Quotes About Connection

To reach out for another is – to risk involvement. To expose feelings is – to risk exposing your true self. To place your ideas, your dreams before the crowd is – to risk their loss. To love is – to risk not being loved in return.

to notice the spiritual beauty of many other human beings. How miraculous that many of us can at times be deeply caring and loving despite our own woundedness.

Collaborative rapport repair is the process by which relationships recover and grow closer from successful conflict resolution. Misattunements and periods of disaffection are existential to every relationship of substance. We all need to learn a process for restoring intimacy when a disagreement temporarily disrupts our feeling of being safely connected.

Reciprocal verbal ventilation is the highway to intimacy in adult relationships. Sufficient practice with a safe enough other brings genuine experiences of comforting and restorative connection. For me and many of my clients, such experiences are more alleviating of loneliness than we had ever thought possible.

As deep and meaningful connection with another becomes more available and frequent, the survivor increasingly experiences the shrinking of his abandonment depression.

The Tao of relational recovery involves balancing healthy independence with healthy dependence on others.

For just as without night there is no day, without work there is no play, without hunger there is no satiation, without fear there is no courage, without tears there is no joy, and without anger, there is no real love. Most people, who choose or are coerced into only identifying with "positive" feelings, usually wind up in an emotionally lifeless middle ground – bland, deadened, and dissociated in an unemotional "no-man's-land.

I believe Love is the home we live in before incarnation and the home we return to when we die. This, for me, is one of the deepest meanings of the adage God is Love. I also believe that the more we recover our emotional natures, the more we are able to revisit this home throughout our lives.

The gratitude feeling is deep and profound when it occurs. It feels like a moment of connection to life itself on the deepest level and all life circumstances and what I deem as problems pale to insignificance in those moments and there is only love in its purest form. It truly feels like a blessing albeit fleeting but gives enough sustenance and hope to continue the journey.

If the child is not frequently and enthusiastically engaged in conversation, how will he build the confidence to risk sharing his inner world with anyone else?

We do not have to let other people's irresponsible emotional expression alienate us from our feelings.

Emotional neglect, alone, causes children to abandon themselves, and to give up on the formation of a self. They do so to preserve an illusion of connection with the parent and to protect themselves from the danger of losing that tenuous connection. This typically requires a great deal of self-abdication, e.g., the forfeiture of self-esteem, self-confidence, self-care, self-interest, and self-protection.

What generally gets overlooked is that sexual energy and life-force energy are virtually one and the same.

When we reclaim our enthusiasm for life, we are drawing closer to God, becoming more spiritual.

This feeling comes from inside you and is projected out to your child.

Examples of signs include a deep, relaxed, spontaneous breath, the cessation of crying or trembling, a stretch, a yawn, a smile or the making of eye contact.

By tending to yourself first, paradoxically, you are in a better position to tend to your child. When you can feel your center, can notice that your breath slows down and you experience the fluidity of changing sensations, you have moved out of a momentary "freeze." Your energy is now available to pay close attention to your child's needs and expression. In this way you will naturally circumvent complicating your child's reactions with your own.

The critical idea here is that when we are vulnerable, we benefit most from feeling a connection with a calm person who is confident of what to do and is able to convey a sense of safety and compassion. Your child will feel safe if he knows that you are strong enough to withstand (contain) his shock without becoming overwhelmed yourself.

For people to be happy in life, two factors are crucial: One is good interpersonal relationships and the second is a feeling of productivity. That feeling feeds motivation.

To get from people you had to give a piece of yourself, a real piece that mattered. Just being nice was not enough.

Love is not some mushy feeling for your parents that you are born with, or a romanticized sexuality you learn from magazines. It is action. If you know what love is you can never be in doubt about whether someone loves you or you love someone.

At this moment we are as close as people can ever hope to be. Our hearts have beaten together, our bodies have merged. Right now I know what love is. I know how it feels to be not completely alone. Right now I know you as I have never known anybody else.

They say life is all about connecting, like that's a good thing. But when brain and eyes are lining up you know different.

You can't walk alone. Many have given the illusion, but none have really walked alone. Man is not made that way. Each man is bedded in his people, their history, their culture, and their values.