We all go through things to learn and grow as humans. There is no greater teacher than suffering, they say. Also sooner you learn your lessons the better it is, as it washes away your karma faster.

Below are the lessons you can and should learn if your relationship sector is not working:

1) YOU WILL LEARN ABOUT UNCONDITIONAL LOVE:  By being selfless in your close relationships. When you cannot even give up on some relationships or escape them. You will reach a stage where your love will become unconditional even if the other person is not returning the effort. Once your love becomes unconditional, the vibration of that relationship shifts, and the other person will change. The challenge here is you learning the lesson of unconditional love and once you do you will realize the power of it. It can heal anything and anyone.

2) YOU WILL DEVELOP THE QUALITY OF SEVA (HELPING OTHERS): Sewa is one of the most important part of all spiritual practices and religions. Once you will be there for others, you will develop this quality and it will fill you with immense joy. You will not want to go back to your own lifestyle, that is how soul satisfying Sewa is.

3) SACRIFICE/TYAG: The third most important pillar of any good life is based on sacrifice. Like when you decide to go vegan for the love of animals, you are sacrificing your sense of taste to an extent. If we all keep doing things for ourselves and refuse to do any sacrifices for each other, no relationships can thrive. Every relationship needs a little bit of sacrifice. Even when you have a dog, you have to get up early in the morning to take it out. You will learn this quality and it will change you entirely as a person. Eventually you will understand that sacrifice will make you richer, always.

4) NON – ATTACHMENT: if you have deep relationship karma, you will have losses for sure. The lesson here is nonattachment, even if you do everything right, someone can still walk out of your life. So, you will have to master Non – attachment in all relationships so that it does not affect you. Bhagwat Gita says, “Let go, do not cling om to the fruits of your actions”. Trust me nothing teaches non- attachment better than failed relationships.

5) SELF WORK: As your outer world is in chaos, you will be forced to look inside and ask yourself what is wrong with me? Why is this happening with me? The moment you will ask this question, the universe will answer. Yes, you will have to do self-work and change yourself. Only once you stop putting the blame outside and change yourself, it will all miraculously resolve. Like they say, “As inside, so outside”.

6) PATIENCE: You will need immense patience as any karma clears in layers. You will think you have done it but another layer will crop up. I have cleared personal, family and ancestral karma and still layers come up. We have taken many many lives to build it all, so do not be disheartened and keep at it. If you learn the lesson of patience, which I am still struggling with a little bit. Your life will become much easier and you will reach equanimity. I recently heard this quote, ‘Patience is a shortcut to God’– by Nayaswami Haridas.  How true is that? If we have full trust and faith in God, why be impatient?

7) RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD/GURU: Last but not the least, we all must turn to someone when we are suffering. When we turn to God and guru in this moment, our relationship with them becomes deeper and strong. We are given respite or wisdom to deal with our suffering. Our relationship with them flourishes and so do we. That is one relationship which will never fail you.

Concluding I hope we all learn our lessons and use our relationship karma to heal and grow spiritually. So that we can blossom into beautiful souls. In suffering, we can find strength which we never knew we had. We can identify our own strengths, gifts and blessings to free ourselves and be happy. Lastly may Unconditional divine love permeate our lives and we become beacons of light and hope for others.