Conscious Relationship Training based Article …
Why does Love always turn into a power
struggle? Read on!
Remember when you met your partner? Remember the excitement, those tingling
feelings that got you all tongue tied?
Remember too the feeling like you'd known this person for ever; perhaps
you'd even had past lives together?
Remember when this "soul mate" seemed to be able to finish your
sentences for you and read your thoughts and how then these things felt
comforting to you?
Well, what happened? Why are the same things that endeared them to us now
driving us crazy?
For most of human history romantic
relationships never lead to marriage.
The only 'marriages' were arranged by
families to keep the wealth secure within the clans. The idea of
marrying for love didn't exist. Marrying for love would have been
considered foolish, everyone knew romantic 'love' didn't last. It was
generally considered acceptable to have lovers for romance, and the
arranged marriage for the propagation of the wealth and the family. For
romance, one enjoyed a lover and promptly ended the relationship as soon as
it became a struggle.
The "power struggle" really came into play
when the much more modern idea of marrying for romantic "love"
became the accepted norm.
We have come to know that the power
struggle stage is a powerful stage in loving relationships,
with a purpose never before realized.
All love relationships have three evolutionary stages, the romantic love stage, the power struggle stage and
ultimately real love, conscious relationship.
Most couples never get past the power struggle. We either avoid the power
struggle stage by leaving the relationship, or lead parallel lives within
the relationship.
Some couples power struggle with each other for the rest of their
lives.
So why does love relationship have to
look so unlike love? Because embarking on a committed love relationship is
just like embarking on any spiritual path where everything unhealed in our
lives is calling to us for acceptance and healing.
Committed relationships can be viewed as a path to freedom. (Now there's a
twist for those commitment shy ones.)
A conscious relationship is one where the
couple realizes that there are stages on the journey to a conscious
union and that the power struggle stage is an opportunity to heal
energy blockages resulting from our reactions to wounding suffered in childhood.
Our
reaction to perceived childhood wounding resulted in reactionary coping
behaviours. We developed behaviours that protect, hide, abandon,
loose and reject our wounded self in favor of a false self image
we pray will be acceptable.
We are all wounded in one way or another,
leaving us feeling isolated and alone. Out of our wounding we wound
and re-wound each other, often without even knowing it.
So we go about searching for wholeness,
for real love.
As we mature into adulthood, Nature supports us in finding a partner with
just the right dovetailing character adaptations and reactions to childhood
wounding that we need to re-visit and heal our own childhood wounds.
It's during the romantic stage of adult love
relationship when the couple feels whole, safe and alive, because they are each
embodying the missing, hidden and lost parts of each other.
The dovetailing effect of embodying each others missing parts, which is so
comforting in the beginning stages, becomes a source of fear and struggle
later in the relationship. Our coping behaviors for our wounding dovetail
also. The resulting pain of this dovetailing is the source of much of
the power struggle. Examples pack rat/clean freak; extrovert/introvert.
The attraction of romance bonds the
partners into relationship in order to do the real work of love
relationships which is to graduate from living in reaction to childhood and be
here now.
The 'wounded selves' sense in the partner
the qualities needed to heal the wounds left over from childhood, so
that together the couple can journey from an unconscious relationship to a
conscious relationship.
Only then can they consciously journey through the power struggle to real
love.
The power struggle intensifies as soon as the couple settles into
commitment.
The power struggle stage of relationship feels extremely threatening
because what we need in order to feel whole is exactly what we were denied
in childhood, and what we need most is what our partners are least able to
give.
Why?
Because of the dovetailing wounding. For most of us in the power struggle
it looks and feels like our partner is deliberately trying to hurt
us. What looks and feels like an attack is in fact our partner's
coping behavior in response to their reactions to their childhood wounding,
dovetailing with our own coping behavior.
Daring to trust that our partner will
give us the nurturing and unconditional love our care givers were unable to
give, leaves us feeling vulnerable and afraid that we will be abandoned,
rejected, neglected, disregarded, abused or
whatever the original wounding was, all over, again and again.
The power struggle will show up in every
committed love relationship,
so it makes sense to work through the one you are in.
Of course it's possible to grow without being in a committed relationship, but if you choose
committed relationship, you will attract a partner with dovetailing
wounding in order to heal the wounds that blocked your freedom of
expression as a child.
During the power struggle stage of adult
relationship the wounds left over from childhood flare up and hinder
us and our partner from experiencing the relaxation of real love. We begin
to see our beloved as the antagonist!
The good news is, while it appears as conflict it is
actually healing wanting to happen! It is important to note that the very character
adaptations we put in place to protect us while growing up are now being
called upon to let go! They no longer serve us.
Realizing that the purpose of the power
struggle stage is to heal the reactionary behavior to wounds sustained
while growing up, and understanding the need for the dovetailing
effects of each persons childhood wounding, opens a space for real
communication, real empathy, real safety, real healing on the journey to
real love relationship.
That doesn't mean that differences
disappear, no, differences are always present. What changes is your reaction
to the differences.
You can respect the differences, feel unthreatened by them, and
realize there’s no need to change anything.
You'll notice with practice that it’s your reactions to the differences that changes.
You'll be present and in a conscious relationship.
The power struggle is an evolutionary stage
on the journey to a conscious relationship..
Article by Audrey Pearson (Devdasi) and James Pearson (Mohan)
Inspired by their clinical training in imago relationship studies, 1995.
The above article was published in the Spirit of Change Magazine circa
approximately 1997.
Workshop curriculum is based on Audrey & James 1995 practice and studies in
Imago Relationships© as developed by Harville Hendrix PhD, author of
“Getting the Love You Want”. Also based on their direct study with
Sandra Ray and Bob Mandel in (LRT) Loving Relationships Training
1988-91 and largely through their study and practice with BruceCrapushetts and Francine Beauvoir of the Passadena Institute for Relationships.
Audrey & James developed
and then practiced this combined methodology as a couple in a clinical
setting from 1991-1995 when Devdasi opened MA based Yogapathways serving as
a Center for Yoga and Reiki and Conscious
Relationships.
Conscious Relationship workshops are taught by Audrey & James Pearson at their Center for Enlightenment in Marlborough MA
Trainings and sessions provide the tools to guide Committed Couples from an unconscious
relationships to a conscious loving relationship.
|