The Art Of Relationships! - The Daily Love

I am embarking on a trip to Australia. It?s time for my husband to meet my parents and?extended family. It?s a long story why they haven?t all met yet. It?s to do with immigration and visas and sickness and life and death. But that?s another blog, or ten!

I have been contemplating the art of relationships. Intimate relationships. Could be?marriage, co-habitation, dating, whatever. It is a topic that fascinates us all. How some?work out under the strangest, most unlikely circumstances and others seem to fall apart

with the change of weather. Throughout the ages this is what we talk about, and often?how we connect with others.

I teach Yoga full time and relationship issues are the top topic that people want to?discuss, share and get ideas about. Relationships are somewhat of a mystery to all of us.

The truth is that no matter how well you know someone, there are still these private worlds of thoughts and feelings going on within them.

I was re?ecting on my travels through so many countries and foreign lands. I?remembered a magical time when I was volunteering in an orphanage in northern India.?The teachers that would come were all women and were always interested in me (the?whitest person they had ever seen) and once they found out where I came from and?how old I was, they moved on to what they perceived as the important stuff. ?Are you?married?? ?No?, I said. The news spread like wild?re. Many of the other teachers gathered around. Here I was at the ripe old age (in their opinion) of 33, single and traveling the world on my own. Their eyes lit up with excitement. After all the questions, like:?How did you get away with it?? etc., they looked enviously at me, and said they wished that they had had the choice to wait. I felt lucky that I lived in a society where I had the choice. Where that freedom was normal, expected actually. I was pretty content at the time, I must say. I knew that I wanted to get married and have a family someday. I just wasn?t in any hurry.

I was ?nalizing our travel plans last week and doing our seat allocations from Washington to Sydney. I asked my husband where he preferred ? an aisle or window seat? He said that if we can?t get an exit row that he?d prefer a window seat, so he could sleep. He is 6ft 5?, so I know this is an important choice for him. But what I hadn?t realized was that I was going to have to have a ?middle? seat if I wanted to sit next to him. Maybe even for the rest of my life? Wow. I have always requested an aisle. I have been traveling the world for work and pleasure for almost 20 years now, and have always requested an aisle seat. This was now going to have to change? Ah, yes, the art of sacri?ce. I wasn?t upset or even annoyed really. But I did notice the truth, that things are never the same again once you become an ?us?. I mean, I know I could book two aisle seats and maybe I will sometimes. And maybe I?ll be absolutely comfortable in the middle. It was just one of those illuminating moments when you go, ?Hey, this isn?t all about me anymore?and it?s really not so bad.?

One of my friends gave me great advice one day. He said, ?Relationships are both?wonderful and tricky. The wonderful traits of a person are all sparkly and shiny, and we?are attracted to that. But the real work is learning to ?nd good in the gnarly aspects. It is?a real art. Believing in the other person?s goodness and integrity enough to be content?with working with the challenging parts.? I like this and I know it to be true. The sparkly parts are easy to love. Our job is to make the love bigger than an argument or an intense disagreement. You see, this is being authentic, vulnerable and true. And much more than a fairytale type romance. The real and honest and courageous decision is to love the warts and all. That is the true miracle.

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Rachel is an expert Kundalini Yoga teacher. Follow her on Twitter?here.

Source: http://thedailylove.com/the-art-of-relationships/

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