When someone tells me, “I don’t care if people like me,” they are showing me the emotional wall they use to block the hurt of rejection. All of us care if people like us. Humans are social animals. According to the psychologist Abraham Maslow, feeling love, affection and belonging is necessary before we can reach the highest levels of consciousness and wisdom. We need each other to survive, from infants through schooling and throughout our professional careers. Many studies have shown that...
Relationships are important – to each other, to our families, to our friends, to the people we care about. There comes a point in romantic relationships when things become serious and it becomes an actual Relationship, one where the idea of spending your life with this person and crafting your life together is a valid and understandable continuation of this relationship. When that isn’t achieved, the question becomes, ‘why not?’ Ending a relationship is no easier with age and experience,...
For the better of three decades, the media has tackled the problem of failing relationships and how they can be saved. The great self-help giants, John Gottman, Harville Hendricks, David Scharch, and M. Scott Peck, opened the doors and many other wonderful writers have followed. Separately and together, they have offered profound advice on how to choose the right partner, build a great relationship, and fix it when it’s faltering. Their message is heartfelt and well-intended: every relationship,...