“Unicorn,” is defined as“a creature of the imagination; a person that exists only in legends or myths or fiction.”
As a therapist, mediator and attorney, I see many unhappy individuals and couples longing for the “happily ever after” they had planned. The ones in the most pain are not sure if they want to stay or go.
To many of my clients, the possibility of experiencing a truly happy marriage seems as remote and impossible as sighting that “imaginary creature represented as a white horse with a long horn growing from its forehead.”
A happy marriage is not a mythical or magical experience. It’s the end result of many acts of two people who truly CARE about each other.
You can appreciate that despite your best efforts, from time-to-time you’re going to trigger each other. Or hurt each other. Or scare, sadden or disappoint the other.
The difference between reality and mythology is that the happy marriage doesn’t miraculously appear. In the real world, you can create a happy marriage by learning a few Compassionate Communication skills — including empathy and forgiveness — and applying them liberally and often to your relationship.
What I have learned over the years is that the difference between a happy and an unhappy marriage is that in the HAPPY one, each partner truly CARES.
Partners share:
C – Compassion for themselves and their partner. Compassion is not codependency. It’s a healthy perspective on your own needs as well as your partner’s. It’s knowing the 5 steps to receive what you truly want and need and practicing the miracle of empathy.
A – Acceptance of all the idiosyncrasies that make your partner unique. Acceptance is the ability to love someone for who they are, and not who you need them to be. It is also accepting the humanity and divinity of both of you, knowing we are spiritual beings having a human experience. And marriage can trigger all our human parts.
R – Respect for each other’s individuality. Respect is the ability to see the good traits of your partner and honor those. No one is perfect. As Sam Keen said, ” We come to love not by finding a perfect person but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly.”
E – Empathy for your feelings, desires and needs. Empathy means you listen, understand, and truly care what your partner feels, and they learn to do the same for you. You drop the walls you’ve built to protect yourself and the filters through which you have judged each other and truly relate from your heart.
S – Self love that allows each of you to practice healthy self-care. True self-love is the ability to take exquisite care of yourself, no matter the circumstances. You give yourself the attention, affection, appreciation and acceptance you need. Then you share all that love with your partner.
If you’re unclear where your relationship is breaking down in this CARES model, I can help.
Bottom line: Unicorns don’t exist, but happy marriages do. You can have one — if you try.
And if you do your best, and CARE as much as possible and it’s still not meeting your needs, you can have a Compassionate Divorce®, which isn’t a Unicorn either.
Linda Kroll is a therapist, mediator, attorney, Chopra Certified Master Teacher, and author of the bestselling Compassionate Mediation® for Relationships at a Crossroad: How to Add Passion to Your Marriage or Compassion to Your Divorce.
I want to invite you to do is to reach out, to reach out for help, to reach out to me, to reach out to a counselor because my hope is that Compassionate Mediation becomes a new paradigm for conflict resolution,
I hope that people all over the world will have access to these tools so they can implement them when there is a convict.
I mean, eventually I hope they teach it in schools and on playgrounds and in boardrooms and in politics so that, we can all bring higher self-awareness into conscious conflict resolution.
I was joyfully married to my college sweetheart, and about 20 years into the marriage with two wonderful daughters, we were looking at a divorce, sadly, and we didn’t have these tools.
So unfortunately, we struggled for a long time. We stayed separated for a very long time.
And during that time I thought I was being helpful to my family because we weren’t really divorced yet. But the ambivalence was really difficult. We both were dating other people. It was a very confusing, very long time
And I remember there was one time we were, had a status call in court and I sat in the courtroom and my beloved soon-to-be ex-husband was sitting on the other side of the room.
And I remembered thinking back that this was the man I married. This was the man that was there from when our children were born. This is the other grandfather to our three wonderful grandchildren.
And this is not how it’s supposed to be. There has to be a better way to do this.
And I remember sitting in the courtroom and I as woo woo as it sounds, I just remember visioning some pink light coming down, some light from God, the heavens to say, we can sit in compassion.
We can know that there’s a higher purpose, that we’ve come to this moment, and we don’t have to go the typical route to get divorced.
And in that time, I sent compassion in his direction and we did resolve it. And it had its ups and downs.
So even if both parties aren’t aware of this process, you can align your heart with the intention that you are going to bring consciousness, higher self, calm, compassion into this process. And everybody can benefit.
Even if your partner is upset, it’s one of you that’s upset at family gatherings, not both of you. Your children aren’t necessarily in the middle. And over time, that compassion can forge a whole new bond that your family can marinate in, in whatever form it takes.
I wrote the book to help you – Compassionate Mediation® for Relationships at a Crossroad: How to Add Passion to Your Marriage or Compassion to Your Divorce.
Compassionate Mediation® is a transformational process of conflict resolution that will help you add passion to your marriage or compassion to your divorce. .
Do you ever get the feeling that you’re feeling like this, and that’s how you communicating with someone. Doesn’t have to be that way. You can learn how to come from your highest and best self and talk about your inner children.Talk about your pain and your sadness and your fear and your Hertz and your hopes and your dreams and your love. And that’s what we’re going to do in our new self-love. And self-compassion that’s coming up soon. So please join me with Marcy Newman, the hardship coach, as we give you tips on how to add more love and laughter and joy to your life, starting now with your own self care and compassionate communication. So we look forward to seeing you soon and please join us. Bye for now.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could all communicate compassionately? It’s a skill we can learn – and SHARE!
Click HERE to get your FREE Compassionate Communication Care Kit –– with a free guided meditation to be your best SELF, a short video introduction to the process, a relationship assessment to begin to make positive changes, and roadmap for healthy conflict resolution.
Welcome to the new Compassionate Communication and Compassionate Mediation Community.
Whether you’re here for your personal use — to learn how to relate better to the people in your lives — or whether you’re a professional, (a therapist, mediator, attorney, coach, or clergy) who would like to learn how to offer Compassionate Mediation® and help your clients learn more compassionate communication…
Whether you’re here for your personal growth or professional growth, I’m glad you’re here.
I’d like to offer tips each week on how you can learn to communicate from your highest and best self and help your clients do the same.
First, I’d like to offer you a free gift — Compassionate Communication Care Kit
Do you ever get the feeling that you’re feeling like this, and that’s how you communicating with someone. Doesn’t have to be that way. You can learn how to come from your highest and best self and talk about your inner children.
Talk about your pain and your sadness and your fear and your Hertz and your hopes and your dreams and your love. And that’s what we’re going to do in our new self-love. And self-compassion that’s coming up soon. So please join me with Marcy Newman, the hardship coach, as we give you tips on how to add more love and laughter and joy to your life, starting now with your own self care and compassionate communication. So we look forward to seeing you soon and please join us. Bye for now.
