The Seven Stages of Relationship – Very Few Get Beyond Stage Six

Relationship is a means to an end versus an end in itself. The true purpose of relationship is the full flowering of each partner but only those who conquer their fears by learning to consciously love can reach the ultimate seventh stage of relationship

by Allen L Roland

Most people are afraid of love because they are afraid of their deepest joy, delight and inner freedom and are, in essence, trapped by their fear of deep vulnerability and intimacy.

2013 will be a worldwide year of transition and no where will that be felt deeper than with individual love relationships.

In relationship, we must reach a place where being honest and being true to yourself is more important than the survival of the relationship! Let me illustrate this using Stendhal’s and Roland’s seven stages of a love relationship ~ In relationship, Love must evolve from emotional to conscious unconditional love and that transition doesn’t happen painlessly.

1. ADMIRATION ” I really admire you as a person “

2. BEGINNING OF DESIRE “I think I’d like to get to know you better.”

3. HOPE ” I hope you feel the same way about me ”

4. INCEPTION OF LOVE ” I think I’m falling in love with you ”

5. FIRST CRYSTALLIZATION ” I see the beauty and perfection within you ”

6. DOUBT, FEAR AND/OR JEALOUSY, ANGER AND RESENTMENT ” You’re going to hurt me or betray me like others have “

This is where Stendhal ended his six stages of love for this is the stage where most, if not all, emotional relationships end with mutual anger, resentment or fear submerging all traces of the original love. What we do not realize in this stage is that these feelings are often associated with earlier childhood or relationship hurts we felt with loved ones and we are face to face with the decisions we made at that time to repress and deny our deepest feelings ~ because there was seemingly no-one there for us. We can either run, as most people do, or go inside and go through these fears by not denying the love, taking accountability for these feelings and stop being a victim! You cannot escape stage six until you are willing to go inside, take total accountability for your actions and feelings and stop denying love. This takes great courage but the payoff is immense! Resentment doesn’t heal! Anger doesn’t heal! Only love truly heals!

7. ROLAND’S SECOND CRYSTALLIZATION ” I feel the beauty and perfection within myself and I’m sharing it with you and the world ”

This Stage cannot be accomplished unless we realize that our ultimate quest in life is to fully experience our authentic self and our connection to our original state of soul consciousness and an innate connection with source.

IT’S A PLACE OF INNER VERSUS OUTER VALIDATION !

“Until I let go I cannot grow “, “Great love can both take hold and let go.”  When we let go in relationship, you do not let go of the love. To let go with love you must, in essence, consciously love your partner and yourself. Your self respect will be your guide. You must reach the place where you can say that it’s more important that I love myself than you loving me.

Conscious love (non-possessive, non-dependent and unconditional love) is rarely obtained between humans. The conscious love motive, in its most developed state, is the wish that the object should arrive at its own innate perfection ~ regardless of the consequences to the lover or partner. It is total unconditional love and when we come from this place we are embracing our deepest spiritual essence and are also accessing a state of soul consciousness within ourselves ( the Unified Field ).

The paradox of this attitude is that such love always invokes eventually a similar attitude in its objects because we all seek, at the deepest level, to be unconditionally loved. As such, when we allow love to be our guiding intention through our thoughts and feelings and learn to consciously unconditional love ~ we eventually begin to see through clearer eyes and all things come into perfect balance and harmony.

Jesus consciously unconditionally loved and the reason we have never forgotten him is because that same capacity to consciously love and be loved lies deepest within each one of us ~ but many of us continue to look outside and externalize it versus going inside and internalized it as I most certainly do with my clients as a heart centered counselor and coach as well as my primary relationship.

The path to the soul is always through doors of fear and most of those fears appear in relationship. You don’t realize those fears are illusions until you stop denying love and go through them. Only then can you truly claim the greatest gift ~ yourself.

Only then can you become a fragment of life’s heart and transcend time and space in the process ~ for the hearts’ desire is to love so deeply that we become one with a Unified Field of love and soul consciousness as well as claim our part in an evolving loving plan and always from a place of inner celebration and delight.

Each relationship is a step in that process of eventually returning to source and only by fully opening your heart and learning to consciously unconditionally love can you begin or accelerate that journey to truly find yourself.

The ultimate relationship, as such, is a spiritual relationship where both partners are on a common path, one through the other, to find and celebrate who they really are ~ using the love that exists between them as the vehicle.

We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started… and know the place for the first time: T.S.Eliot

About the Author: Allen L Roland is a Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist. He is also a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his web site at AllenRoland.com. He also guest hosts a Truthtalk, a national radio show that airs monthly. He is available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private consultations via email at allen@allenroland.com.

Allen L Roland, PhD

Allen L Roland, PhD is a Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist. He is also a heart-centered spiritual consultant, author, and lecturer who also shares a weekly political and social commentary on his website at AllenRoland.com. He also guest hosts Truthtalk, a national radio show that airs monthly. He is available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements as well as private consultations via email at allen@allenroland.com.

Roland is a twin who was born in Boston, Massachusetts, survived a dysfunctional family, pursued and lived his dreams, including becoming a Navy supersonic carrier pilot, finding himself by fully opening his heart, writing three books, siring four children ~ and still living his ultimate dream by making a difference from a place of love, celebration, and service.

His Ph.D. dissertation THE UNIFIED FIELD was chosen by Common Boundary and Noetic Science Institute, in their 1998 national dissertation contest, as one of the top three finalists for combining spirituality and psychology. His ongoing heart-centered work as a consultant with veterans with PTSD is the most satisfying work of his life. Allen’s online newsletter, columns, and radio broadcasts are committed to the truth ~ as he sees it ~ for only the truth is revolutionary.