The Beauty of Healthy Relationships
The Beauty of Healthy Relationships
Wetiko Isn't Healthy
Some of us know what beautiful relationships are. They are based in trust, truth and respect grounded in love - and not necessarily the intimate kind. The rest of us seem to enjoy less than that.
Gaslighting has become a dominant psychological manipulation of the times. This outlook intentionally causes another person to doubt his or her perceptions, experiences, or understanding of happenings. It's designed to shift the power so that one person (or entity) has complete control over the other. That's not much fun, except for the twisted one doing the twisting.
Deception and exploitation are no less disrespectful and destructive. Deception isn't about incidental omissions, which are always possible, but about a deliberate buildup of lies and misdirection that can only lead to distrust. Trustworthiness is proven over time, and is earned through a foundation of personal safety and consideration. Of course, this seems highly subjective to many people. Still, deception indicates that the deceiver does not likely place a high value on the relationship, or is horribly flawed in character.
Wetiko in any relationship involves relationships with ourselves, each other and the world around us. The corrupted institutions and entities of the world also put downward pressure on people in the same way. Each of us can become blind to the covert operations of wetiko, accepting this as the norm. This sickness of the spirit poisons, instead of supporting and loving. As a whole, humans can become conditioned to the poison of wetiko. Wetiko is a false identity of illusion that people give their power over to. We become enslaved to it and by it as a vicious cycle of reactivity and projection toward others.
But this same poisonous mind virus can also help each of us find ourselves.
So many of us have been distracted by the greed, lack of satisfaction, the intense desire to consume, and infighting - instead of finding joy, peace, satisfaction, security and meaningful honest love in life. Life is about learning to set boundaries to protect your well-being. Of course, this is not about some ideal of perfection, but simply general honesty and respect for other humans, where that honesty and respect is exchanged naturally and openly.
The cure for wetiko rests in each one of us, as individuals. Each of us is able to establish our own personal identity and power, or it will be taken from us. This is an opportunity to claim or reclaim your own agency and authority as a sovereign person. It's a personal foundation that you don't sell to any person or imagined authority, or you pay the cost dearly - even forever. Resting in relative security, like your other life attributes, are what you build yourself, not something that someone else grants you.
Learning to find joy and satisfaction within yourself is vital to healthy outside relationships. Life is full of both pain and joy, but how this impacts each of us is a matter that all of us get to decide, and to live out from day to day. It's not about selfishness and entitlement, but about shared respect and compassion for others. Otherwise, none of us is much more than a stone's throw from the poisonous virus of wetiko.
How outsourcing your authority keeps you stuck
