You will recognize that the more balanced you are in the four points, the better your relationships will be. Achieving this improvement will take effort on your part, and again you will find yourself changing in relationship to others. You know that your health will cause you to attract other healthy people. You choose relationships that support and nurture you without being codependent or enabling. As a result of your healthy choices, you have individuals who lovingly tell you the truth because they put your well-being above their own fear. You ask for help whenever needed, knowing this is a sign of strength, not weakness. You will attract others who have problems with chronic pain because they see the change in you and they are also interested in a solution. You freely share your solutions with them. You don’t try to control them because you know everyone has to walk his or her own path, but you know you can provide guidance for them and share your own journey of experience, strength, and hope. You evaluate all your relationships, looking at which ones drain you and which ones enhance your life. Knowing that drastic change will create imbalance, you create a plan to move toward building positive relationships and move away from negative relationships. You understand you will have fear, but you know you do not have to go through this alone. This blog post is an excerpt from Pain Recovery – How to Find Balance and Reduce Suffering from Chronic Pain by Mel Pohl, MD, FASAM, Frank Szabo, LADC, Daniel Shiode, PhD, Robert Hunter, PhD; Published by Central Recovery Press (CRP).