Use Your Conscience to Strengthen Relationships

The quality of your relationships can suffer if you don’t give them your full attention. Your Conscience can guide you toward making decisions that cultivate happier, healthier relationships and increase your capacity to give and receive love.

Try these simple experiments:

Listen To Others: When talking with someone give them your full, complete and undivided attention. Avoid interrupting. Recap what the other person has said. Let them know they were heard, even if the Ego disliked or was bored with what was said.

Practice Patience: When you find yourself getting impatient with another person, ask your Conscience to guide you toward understanding and love rather than avoidance or anger. Try setting aside your own personal needs, and put another person’s needs first (just as an experiment).

Observe Anger: When you become aware of anger, take a time out. Don’t allow negative emotion to poison your entire body. Pause to examine which function of the mind authored the anger, and ask your Conscience if there is a more compassionate way to express what you truly need in this situation.

Give Love Freely: When you find yourself withholding love, ask your Conscience if building a wall to protect yourself is in everyone’s best interest. If not, reach out to the other person––without expectation.

Contemplate: After you are finished with each experiment, reflect on how you feel. Did you experience anxiety, anger or fear? How did you benefit from the experience? Are you pleased with the choices you made, or do you feel any regrets? Regardless of the outcome, congratulate yourself on doing the experiment, knowing that better choices will lead you to a more rewarding life.