Description

Class OverviewThis program will inspire you to make the most of your relationships, including romantic, sexual, family, friendship, and business connections, and give you crisp tools to re-create relationships. (Check out the Top 10 Big Ideas from the class below!) Your ProfessorAlan Cohen has authored 20+ books, was a contributing writer for the N.Y. Times #1 best-selling series Chicken Soup for the Soul, and has been featured on Oprah.com, and in USA Today, and the Washington Post.How to Find the Love of Your LifeFor most people, relationships are the source of our greatest joy–and greatest difficulties.  While they were intended to uplift and empower, often they constrict and sadden. This need not be. This program will inspire you to make the most of your relationships, including romantic, sexual, family, friendship, and business connections, and give you crisp tools to re-create relationships so the become best friends on your path of personal awakening and healing. The Top 10 Big Ideas1 Regard Relationship is a Journey, Not A Destination The goal of relationship is not to obtain a life partner or get married and have a family. The goal of relationship is to enjoy relationship. If you are too focused on getting somewhere, you will miss being somewhere. Marriage and long term commitment are not the intention of relationship. They are side effects. Enjoying your relationship right where you stand will take you to all the best places. Being present in the moment leads to lasting connection.  2 Proceed from Enoughness The best relationships develop from wholeness, not need. You are not empty, lacking, or desperate. Do not act out of desperation, or you will create desperate results. You are whole, attractive, worthy, and loveable. When you don’t need someone, you can have someone. Broken people attract broken people. Whole people attract whole people. You are whole. Fall in Love with Yourself. While you may believe you need someone else to love you for you to feel validated and loveable, it is your own love you seek. If you truly love yourself, you won’t need someone to love you. The paradox is that when you value and honor who you are, where you are, as you are, the Law of Attraction will draw unto you someone who matches your belief. 3 Don’t Drag the Past into the Present or the Future Your history is not your destiny. The way it was is not the way it is or will be. Leave your past relationships, for better and worse, behind you. Do not spend a lot of time (or any) telling your current or potential partner about your past relationships, except for the growth and blessings they have bestowed upon you. Let your new relationship be a blank slate upon which you write the beautiful things you want it to be. 4 Be Your Authentic Self Realness is the foundation of all healthy relationships. Let your partner know who you are. Hiding, posturing, or image management only detract from intimacy, connection, and communication. If your partner sees your true self and wants you, you really have something going. (P.S. Your true self is quite beautiful. Don’t be fooled to believe you are anything less than wonderful.) 5 Take Your Power Back Real relationships exist only between equals. If you have someone on a pedestal, or allow someone else to put you on a pedestal, you are participating in idolatry, not relationship. Idols always fall on those who worship them. If you need someone else to make you happy, they can make you unhappy. Take your power back by identifying the source of happiness within yourself, not another person. 6 Cultivate IntimacyIntimacy means, “Into me see.” Create intimate relationships by speaking and acting from your heart. In the movie The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, a lonely man meets an attractive woman at a bar and begins to feed her lines. Soon she is put off and starts to leave. He stops her and tells her “I’m just lonely and I want someone to connect with.” In that moment his honesty begins a real relationship. You don’t have to be lonely, but you do have to be honest. Establish the frequency of intimacy and you will invite your partner to meet you there.  7 Overthrow Limiting Beliefs Notice what you believe about relationship that keeps you from having one. “All the good ones are taken or they’re gay.” “Men are not trustworthy.” “Women are too demanding.” “The ones I want, don’t want me, and the ones who want me, I don’t want.” You will prove what you believe, so examine what you believe. You are not limited in any way to have a great relationship, so choose beliefs that open doors rather than closing them. Deny illusions and affirm positive possibilities. 8 Build Relationship from the Ground Up Create a relationship with a real person, not a fantasy. Get to know your relationship partner as a friend. The best relationships often do not start with fireworks and miracles. They start with quality time and meaningful activities on the earth plane. Get to know your partner before falling in bed, love, or marriage. Don’t fall in love. Rise in love. 9 Discern Between Required and Negotiable Make a list of the traits in a partner you absolutely require, and another list of traits that are preferable but not dealbreakers. For example, you may require someone who is available, able to communicate, addiction free, and self-supporting. You may prefer someone who can dance, enjoys certain music, has a particular political persuasion, and likes to cook. Some things are truly important, and others are less important. Don’t confuse the two.  10 Bless and Appreciate All of Your RelationshipsThere is a gift in all relationships, even those that don’t work out as you expect. If you enjoyed some moments, even if not all; learned about your partner and yourself; grew and deepened in your understanding about what makes relationships work and what doesn’t; created a friendship; had a child; played and had fun; or know now what you don’t want—all of these experiences brought you to the more positive place you now stand. Appreciation is the key that opens the door for better.