by Joel L
The thing I have found confronting at times to accept and take responsibility for, is that there is a direct connection between the choices I make in each and every moment and the level of love or joy I experience.
I have also found taking responsibility for my own joy and love whilst in a relationship can be confronting at times. In my relationship, we are both committed to our own ‘way of the livingness’, but even then we can still react when the other finds something that used to feel okay, no longer feels like it supports them.
This is not a Universal Medicine phenomenon, but rather something most relationships experience… as one person grows it gives the other person a choice. It’s not always easy, and while I understand the reaction of a person who feels like their partner is changing the rules, at the end of the day and in my experience, there is always a choice… to grow together, or apart.
After seventeen years of marriage and about eight years applying what Universal Medicine presents, there is no doubt our relationship is now more than I could ever have expected love to be. There is more allowing of the other person to be who they are, more sexiness in how we move together, more honesty and more playfulness. I also feel like we are only just beginning.
I wonder how many other marriages or relationships have improved by making changes that bring a greater depth of love to them, and each other?
That would be a list worth seeing!
The Truth about Universal Medicine 
What a gorgeous testimony to what Universal Medicine presents, and the choices you have been making, ‘There is more allowing of the other person to be who they are, more sexiness in how we move together, more honesty and more playfulness. I also feel like we are only just beginning.’
“there is always a choice… to grow together, or apart” True of all relationships. Universal Medicine has inspired a deepening relationship with God.
“… there is a direct connection between the choices I make in each and every moment and the level of love or joy I experience. I have also found taking responsibility for my own joy and love whilst in a relationship can be confronting at times.” This level of awareness of our responsibility to ourselves and others via the choices we make is such a great foundation for life. It’s also very self empowering and takes the blame away that we can place onto others.
Truth can be painful to feel at times but it is not criticizing or attacking, it is just saying ‘Hey, look, there’s more’ and it is entirely up to us whether we go for the more, or stay within the domain of the familiar comfort.
We are constantly choosing and everything we choose has an impact around us, this is undeniable. We are not static, so neither can our relationships be. In the ongoing movement we keep choosing, and as we are individuals before any relationship we have, obviously there can be differences between those choices we make whilst we walk together. This doesn’t have to be a problem when honesty and love are the foundation we commit to within our relationship, but a beautiful opportunity of growing and deepening in what unites us… again, if we choose it.
Life is full of opportunities for making choices that affect our lives, and those around us, ‘at the end of the day and in my experience, there is always a choice… to grow together, or apart.’
One way I perceive what is happening in our current world is ‘designed changes that suit a love-less relationship’…. and when you understand the Truth about how we can respond in the most natural loving way, life is turned on its head and we end up in a working relationship that is super supportive.
So True Joel, any perceived ideals about how a relationship should be, places pressure on us and we then call in an energy that is going to tell us we are right, and the reality is right-ness is like loading a gun and placing it at your own head, it will eventually backfire but the Truth from an energetic perspective leaves us open to expressing so we can evolve together.
The way in which my partner holds me and I hold her back is more than gorgeous. This love has only ever deepened and expanded since we both have come to our own understanding of what love truly means since awakening to what it really feels like in our body through Universal Medicine courses.
There are two types of relationships, those that me make by arrangement so as not to ask each other to be more, and those that are based on love where we move from honesty to truth, and in that we support one another to never settle for less than who we are which is constantly evolving.
Regardless of Universal Medicine any relationship be it family, friends or partners have this choice ‘at the end of the day and in my experience, there is always a choice… to grow together, or apart.’ it is just what do we choose and more importantly how is our relationship with ourselves as this is where it starts. If we have self loathing, resentment, are miserable etc obviously this is going to affect our relationships. Personally for me from being a student of Universal Medicine and The Way of the Livingness (which is never ending) I have so much more love for myself which in turn means I have so much more love for other people and it is really lovely to see how all of my relationships have blossomed from this.
So true Vicky, the Love we allow in and through our bodies changes everything about every relationship.
I can add that all my relationships now have more love in them, this is because I have first taken care of loving myself, and as I build that connection to the love in me and live from that I find I have more love to share with those around me.
In my experience the more true love I have for myself, the easier it is to naturally love other people.
In the short time my partner and I have been together we have both seen the foul character you speak of, aka the spirit within, come out in the wrath of its ugly, cunning, irresponsible ways. It is clear to both of us that a true relationship is a relationship based indeed on true love and we do not flippantly say this now knowing that true love only ever comes from surrendering to your Soul.
“taking responsibility for my own joy and love whilst in a relationship can be confronting at times.“
It can be a challenge if there are beliefs that we owe it to another to be something for them or any other number of beliefs. But since applying Universal Medicine’s teachings to my life ALL my relationships have deepened in their levels of decency, respect, genuine care and want to connect to others.
There comes a time where the arrangements we accept in place of a true and loving relationship can no longer fill the gap and the aching pain we create for ourselves by living void of such love.
You can add my relationship with my soon-to-be husband to your list of those that have improved by making changes that bring a greater depth of love to them Joel. My partner and I have been together for 13 years and had two children in that time. We both always swore we were never going to get married, my partner felt it wasn’t really necessary and I was in a lot of reaction to the marriages of comfort and convenience I have observed in my life and decided that such a stifling arrangement was not for me. The problem here being that instead of choosing to commit to life and reflect a true way to live that can help deconstruct the ideals and beliefs we carry, I instead judged others for the choices they made and then used this to not commit to life and love. Thanks to the teaching of Universal Medicine and the incredible support and guidance we have both received in the last 7 years from various practitioners and friends during this time, we have now come to a place where we realise that the love we have connected to and share between us is not only for us but for the many and this is something to be appreciated and celebrated with all.
It’s a great observation Liane that we often react to the lovelessness in relationships by withdrawing our commitment to love, when instead we can use such reflections to activate purpose and live love truly with others to set the model, and to offer inspiration to others through our own lives.
That is one of the most beautiful qualities about our relationships with others – there is always an opportunity to grow and deepen the relationship to a new level.
One of the things that has helped my marriage has been for us both to learn how to speak up. To say what we are feeling without the other going into reaction. This is something that has developed over time due to attending the Universal Medicine courses and is ongoing and is continuingly unfolding. Yes, it is enormously confronting at times, but it does give us both the opportunity to express ourselves and to dispel any pictures we are hanging onto.
Joel Levin this is gold. Simple, beautiful and heartfelt.
Something natural about being in a true relationship brings us both to a place so we are sharing more Love than what I would have ever considered possible.
And sometimes the growing together can feel as though you are not growing! – How we can set or have expectations of what growth can look like!
And I feel this applies just as much in any form of relationship, be it partner relationship but also friendship relations as they are also growing and expanding.
Yes Matts, very true, relationships with friends and family members as well as our partners we find ourselves in are growing and expanding too. It is very beautiful to observe and appreciate the changes whatever those changes are that are taking place within our relationships.
I had the privilege of attending a wedding yesterday of two The Way of The Livingness students and it was one of the most beautiful weddings I have been to and felt. The deep love was clearly felt and the commitment to allow the love to forever unfold and deepen. It was truly exquisite.
In every relationship there is a choice to grow together or apart and that is a choice to evolve together or not.
Our choices affect every aspect of our lives, ‘there is a direct connection between the choices I make in each and every moment and the level of love or joy I experience.’
I am definitely on that list. I was in a relationship where I chose to grow. This set a constantly changing new standard. The relationship was true love and very spectacular. What was missing though, and the greatest healing, was to accept and embody how amazing it was in me. To own that love in my body. The love was grand but it is the necessary glue of life to appreciate that the love comes from a greater source and can be felt and held within the human frame.
The wish that something has to deliver for us all the time in the same way is a vain attempt to control life. Although it may satisfy, temporarily, our wishes to have things under our own spin, it fights the more that life may bring us. So, it is a bit like setting our own measure of how we accept from life first and under what conditions and once the contract is signed, you live by it.
Elizabeth on reflection this is also true for me and something to deeply appreciate in just how much Universal Medicine have supported and helped me in building a true foundation with regards to a relationship with myself and all others. These basic principals should be taught in all schools then no extra work would have to be done to support children and young people with lack of self-love, self-care, self-worth, self-esteem and true body confidence because they would not be lacking in any of this; instead they would be able to claim who they truly are with purpose and confidence.
When so many vile lies are publicly being spread with regards to Universal Medicine including how ‘they’ have been the cause of relationship break-ups it is both refreshing and needed to hear the truth. Also how irresponsible it is to blame an organisation, or indeed anyone else other than those in the relationship, for a breaking up a relationship! Ultimately a relationship is about the 2 people involved, their is no escaping this and their communication, intimacy and choices made with regards to both themselves and the other/each other. In truth we can never look on the outside to blame anyone BUT we can look at ourselves and take responsibility for the life we have lived, the path we have walked and the choices we have made including those with our relationships.
What you bring in this blog here Joel is that if we are committed to bringing more of the love that we are to relationships, we do not need to rely or strive to keep our relationships fresh and alive. They would all just deepen in the levels of respect and beholding of another.
That is so true Jenny, how many couples seek stimulation and new activities to either try to mend their relationship or spark the love they think they’ve lost. We only have to be honest and express what we feel and know that the love from where we deepen our relationship is there inside us, no outside influence needed.
“There is a direct connection between the choices I make in each and every moment and the level of love or joy I experience” – in reading this, I can feel how my mind just wants to jump in to figure out the ‘right’ answer for every moment, and how that leaves very little space for love and joy.
In most relationships, we often play the blame/guilt card and find a way to manage to keep the arrangement that serves each part mutually. What Universal Medicine is presenting is a possibility for us to take it to a deeper level – if we each so choose.
It can seem scary when relationships face change because one person is growing, but it’s truly delightful when the choice is made to grow together. Love in it’s true sense takes many forms we may not consider “love”, and to me one is to evolve and grow together. It can seem loving for things to stay the same so no one is disturbed, but is this love or comfort? I am realising more and more how evolution is a constant cycle of growth or expansion, and I have learnt how to allow the changes that come with that to be in my relationship, and at times it is scary but overall it’s been a very positive experience. Thanks to Universal Medicine I definitely have more love in every relationship now as it’s been my choice to grow. Some friendships have said “no” and others have said “yes” to the growth, and that has been challenging at times but ultimately all I can be responsible for is my own “yes” to love and evolution.
Making our relation-ship about Love, which is “applying what Universal Medicine presents,” has changed everything about the way I see and interact with people. My whole thought process is now see-correcting/feeling to bring a unifying energy to the best of my ability and not in a weak way but in sharing with others to empower what is True.
You can add my husband and me to the list also, as things have and are changing all the time. It’s no longer mundane, and there is a lot more fun and playfulness between us.
Yes Julie and there are so many more relationships improving – just simply by becoming aware & with tools of reconnection to how you can live your truth and love which improves all relationship.
Since applying what Universal Medicine presents my relationship with myself has deepened on so many levels and as a result, so has all my other relationships.
Me and my sister started an experiment/month ‘challenge’ in February to deepen the quality of dinner times by changing the way we approach our meal at the end of the day. How incredible would it be to commit to a challenge, even just for a week, to deepening the love in our relationships in EVERY interaction? No reactions allowed.
Without the deep and loving understanding and support presented by Universal Medicine for what relationship is all about and what is required to develop the full potential in relationship, I would either have given up on it or settled for the very reduced and mostly hurtful version I have known before and is the very accepted and thus normal version in society.
That is very true Alexander, Universal Medicine has provided many amazing reflections for true relationships which has changed the marker for what’s possible for many people.
All I know is that Universal Medicine has been the best tonic for my marriage and after 18 years the intimacy is still deepening, as is the playfulness and love. When we focus on taking responsibility for and healing our hurts, it paves the way for genuine respect and integrity to be resurrected, bringing with it a whole new level of discovery and joy.