Page 27 - Relationships101 A Guide To Building Healthy Relationships Final 1

This leaves me perplexed.

But I am a solution-oriented person. So, I have been studying this issue for quite some time. I am
writing this book because I have found a way to have healthy relations with family, friends, and
significant others even if it means leaving them alone until they get healthy.

Realizing that the quality of life for future generations depends on our ability to develop symbiotic
relationships with each other, I have decided to be a part of the solution by consciously developing a
symbiotic relationship with myself, where I make a commitment to take care of myself. I also made a
commitment to develop and maintain only symbiotic relationships in my business and personal life. This
has improved my mental and emotional state, energy, peace, productivity, and it has accelerated growth
in my life.

A symbiotic relationship is a relationship between entities which is mutually beneficial for the
participants of the relationship because all parties realize they need each other. A symbiotic
cooperative relationship (as between two persons or groups) is the symbiosis. Thus, there is a positive
sum gain from cooperation. This is a term commonly used in biology to explain the relationship
between two entities that need each other to survive and prosper. For example, if I were to develop
symbiotic relationships, I have to know who I am, what my needs are and what is needed from me.

The relationship between the bumblebee and the flower is one example. While extracting the flower's
pollen for protein and nectar for energy, the bumblebee inadvertently brushes pollen from one flower to
another to prompt the flower's reproduction process. The bumblebee needs the flower to survive, while
the flower needs the bumblebee to survive. This is an example of a positive-sum relationship.

Other relationships in biology, especially with respect to the food chain, do not yield a positive-sum.
Such relationships are called “zero-sum relationship” in which one player consumes and benefits from
the other.

In this type of relationship, it is essential that both players survive, or the dominant player will lose its
food supply and die. If the foxes kill all the chickens, the foxes die, having lost their means of survival.
If the predator kills all its prey, the predator dies. Pertaining to relationships, if marriages keep ending
up in divorce, the chances for future generations to experience healthy, loving marriages will diminish–
or like a species–die.

No one benefits in a zero-sum relationship. Unfortunately, the divorce rate is a sure sign that even
humans who were madly in love with each other are having problems relating and staying connected to
that love, and therefore, their one positive-sum relationship turns into a zero-sum relationship because
needs are not being met. This trend threatens the survival of healthy relationships and keeps them from
evolving into healthy marriages with a foundation that helps them whether storms and make it to the
finish line intact.

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