Feelings are an incredibly important part of you … and of your relationships! Your emotional responses provide you with valuable information that allows you to live your life in an effective, satisfying, complete way. Other sources of this information include your perceptions, your sensations and your thoughts. Through the use of these aspects you derive guidance, motivation and the wherewithall to make sense of the events that occur.
Your emotional responses also add texture and color and variety and uniqueness to your experience of being alive. Because of the extreme variety that your feelings
can bring, they allow each moment to be unique … and each experience to present one-of-a-kind elements. You, truly, have never passed this way before … you have never experienced this event before. As the Greek philosopher Heraclitus said, “You cannot step twice into the same river; for other waters are ever flowing on to you. ”
To help you to better understand your experience — whether your personal experience or your relationship experience — carefully notice your feelings. When you feel something, consider asking yourself,
— “What is this feeling telling me about this situation?”
Then, follow this by asking yourself,
— “Why has this feeling arisen right now?”
Give yourself the gift of taking the time to answer these questions for yourself … and notice how much better you begin to understand yourself and your partner as a result!