| #69 I'm afraid to say I
love you to my boyfriend / Should I start from love or from testing? |
|
Dear Prudence: I am fairly new to the dating scene after a lousy 12-year marriage. "Once bitten" is a major factor for me, so when I date a man and think things are getting too serious, I'm outta there! I met my present boyfriend
three months ago, and I'm really thinking that I want to commit to him.
Those three little words are on the tip of my tongue, but I'm afraid
that HE will be the one running for the hills if I say them. How do you
know when it's safe? -R.L. [ top ]
|
Gabby's Reply: Hi R: You write, ". . . when I date a man. . ." as though this has happened dozens of times; perhaps it has, but what you've done is lump all dates into a generality. The reasons you used to dump #3 are different than the ones you gave to dumpee #5, and, none of those reasons are the truth. Based upon your comment about your marriage it's clear that you haven't gotten to the truth of how you created your "lousy" marriage (more about this below).
At the end of your letter you
ask, "How do you know when it's safe?" A conscious person,
one intent on knowing the truth, would
have asked, "How do I know when it's safe?" Yours is an
unconscious rhetorical question, as though what I would do would work
for you. You reveal that you are unconscious, as in sleepwalking. You'll
know you're in present time*
when you begin asking for feedback about how you destroyed a specific
relationship so as to not do it again. Singles love to bemoan about how they gave their tel number to someone who never called. Few realize that a part of what not calling was about is that they accidentally trashed their ex during the first date, thereby revealing their addiction to blaming. It works to make a distinction between talking and communicating. Whereas talking causes a problem to persist communication always results in the experience of love. If you're not experiencing love then you've become stuck doing your imitation of communication. If he is not experiencing love then you are not a safe space for him to tell the truth—the truth as to why he's not experiencing love with you. Notice that you begin the relationship from the point of view of withholding your expressions of love. It's called controlling (controlling yourself and controlling him). You test the man, you present him with a modified (watered down) version of you. For example:
It could be said that you
present a man with your "loving act" and then expect him to fall in love
with your act. If he does "fall in love," then you've conned an equally
unconscious man. He doesn't know what you are really like. He doesn't
know because all along you've been withholding your love. You have
unconsciously (accidentally) withheld other parts of your self during
your sales presentation. By this I mean, you have been working towards a
loving relationship by withholding thoughts. This is called deceit. With
your most recent man you have been verbally withholding from him your
considerations about expressing love. I say "verbally" because you have
been communicating your considerations non verbally; he just doesn't
know what you've been withholding. You've created confusion and
uncertainty. So, when he thinks he's with you he's not, he's with
someone who is afraid to say what's on her mind. You haven't been
sharing the real you (the real you shares a fear immediately and therefore disappears it)
—all the while you expect
him to be open and honest and spontaneous with you. Using air as an analogy: Love is the same as air; love is simply in the air. I love the tree the tree loves me. It only means something when it's not experienced. Withhold air and a person dies. Withhold love and a person dies—they end up walking around in life doing their imitation of living. Love only means something when it is withheld, for reasons—as though it is important or significant. I know this might sound ludicrous because you have a lifetime of created experiences that you now use as reasons to not come from (to communicate from) love. That is to say, your mind is chock full of considerations and proofs of why it's not advisable to love everyone all the time, every man, everyone, right up front. So, how do you get from distrust and show-me-what-you-got-and-then-I'll-love-you, to pure and simple, "I love you" without it meaning anything other than that you are experiencing the experience of love at that particular moment? First, love is a function of communication, it just appears when you are in communication with another. You could say,
In this way you don't lay a trip on him; there's no con involved. i.e. There's no implied, "Now tell me you love me or I'll pout." Better still, create the experience of love at will by telling the truth, by sharing your experience, your considerations, your thoughts, your expectations, your boundaries, with each person you date, all the time. Especially share your judgments of them; your thoughts as to why you think you are not loving them at this particular moment in time. That is to say, you're either experiencing love or you're withholding a thought, or, you're causing another to withhold a thought from you. There are no exceptions to this fundamental communication principle. Keep practicing until you get spontaneity down pat—until you can be trusted to consistently tell the truth. For example, communicate the following up front:
In so doing you will reap tons of valuable feedback.
You'll get to know who you are and who you are not. When you can "get"
the truth of each person's considerations about you without reacting
negatively (it's called being a safe space for the truth to be told)
your
ideal partner will find you.
Such a great letter. Many
will get value from reading it. PS. Unbeknownst to you you have been loving everyone, and, everyone has been loving you, absolutely. You've just had a misunderstanding of what love is. The meanest acting person you know is loving you with all that they have available. For some, "Bug off! I hate you" is the highest expression of love they can muster at that moment. They are in fact doing their best. They have barriers (consisting of hundreds, if not thousands, of thoughts) to expressing the love that is there. The love is just buried underneath these non-verbalized thoughts.
What most look for, and don't know how to create at will, within a single sit-down conversation, is the experience of love. Most married couples seldom experience the experience of love each day. Many haven't experienced it for a very long time, if ever. Most carry their memory of the last experience of love with them throughout each day, they live from the concept that they love their spouse. The love has become conceptualized—it's no longer an in-the-now experience. Their communication model supports withholding thoughts of choice from each other. PPS. It's quite common for a married person to experience the experience of love for their spouse while driving or away from their spouse. They then go home and do something for their spouse, a gesture, action, favor, or chore, a gift (that represents the love), something that expresses their love. The reason they seldom experience love when face-to-face with their spouse is that when they look in their partner's eyes it mirrors all the thoughts each are withholding from the other—these thoughts serve as barriers to the experience of love. * In support of being in present-time visit The Clearing House and do The Clearing Process, one of four free communication skills processes. Do one clearing per day for five days in a row. Your mind is clouded with incompletes (unacknowledged perpetrations and withholds), these keep you from being clear, and from being here and now. Doing the clearing will allow you to discover the thoughts you need to communicate to him and others. Check back from time to time for minor edits (last edited 9/1/10) [ top ] |
| If you liked
this letter please press the "I
like" voting button. Upon pressing
the button you'll be taken directly to the index
of New Letters.
To comment about this letter please go to Dear Gabby's Message Board (free - registration required). |