Dissecting Conscious Friendship

(You can also listen to this podcast from iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Breaker, Pocket Casts, and RadioPublic)

Peace. Happiness. Health.

To feel them, a journey inwards is the way to go.

I also realise, for many of us, the journey inward is daunting. There is a niggling sense of unsafeness in doing so. 
“What if I can’t find my way back out?”

Understandable.

In the “Returning to ourselves – The wisdom of trauma” retreat that I participated in, I learnt from Dr Gabor Maté that “Safety is the presence of connection. It is not a lack of threat”.

That was a big aha moment for me. It explains to me why the quality of my relationships, over quantity, is essential.

Moreover, COVID 19 has made it even more clear to us that to survive and even to thrive this prolonged unpredictable time where everyone in the world is impacted by, connections with others are crucial to lean on.

Friendship, adult friendship, grown-up friendship, conscious friendship is a massive asset for us. Are you in it, or several of it?

Let me share something with you.
Out of nowhere a few weeks ago, I experienced a sense of leakage in my energy system. I woke up tired; I ran out of energy during the afternoon and had intense dreams nightly for almost a week.

A string of baseless fear crept up. The thought of “I’m going to be out there homeless, on my own”, swirled around my mind often then. It stressed me out.

Do I have any reason to think that it is going to happen that way? NO!
There is no fact, and there has never been a fact to support that idea, EVER.

Yet, that fear was there. Loud and alive.

A few days sitting with this fear, breathing in and out calmly when it acted out, I realised that this fear is triggered by an elusive threat towards my connections with my family because of prolonged lockdown. The idea of not knowing when I can see my family again (as they are in the US and Australia) brought to the surface a sense of unsafeness that rooted in a deep fear that I have of being out there all alone. It acted out in a big way.

It was a call to action. I confided my fear to a couple of close friends. 
Being held with love as I shared, I felt the permission to acknowledge this crippling fear. I could breathe better after, and the anxiety started to move upwards and onwards. My friends didn’t try to fix the situation. They just listened and offered some more time for us to connect until this fear completely dissipates on its own.

I value a strong friendship. Yet, this doesn’t happen by itself. It requires an investment of all kinds to grow it.

This podcast episode is dedicated for us to reflect on a conscious friendship – what it is about, what it is not, how it helps us and what we need to invest in to grow it, within ourselves and in the relationship itself.

Sharing their reflections are Julie Grauel, Jourdan Hussein and Constantine Karampatsos.

Set up an appointment here when you’re ready to experience a free of charge 30-minute virtual session to declutter your heart.

Inputs, feedback or suggestion for topics – write to me at astuti@upliftmylife.today. Thanks!

#upliftmylifetoday #risefromburnout #intentionallife #relationshipconflict #consciousconflict #grief #consciousfriendship #consciousrelationship #rttworks #bodycode #emotioncode

Copyrights etc.:

Music used in this Episode: “On My Way” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com).

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License