How can we live in this world and not of it? Various spiritual traditions discuss this idea of attachment in different ways. I ask myself what is my biggest worldly attachment? The answer: my husband Harold plain and simple (sorry kids, I love you but you’re not first in regards to attachments). We’ve been soulmates together since I was 16 so its hard to remember not sharing my life with him. What causes us such suffering in life is not people, but our attachment to people or things. Detachment is an inward letting go- not of the person necessarily, but of the attachment to that person. I often say to myself, I could lose my house or be bankrupt, but I’m ok as long as I have Harold. Yet with attachment, there is no freedom or ability to love even that person… or anyone else for that matter freely and purely. With detachment some things may fall away that are meant to, otherwise our relationship to them becomes transformed more authentically in the process. I had a realization two weeks ago that I’ve been attached to my business-feeling that that is where I’m meant to be because I LOVE it and I never feel like I work in a single day. Working with my clients is a pure joy for me. Yet through my attachment, what I couldn’t see was the larger picture… my loving husband and life partner’s business was suffering and I was ignoring that when I knew I had tools to help him. When I really saw this, I realized that I was attached to how supporting and giving service to others had to look. I chose to make a shift in my business to allow for me to be able to support my husband in a new way in his company. In just a short time what a difference that shift has made for him professionally and for both of us in our marriage. Do you have the courage today to identify your biggest worldly attachment? Just becoming aware of this can loosen the clenching grip we have on others and in the world.
Top 10 Reasons To Jump Into Psychotherapy
Psychotherapists can help people of all different ages and lifestyles live happier, healthier and more productive lives.
1) Better Communication. We need to learn how to communicate better. Period. Regardless of whether or not you grew up in a healthy family with excellent communication skills or not, we can all benefit from learning better communication skills.
2) Stress/Anxiety/Depression Relief. Psychotherapy sessions provide an opportunity for individuals to be able to discuss the causes of the stress, anxiety and/or depression in their life as well as gain valuable tools from a professional.
3) Objectivity. Psychotherapy provides a supportive environment that enables one to discuss his/her issues openly with someone who is objective, neutral and nonjudgmental.
4) Chronic Pain Relief. According to the study of bioenergetics, we humans hold emotions, trauma and stress in our bodies. Through the use of psychotherapy to relieve stress and anxiety, clients can experience a reduction or complete eradication of their pain symptoms.
5) Self Care. Through the work of psychotherapy, clients can begin to see ways to take better care of themselves emotionally, mentally, and physically that will result in more balance in their lives.
6) Combat Self-Defeating Thought Patterns. Psychotherapists help clients peel back the layers of the client’s inner self, while helping him or her identify and replace negative thought patterns that stand in the way of their living happier, more satisfying lives.
7) Healthier Marriages/Relationships. Even the most united couples sometimes need assistance to maintain healthy communication with each other. Psychotherapists can work to help couples identify and move beyond roadblocks through various methods to enable them to love and respect each other more fully and find more fulfillment in their relationship/marriage.
8) Happier Families. We all just want to get along! But sometimes family dynamics can be challenging and too difficult to overcome “in house”. Psychotherapists are trained to help family members identify and learn how to meet and respect their own needs and the needs of family members in order to create a more loving family environment.
9) Parenting/Discipline Issues. Psychotherapists can work with parents to help them to create healthy boundaries with their children and work through other challenges of parenting, offering tools to help foster better parenting skills and hence healthier and more satisfying parent/child relationships.
10) Joy! Once a client begins to believe and trust in the therapeutic relationship, he/she can have confidence that they will work toward successful issue resolution that will also serve as a model for other healthy relationships. Once clients can truly engage in this process, they begin to recover the child-like joy for life within themselves that was always part of them. Often this joy is buried under stress, trauma, worry and the inability to provide a release through beneficial communication with another person.