By Dr. Mao Shing Ni
I encourage you to join me on a fascinating journey about relationships. As the ancient Chinese philosopher and healer Lao Tzu once said, “Patient with both friends and enemies, you accord with the way things are. Compassionate toward yourself, you reconcile all beings in the world.”
Part of a fulfilling and meaningful life comes from achieving harmony and energetic coherence with our loved ones, friends, neighbors, colleagues and with the people of our world. Relationships are the foundation of peace on our beautiful planet so let us begin this adventure by turning inward, to the realm where the physical and spiritual intertwine.
On the most basic level, relationships are constructed on getting needs met; we are trying to extract something from another person or entity and they are trying to extract something from us. Since we are in daily contact with many different kinds of people, some of these relationships are bound to be troublesome.
Handling difficult situations with kindness, poise and confidence means being non-defensive, and yes … it means being nice. When we are defensive and argumentative, we will become as illogical and tiresome as the negative person we are trying to deal with. When we arm ourselves with perspective by looking under the secondary feeling known as anger, we will often find hurt, shame, guilt or humiliation.
It is a good idea to start by being kinder than necessary. This adage applies not only to people who love us, but also applies to dealing with prickly troublemakers. Take the high road and redirect the troublemaker’s anger by calmly and quietly restating their point of view, and then engage them by asking, “How can we improve this situation?” Repeat. Repeat.
In recognition of the value, importance and potential joy of human relationships, I invite you to join me on Sunday, November 13 for the second in our Change Yourself, Change Your Life workshop series at Yo San University in Los Angeles. Our topic for the day will be Ultimate Relationship Health in which we work on creating compassion and loving kindness as we explore the connections between us.
We believe that you will find our relationship workshop so interesting and helpful, that you will want to join us for the topic of healthy Finances in January 2017, Career Health in February and Physical Health in March. All of our workshops will all be held at Yo San University in the Marina del Rey area of Southern California and we invite you to come along on this exciting journey with us.
May you Live Long, Live Strong, and Live Happy!
Dr. Mao is a bestselling author, doctor of Oriental Medicine and board certified anti-aging expert. He has recently appeared on Dr. Oz, and contributes to Yahoo Health and The Huffington Post. To subscribe to his tip-filled newsletter please visit www.infinichi.com. To learn more about your Core Element or to take the Element Quiz, visit Infinich.com.