Have You Outgrown Your Friends?

Have you been making powerful discoveries about yourself and your life and growing in awareness? Is your life becoming better, more joyous, successful, peaceful, and prosperous? Are you wondering why some of the people that you thought would be most happy for you don't seem to be enjoying your company anymore? Do you feel under pressure to explain yourself or justify your new way of life to friends who don't seem to understand you now?

One of the things people discover as they commit to making positive life changes is that most of their relationships reflect their former ways of thinking and being. Friends and family tend to see us as we used to be, and they are often the last people who can adjust their perception to behold what is new in us. Likewise, we find that many of the things that we enjoyed about our loved ones in the past no longer feel appropriate to who we are, and the relationships can become strained or even conflicted.

If you find that as you have been transforming important areas of your life you no longer feel harmonious with your group of friends, it might be time to consider stepping back from the relationships. In giving ourselves space from stressful or unpleasant ties with others, we are not rejecting anyone. What we are doing is embracing our new perspective and allowing room in our lives for new, more harmonious relationships to form.

Many people have a distaste for ending relationships. However, in the constant ebb and flow of life, our relationships evolve, becoming more intimate, or slowly dissipating and becoming cooler. Most of us have been trained to view the latter scenario as disagreeable, but it is natural that as we expand and develop in consciousness some of our relationships will lose relevance to us. Allowing people to move in and out of our lives freely and organically honors who they are and who we have become. It also lessens or even eliminates any pain normally associated with ending a relationship.

Sometimes in our desire to hold on to people with whom we no longer have much in common we actually sacrifice our own personal growth and fulfillment. There are times when we have to make a choice between regressing into our former patterns in order to fit in with friends or living according to the new truth that we have discovered about ourselves and our world. It takes a certain amount of courage, a devotion and love of self to risk the displeasure, criticism, or even rejection of people we care about in order to honor the personal choices we have made for ourselves. This, however, is part of the process of becoming all that we are meant to be.

It helps to know that we don't always have to make a dramatic shift in our relationships in order to create needed space. Often, simply reducing the frequency and length of contact with a person is enough to initiate a gentle cooling off of a relationship. When we feel that we no longer resonate with another person's thoughts, conversation, and behavior, that person is also energetically feeling the same way about us. We can be kind and considerate to one another and give each other permission to move on without actually making a direct statement or being abrupt. Relationships don't have to end with a bang. It's okay to let a friendship that was once very intimate become a casual acquaintance. If we view it as a natural part of the flow of life and the evolution of our awareness, we can feel good about selecting new friends and gently releasing or creating space with those we no longer harmonize well with.

#selfesteem #spiritualawareness #relationships