Relationship is Essential to Life

And I don’t mean relationship is essential only to create life through birth. Of course it is true that a union of two people had to happen in order for you to exist. But in a much larger sense, a full life, a flourishing life, one that grows and develops until the end of life requires linking up with others.

When you look out onto the world you see clearly all that is in front of you. But without something that reflects your image, you see very little of yourself. That is true about self-understanding as well. We have difficulty seeing ourselves accurately. Think of all the people who try out for American Idol who have no talent, but who have the greatest confidence in becoming the next American Idol. Where was their mirror?

Relationship Is Your Mirror!

We need trustworthy, truthful, supportive others to know ourselves. And, usually we not only need them, we want them close to us. However, sometimes we back away from people because we fear being hurt or rejected. Our interactions with those who are closest to us need to be supportive. That way the honest feedback doesn’t wound us. In fact, it helps us. And it can be received for what it is…supportive of our self-understanding. And you need that understanding for your personal development…in order to get better at being the best version of you.

But if the interactions we have are unhealthy, attacking, wounding…well, we’ll just get defensive. We won’t use even the people we most love as our mirror for self-understanding.