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[AKA2D '91]

Everyone Can't be In The Front Row!


Life is a theater - Invite your audience carefully. Not everyone is
healthy enough to have a front row seat in our lives. There are some
people in your life that need to be loved from a distance. It's amazing
what you can accomplish when you let go, or at least minimize, your time
with draining, negative, incompatible, not-going-anywhere
relationships/friendships.

Observe the relationships around you. Pay attention. Which ones lift and
which ones lean? Which one encourage and which ones discourage? Which ones
are on a path of growth uphill and which ones are going downhill? When you
leave certain people, do you feel better or feel worse? Which ones always
have drama or don't really understand, know or appreciate you? The more you
seek quality, respect, growth, peace of mind, love and truth around you,
the easier it will become for you to decide who gets to sit in the FRONT ROW
and who should be moved to the balcony of your life. You cannot change the
people around you...but you can change the people you are around.

[ClassyLady]

Ain't that the truth and a half!

I think that I've heard that before. Is that Iyanla Vanzant?

[novella000]

*Relationships that abrogate all of your positive energy
*Relationships that don't contribute to the flow of love, life, and truth in your own personal universe
*Relationships that give you nothing but good sex and a headache (y'all know what I mean)
*Relationships with hidden truths, negligible respect, arguments without closure./resolution

It has been truly amazing how difficult it is to remove myself from or implement distance between myself and an individual in these type of relationships. It's getting a lot easier though!!!

Sometimes you have invested so much of yourself, and your return seems to be negligible
Sometimes you feel like you can ride it out, and things will be OK

Probably not.

This topic is close to my heart. I have been learning this lesson (THE HARD WAY) over the past year. All of my relationships had to be reevaluated. Family, friends, my acquaintances, etc. My entire life was RAG-GUH-DAY. By nature, I am a care giver, I take care of the people around me -- however I can. And that's not a BAD thing but... It was difficult, initially, to find that common ground. How do I do ME without setting myself up for misuse, abuse, or undue stress...?

Now I treat all relationships as I do monetary investments... stick with it and ride out the good times and bad times. But monitor the risk involved. Only invest so much of myself. Heck, I wouldn't keep buying stock in a company that NEVER returns or there is a consistent loss. Breaking even isn't a good thing over long term either. I oughta get SOMETHING back. I continue to give 100% -- but that 100% is relative to the risk.

[AKA2D '91]

I don't know who wrote it. Someone sent it to me and I thought I'd share it.

[RedefinedDiva]

I figured that this message needs to resurface every once in a while so that we all won't forget.

[pinkey08]

I needed that thanks for sharing
________
WEED VAPORIZERS

[oneinamillion]

........and sometimes that may mean getting away members in your family; who you know may not want you to succeed or who don't really wish you the best sincerely.

[korkscru]

Originally posted by pinkey08
I needed that thanks for sharing

I agree, Pinkey08, I needed this also. Every now and then I allow myself to be CONSUMED with what others think about me. It's sad, but true. In many situations, I've given people the benefit of the doubt ONLY for them to come back and put DAGGARS in my back. I recently experienced something like that because I let my guard down and FORGOT that everybody does not have the same positive, uplifting, and friendly agenda that I have and hope for whenever I try to get to know someone (and I'm speaking SPECIFICALLY about women in this case). Just when you THINK that you're doing your BEST to cultivate a relationship that will be positive and fruitful, the other person uses it as an opportunity to TRY to degrade you, humiliate you, intimidate you, and TRY to make themselves look better. And for WHAT reason? I don't know. But there's a positive side to situations like this. After going through what I recently went through and reading this post, I THANK GOD for giving me a HEART that KNOWS how to feel. And I thank Him for making me JUST the way that I am. I've never been the type to limit myself to being friendly and cordial to others. But I had to RE-REALIZE that certain folks HAVETO be kept at a distance in order for one to keep his or her peace, sanity, and integrity.

I was DEEPLY encouraged by this post. And God bless the person who emailed it to AKA2D '91.

[Sugar_N_Spice]

Originally posted by RedefinedDiva
I figured that this message needs to resurface every once in a while so that we all won't forget.

Thanx AKA2D for posting that, and to RefinedDiva for bringing it back to the top...