Seeing and Inspiring Wholeness

The fourth commitment that we explored in Conscious Loving delves into radical responsibility. That is, it allows you to surface anything at the root that may be in the way of experiencing others as yours equals and allies. Here is the slightly modified version: I commit to the full empowerment of people around me.

Here are several ways in which this commitment has supported my relationships and those of my students and clients.

• This commitment shifts my attitude from seeing others as competitors and any tendency to play the more than/less than game.

• When others are empowered, we can collaborate. Instead of recycling power struggles, turf battles and competition, true co-creativity becomes possible. And looking around at what’s happening in the world, co-creativity seems critically important.

• Researchers tell us that the first sort the brain makes is friend/foe. Humans benefited from that instantaneous ability by continuing to survive, so that deeply ingrained tendency to be suspicious of Others still weaves through our culture. Just watch any summer blockbuster. If you create a new intention to empower others around you, you start rewiring the foe path and open the friend pathways to provide much more connection, partnership and presence.

• We’ve often spoken of creating a new relationship paradigm, where the object isn’t to play King/Queen on the Hill. Rather, the intention is to expand our ability to give and receive more love and positive energy. This commitment gives you a strong home from which to inhabit this new world.

•When we open the big nozzle of appreciation and become sources of empowerment, everyone benefit. More flow at the source creates more flow everywhere.

If you’re willing to step into this new commitment, I recommend writing it down in a place where you’ll see it for the next several weeks. You might also enjoy saying it out loud to some friends or colleagues with whom you want to get more connected. And taking your commitment out with you the next time you go on errands will provide a novel way to practice. See each person you meet and each interaction as an opportunity to empower those around you.

Let us know what you discover.