What R Show are You Living?

Collins Dictionary defines a reality show as "a type of television program that aims to show how ordinary people behave in everyday life... or in situations, often created by the program makers, which are intended to represent everyday life."

I wonder: 

• Why are we voyeuristically drawn to these programs?
• What missing pieces are being fulfilled by these shows?
• With the show-edits that have created this form of entertainment, what was cut out or spliced in that doesn't quite match the messiness of real life?

R is for Reality?
(Photo credit:  Long-Hand - the A to Z of My World)

What would it be like if we created a Real Show that focused on the beauty of the relationship,  i.e., honoring and respecting each person in our lives?

Or, what do we want or expect individually that distracts from what is being revealed about us communally?  Is there a way to unlock the constraints that hold us in the past or project us into an unfulfilled future?  Maybe the R Show that we are seeking is actually about Relationships.

  

R is for Relationships

I know that relationships can be messy, but through the action of Reaching Out, maybe we will grab hold of a hand that will help us.  Or, maybe our hand is what another person needs right now.

Healthy relationships rise out of the messiness when we practice the relational skills of: respect, acceptance, trust, caring, patience...

How might we seek healthy relationships?
(Photo credit:  What is a Healthy Relationship?, Kiran, Inc.)

Rather than be entertained for an hour or two by passively watching a reality show, maybe our challenge is to actively build healthy relationships.  What would it look like if we turned off our social media for a few hours each day or a few days each week and practiced one of the skills?  Maybe today I could practice respect; tomorrow would be caring; the next day, listening...  I wonder what would life be like at the end of the month?

As a framework for each day, we could:

• Select one of the words.
• Ask a friend to help with that word/skill.
• Describe that word-value to your practice-partner; and then, ask how that person understands the same word-value.
• Practice by keeping in mind both definitions (yours and your friend's).
• Notice what happens: within you and responses from others.

Possibly by the end of a few days we might find that what we were seeking in the pre-recorded reality shows is nothing compared to the Reality we are now living!

May the R-show you are living bring you satisfaction!

Larry Gardepie

Dialogue San Diego Consulting

(click on link for website)