Bradley Manning, a 23 year old American soldier is in prison for leaking “SECRET INFORMATION” (250 thousand documents) to WikiLeaks. Some say he is a courageous man and call him a hero; others say he is a traitor.

While Bradley Manning is in jail awaiting trial, many others who walk around free are “locked up” nonetheless in their own INNER PRISON, not for disclosing “SENSITIVE INFORMATION”, but for a totally different reason: for NOT LETTING THEMSELVES SEE, ACKNOELDGE AND BECOME AWARE OF the ways in which they sabotage their lives and their intimate relationships. They fail in their attempts to enter or cultivate a satisfying relationship, yet refuse to notice and reveal to themselves the reasons for their failures, take responsibility and learn what they need to change.

What they do instead is avoid bringing to the surface – AND BECOME AWARE OF - that which will enable them to understand what makes them sabotage their relationships. They will rather keep this information hidden from themselves, oblivious to the fact that by doing so they keep harming their relationships time and again.

The inner-prison many are jailed in is THE PRISON OF UNAWARENESS. Being unaware of the way one shoots himself in the foot makes it impossible to take responsibility and initiate any change.

UNAWARENESS causes many to sabotage their relationships: they don’t release themselves from the prison of fears and needs which control their attitudes, thoughts, reactions and behaviors; the self-manipulations they unconsciously use to repress and deny their own traits, thus projecting these onto their partners; their unrealistic expectations and fantasies; messages about partners and relationships they have unconsciously internalized while growing up, which affect their thinking, attitudes and feelings about partners and relationships; their automatic emotional and behavioral patterns that withhold them from choosing to react and behave otherwise; and many other factors unique to each one.

Until they become aware of these factors and the power they exert over their interactions with their partners, they won’t know what and how to change, break-free from their own inner-prison and become empowered to cultivate a successful relationship.

While Bradley Manning is still in prison for having leaked information to the free world, many remain trapped in their own inner-prison, refusing to become SELF-AWARE and get insights which can lead them to succeed in their relationships.

Author's Bio: 

Doron Gil, Ph.D., an expert on Self-Awareness and Relationships, is the author of “The Self-Awareness Guide to a Successful Intimate Relationship”. Available as eBook and paperback: http://www.amazon.com/Self-Awareness-Guide-Successful-Intimate-Relations...

Dr. Gil has a 30 year experience as a university teacher, workshop leader, counselor and consultant in both the USA and Israel. He has taught classes on Self-Awareness and Relationships to thousands of students, lectured widely on these and related topics at conferences world-wide, gave workshops and trained physicians, managers, school teachers and parents on how to develop Self-Awareness in order to improve their personal and professional relationships.