 Alright, so an update on the previous video. You don't have to have watched it, but the previous video did have some very helpful all the comments there. I really treasured. It's about relationships and the spiritual purpose of long-term relationships. It's hard to go through the challenges, the downs of long-term relationships. It often feels like, you know, why stay? What's the point of staying? There's, you know, in our world of infinite choices now. It's like we no longer live in small villages, all our lives where you have arranged marriages. Everyone shares the same religion, you know, worldview, culture, family system, extended family system, friend system. And it all just makes so much sense for the simple, olden days to remain. And plus, I think in the old days, lifespan was much, much shorter, obviously, and much harder. So the requirement of staying together to keep ourselves alive was much different than today where it's anyway so much, so much different than modern times with lifestyles, lifespans, and the infinite choice of the internet and meeting all kinds of people online and, oh, wow. What if that was this, you know, that's a soulmate. You know, and anyway, you can go and read the comments of the previous Soul Gym video. If somehow you're watching this and not on the Facebook page for Soul Gym, that's where the previous video is December 31st. No, sorry. No, December 24th, 2023. Check out the comments there. Anyway, I had a very helpful conversation with my wife yesterday. So actually the same day of the video that I made just a few hours later. I was simply making that video, having some some conversation. I had a conversation with with somebody was very helpful. And anyway, long story short, a conversation that was about admitting my own recent critical nature, being too, in my, well, having, you know, had this perspective, a larger perspective now says, well, I could see how I could have been too critical in recent times of my wife. And, and she admitted, you know, given the feeling like she wasn't doing enough or being, you know, able to do the right things or be the right way or whatever. I just draw, which made me what which contributed to my feeling more neglected and unloved and cared for, da, da, da. And that conversation of being willing to admit to where I could have done differently work where I could have been more loving. The same thing, you know, it's like, it's, it's, you know, it's not always that possible or to have both partners willing to admit to one's growth edges and both partners being so committed to personal growth, and spiritual growth. And that makes it infinitely easier, of course, to recommit to a partnership in the cases where both partners are not, you know, equally committed or are not. Yeah, committed enough. Sometimes one partner is more committed and one partner is able to their commitment to spiritual or personal growth is able to compensate for the other partner or pull them along or whatever. I don't know. I'm not a relationship counselor, but I'm just grateful. And some of you are in that situation to and can be grateful for that, but others are not and it's, there's no judgment on my part, you know, it's, it's not easy whatsoever. And I'm just saying in my situation, the willingness to admit fault, or you could say fault or could say from a larger perspective, where one what what where one could have been even more loving to shift the situation. You know, and that elicited the other, the partner to also talk about what what they could have done differently to bring more harmony more lovingness to the relationship. What a big difference a conversation like that makes. And what I learned from that. And of course, I'm, I'm, I'm whispering not whispering whispering because I'm recording this in the home with the door closed. It's like, I wonder if the previous video with my wife saw that would be, I don't know, hopefully not embarrassed or whatever but she knows I'm very open to my audience so. It's all, it's all good. Right. So the, the, the, I guess the point I want to make and I will end this video is what I learned from it is that number one, a loving a conversation where one is willing to step back and admit to, ah, I could have been more loving could have done this differently. And then if one's partner is committed also to personal spiritual growth can elicit a letting the guard down from the other from the other partner. And what I learned from and that that's number one number two is is when I'm when I practice or I'm able to when I'm able to practice stepping back. You know, I have a bigger perspective of my relationship. The so called little annoyances. Oh, I wish my, you know, all of us in long term relationships. I don't maybe maybe you don't maybe your relationship is perfect. Or you have the person you have the larger perspective where you see perfection and love and everything that's amazing wonderful. Please comment below and share with us your wisdom. I would love that. But like, I know for me, it's easy in a long term relationship to to for for there to be kind of a sliding into having daily annoyances of oh, I, my partner can, I wish my partner would do this. It's like, oh, that's annoying. I really all that triggers me in this way or that way and, and oh my gosh is it going to be like this forever kind of thing. It's so easy to slip into focusing on those and so called annoyances or wishes for the partner to be different. And that becomes so big in one's mind and heart that it. Yeah, it corrupts the harmony in the relationship and the, the potential of the relationship for that moment. And it's like it becomes everything, right. And whereas this experience that I've had, you know, this, this past few days of, you know, being hyper focused fixated on those small annoyances and then, and then, you know, and then somehow by the grace of God, I'm really able to practice stepping back and looking at from a larger spiritual perspective and saying, Oh, that is nothing in the larger scheme of things I mean it's not nothing but it's, it's so small. There's this. It's a wonderful song I recommend by Glenn Phillips, my wife and I both love it. It's called the smallest part of you. I'm just going to look it up real quick again Phillip smallest part of you. You can find it I'm sure on YouTube or whatever streaming. Oh, it's called I still, I still love you. Okay it's called I still love you and the lyric part of the lyric goes, well I'll let you go and listen to it and if you can't find it comment below. But Glenn Phillips, I still love you. And it speaks so well to this dynamic of relationships and those hard parts, or those, you know, the parts in one's partner that one sees that are not perfect or even loving or whatever anyway, stepping back and saying oh that's, that's the smallest part of you. There's so much more to one's partner to one's relationship. Good. I mean this is an analogy for life, for life, right, that when we have difficulties, challenges, annoyances in life, down times in life, it is so easy to so easy. It's natural, right, the human that's how the human mind works to just focus down on that and that that's the war that becomes our world. And by the grace of God, if we are able to step back and see the larger picture of the beauty of the eternal soul's existence and the goodness that is that is truly truly there. If by the grace of God, we're able to, even for a meaningful moment, see that, see that goodness, see the larger goodness, it situates whatever current difficulty challenge in a much more right-sized perspective. You know, much more right-sized perspective. And then it allows conversation, a more loving conversation. It allows more loving beingness and action that leads to an opening up of life to love, to harmony again, to optimism and hope again. And that's what I once again learned for the, you know, feels like a thousandth time, a millionth time in this lifetime. And I will continue learning this again and again and again. It's so easy again and again always focusing on the difficult, hard parts. And then, oh, by the grace of God, hopefully able to step back and go, oh, that's right, the goodness. Oh, that's, oh my gosh, the love again. I pray that for me and I pray that for you to have that, that, you know, the divine grace to step back and for a meaningful moment, see the love, experience the love again, the larger love again, which allows us to have loving postures toward ourselves, toward life, toward our partners, toward our friends, toward our families, a loving posture that brings loving conversation, loving action that shifts everything, even in the small situations that shifts everything because of the illicit also hopefully perhaps if we have the destiny, if we have the grace, if we have the, if it's meant to be, it shifts an illicit loving response from that other person, from that other partner, family member, friend, you know, colleague, whatever situation, illicit a loving response from one's life at the moment. Again, it's, if it's meant to be, if it is, yeah, that's all I want to say. Thank you for watching. Thank you for being here. I truly welcome your comments as I mentioned to your experiences, your wisdom on these kinds of situations. When have you had the grace, divine grace to be able to step back and see the greater love, see the greater goodness of a situation of a relationship of how worthwhile it is, and therefore been able to respond in a more loving way. In a very accepting way, playful way, perhaps, that then elicited also a more loving situation from life, from the partner, from oneself, perhaps. I welcome your examples, your comments below. Thank you.