I am an ambitious, happy and mindful person. I am 27 years old and quite satisfied with life. Sometimes. My relation with my family is my bigger issue in life. My mother and sister don’t get along, my mother has a fear of conflict and my sister is very accusing towards her. This affects me a lot. I get sad and upset when they argue, since it’s so little that upsets my sister and my mother can’t seem to find ways to defense herself or talk in a good way with my sister. I also have a brother who lives far away and when he visits the family will gather and often aggressive discussions will occur. I don’t feel comfortable with this at all and since I feel there’s a lack of respect, love and stability, I get disappointed and will not get involved in the discussion, so I often go home feeling sad and confused. I seem to keep a lot of my anger inside and I feel that my family is draining me with energy. I feel much empathy with them cause they’re my family and we have been
through a lot together but on the other hand I feel hatred cause they can’t take care of themselves or each other or me. I don’t know what do to not to feel this anxiety about my family.

I have been in a relationship for 22 years, the first 18 were fine, then slowly over the last few years things have changed. My partner now seems very intolerant of what I do and what I say. We are both practitioners of Vipassana meditation, and my partner meditates every morning and has done so for the past 35 years!. Our differences of opinion lately, have been very frequent and are now escalating in to him becoming very loud and very vocal and angry, not a characteristic that I would ever have expected to see. He comes across to all people as a passive, caring, loving, lovely man. When we have a disagreement and I try later to talk to him about why this might be happening, I get told that it is in the past, and now everything is fine. I understand this, but my emotions get very affected by the intensity, so it takes me awhile to let go. I am also told that I start 95% of any disagreements, and that I need to change. If I suggest something about his behaviour, I get told “one finger pointing, three fingers pointing back”. My partner always seems to have a quote or saying to cover everything. I am feeling guilt, I am feeling overwhelmed, I am feeling scared. I am feeling my emotions strongly in my body, and am trying hard, i try to watch my sensations and not get caught up in them but at times I seem to be failing dismally. I know that I obviously contribute to the conflict, but feel that I will be giving in to his demands and kowtowing to all his demands if there is to be a change. He says he needs to change as well, but he continues with the same intolerance, and is still loud and angry. When we argue he becomes very personal and belittling, I find this very hurtful, he sees that as a weakness, “getting caught up in my ego”. I am now thinking it may be better to walk away and let go of this relationship. Thank you for listening,