Hello and welcome back to practicing human, the podcast where every day we're getting a little

better at life. I'm your host, Cory Muscara. In today's episode, we're going to talk about

the benefit of being deeply fulfilled in its relationship to other people. More to come on that

in a moment. First, let settle in together with the sound of the bells.

Okay, so one of the pushbacks around personal growth or even meditation can sometimes be that it

feels like a self-centered practice. If you listen to this podcast, you probably have a more nuanced

perspective on that because we do often talk about the benefit of your own inner work and your

own well-being on the rest of the world. But I just want to highlight that again in this episode,

which is that when you are deeply fulfilled, you're much better able to engage with others

from a place of patience, more understanding, groundedness, love, rather than a lot of our

traditional ways of relating to other people that can include things like defensiveness, manipulation,

fear, protecting ourselves. And this is one of the powers of inner work and developing an inner

sense of safety and ease and joy in ourselves. We go out into the world then with less of a need to

protect, defend a part of us that might be scared or hurt. And when we do do that, or when we are

in the world in that way, it does complicate relationships. We're all going to bring this into our

relationships regardless of how much healing we've done. It's just stuff comes out in relationships

inevitably, which is why they're so powerful for our own growth. So let's just acknowledge that

from the very beginning that none of us are immune to this work and to the triggers that come up

in relationships. But the more clarity we can bring to our ourselves and our own patterns,

conditionings, and our workings, the more we can navigate these in real time as they arise,

and the less they will show up for us in a way that is destructive. And maybe you've noticed this

in yourself, each time you go through a period of healing, or even just think of it more

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