The Bonds of Love.

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“Enlightenment is intimacy with what is” Zita

Every single day all over the world parents teach their children the rules of the game. They teach their children how to conform, how to fit in. They teach their children the rules of their tribe. Parents teach their children that to be loved and belong; “this is how ‘we’ behave”, “this is how ‘we’ think”.

Children, for even as an adult you remain the child of your parents, are extremely loyal in love to their family, especially their parents. Even those who say they live completely different lives to their parents, the patterns will remain the same. Children will get sick for their parents, children will even die for their parents so deep is the love and the bond. People follow their parents because to not do so would threaten their existence, they have been taught to believe by inference that they will be excluded or are unlikely to survive if they stray too far from the family fold. Quite often you will hear someone say words to the effect of; “All my family vote Labour so I vote Labour.” “All my family are professionals so I became a Lawyer.” “My Mother and my Grandmother always cooked the Turkey this way.” and so on. Parents judge their children to be ‘good’ when they follow the family code. In fact for the vast majority of people breaking the family code would be experienced as a profound emotional and psychological trauma. We often witness this when marriages irretrievably breakdown and the strain of following the partner’s family beliefs and traditions is just too difficult to adjust to. And so partners are blamed for not loving you the way you are familiar and comfortable with. Every day you demand of others that they break these profound bonds of love to satisfy your own wants, desires, needs and judgments whilst refusing to give up your own.

Imagine, if you will, that for a person who is following a family tradition where men are expected to take a back seat in the affairs of the household, or a woman who experienced her father as absent, it will be quite a challenge for this woman to adjust her perception of a household and family that runs against a said truth as she has learnt and experienced it. Imagine a man who was sent away to boarding school at a very young age, or who was raised by a father who taught him that working long hours was the honourable way to earn a respectable income to support his family and teach his children a sound work ethic, that his natural reaction would be to work endless hours or remain detached from the family he creates. Whatever the differences may be they remain powerful bonds to which we are all tied.

Marriage in and of itself requires a great deal of maturity, a willingness to surrender part of your connection to your roots in order to establish new ties, create new bonds in the branches of an extended family tree as two different family systems blend and unite. If each partner can willingly let go of some of their family of origin ties to support the new, then we see a strength in the bond that can sustain a marriage and the demands it makes of each everyday. If you yourself can bring yourself to the level of understanding of how it would feel to dishonour your parents, your family, your tribe then perhaps you yourself have already taken a step closer to understanding what is required to really empathise with the other. If you expect or demand that your partner give up these invisible bonds of love and attachment they have to their family of origin the more vehemently they will fight to defend them. The only judgement you have over whether it is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ principally coming from what your parents have taught you. Mothers have the greatest influence over children and it is the same love you were unconsciously seeking when you chose your partner. The rejection of a partner is not just the rejection of the love you received from your Mother it is also intrinsically a rejection of yourself. This is why love is so painful. That which remains unresolved with your mother is carried over to be resolved with your partner, husband or wife. You are no different from your partner who loves their family with all their heart and who fears being excluded if they stray.

We have become so fixated on looking at life from a superficial perspective, making judgements based on early conditioning that we never really consider that behind much that we deem to be ‘bad’ ‘wrong’ in the other is actually a hidden loyalty of great love for that which they came from. You can’t change your life and your world from a place of judgement, blame and hypocrisy. You can only change it from a place of understanding, forgiveness, compassion and a willingness to change yourself first. As you change, your world changes with you. If it comes to a point that it is not possible to continue your life with your partner, the very least you can do is honour the love that existed between you. Acknowledge with love the seeming differences between you and graciously, gracefully move on.

When Ms. Paltrow and Mr. Martin announced their ‘conscious uncoupling’ much mockery was made of the idea, an indication of the prevailing attitude that separation and divorce is naturally about conflict and a lack of compassion for our soon to be ex-love. The truth is, there is no off ramp in love for if there was you were never really in love in the first place. A rather sobering thought if you think about it… particularly if there are children involved. The damaged caused by such an immature notion is profound, incomprehensible and essentially rather cruel. There is no need to stamp out every ember of love to justify a decision to change. One or both of you has made a choice, accept what is and be kind about it.

When peaceful resolutions are not reached the negative fall out reaches far beyond court judgements and legal documents, they stay with you, carry over into the next relationship and have a profoundly negative impact on the generations that follow. Children are loyal to their parents after all.

If it is your heartfelt intention to live a happy, peaceful, joyful life then it is worth considering gaining a new perspective, a kind and loving perspective, a perspective that is for the greater good of all.

To bring love and harmony into your life such that you might prosper, book an appointment now. Call Zita on 07709046643 My door is open to the willing.