Awareness, Groundedness, Embodiment: Intrapersonal Elements in Interpersonal Relationships

Human beings are inherently relational. To relate may mean to communicate, interact, transact, engage, involve and even just be with another person. It may imply fulfilling and satisfying the needs of one another. In a more altruistic tone, the relationship is giving and receiving. Others see a relationship as a social exchange. In contrast, others may see it as a social and ethical contract that ought to adhere. Others see a relationship as an instrument as a means to self-actualize or as a process of reaching the self-potential. There are many types of relationships. While others have a formal set of rules, there are interpersonal relationships that have loose code of affair. Among the dimensions of relationship, intimate interpersonal relationships are complicated. In contrast to business affair, marriage and in other intimate partnership, sanctions, roles and rules are not clearly defined. The ambiguity of interpersonal relationships reflects the dynamisms of its elements. Since its fluid, contextual and multi-faceted, there is no exact point of analysis. In this article, awareness, dialog, groundedness, embodiment are discussed in the light of intimate partner conflicts that are amplified using fictional case vignettes that are adopted from real cases of intimate conflict. This article concludes with the assertion that cultivation of relationships starts with the person.