. some require much less maintenance, while others appear to demand more attention. some feel more natural while others feel forced, or at least to require some skill that takes time to develop.
all of them teach us. all of them are opportunities for growth.
the idea of a wellness wheel, for example, asks us to look at these different aspects of our lives and consider how we feel we're doing with each. the areas left wanting or needing some additional attention, we create short-term, attainable goals for ourselves so that that area of our lives feels better--however that is rated according to our own judgment, and within reason, which is another issue entirely since our expectations for ourselves tend to be much more critical than what we expect from another person (or vice-versa). anyway, the idea is that there are many facets to our overall sense of well-being (think body, mind, soul-type deal), and i'm thinking about it just from the perspective of relationships. if we are nurturing the relationships we have with multiple entities, and work on eliminating the kinds of toxic relationships that only serve to hinder us, then theoretically we would feel more grounded, more stable, more self-aware, and more fulfilled.
but that's just my own perspective, based on this pervasive presence of relationships throughout my own life, and the continual work that i'm doing to nurture relationships with different entities in my own life.
so there are different components to a healthy relationship, and then each of those elements within the various relationships we have. if you look at each kind of relationship, you can see examples of the tenets of bonding or endurance.
example: our relationship with food.
communication - relates to what we understand about what we're putting into our bodies, food content, ingredients, access, etc. the less we understand about our food, as with people, the less likely we are to benefit from that bond.
it comes down to...nurture the different parts of your life the way you would want to nurture a relationship with another person who has made more bearable the burdens of life. through the effort to be more conscious of oneself and one's needs, a person can develop or enhance their sense of stability, fulfillment, and contentment. not to mention the benefits of healthy relationships during difficult times. the more stability one has, the better able they are to pick themselves back up. the better their resilience.
unfortunately, I don't yet have the research to back up my claims. well...not entirely, seeing as a lot of my ideas are based upon the research I've cumulatively done, and the knowledge I've cumulatively acquired. but there is something that seems less valid without the science to back it up. i'm just one voice among many who claim a good sense about these things. and part of the point is to determine one's own needs within various relationships. not to promote codependency. not to have any one relationship be the most important, but the ability to dedicate more energy to certain ones based, again, on one's own understanding of themselves.
I just want to talk about relationships. and the components of healthy ones. and how this translates to different areas of our lives, where we have other kinds of relationships, with corresponding traits that are healthy and unhealthy. this is an idea i'm rough-drafting for :)
life is all about relationships.
and relationships entail boundaries, commitment, communication, kindness, attentiveness, and a lot of other components that together either contribute or disrupt the endurance of the bond. how bonds are initially formed is circumstantial. some bonds are born between parents and children, other through common activities. and others through services between people.
people have a relationship with others, with themselves, with a higher power, with their bodies, with their thoughts, with their food, with anything that is a part of their lives.
some relationships last a long time, even over the course of an entire lifetime. others are brief. some require much less maintenance, while others appear to demand more attention. some feel more natural while others feel forced, or at least to require some skill that takes time to develop.
all of them teach us. all of them are opportunities for growth.
the idea of a wellness wheel, for example, asks us to look at these different aspects of our lives and consider how we feel we're doing with each. the areas left wanting or needing some additional attention, we create short-term, attainable goals for ourselves so that that area of our lives feels better--however that is rated according to our own judgment, and within reason, which is another issue entirely since our expectations for ourselves tend to be much more critical than what we expect from another person (or vice-versa). anyway, the idea is that there are many facets to our overall sense of well-being (think body, mind, soul-type deal), and i'm thinking about it just from the perspective of relationships. if we are nurturing the relationships we have with multiple entities, and work on eliminating the kinds of toxic relationships that only serve to hinder us, then theoretically we would feel more grounded, more stable, more self-aware, and more fulfilled.
but that's just my own perspective, based on this pervasive presence of relationships throughout my own life, and the continual work that i'm doing to nurture relationships with different entities in my own life.
so there are different components to a healthy relationship, and then each of those elements within the various relationships we have. if you look at each kind of relationship, you can see examples of the tenets of bonding or endurance.
example: our relationship with food.
communication - relates to what we understand about what we're putting into our bodies, food content, ingredients, access, etc. the less we understand about our food, as with people, the less likely we are to benefit from that bond.
it comes down to...nurture the different parts of your life the way you would want to nurture a relationship with another person who has made more bearable the burdens of life. through the effort to be more conscious of oneself and one's needs, a person can develop or enhance their sense of stability, fulfillment, and contentment. not to mention the benefits of healthy relationships during difficult times. the more stability one has, the better able they are to pick themselves back up. the better their resilience.
unfortunately, I don't yet have the research to back up my claims. well...not entirely, seeing as a lot of my ideas are based upon the research I've cumulatively done, and the knowledge I've cumulatively acquired. but there is something that seems less valid without the science to back it up. i'm just one voice among many who claim a good sense about these things. and part of the point is to determine one's own needs within various relationships. not to promote codependency. not to have any one relationship be the most important, but the ability to dedicate more energy to certain ones based, again, on one's own understanding of themselves.
I just want to talk about relationships. and the components of healthy ones. and how this translates to different areas of our lives, where we have other kinds of relationships, with corresponding traits that are healthy and unhealthy. this is an idea i'm rough-drafting for :)
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