Being-In, Being-For, Being-With

Book excerpt: Being-In, Being-For, Being-With contemplates the coexistence of being and relating. Dr. Moustakas explores the balancing fulcrum of being-with and being-with-oneself essential to success in everyday challenges and in finding creativity. But there is a paradox to communion and loneliness: while solitude inspires intimate contacts with others, it also increases one's need for privacy and aloneness. Freedom releases. When others are free to be themselves, we are free to be who we are. This authentic freedom enhances self and others because in every relationship, mutuality sustains and encourages expressions of freedom. In freedom, we are attuned to inner states, pursuing a life of creative ideas and meanings, seeking a purity of self-presence that is simultaneously open and receptive to others and the requirements of daily life.