MaXIMIze - Your Most Important Relationship - You!

This month's blog topic is Relationships. Over at least the next five posts, we will touch on various types of relationships in our lives - however, since this is a blog about personal coaching and personal development, the relationship and interaction we are going to focus most on is the one with ourselves.

The relationships we have with others are mirrors of the one we have with ourselves.

What I mean by this statement is: No one can make us feel one way or another. Our feelings, particularly as a reaction to someone else's action, come from within. Since they come from within we can choose the way we feel about and respond to (rather than react to) the actions of someone else.

My book, MaXIMIze: Take Your Life in Your Arms and Kiss It! covers a lot about developing your relationship with yourself.

We see the world through the lens of ourselves - our thoughts, our feelings, our view of the world - so it makes sense that to be the best person we can truly be, we need to know ourselves as intimately as we think we know our lovers.

We need to truly understand what motivates us, what stalls us, what truly lies beneath the way we react and respond to the world around us.

So the first question I have for you to ponder is - are you treating yourself the way you treat others?

"Love thy neighbor as thyself" is one of the tenets of the New Testament, and as I often people-watch I wonder - do the people I watch truly love themselves?

What we put out in the world is a reflection of what we have and who we are inside. Do you really know who you are? Do you know the root cause of your reactions to people, places, and things?

I challenge you for the next week to take note of your reactions and to apply the 5 Whys to each one to get to the true root of that particular response. If you don't have at least one "Ah Ha!" moment doing this, either you know yourself very well - in which case, great! - or you are not going deep enough. Whichever it is is up to you to know.

Over the next few weeks we will be discussing dealing with toxic people, letting go of the past, holding on too tightly (sands and hands), and guilt.

There are likely to be more challenges along the way - I encourage you to do the work to get to know your true self.

Until next time, Namaste!