Relationship: I Am Using You!

Using You2

Some of us are in a relationship with a user. The user’s mission is to take from you to get a stronghold on what they want in life. And, hey, it is you they choose to use.

You know the reasons:  money, prestige, property, citizenship, and the fear of being alone. Sometimes, some folk will use you just to get to someone else. There are those who are in a relationship, only to control someone.  So these folk are in a relationship with you, yet it has nothing to do with you.  You are simply an object to be used.

How can we identify some of these love moocher users? How can we really know for sure?

Before we begin, you must always trust your Gut. This is a spiritual/natural instinctual internalized sensor system that nudges us gently and says, “Hmmm… I am not sure.” Or you will be gently warned by a feeling that is telling you, “This person does not really care about me.” Or you will initially have doubt.

We make the mistake in relationships, believing in the principle of, “innocent until proven guilty.”  When it comes to giving your heart, time, and soul to someone, you had better go with your Gut.

We ignore the Gut, and then we end up in an emotional rut.

You fight for someone you love, knowing within the recesses of your heart, he/she is not for you, yet you force it and then construe every reason under the sun to stay when you should go, because it is so much easier to stay.  So, in this case, you agree to be used. And you settle for a loveless, unhealthy, half on— half off relationship. And you think it is okay just because sometimes the relationship appears peaceful, good, and calm.

This is because you are doing everything possible to keep the peace.  You have been manipulated into submission to the will of the user. Hew to the line or live in hell. Hell is what you are trying to avoid, because within your heart of hearts you know you are not going anywhere. So, you accept less, minimize who you are, make all of the necessary changes to adapt, simply to blend in the relationship.   You go with the flow because you know that is the only way to go, since you refuse to hit the door.  Knowing there is someone better.  Knowing there is someone who would really love you beyond life.

So you settle.  No.  Correction. You do more than settle; you literally whittle yourself away from what you need and want, while making excuses acclimating.  So, you work harder, do more— be less to be more.  Thinking you are earning the user’s love.

The user is not always the obvious narcissist personality.  They can be either: smooth, or sexy, sweetly needy, or appearing to be deprived in some way and they choose you to be their hero.  Or some can also be charming— until they get to the place in your heart, or to the place in your life where they have you psychologically, parentally, emotionally, or financially locked in.

Some get locked in a number of ways, like: a man being trapped by a woman who bears his children.  This often happens first by accident, then the stair step children start coming.  You can’t deny your children so now you are in a child headlock. As time goes on, you realize that if you can take your kids and go— you would, but you know you can’t. This makes the children pawn in the game.  Try to leave and you will never see them again, or not as regularly as the children need.  There is also the other man, post your departure, who will be raising or not raising your children.

There are users who have you bound in the relationship by having legal access— to your property. You have allowed this user to earn rights to half of the property you previously owned.  To make matters worse, some users will illegally take what you owned.

Several users seek to own your investments where they now have a share of any monies accrued and earned before and during the relationship.  What was fully yours is now partially theirs.

Once locked in, you begin to see some of the problems.  By this time they’ve got you.

Let’s not forget holding some of you hostage by a secret that may be criminal in nature.  This is psychological torture.  Your life is easier just sticking the relationship out.  Then there is one of my all time favorites— “it’s cheaper to keep her!”

There have been relationships where the user goes to school, while their partner works to pay the bills. This goes on for at least four years or more.  Four long years of the user having a minimal workload with school (only) while his/her partner handles the home, bills, children (if any) and the job.

We have seen time and time again where the user gets their degree, moves up in life, becoming high minded, and forgetting they were only able to make it through school, thanks to their partner who managed everything thing else.  That same working partner is now considered an imbecile.

Do a test and break the cycle of being the giver and watch after a little bit of time, the relationship becomes strained, tense, and you will begin to hear from the user, every chance they get about what they are doing, or what they must do, since you are not doing, and how they are doing things by themselves.  Resume your “being used” cycle and all is right with the world again.

A relationship is about giving and taking. It is about leveraging each other, supporting, loving, bridging the gaps, and maintaining a balance.  It is not to use, manipulate, emasculate, abuse or belittle for our own personal selfish gain. 

Some good men in these types of relationships are so mentally neutered; they can’t make a sound decision after being exposed to this.  Some good women are so emotionally beaten down; they continue on the path of bad relationships.

Beware of the love moocher user!

Posted in Destroy | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Relationship with Self: Strength to Be Strong

Strength to Strong2I have found people who are strong are often misunderstood.  We simply handle things from a different perspective.  It is not that we are never hit with the blows of life, we just don’t buckle.  We don’t wallow in the pains of life. 

I was reading a note on the timeline of Helen Meyers, one of my sisters on Face book.  A note on her timeline read:  “Sometimes the strongest among us are the ones who smile through silent pain, cry behind closed doors, and fight battles nobody knows about”     —–Anonymous

The weak cowers to life’s situations.  Strength sees another way around the problem.  Whereas others accept the problem and only hope for a better day— strength works to make it a better day.

During a crisis, we dig deep within and pull out the power of self.  We then begin to strategize with a tangible resource around us, considering what that resource could provide and how we can provide a resource to that resource. We know that life is not always about taking from others.  We recognize the win-win of the giving and receiving cycle.

Those who have emotional insecurity often do not mix well with our energy, because we have little tolerance for a pity party, stupidity, idle mindedness, loose lip chatter, or negativity.  While the weak fears to stand on their own to find a way, we do not always know the way; we just know there is a better way.  In order to find the way, we learn through the powers of those before us, our historical ancestors, our experiences, the universal powers, and the God we believe in.  These are all teachers and givers of strength. We draw from these sources.

Just because we do not seek to justify ourselves in order to win validation of others, we are often misjudged.  We know the truth, but we press forward, refusing to crumble in being misunderstood.  We use negative situations as a step stool to gain more knowledge, power and truth. 

The weak has a need to prove something, while the strong holds its own, needing to prove nothing.  The results of having a strong character, authenticity, a winning spirit, and a good heart are all proof enough.  Truth does not cry out begging to be understood, but it is there for all who inquires.

Weakness has a problem dealing with issues directly and objectively, but strength has no problem fighting for the cause or maintaining a position by which all logic, objectivity and reason supports. Strength directly handles conflict with objectivity and perseverance until the resolve is done.  The weak perceives this behavior as confrontational.  

When the strong is wrong, we acknowledge such wrongs.  The words, “I am sorry” is not hard for us.  We know that if we do not say the words with sincerity, this diminishes our character.  It is not a risk we are willing to take.

Weakness is not about the inability to do.  Weakness is only the unwillingness to try.
Weakness is not about the inability to be strong; it is only about the lack of choice to be strong.

When it comes to problems, the weak only lacks the effort to try to solve them.  The strong never stops until the solution is won.

People look at strength as a big to-do. It really isn’t.  It is about having the chutzpah to not accept anything less than the quality of a wholistic life that we work to achieve, along with the work we put in to be our best self and willingly give to others.  It is not about our expectations of others, because there is no need to control anyone.  There is no challenge in that.

I often hear some Christians say that God is still working with them.  If we do not do the self work, no God can do it for us.  No matter what God we believe in, God only works with whatever measure of strength we have.  If you have little strength, God can only produce little work.  If you produce much strength, God can produce much work in your life.  Your strength works the same as your faith.  Little faith renders little, if anything at all.   

Finally, strength has the ability to identify its own weaknesses.  The strong makes the choice to strengthen each weakness, while moving forward in life, and will sometimes take a verbal, even reputational punch, only if punching back minimizes or removes their self power.  The strong has no choice but to rise in times of trouble, because the alternative is the depths of pity without productivity— only captivity into emotional self destruction and perpetual weakness.

Posted in Self | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment