Student:

Please explain more about what you say in your book, True Yoga, that “human relationships are mirrors of our current relationship with Spirit.” Could you help me understand how this is true when the other person may be coming from a dysfunctional state and taking their emotions out on you?

Jennie:

There are two layers to this. The human to human and the human to Divine. Let’s look first at what we are dealing with in the human to human dynamic:

1. Whatever we encounter on the outside from someone else is, to some degree, within us as well. It is important to self reflect honestly to see if there is any aspect of the other person’s ‘stuff’ that is also something we need to own and deal with.

2. If it is really not about us, but being projected onto us, then our challenge is to remain open-hearted and compassionate with them and with our own feelings and reactions.

3. As we do this, we may observe the current challenge as a final test for something similar that we have already experienced and moved through. Will we fall back into old pattern behavior or reactivity, or hold space for others in their difficulties with even-mindedness and peacefulness within our hearts?

The second layer is noticing how our human relationships mirror our relationship with Spirit:

Generally speaking, the patterns we experience in relationship reflect our attitudes and feelings toward the Divine. For example, if we are not totally trusting of people, we may have a trust issue with God, or if we are not really devoted or people are not devoted to us, we may need to increase our devotion on the spiritual path. If we find that people don’t want to spend much time with us, we can notice, how much time we spend with our Divine Self. If we don’t feel appreciated by others, maybe we aren’t appreciating God enough, or we feel that He is unsatisfied with us or our efforts.

Try to summarize in a few words how you would describe the nature of the relationship you are struggling with and then consider, “Am I like this in any way with God?”