by: Iain Legg
Personal empowerment often plays a big role in the quality of your relationships because of the beliefs and behaviors you express in your interactions with others. If you’ve ever expected a relationship to somehow “complete” you or make you feel strong or whole, you probably experienced disappointment and frustration as it seemed to cause bigger problems in your life.
There are several reasons why personal empowerment is important in relationships:
1) Other people sense the way you feel about yourself and treat you accordingly.
Have you ever noticed that other people seem to pick up on subtle cues and reflect your own beliefs back to you? For example, if you lack confidence, you’ll often find yourself encountering aggressive or intimidating people who seem to exacerbate those feelings. If you don’t have a healthy level of respect for yourself, you’ll probably encounter plenty of people who don’t respect you either.
This is no accident! People tend to sense your inner beliefs based on your demeanor and body language, and gear their behavior to match.
When you’re empowered and strong, you communicate that essence to others, and others will treat you as such, resulting in healthier relationships.
2) You’ll notice in others the things you dislike about yourself.
Have you ever heard of “projecting” your own perceptions and beliefs onto others? A lack of self-love within yourself will often cause you to believe that others don’t love you either. A lack of confidence in yourself will attract people that you struggle to place your confidence in also!
When you are empowered and confident, you’ll end up attracting others who both see you that way and embody the same qualities themselves.
3) You’ll constantly look to others for reassurance and validation.
When you don’t feel empowered or confident, you’ll constantly seek reassurance and validation from the people around you. Rather than feeling self-assured, you’ll appear to be needy and insecure, which will place a drain on your relationship and push others away from you.
Remember that empowerment is an inside job! You need to give yourself love, respect and confidence first if you want to also receive it from others.
Fulfilling and satisfying relationships require that both partners are empowered and balanced before entering into them. When you empower yourself from within, you bring a stronger element of genuine love, respect and intimacy to your relationships and stop seeking validation from outside sources. Ultimately, this ensures that your connections with others will be deeper, richer and more meaningful.
