When do we know we’ve lost our humanity?
When the support is gone from our friendship.
We are most helpful when we listen in a non-judgmental way when a friend needs to talk.
Friendship is among the most valuable possessions in our lives particularly when we need to unburden ourselves. Being able to get our inner thoughts out and hear non-emotional objective feed-back from a trusted friend is a priceless gift. In the book such a process is noted as an exercise in getting to know our real selves which is greatly enhanced when we are free to express our vulnerability.
The act of exposing ourselves and inviting friends to bare witness is essential for change to take place. The act of bringing friends into the process fulfills the requirements of honesty, integrity and humility as a foundation as stated on page 50. “We demonstrate honesty when we are willing to expose exactly what is going on with us. We demonstrate integrity when we make no excuses or rationalizations for what we know to be true. And we show humility when we take responsibility for what we know to be true”.
Exercises:
What secrets have we kept that we feel would be too embarrassing to relate to a close friend? How would I feel after relating this if the friend said it didn’t seem all that bad?
These concepts are expressed in Stage 5 of the book.
For more information on the concepts and methods of self-examination, please visit our web site reinventionenterprises.com or to acquire the book go to reinventionenterprises.com/the-process-book/.
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