Katie's blog

Despite her awesome telepathic capabilities (e.g., she can let me know in which area of the house she wants her fort made), Lucy has also mastered a communication skill that most people haven’t. She communicates until she’s understood. Instead of retreating, sulking, attacking or whimpering, she uses her meows and body language to persist until her point is made. Clean my litter box. I’m fine, just snoozing and not really available at the moment. Open the door.

     Taking responsibility involves noticing the connections between events, especially those that happen three or more times, which indicates a trend.  It allows you to open to discovery over and over and to reset the juicy quotient of your close relationships.

     There is a choice you can make in your relationships that ends conflict and opens collaboration. Before you read on, take a moment and see if you’d be willing to make a word substitution in your mind and speaking. Hmmmm, (imagine clock ticking…) Okay, if you’re ready, read on.

I love the deeper meaning of “radical”—arising from or going to the root or source.  Our fifth co-commitment from Conscious Loving reads: I commit to acting from the awareness that I am 100 percent the source of my reality. Even 20 years ago, when the book first came out, this view of responsibility was considered radical in another way, as in, whhhaaat?!

The fourth commitment that we explored in Conscious Loving delves into radical responsibility. That is, it allows you to surface anything at the root that may be in the way of experiencing others as yours equals and allies. Here is the slightly modified version: I commit to the full empowerment of people around me.

The third commitment we explored in Conscious Loving has been my touchstone for many years. In the book it reads: I commit to revealing myself fully in my relationships, not to concealing myself. Several years ago I started communicating this as: I commit to revealing rather than concealing. In a recent talk I gave in Hawaii I realized I didn’t want to set up a duality, so I invited everyone to commit to revealing, period.

Another hug study has come out. This one gives guidance to the pacing-challenged huggers among us, those who don’t know how long (or short) the greeting hug should be. We now have the official results: according to a recent study at the University of Dundee, the average hug lasts three seconds. That’s about half a breath, unless you hold your breath when you’re hugging. Enough to make contact, not enough to commit your whole future.