WEEKLY MEDITATION
Relationship is surely the mirror in which you discover yourself.
-Krishnamaruti
A huge part of any successful recovery experience contains a process both of self-discovery and of developing the ability to take responsibility for one’s life. There are many means through which we will be given a glimpse of what lies beneath our conscious understanding, in this regard, but none so striking and involuntary than through our relationships. It is through our internal reactions to our relationships that we can learn about ourselves. The closer those we are in relationship with are to us, the deeper the messages we will be able to receive through our emotional reactions to them. It is through our relationships that we vividly revisit the parts of ourselves that create blind spots in our current emotional outlook. Each time we struggle in any relationship we can use the struggle either to re-experience a familiar sense of emotional pain or we can use it as a motivation to learn about what, in ourselves, is being reflected back to us through the relationship that is troubling. Through this process we can eventually learn to take responsibility for our reaction to the struggle, eventually removing the need to learn the lesson. Through the process of taking responsibility we will inevitably feel less and less powerless not only in the relationships we have, but in life in general. As this happens, again, life will need less and less distraction through addictive behaviors as it begins to feel safer and safer to experience.
