What Pill Do I Take For My Relationship?

[Guest Post By Andrew Newman – www.lifewalkers.com] 

We take all kinds of preventative medication to build basic health and avoid sickness, but what medication do you take to maintain healthy relationships?

I travelled with my girlfriend recently for 3 weeks in America. It was our first trip together and many friends warned that it could be a relationship maker or breaker.

At the same time as travelling, my daily meditation practice fell away. The excitement of new places and the speed of exploration broke my routine. 

We had fantastic fun together AND we had to negotiate our way through a lot of new relationship territory. Boundaries, space and intimacy were in constant exploration for 3 weeks.

To ensure my continued physical health during our trip I packed the echinacea tablets, and she brought the nutritional supplements and digestive enzymes. Healthcare was and is important to each of us. We set up a daily rhythm and took our medication regularly and consistently to ensure our physical health. It was important, so we set some structures in place to ensure it was remembered.       (The 9pm alarm reminder was great!) 

What we didn’t do was set up the same structures to take the medication that our relationship needed to stay healthy.

In the excitement of travel and the rapidly changing daily environment my meditation practice fell away. Even though I was travelling with my yoga mat, I didn’t get to it each morning.

This was a mistake. My stress grew inside me. I felt squeezed by all I was experiencing.  

Then I remembered…

 Meditation is the medication of relationship.

.

It is the perfect pill to ensure that I show up maturely, that I get to speak openly and honestly. It’s the pill that helps me own what is mine, withhold my hurtful projections, temper my angry self, reaffirming my commitment to kindness. It really is an awesome medication.

I started to carve out the space from our busy-ness, wake up a little earlier,  and ask my girlfriend’s help in creating the time.  It turns out that she really appreciated and supported me in doing this self nourishment. I was after-all nourishing our relationship and being a nicer guy in the process!

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Andrew works at the meeting point of psychology, spirituality and creativity with one simple intention… ‘to grow happiness.’

This is reflected in his beautiful line of children’s books.

He graduated from the Barbara Brennan School of Healing in Austria; studied 4 years of Nondual Kabbalistic Healing in the Netherlands and holds a postgraduate diploma in marketing management from the University of Cape Town.

His multifaceted career includes work as a jeweller, a poemcatcher, a hammock maker and a festival director (Edinburgh Festival of Spirituality and Peace)

Connect with Andrew here: www.lifewalkers.com 

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