Relationships change. This is true of your personal life, your business life, and even the relationship you have with yourself. So today I'm sharing 10 different areas to look at on your own or with a partner to help you build a relationship that not only survives, but thrives as you move towards the life you really want.
We explore the foundational elements of enriching and balanced relationships, both in business and personal life. We'll dive into the harmonious integration of masculine and feminine energies, the importance of open and honest communication, and the power of supporting mutual growth. Discover practical steps to cultivate a vibrant connection, share responsibilities equitably, and foster an environment where joy and gratitude flourish.
In this journey towards deeper connections, we'll discuss how to maintain health and wellness within your relationships, the significance of continuous learning, and the creation of a safe space for vulnerability. Whether you're navigating entrepreneurial challenges or personal relationships, this episode provides the insights and tools necessary to foster fulfilling and dynamic interactions. Tune in to transform your approach to relationships and achieve a balanced, joyful life.
Relationships change. This is true of your personal life, your business life and even the relationship you have with yourself. So today I'm sharing 10 different areas to look at, on your own or with a partner, to help you build a relationship that not only survives but thrives as you move towards the life you really want. Hi, welcome to the Connect with Sheila Botello podcast. I'm an entrepreneur, self-care strategist and creator of the Season's Self-Care app. I'm committed to helping you reconnect to your purpose, elevate your well-being and build your version of a happy, successful life. You're listening to a Monday Minisode where I share an insight designed to help you live into what lights you up this week. Today, we're talking about relationships, not just the romantic kind, but those integral bonds that shape every day of your life, and, if you're like me, you've navigated through various relationships over the years. For me, it's been a 27 plus year marriage to evolving connections with my teenage boys, where each phase has taught me invaluable lessons about love, growth and communication. Today, I want to share with you a framework that has been helping my approach to relationships over the years and in recent years. The insight came from a variety of personal experiences, but also from an inspiring read. I highly recommend the Conscious Parent by Dr Shefali Sabari. It's really more than a parenting guide. It's about parenting ourselves and setting new, healthy expectations through conscious dialogue. So I want to dive in real fast for this Monday midi-sode. So you have some things to look at. Take some notes when you have a chance and hopefully this can open up some conversation with someone that you care about or someone you're doing business with, or even yourself, like you can sit down and actually go through these different questions with yourself in different areas of your life.
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The first area is celebrating both energies. So in our lives and businesses we're constantly in a balance of masculine and feminine energies and the two working well together creates harmony. So looking at that helps you to embrace the strength of structure with the beauty of flow and integrating these energies to deepen your connections. So you can look at what does this look like when you're looking at how you build your life personally and how you are interacting with the people in your life. The second area is to foster openness and honesty. Communication is the cornerstone of any successful relationship, so striving for transparency and kindness, ensuring that you and your loved ones and your partners understand and support each other fully becomes so important, and it's great when it is reciprocated as well. The third area is support each other's growth. As entrepreneurs, we thrive on personal development, and so I encourage growth within your relationships by sharing goals, celebrating achievements and navigating challenges together. And for people who are not in your professional life but they're on the periphery and then they're really supporting you as you go through things, find ways to share what's going on so that they can give you that support and also so that you can reciprocate.
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The fourth area is all about embracing interdependence. It's true that I found real strength comes from interdependence, so cherish the ability to rely on each other while maintaining your individuality. This is a balance that enriches both your life and your relationships. The fifth area is prioritizing health and wellness. Of course, I'm gonna be on this horse. Our wellbeing influences every single interaction that we make. So committing to maintaining your health and encouraging your partners to do the same fosters a vibrant life together, and when you're setting these goals, you can challenge each other in really fun ways, and it makes health and wellness, and all of the things that go with it, so much more doable.
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The sixth area is share life's responsibilities. Equality in responsibilities ensures a balanced partnership and, of course, nothing is gonna be in 100% balance all the time. But when you know what's going on on your calendar every month or quarter, it becomes easier to share household tasks, emotional support, decision-making, planning and really honoring each other's contributions. Sometimes it may be a 30-70 split, Sometimes it might be a 90-10 split, depending on what's going on, depending on your health at any given time or what major project you're working in. So always be flexible to look at how you can share the load and ask for what you need at any given time.
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The seventh area is create joy and pleasure. This is something I am so passionate about. Anything in your life can have a little bit more play put into it when you really get creative. So making space for fun and pleasure becomes really important, because these moments of joy not only bring lightness to our lives, but they also strengthen our bonds. Have you ever found when you're in a tough conversation with someone and then someone cracks a joke? The load gets lighter for everyone and everybody gets a little more human. So what if we were intentional about that? So think about how you can do this in your relationships and get creative together. The eighth area is commit to continuous learning, always being open to learning about not just things out in the world, but about each other and about life as well, because, let's face it, we're always changing. We are being impacted by the changes around us. So you may be a different person right now than you were even a year ago, maybe even a different person than you were last week, depending on what you've learned. So making sure that both of you and whoever you're partnering up with is committed to continuous learning helps to keep your relationships dynamic and fulfilling.
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The ninth area is practice, gratitude and appreciation. We hear all the time about gratitude journals and it becomes a platitude after a while. Oh, be grateful, be grateful. It can be really hard when you're going through a challenging time to feel grateful, but here's the thing it is like a muscle. And when you are continually practicing gratitude notice I said practice you're never going to perfect it. And when you're appreciating people, what ends up happening is you start to see more good, you start to feel lighter, people feel really good around you as well, and they feel seen and heard and appreciated. So regular expressions of gratitude and appreciation elevate our relationships, of course. So recognize the beauty in everyday interactions and celebrate it.
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And number 10, cultivate a safe space for vulnerability. In our times right now, there are even more things than ever that can be very polarizing and very triggering for people. So, in your relationships, recognize everybody's experiencing so many things at any given time. So when you provide a nurturing environment where you and your loved ones can share openly, without fear, it really deepens the trust and intimacy and from there you can do what Stephen Covey loves to talk about, and that is seek first to understand and then to be understood as we journey through life, surrounded by like-minded people and people who may be quite different from us. When we are focusing on these types of things in our relationships, it helps us understand each other better, and so I invite you to take some time, think about how you can do these things, and maybe have a time set aside with yourself or with someone that you're partnered up with, and go through these different areas, see how you're doing, rate yourselves, have a conversation. It's a wonderful conversation starter, that's for sure, and it really ensures that you are actually growing and not staying stagnant and maybe stuck in old patterns.
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Relationships can be so challenging, and yet they're so rewarding when we really put the time in to invest in something that is lasting, something that we care about, and it's important to have a structure of support around you as you're growing your vision, perhaps this business that you're wanting to take to the next level. It's so important to have that. Otherwise, it can be very isolating, and so that's why I created the Seasons Collective. It is a community and it's one where ambition and vision and growing up against your growth edges and beyond is really celebrated. And looking at all of the different impacts of what happens when you're doing these things the fear that comes up, the imposter syndrome that comes up, all of those things that challenge us and take us to the edge well, we talk about that and we applaud the courage involved as you face your fears. Check out the show notes for further information about Seasons and the Seasons Self-Care app, and I'm so grateful that you listened today. I hope you have an incredible rest of your week. Big blessings, thank you.