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"Who's
Driving the Bus?"
By Susie and Otto Collins
In his book, "Using Your Brain-for a Change," Richard
Bandler, One of the founders of Neuro-Linguistic Programming, gives a
great metaphor for what happens frequently in our lives and relationships.
Bandler uses the question of "Who's driving the bus?" to suggest
that we put our brains on auto pilot much of the time and we aren't
consciously aware of the patterns our brains run. This is also what we
often do in our relationships as well.
He says, "Most people are prisoners of their own
brains. It's as if they are chained to the last seat of the bus and
someone else is driving. I want you to learn to drive your own bus."
We find this to be an amazing parallel to how we get
stuck in our unconscious patterns in our relationships.
In "Spiritual Partnerships" or
"conscious relationships", if the purpose is to heal, learn and
grow, then we need to learn to drive our own bus and be conscious at all
times.
In our relationship, we find that we do a pretty good
job of staying conscious when we are centered and life isn't throwing us
any curves. But, when life gets stressful, we allow ourselves to slip into old unhealthy
patterns of past relationships. These times give us the opportunity to see
the parts of ourselves that need to be healed.
We have found that when the patterns emerge and the
dramas of past relationships rear their ugly heads in our current
relationships, we have gone to sleep and are not living in the present
moment.
What we do when one of the two of us discovers that a
pattern from the past is being played out, we immediately bring it up to
the other person and we talk about our feelings and the situation. The
trick is to "kill the monster while it's little."
As creators and masters of our own lives, we need to
unearth these destructive patterns and resolve them once and for all.
It's sometimes painful but necessary to look at yourself openly and
honestly. But, we feel the first step to making any change in our lives is
awareness. It's only after becoming aware of things that need to be healed
can we heal them and move forward.
Only when we become more aware and conscious in all
aspects of what we want for our lives and relationships are we truly
"driving our own bus" and are not just passengers in a bus
that's careening out of control.
Susie and Otto Collins are married, life partners who are
Relationship and Life Success Coaches, and authors of several books
on relationships, including "Should You Stay or Should You Go?" "No
More Jealousy" "Creating Relationship Trust" "Communication Magic"
and "Attracting Your Perfect Partner." In addition to having a great
relationship, they regularly write, speak and conduct seminars on
love, relationships and personal growth. To read more free articles
like this or to sign up for their free online relationship tips
newsletter visit http://www.collinspartners.com
or
http://www.RelationshipGold.com
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