subject: Relationships - How To Grow Personally And Spiritually Through Relationships! [print this page] Relationships - How To Grow Personally And Spiritually Through Relationships!
Relationships provide challenges to help us grow both personally and spiritually, if we are open to it.Indeed, they are the fast track to advancement in life.Never simple, they require us to stretch ourselves to places we have never been before, and may not wish to go to. They push our buttons and mirror to us where we need to change and embrace parts of ourselves as yet undiscovered.Many relationships do not weather the storms of life. This occurs partly because, people are not committed enough to work on and change themselves, and partly because, they do not have personal or spiritual growth as their primary purpose.So,when the going gets tough, the normal response is to leave and go on to the next partner, only to find after a while, that the same issues rear their heads because the lesson was not learnt in the first place and growth has been shirked. We cannot escape from ourselves for long.If we adopt the view that there is always a higher purpose and positive lesson for us in everything that happens and we become curious to look for that positive learning and willing to integrate it into our lives, then relationships can indeed enrich our lives and those of others.They can provide a wealth of information on how we are living, whether we are in integrity, what is really important in our lives and how to find and connect to, our own inner power and spirituality.Being with others helps us to understand what we really believe in, what kind of person we are and whether we like what we see or not. We learn about our negative patterns of behaviour that need to be transformed.Relationships act like a compass for us guiding us to where we want to go. For example someone who has "love" as one of their top values will be able to see whether they really are walking their talk in the relationship and growing as a spiritual person.Are they responding with love every day, or do they withdraw love and offer anger instead, when they feel upset? If they are working on love then maybe their challenge and growth lesson, is to keep their heart open even when they feel like closing it down.On a spiritual level, we attract to us the person who is our teacher in some way, as we are for them. This person has volunteered to act out certain scenarios for us in order to help us grow.Normally,what happens is that when they behave in a certain way that forces us to look at ourselves, we turn around and blame them for it, because we do not understand the underlying significance of what is happening.However, blame only keeps us stuck in the past. Taking responsibility moves us forward into more positive and fulfilling ways of living.Relationships can provide us with plenty of opportunities for personal and spiritual growth. All it takes is willingness to adopt a new way of perceiving.
