It’s Celebration Friday, and I feel called to encourage myself and you to celebrate our family relationships.  I realize this is not the usual type of post that I write on Fridays, yet I am serious about encouraging the celebration of all of our family relationships.

Often times it’s our family relationships that are the most challenging and knock us off balance the most often.  It seems like no matter how Spiritually aware and conscious we are, family relationships often act as marvelous mirrors that show those parts inside of ourselves that are still in need of healing.  What a wonderful gift!

But why is it that once they have made us aware of a wound in need of healing do they seem to just keep on jabbing and poking endlessly at that wound.  Why do they try to make us wrong, and why in turn do we feel the need to prove that we are right. (and they are wrong).

The game of right and wrong can only have one conclusion and that is that everyone loses and the disconnect becomes greater.  What if instead of playing the right/wrong game, we played a different game?

What if, as a way of celebrating our family relationships, we played the game of win/win.  In this game we would look at every experience with a family member as a wonderful opportunity for everyone to get their needs met, and as a result have the disconnection dissolve and transform into a deeper more loving connection.

Seem impossible?  Without the proper tools it may be.  However, I recently conducted two interviews with  experts who shared a number of practical steps and ways of communicating that can definitely lead to a win/win for all involved even in the most challenging situations.

The first interview was with Jeff Brown, Executive Director of Comapssionate Communication of Central Ohio.  He talked about the fundamental process of compassionate communication, and gave several examples of how to apply in diffiuclt circamstances including family relationships.  The interview runs about 40 minutes.

The link is  http://www.youpublish.com/files/21452/NonViolent-Communication

The second interview was with Steven Shaps MFT, who is an expert in the healthy expression of anger.  Too many of us are all too familiar with the unhealthy expression of anger especially around family members.  Steven offers some wonderful insights about how we can transcend the anger by acknowleding, embracing, and (yes) even loving our anger.

The interview runs about 58 minutes.  The link is:

 http://www.youpublish.com/files/21480/Transcending-Anger

I encourage you that for yourself and the ones you love (and sometimes hate) that you invest the time to listen and apply the lessons of these interviews.  Your family relationships will definitely become more enjoyable and meaningful, and that’s definitely something to celebrate.

If you would like to suggest something to celebrate in a future edition of Celebration Friday, whether its an event, a person, or just about anything you can think of, send your suggestion directly to  mitchell@thechampionsheart.com