“There is nobody else but you. You are everybody. Therefore, how you treat anybody is how you treat yourself. Anything you do to somebody else, you are doing to yourself.” – Mirabai Devi 

Relationships may be one of the greatest ways to heal and at the same time challenge us to grow and expand. Many of us like the first part, the healing, but when we relate to people we also like the idea that they stay the same. We want to come back to a status quo, something that is comfortable and expected. But a dynamic relationship is one that is alive and can bring much creativity, adventure and goodness. It can also bring challenges like never before. As our mate, friends and family shift, change and grow, it challenges us to grow and find a new equilibrium.

In relating to others, whether it’s our children, mates, colleagues or friends, we can choose to relate from a place of ego or from the higher self. The ego focuses on getting what it wants and what is beneficial for it to survive and thrive. It likes comfort, security, the expected. The tricky thing about it is that sometimes we’re not even aware of it as the ego sneaks in. It can also want to give too much and then feel upset or angry that others have not given back something in return. The higher self, the divine part of us, seeks to forgive, accept, give space to others to expand, support, listen, and love unconditionally.

Moving into the place of relating to others as divine and seeing all as divine, is a way to also begin to see one’s self as divine. How would you speak to someone who is God? How would you act? What would you think, for even your thoughts would be known? When we begin to do this practice we defragment and become one in thoughts, words and actions.

Why not experiment for one day and imagine that everyone and everything is divine and see what happens? By relating to others in this way, you will also elevate yourself and your actions.

 Bio: Debra Moffitt is author of Awake in the World: 108 Practices to Live a Divinely Inspired Life. A visionary, dreamer and teacher, she’s devoted to nurturing the spiritual in everyday life. She leads workshops on spiritual practices at the Sophia Institute and other venues in the U.S. and Europe. Her mind/body/spirit articles, essays and stories appear in publications around the globe and were broadcast by BBC World Services Radio. She has spent over fifteen years practicing meditation, working with dreams and doing spiritual practices. Visit her online at http://www.awakeintheworld.com.