Intimacy, A Path Toward Spirituality

Relationships and mindful living.

John Amodeo Ph.D., MFT

An Overlooked Aspect of What It Means to Love Ourselves

Moving toward well-being and wholeness means embracing the full range of our feelings.

Balancing Between Saving the World and Savoring It

We may want to help our troubled world, but how can find a balance between our desire to save the world and our inclination to savor it?

Psychological Causes of the Attack on Our Capitol

As the attack on the Capitol reverberates, many people wonder how we can get through this dark period. This article offers some illumination about how to move forward.

Being a Warrior of the Heart

Courage doesn’t mean being a fearless warrior. It means being a warrior of the heart—engaging with our fears and other uncomfortable feelings without being crippled by them.

Radical Acceptance: A Gentle Way to Be With Our Feelings

RAIN is an acronym that offers a simple structure to be with our feelings. It is an especially helpful tool for soothing ourselves when we're feeling stressed or overwhelmed.

Finding the Resilience to Deal With Change

COVID is challenging for most of us. How can we find the resilience to deal with the difficult changes and challenges in our lives?

Can You Receive Soulfully or Are You a Taker?

When someone offers a gift or a kind word or deed, are you able to let it in? This article explores the difference between deeply receiving and taking in a limited way.

It's Time We Elected Emotionally Intelligent Leaders

What would it take to elect leaders who have the requisite wisdom and compassion to serve the people rather than themselves?

When You Wonder if People Don't Like You

We might find that people don't like us as much as we might like. This article explores what we might be doing that pushes people away, and offers tips to become more likable.

The Power of Showing Our Real Feelings

Intimacy is the felt sense of connection with another person. This article explores what it take to build warm, safe, and fulfilling connections in our lives.

Creating Boundaries That Don't Bind Us

How can we set our boundaries in a way that supports us and maintains trust and connection with others rather than constraining us and pushing people away?

Dealing with Sorrow and Loss During Coronavirus

The coronavirus pandemic is not only increasing our fear. It can also bring up shame as our capacity to care for ourselves and our family is diminished.

Are You Getting on Each Other's Nerves?

How can couples survive and thrive during the coronavirus pandemic? It requires finding a balance between being together and self-nurturing in other ways.

How the Coronavirus Awakens Us to Our Interconnectedness

Buddhist psychology teaches that nothing exists independently. The coronavirus awakens us to how everything is interconnected.

How Far Can You Let in Good Feelings?

Have you ever considered how skilled you are in the art of receiving? This article explores the subtle way that shame contaminates our capacity to receive.

Why Is It So Hard to Receive?

Receiving is more difficult than we might think. This article describes how shame is a major obstacle to receiving and the importance of being mindful of how shame blocks us.

If You’re Feeling Lonely, You’re Not Alone

Research suggests that there is a high prevalence of moderate to severe loneliness in American society. What is needed to overcome it?

Responding to False Accusations in Intimate Relationships

Being falsely accused can create much anguish. Here are some things to consider when being falsely accused in an intimate relationship.

Serenity Prayer

No, We Don't Create Our Own Reality

A popular belief in some spiritual communities is that we create our own reality. How might this limit us, and what do we really need to move forward?

The Essential Ingredient for True Intimacy

Emotional safety creates the foundation for intimacy to blossom.

Why Love Isn't Enough

Is it possible to love someone but not feel emotionally close? This article addresses how emotional safety is essential for building trusting, emotionally satisfying relationships.

Why Is It So Darn Hard to Love Ourselves?

Why is loving ourselves so difficult? And what needs to happen so we can bring more loving-kindness toward ourselves?

How Listening Is the Ultimate Act of Generosity

Listening requires the generosity of extending our attention to others. Through our attentive presence, people feel cared about and more connected. 

The Surprising Power of Pausing Before Speaking

We may think our communication skills are good, but we often overlook how our emotional tone is often more important than our choice of words.

The Intimate Art of Listening

We all want to be heard, but how good are we at listening? Here are some tips to improve your listening skills—and thereby deepen connections in your relationships.

Are You Burdened by Regrets?

Having regrets is an unavoidable part of life. This article explores how can we can grow, heal, and learn from regrets without being debilitated by them.

Communicating, Not Compromising, Is a Key to Connecting

We may think that compromise is the key to successful relationships. But what it really takes is communication and dialogue, which is based on genuine mutual caring.

Woman Sad Alone

Losing a Relationship Without Losing Yourself

Few events are more gut-wrenching than separating from someone you love. This article explores how we can tap into inner resources to us heal and move forward.

Finding Your Balance When Life Throws You a Curve Ball

Life presents unavoidable losses and adversity that we have little control over. But we do have control over how we relate to what happens to us. How can we find our balance?

The Art of Not Taking Things So Personally

What does it mean to not take things personally and how can we learn to have some space between ourselves and difficult feelings and situations?

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