Sacred Relationships Overview

Dear Reader, over the past 14 weeks we have looked at what it takes to create sacred relationships.

Relationships in which we all make a commitment to support each other’s growth and wellness because we believe in each other’s innate goodness and  highest potential, are sacred relationships.

heart 2813014 340

The 14 steps I have shared about practicing intentional communication, infused with self-awareness, loving kindness, honesty, contentment and generosity serve as a guide to developing sacred relationships and partnerships.

In every exchange, do your best to bring a positive outcome, bearing in mind that a relationship involves two people and for a successful outcome, it requires both parties to work together.  You are responsible for your part and the other party for theirs.

Here is a quick overview for you to print and keep as a reminder.  Building sacred relationships is an on-going process and must be continually worked at to maintain success.

Step 1. Maintaining Conscious Dialogue: This means using active listening and listening with the heart.

Step 2: Never Make Assumptions:  Ask for clarity especially when you are doubting, feeling self-conscious or judged; or when you are in need, vulnerable, scared or hurt.   

Step 3. Eliminating the Score Card: A Score card is a system that we consciously or unconsciously use to keep track of every interaction in which we feel we were wronged or let down.  For a successful relationship, it is vital to eliminate the Score Card.

Step 4. Holding Each other to their truths: Expect your partner to be who you know them to be in their highest self. This means reminding them that you expect them to come from that place.  It also means holding both yourself and your partner to each of your highest beings.

Step 5. Accepting continuous evolution: Know that you and your partner are always growing and changing – reaching for, evolving and transforming.  Allow for the changes.

Step 6. Breaking the myth that partnerships are about compromising:  Know that there is room in both and all members of a partnership to be all that they are – one does not take from the other, but enriches the other.

Step 7. Honor our Interdependency: Although connected and supporting each other, you simultaneously honor your own experiences, feelings, needs and reactions. Make the time to take care of yourself and your personal needs.

Step 8. Establishing pre-forgiveness: Know that even when you have hurt each other, it was not intentional. Do not enable each other to be “just human”, remember that as spiritual beings we have limitless ability to love, understand and forgive – while taking responsibility and asking for forgiveness.

Step 9. Taking a fearless and moral inventory of self: Agree to be in constant exploration and evaluation of yourself –honestly. Be committed to apologizing when necessary and coming back to admit when you are wrong. Know that it is okay to be wrong, vulnerable, and imperfect.

Step 10. Knowing the illusion of separation: You and your partner are always connected and there are moments you just need to ask for connection.   The truth is that we are never separate – we only feel separate.

Step 11. Honoring each other’s authenticity: We are not our behaviors and attitudes; we are not even our actions. We just are LIGHT, LOVE, CONSIOUSNESS. 

Step 12. Remembering your True Source: We are not the Source – we are never alone, even when we don’t have each other, we have  SPIRIT; GOD-DESS.

Step 13. Making life beautiful: Continue to believe in sacredness, love and beauty.  Choose to stay focused on the gift you are to each other.

Step 14. Accepting that we are co-creators: Understand and acknowledge the charge and benefit of being co-creator, with God-dess, with each other, with our fears, anger, resentment, illness and dis-ease, happiness, joy, success, wealth and abundance. 

Wishing you much success in your journey to building sacred relationships. 

Much love and light always

RUNNING THROUGH DARKNESS
MEMOIR OF A SPIRITUAL WARRIOR

BY SANTA MOLINA-MARSHALL ‧ RELEASE DATE: MAY 3, 2022

This debut memoir chronicles a woman’s spiritual exploration and growth as she overcame a disturbing childhood and helped others heal.

Brought to America from the Dominican Republic as a youngster, Molina-Marshall should have led a happy life. Her father was a diligent worker, and his large family wanted for nothing. But the author recounts that her dad had a drinking problem and was a serial philanderer. Molina-Marshall’s long-suffering mother left him for a woman. Then it was all downhill for the bright, 12-year-old girl, who was shuttled between foster care and relatives. According to the author, she was sexually abused by the husband of one of her siblings. This resulted in Molina-Marshall becoming alienated and moody. By 15, she simply tried to survive. In her favor were grit and a restless intelligence. She quit school, rented a room, and found a factory job. Time went by, and for a while she was happily married. Yet when her husband left her, her life truly began. She turned to religion for answers but decided that blaming God for her woes was a cop-out. 

In this absorbing and moving memoir, Molina-Marshall’s vivid storytelling is fearless. She frankly discusses the truths she discovered and the indignities she suffered. These admissions are disclosed with a touch of resignation and plenty of bite. However painful, everything she experienced was a lesson, and she bravely realized that she was part of the problem: “The fear of being hurt, rejected, or abused often led to me feeling lonely and misunderstood. No one knew the agonizing pain I felt being trapped in my thoughts and anger. I was becoming my biggest threat.” 

The author skillfully recounts her intricate spiritual journey. To deal with her psychic wounds, she searched for an inspirational system. Her open-mindedness led her to the interfaith concept—cherry-picking from various religions and spiritual movements, yoga, and Indigenous beliefs as a way of finding peace. Along with her female partner, she built a therapy practice, making use of every spiritual element that aided her and others. The road was bumpy, and she found that women of color in same-sex relationships were not welcomed everywhere. To do good works—and finally live on her own terms—she effectively overcame bigotry.

An engrossing, cathartic account of empathy and success through determination and confidence.

Pub Date: May 3, 2022   |    ISBN: 978-0-578-38315-6  |   Page Count: 264    | Publisher: From Trauma to Triumph  |   Review Posted Online: June 13, 2022