Allen L Roland

Relationship is a means to an end versus an end in itself. The true purpose of relationship is the full flowering of each partner but only those who conquer fear reach the seventh stage of fulfilled love:

Most people are afraid of love because they are afraid of their own deepest joy, delight and inner freedom.

In relationship, we must reach a place where being honest and being true to yourself is more important than the survival of the relationship ! Let me illustrate this using Stendhal's and Roland's seven stages of a love relationship:

1. ADMIRATION "I really admire you as a person"
2. BEGINNING OF DESIRE "I think I'd like to get to know you better."
3. HOPE "I hope you feel the same way about me"
INCEPTION OF LOVE "I think I'm falling in love with you"
5. FIRST CRYSTALLIZATION "I see the beauty and perfection within you"
6. DOUBT, FEAR AND/OR JEALOUSY, ANGER AND RESENTMENT "You're going to hurt me or betray me like others have"

This is where Stendhal ended his six stages of love for it is the stage where most, if not all, emotional relationships end with mutual anger, resentment or fear submerging all traces of the original love. What we do not realize in this stage is that these feelings are often associated with earlier childhood or relationship hurts we felt with loved ones and we are face to face with the decisions we made at that time to repress and deny our deepest feelings ~ because there was seemingly no-one there for us. We can either run, as most people do, or go inside and go through these fears by not denying the love, taking accountability for these feelings and stop being a victim ! You cannot escape stage six until you are willing to go inside, take total accountability for your actions and feelings and stop denying love.This takes great courage but the payoff is immense ! Resentment doesn't heal ! Anger doesn't heal ! Only love truly heals !

7 ROLAND'S SECOND CRYSTALLIZATION "I feel the beauty and perfection within myself and I'm sharing it with my partner and the world"

This Stage cannot be accomplished unless we realize our ultimate quest in life is to fully experience our authentic self and our connection to our original state of soul consciousness. IT IS A PLACE OF INNER VALIDATION VERSUS OUTER VALIDATION ! " Until I let go I cannot grow ", "Great love can both take hold and let go." When you let go in relationship, you do not let go of the love ~ you let go of your outer dependency for love. To let go with love you must, in essence, consciously love your partner by allowing them to follow their path, regardless of the risk to your relationship. Conscious love ( non-possessive, non-dependent and unconditional love ) is rarely obtained between humans. The conscious love motive, in its most developed state, is the wish that the object should arrive at its own innate perfection ~ regardless of the consequences to the lover or partner. It is total unconditional love and when we come from this place we are embracing our deepest spiritual essence and a state of soul consciousness within ourselves. The paradox of this attitude is that such love always evokes eventually a similar attitude in its objects because we all seek, at the deepest level, to be unconditionally loved. As such, when we allow love to be our guiding intention through our thoughts and feelings and learn to trust unconditional love ~ we begin to see through clearer eyes and all things come into perfect balance and harmony

The path to the soul is always through doors of fear and most of those fears appear in relationship. You don't realize those fears are illusions until you stop denying love and go through them. Only then can you truly claim the greatest gift ~ yourself.

Only then can you become a fragment of life's heart and transcend time and space in the process ~ for the hearts' desire is to love so deeply that we become one with a Unified Field of love, joy and soul consciousness.

Allen L Roland http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/seven-stages-of-relationship-few-get.html

Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private consultations (allen@allenroland.com) Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his web log and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net Allen Roland’s weblog: http://blogs.salon.com/0002255/ Website: www.allenroland.com ONLY THE TRUTH IS REVOLUTIONARY