LEARNING TO TALK, TRUST AND FEEL

Many of us who were hurt in the past learned three rules: Don't talk, don't trust and don't feel. As children, we learned to keep secrets, to feel shame and to mistrust. These unwritten rules keep us stuck as adults and prevent others from getting close to us. Sometimes we give or love too much in atonement for our inability to let others close to us.

The only way out of this unhealthy cycle is to break the three rules by talking, trusting and feeling. We can talk with someone with whom we feel safe, a counselor or friend. We can talk to ourselves by writing our feelings in a journal or talking them out on a tape recorder. We can build trust by learning to trust ourselves first and by feeling our frozen feelings we have kept inside for so long. As we open up and let go, we begin to talk, trust and feel and are blessed with rich and meaningful relationships.

Breaking the three rules of don't talk, don't trust and don't feel by talking, trusting and feeling frees us of an unhealthy past and brings us rich and meaningful relationships.