#Authentic Relationships

[wisterianwoman]

Creating Authentic Connections: Choose Your Circle Carefully

Are you struggling to make meaningful connections? Do you find yourself attracting the same kinds of toxic people over and over again? Let's talk about how to make real connections that last.

I always had trouble making and keeping friends as a kid. Because of my unmet emotional needs at home, I cam on too strong for a lot of well-adjusted, “normal” kids. Plus, I was always a little weird and nerdy, since I spent most of my time reading Harry Potter or playing video games. That didn’t exactly click with a lot of other kids my age. I held a lot of shame and discomfort around being…

[tantra-san-diego]

Quality vs. Quantity: Navigating the Double-Edged Sword of Approaching Women

Friday night at a packed bar is a prime opportunity for practicing conversation skills, eye contact, and body language. It’s a space where personal growth meets social exploration—a key focus in Men’s Work as we cultivate confidence and connection. At The Sacred Kings, we explore how intentional approaches, whether in dating or life, can reflect the growth and maturity of a man.   When it comes…

[thedaveandkimmershow]

Couple days after Thanksgiving and I'm not ready to leave behind the loveliness, peace, friendship, laughter, conversation, thankfulness, great meals, and fun of our Thanksgiving day experience.

It feels like a most excellent recipe for continuing the holiday season. ☺️

Part of the peace, believe it or not, was just being able to take our time across the day. No rush. No drama.

As always since Year 1 of our marriage, the incentive to clean our place from end to end is tied to guests coming over. Parents. Friends, if its a party. Celebrations such as Thanksgiving and Christmas. From experience, I can tell you that, depending on how much logistics you're biting off, the experience can be FULL-BLOWN ANXIETY from end to end or peaceful and relaxing from end to end. After all, cleaning, rearranging, and organizing doesn't require tons of mental bandwidth so the anxiety comes from what you're thinking about while you're doing it. So if there's too much that's gotta get done, too much expectation to grapple with, relationship drama you can see coming from miles away...

Yeah.

FULL-BLOWN ANXIETY.

But if you don't see those monsters on the horizon, if there is nothing otherwise to hijack your thoughts, then...

Peace.

Peace.

As faaaaaar as the eye can see.

Peace. Even if you're spending the day cleaning your house.

☺️

[synchronicgrowth]

Today I have a little inspiration from Matthew McConaughey’s book Green lights.

We often hear people saying “Aim high and you won’t be disappointed if you land short” this is true in some senses but a better way to think about it is to “Be the Target” the target attracts the arrow, without the target the arrow is aimless. Be authentic in order to attract what is right for you specifically. If you are lacking authentic relationships in your life, this is a good place to start.

Show up as the version of you that you want to be, not who everyone else wants you to be and what’s meant for you will come.

[pebblegalaxy]

Quiet Strength: Beena’s Journey of Trust, Shyness, and Meaningful Connections

Title: Embracing the Quiet Strength: Beena’s Journey of Connection and Confidence In today’s fast-paced world, where people seem eager to overshare their lives on social media, Beena stands out as someone who values a more reserved approach. She’s a bit shy when it comes to sharing too much about her background with others—until she feels a meaningful connection. Her story is one of quiet…

[cyber-soul-smartz]

Elevate Creativity and Well-Being with Quality Inputs

Discover the secrets to creative excellence and emotional well-being! Learn how quality inputs can transform your life and work. Don't miss out on valuable insights—subscribe now to stay updated with Hafsa Reasoner's Empowered Journey!

[wildlyplanted]

How Do You Make Others Feel?

Lately, I have been in deep thought about my connections and relationships.

For me, experiencing authentic relationships and connections, regardless of how long or short, is one of the most important aspects of life – not all connections are genuine. The ones that are, feel different in your heart and gut. That experience of being in fellowship with another human being and sharing a piece of who you are with someone else is special, so being intuitive and discerning about who I’m connected to and who I form a bond with is important to me.

As I’m looking to create new connections, build stronger connections and phase out the ones that lack alignment, these are the questions, I’ve been giving much consideration to:

Does this relationship feel nourishing and inspiring? How does being around this person make me feel? Do I feel seen, heard and believed? – or are my words and feelings glossed over and ignored? Do I feel safe having deeply personal conversations or am I cautious not to share too much and why? Do I feel confident that my privacy is respected? Does this person respect and accept my boundaries? When I say no, do they acknowledge it with understanding or do they try to negotiate with me? Do I feel animosity or jealousy if I happen to receive attention and they do not? Does spending time with this person leave me feeling full, motivated, (insert any positive feeling), or do I feel depleted, discouraged, doubtful, (insert any negative feeling)? Does this person give me solid advice, or do I find their advice questionable? Do I ever question if this person has negative thoughts about me, whether they’re judging me or if they even like me? (This one calls for an immediate phase out).

On the flip side, I’m also reflecting on the kind of experience I’m creating for those I have relationships and connections with.

Am I’m creating a meaningful experience for others? Am I being the friend I want others to be to me? What kind of answers to the questions above, would others give about me? How do I make others feel? Is a relationship with me an added value to someone else’s life?

No one is perfect and there is always room for being a better person. I think that if we know we don’t value a relationship or vice versa, it just needs to end. If we do genuinely value a relationship, we should care to understand how we make others feel, how we relate to others and reflect in both words and matching actions the same thoughtfulness, love, grace authenticity we want from them.

Where you can find me/how to contact me:

IG: wildlyplanted

YouTube: Wildly Planted (this is a work in progress, but I’m finding direction)

Email: wildlyplanted@zoho.com

[fastlane-freedom]

Embracing Imperfection: Exploring Wabi-Sabi, a Japanese Philosophy

In a world driven by perfectionism and the pursuit of flawlessness, there exists a serene philosophy that celebrates imperfection and transience. Originating from Japan, Wabi-Sabi is more than just an aesthetic concept; it’s a way of life that invites us to find beauty in the imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete. Through this blog, we delve into the depths of Wabi-Sabi, understanding its…

[myguidetogrowth]

Feeling Drained by Dating? You're Not Alone

Are you experiencing dating fatigue? You’re not alone! Dating can be exciting yet exhausting, leaving many feeling drained. But fear not, weary daters, there are evidence-based strategies from psychology that can inject joy back into your dating life. Understanding the Fatigue Recognizing and understanding dating fatigue is the first step. It’s normal to feel burnt out from the endless cycle of…

[pastorkevinc]

New Christmas Toyota Commercial with All the Feels

New Christmas Toyota Commercial with All the Feels Chevrolet made the best Christmas commercial so far of the season, but a close second is this commercial by Toyota. When my twelve-year-old son saw the commercial with me, he immediately said, “Dad, another one! They just keep making great commercials with elders in them.” Let me encourage you to watch it below first, then I’ll respond to…

[wisterianwoman]

Building Bridges: Overcoming Miscommunication in Relationships

I love my partner. We share so many laughs, smiles, values, dreams, and most importantly, so much love. But sometimes I feel like we speak two completely different languages.

Learn how miscommunication in relationships can challenge even the strongest bonds, and discover essential strategies to enhance understanding and emotional connection with your partner. Lost In Translation I love my partner. We share so many laughs, smiles, values, dreams, and most importantly, so much love. But sometimes I feel like we speak two completely different languages. We got into a…

[thedaveandkimmershow]

Once upon a time—maybe naively, maybe not—I argued with an acquaintance that the defining characteristic of family is that it's not diminished by distance. It's not weakened by time spent apart.

Basically, I argued that family is not, is not undermined by time and space.

Hmmmmm.

Now what. Was I thinking???

Well, first the acquaintance was kind of pissing me off about how important it is for families to be in constant assembly. Which I know to be false.

The X factor is not:

Time spent together.

It's not quantity of time.

Why?

Because often there's simply no there, there.

And time doesn't change that. Simultaneously converting oxygen to CO2 doesn't make any difference. And forcing connections simply underlines those blunt fact in thick black Sharpie. Because obligation doesn't conjure authentic, sustaining relationships from thin air.

No matter how much we believe otherwise.

Willing it. Doesn't make it so.

So then... what?

Well, lemme just say up front that the roots of my family relationships were set at a time when air travel was the only reliable way to foster intercontinental relationships. Therefore, unless we were millionaire jet setters or diplomats, we really were all separated by time and space. Cell phones hadn't been invented. There was no texting, no messaging, no social media. We had landlines but long distance phone calls were expensive by the minute and the sound in your ear was sketchy as hell. Anything said on our end we'd inevitably hear again on their end before they responded with completely not fiber optic perfectly clear quality.

Writing was an option, of course. Writing was always an option. But I was a kid, we were kids, and that was never gonna happen.

So out of sight, out of mind?

Yeah.

That was a thing.

And yet.

And yet.

Something was set during those limited times we were together on the same continent. Something that's in fact lasting a lifetime.

My lifetime.

To be clear: we're family by name and blood but not just. We're family by attitude. There's something similar in us to varying degrees.

So.

From the beginning of my life we were and are separated by roughly five thousand miles of distance, of which about three thousand miles is the Atlantic Ocean. And my relationship with my family in Holland—aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews and nieces—isn't diminished by that distance. Nor by the time that distance imposes. We legitimately pick up where we left off each time we're together again. One year. Ten years. Twenty years. On my continent or theirs.

So when I hear about the obligations of family as a means of establishing family, of sustaining family... color me skeptical. Relationships come first or there's inevitably no there there when we're pondering the defining characteristic of family. And those relationships don't require time. Not like we think because again, quantity of time does not sustain anything.

In the end, I fully admit to a fuzzy idea of what makes family and what doesn't. All I know for sure is that something binds my family together, binds my cousins and I together. That defies time. That defies space. Something that makes all of us of a kind. Something that defines us as tribe, as connected, as familiar, as known. I wish I could box in a more definitive answer for you.

I just can't.

I'm guessing families must be connected in different ways. They must grow together, become relational in different ways that sustain.

My experience, though, tells me that proximity doesn't fuel relationships of longevity and passion. After all, more than twenty years have just gone by. Enough time has passed for revolutions in technology to have come and gone. For the ways we communicate and travel to radically transform. For each of us to start families of our own with new trailing histories. And for each of our bodies and minds to do that annoying thing of growing up...

And at the same time growing older.

So much time has passed for me that I wonder if what I've been telling people this whole time about family...

If what I've said doesn't hold up.

But then more than twenty years just went by and we still picked up where we left off.

Damn.

That was pretty awesome.

And that's my understanding of family.

😁😁😁

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

We could have had it all...

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[canisalbus]

in the best way possible, your art of Machete and Vasco brings me so much joy. I've longed for a love that feels like the one they have and the more time passes by with my bf, the more I recognise us in the gentleness and fondness thats so inherent to your art. Im not sure if thats a weird thing to say, its sort of like when you see two cats cuddling and go "me and who" but in a deeper way?

.