Abusive Relationships: What if You Still Love Them?

November 20th, 2008

A reader asked about how to move beyond an abusive relationship when you still feel love for that person.

This is actually a common feeling from people in abusive, or even just very controlling relationships. A prominent pastor’s wife in Atlanta filed for divorce when a relationship involving much emotional abuse evolved into a physical attack. She said that she still felt love toward him but decided to “take her love with her and leave” for her own welfare. A loved one of ours, after having decided some time ago to leave an abusive relationship is now feeling that he loves the other person in spite of the fact that his health, career, and family life have all been destroyed by the other person.

An initial step is to realize the difference between love and concern.

A friend in a bad relationship once had another friend tell him, “You care about her well-being, but it doesn’t sound like you really love her.” There is a major difference between love and concern. It is unlikely that you will feel completely devoid of concern over the person’s well being if you have shared a major part of your life or major events in your life with him or her. However, concern over his or her well being is not proof of the existence of a loving relationship.

People in emotionally or physically abusive situations often suffer from Stockholm syndrome, not just people in hostage situations.

In Stockholm Syndrome, the person in an abusive or controlling situation begins to experience a psychological response of defending the “captor” and showing loyalty to the abuser. (1) Immerse Yourself in the Full Healing Contemplation Here »

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Overcoming Stress: Releasing Life’s Struggles

November 11th, 2008

Reading Level: Leisurely

You can identify the typical stress patterns you experience when facing life’s struggles and follow a clear plan to leave them behind.

Fellow SelfGrowth.com expert, Jeanie Marshall, Personal Development expert, has written a helpful article to teach you to release the various stress reactions that occur in your body when facing life’s struggles. It begins with helping you identify the reactions that take place in your body so you can train yourself to be aware of when you are beginning to struggle with something. She then gives a couple of creative ideas for permanently releasing old hurts that are adding to your current struggles.

Here is an excerpt from Jeanie Marshalls’ article with a link to the full article below:

Struggle is a common expectation in our society. We tend to plan for it, anticipate it, and invite it into our lives. It has become so familiar that we often push away joy or peace or harmony, declaring such experiences to be unreal or temporary or frivolous.

Select something real in your life that you struggle against, just to give yourself a laboratory. Practicing on something real but not overwhelming will give you courage to explore something you consider a major struggle. Bring this idea or subject into your mind and feel the feelings. You may find it helpful to close your eyes to stay focused on the task. What does the struggle feel like? What sensations do you feel in your body and where do you feel them? What emotions do you feel and how do you feel them? Hear what you say about this subject to yourself. What does the resistance/struggle sound like? What color is the struggle? How big or small is the struggle?

Identify all the reactions, signals, sensations, feelings, and emotions that you can. Try not to ignore anything that comes into your awareness as you read this. How does your neck feel? Your shoulders? Your stomach? Do you feel agitated or impatient?

Immerse Yourself in the Full Healing Contemplation Here »

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An Activity for Moving from Projection to Abundance

October 22nd, 2008

Table of contents for Attracting Abundance

  1. Clear the Path to Attract Abundance
  2. An Activity for Moving from Projection to Abundance

Changing the often un-noticed habit of projection makes your life more receptive to the abundance that would otherwise come to you through your relationships with other people and God.

This post is Part 2 of 2. If you missed the first post, Clearing the Path to Attract Abundance, please read that first as it explains how we project past experiences into our relationships and ways to implement change.

I was reading a passage the other day which was the source of inspiration for these 2 posts. It clearly portrays an attitude of abundance, of clearing the path to attract and receive abundance based on believing good will come to you.

This passage speaks of many types of abundance that you can expect to receive from your interaction with God. However, there are several key points of benefit for you to keep in mind as you read it to change your habit of projection with God or people:

1. Notice the overwhelmingly positive description of God’s love and compassion and the resulting abundance that comes to you from them.

2. If you realize after reading Part 1 that you are projecting past negative experiences onto God and need to change, the main way to overcome those negative thoughts is by replacing them with these truths He speaks of Himself.

3. If you have been projecting past negative experiences onto people, hindering your job and personal relationships, use this example of the overwhelmingly positive thoughts of abundance coming to you from God to pattern your own expectations of good coming to you on a daily basis with your job interactions and personal life.

Immerse Yourself in the Full Healing Contemplation Here »

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