EP398: Asking meaningful questions

In this episode, Dan and I go more deeply into how identity — taking yourself to be a limited, separate-from-the-rest-of-life entity — is the key factor behind the ability to explore love and and relationship in the way we’ve discussed in our episodes thus far. The sense of self demands a lot of attention, which means far less attention is freed up to be fully present with your partner and with life itself. A strong identity also serves as an interpretive filter, in a sense, funneling a lot of attention toward the protection and defense of the sense of “me”. Old conditioning is bolstered by identity; on the flip side, conditioning is dramatically weakened and can fail to arise in some cases when the sense of separate self is seen through. We begin to talk about how one can examine the sense of self and discuss an upcoming video series we’re creating for this purpose.

In Part 2, we look more deeply at how we work through relationship issues through the lens of our “post mortem” process. We also turn toward the underlying spiritual and identity work that we feel allows us room to look at issues with minimal defensiveness and more objectivity. We believe anyone can explore identity this way and achieve similar benefits.

In Part 1 of this two part episode, Dan and I give an example of a conditioned pattern that arises in our relationship and how we work through it. Our approach is rooted in our strong mutual desire to examine anything and everything that arises, and our strong aversion to avoiding triggers or sweeping issues under the rug. We’re willing to let things get uncomfortable and messy to clearly see and work through what’s arising.

Since we began recording episodes together, Dan and I have received several emails from people realizing their relationship isn’t where they want it to be. Some of those people want to re-engage with their partner but aren’t sure how. In episode 402, we share a few steps on how to re-engage with your partner so that you can both get a better sense of what you’re open to with each other and with the relationship.

In this episode, Dan and I share the “whale under the boat” sense we’ve had from the beginning of our relationship that there is something very powerful and intelligent behind our union. In conventional thinking about relationships, two people get together for reasons of love, connection, comfort, companionship, etc. While those features are present in our relationship too, they seem more like the “top layer” only, helping pave the way for a bigger, more mysterious purpose that we don’t yet understand but love exploring. If you feel something like this in your relationship, we would love to hear from you! Please email me at [email protected] with your feedback and suggestions about this episode. We would love to hear what you think and what you’d like to hear more about as we record a new series of episodes for you. The post EP401: The Deeper Purpose in Relationships appeared first on Dr. Amy Johnson.