Relationships Let's Talk About It!

Commitment: that big 'c' word that causes cold feet for some people. In many ways, it's a projection of future scenarios that a person creates in their mind. Will their partner change? Will they be able to make decisions for themselves? Will they be able to meet new people and do the things that they like? If you're someone who constantly asks these questions before entering a relationship, you may have a fear of commitment. But whether you have this fear or not, it's worthwhile to look inward and meditate on the meaning of commitment and your relationship with it.

In today's episode, I explore the fear of commitment, its causes, and the ways we can overcome it. I share my personal experience with the fear of commitment in my 20s and explain how that eventually led to my current relationship. I reveal how being afraid of boredom, change, and the lack of freedom can make a person not want to commit as well as underscore the importance of shared values in a relationship. I also discuss the vital role that creativity plays in relationships and how we can cultivate the courage to overcome our fear of commitment.

"When we fear commitment, we see a future where we feel trapped. We must focus on the kind of intimacy we want and envision ourselves responding to it." - Pripo Teplitsky

This week on Relationships! Let's Talk About It:

• The meaning of commitment
• My experience with fear of commitment
• Why the fear of commitment could be about fear of losing your own freedom
• The role of authentic communication in a long-term relationship
• The importance of having shared values with your partner
• Why seeking perfection from a partner is not attainable
• The fear of boredom and creating excitement in long term relationships
• Being in love with an artist and how creativity can keep a relationship alive
• How fear of change can accompany the fear of commitment
• Ways to overcome the fear of rejection or approval
• The signs that tell you when your partner is afraid of commitment
• Developing fearlessness and overcoming the fear of commitment with courage

Related Content:

• What Do We Mean by Commitment?

Let's Talk About It!

Thanks for tuning into this week's episode of Relationships! Let's Talk About It - the show to help you forge deeper, more meaningful connections and relationships with those around you. If you enjoyed this week's episode, please head over to Apple Podcasts, subscribe to the show, and leave us a rating and review.

If you have a relationship question you'd love to have answered, visit our podcast page to leave us a voice message. Your question may be featured on a future episode!

Don't forget to visit our website, like us on Facebook at HeartShare Counseling, join our Relationships! Let's Talk About It Facebook group, and follow us on Twitter and Instagram. Share your favorite episodes on social media to help others build better, more meaningful relationships.

And if our content has helped you forge deeper connections and more meaningful relationships, be sure to help support the show by visiting our Support the Podcast page!

Theme music "These Streets" provided by Adi the Monk

Trish Kruger is a professional counselor and therapist currently working at Blue Ridge Treks, a community of mental health therapists in Asheville, North Carolina. She is dual-licensed as a counselor and addiction therapist trained in trauma-informed care and motivational interviewing. With a diverse background in yoga, art, and entrepreneurship, Trish values mindfulness, expressive art, and talk therapy in her practice.

In this episode, Trish and I discuss the role of rituals and ceremonies in transforming relationships. We share some of our personal experiences with bringing rituals into the transition periods of our lives and how they help us honor those processes. We illustrate how we work with clients and help them create rituals for divorce, coming of age, and others. We also discuss how meaningful rituals can help us heal in times of grief and difficulty and describe rituals from the perspective of neuroscience.

"There's so much ritual hidden in our culture. If we can consciously bring ritual in times of transition, it can help people start the next phase in an opened, renewed way." - Trish Kruger

This week on Relationships! Let's Talk About It:

• How rituals can give us a sense of purpose
• The loss of rituals and ceremonies in our culture
• Why my wife and I decided to perform our own marriage ceremony
• How a divorce ritual helped Trish and her former husband transition into friendship
• The shame that comes with divorce and how rituals can help heal it
• Rituals and ceremony from the perspective of neuroscience
• How rituals can create new neural pathways
• The different ways men and women relate to rituals
• The importance of intent and personal meaning when creating rituals
• The medicine wheel and the different transition periods during the day
• Why our culture needs transformational rituals for men
• How rituals can empower us in times of grief

Resources Mentioned:

• The Power and Effect of Words
• Letting Go of Family Relationships: Whether Toxic or Not

Connect with Trish Kruger:

• Blue Ridge Treks
• Blue Ridge Treks on Twitter
• Blue Ridge Treks on Facebook
• Blue Ridge Treks on LinkedIn
• Trish Kruger on Facebook

Let's Talk About It!

Thanks for tuning into this week's episode of Relationships! Let's Talk About It - the show to help you forge deeper, more meaningful connections and relationships with those around you. If you enjoyed this week's episode, please head over to Apple Podcasts, subscribe to the show, and leave us a rating and review.

If you have a relationship question you'd love to have answered, visit our podcast page to leave us a voice message. Your question may be featured on a future episode!

Don't forget to visit our website, like us on Facebook at HeartShare Counseling, join our Relationships! Let's Talk About It Facebook group, and follow us on Twitter and Instagram. Share your favorite episodes on social media to help others build better, more meaningful relationships.

And if our content has helped you forge deeper connections and more meaningful relationships, be sure to help support the show by visiting our Support the Podcast page!

Theme music "These Streets" provided by Adi the Monk

Families are complicated. As much as we want to always be there and support our loved ones, sometimes our relationships could be toxic. It's difficult to draw a boundary between you and a relative, but how do you know it's time to cut off ties with a family member? Or how do you know when to maintain the relationship? My wife, Yvonne Rainbow Teplitsky, the founder & owner of Artsy Goddess Studio, has her own experiences of challenging family relationships where issues and misunderstandings have stacked on one another.

In this episode, Rainbow and I answer a listener's question about drawing boundaries with an important family member and explain why it's important to not force conflict resolution and instead opt for cultivating space. We share our experiences and vulnerabilities with family issues and cutting-off friends and relatives. We describe how toxic behavior in the family affected us as children. We reveal the common characteristics that define toxic behavior such as manipulation and lying, as well as illustrate how guilt can prevent us from letting go of toxic people. We also discuss the importance of looking inwards when considering challenging relationships and cutting ties with family.

"Cutting ties with family members is one of the hardest decisions that we may ever face in life." - Pripo Teplitsky

This week on Relationships! Let's Talk About It:

• The difference between toxic relationships and family dramas
• Rainbow's experiences growing up with family issues
• The effect of family conflict on children
• The inevitability of conflict and the best time to learn about conflict resolution skills
• Why it can be challenging to cut ties with family members
• The power of creating connections with an estranged family member
• What makes a relationship one-sided
• My experience with a toxic family member
• Why you should consider creating space instead of severing relationships
• How we are met with resistance when we force conflict resolution
• Manipulation, deceit, victim-playing, and other aspects of toxic behavior
• Why toxic people attach to loving and kind ones
• How guilt prevents us from cutting ties with family members
• How family loyalty can create toxic relationships
• Why friendships can be difficult to end

Listener Questions - Let's Talk About It:

• At what point do you let go of relationships that may no longer feel fulfilling, even if it means hurting other family members?

Related Content:

• Dealing With Family Dramas: Standing Up For Yourself
• Courage In Relationships
• Taking Responsibility In Your Relationships
• Managing Conflict In Relationships
• Encourage Your Partner's Authenticity
• Encourage Your Partner's "Deeper" Authenticity
• Time Apart vs. Time Together: What's Healthy?

Connect with Yvonne Rainbow Teplitsky:

• Artsy Goddess Studio
• Yvonne on LinkedIn
• Yvonne on Facebook
• Email: [email protected]

Let's Talk About It!

Thanks for tuning into this week's episode of Relationships! Let's Talk About It - the show to help you forge deeper, more meaningful connections and relationships with those around you. If you enjoyed this week's episode, please head over to Apple Podcasts, subscribe to the show, and leave us a rating and review.

If you have a relationship question you'd love to have answered, visit our podcast page to leave us a voice message. Your question may be featured on a future episode!

Don't forget to visit our website, like us on Facebook at HeartShare Counseling, join our Relationships! Let's Talk About It Facebook group, and follow us on Twitter and Instagram. Share your favorite episodes on social media to help others build better, more meaningful relationships.

And if our content has helped you forge deeper connections and more meaningful relationships, be sure to help support the show by visiting our Support the Podcast page!

Theme music "These Streets" provided by Adi the Monk

Thomas Doochin is the CEO of Daymaker, an organization that helps employees cultivate a deeper connection with their community, team, and themselves through the intentional acts of giving and service. Daymaker helps people realize and foster their intrinsic goodness and generosity by helping employees and their companies connect with under-resourced communities. Through this experience of generosity and service, Daymaker aims to bring givers and the people they serve closer, and inspire them to explore the feeling of aliveness and connection.

Thomas joins me again today to discuss forming relationships with our colleagues in a work environment. We share our personal experiences of forming deep friendships with colleagues and bosses and discuss how it could be challenging to bring in our humanness and develop meaningful connections in the workplace. We describe how differences in age, experience, and hierarchy can prevent an employee from being their authentic selves. We also discuss how good workplace relationships can transform the working environment as well as explain why it is difficult to bring our relational skills into the workplace.

"There is an opportunity each day in our workplaces to be simply aware of how we are reacting to those who are around us." - Thomas Doochin

This week on Relationships! Let's Talk About It:

• The challenges of bringing our humanness to the workplace
• The accidental nature of a work environment
• How our personal values and desire for workplace productivity can be misaligned
• How hierarchy and age difference can impede workplace relationships
• Overcoming the barriers between management and employees
• What our work colleagues can teach us
• Why it's difficult to bring social and relational skills to the workplace
• How our social and relational skills can transform our work environment
• The importance of finding and upholding common values with the people we work with
• The value of bringing space in workplace relationships

Resources Mentioned:

• Generosity: Contemplating How We Show Up In Our Relationships
• The Relationship of Business Through The Lens Of Giving
• Trust and Company Culture: A Conversation with a Former Fortune 200 CEO
• Time Apart vs. Time Together: What's Healthy?

Connect with Thomas Doochin:

• Daymaker
• Daymaker on Facebook
• Daymaker on Twitter
• Daymaker on Instagram
• Thomas Doochin on Twitter
• Thomas Doochin on LinkedIn

Let's Talk About It!

Thanks for tuning into this week's episode of Relationships! Let's Talk About It - the show to help you forge deeper, more meaningful connections and relationships with those around you. If you enjoyed this week's episode, please head over to Apple Podcasts, subscribe to the show, and leave us a rating and review.

If you have a relationship question you'd love to have answered, visit our podcast page to leave us a voice message. Your question may be featured on a future episode!

Don't forget to visit our website, like us on Facebook at HeartShare Counseling, join our Relationships! Let's Talk About It Facebook group, and follow us on Twitter and Instagram. Share your favorite episodes on social media to help others build better, more meaningful relationships.

And if our content has helped you forge deeper connections and more meaningful relationships, be sure to help support the show by visiting our Support the Podcast page!

Theme music "These Streets" provided by Adi the Monk

Jealousy is a human experience. Whether we were the ones receiving it or the ones feeling it, we've all had our fair share of jealous feelings and behaviors. Despite the commonality of this emotion, jealousy could bring on challenges and issues in a romantic relationship that, when aggravated, could create distrust and eventually end the relationship. Couples need to take the necessary steps to overcome jealousy and cultivate a relationship that is connected, open, and loving.

Today, I share my thoughts on jealousy, its causes, and its effects. I explain how jealousy can force our partners to put up boundaries or even commit actions that foster distrust. I reveal how insecurities and low self-esteem can cultivate our tendency to be jealous and share some evolutionary perspectives on why we feel jealous. I share my personal experiences with jealousy and highlight the steps we can take to overcome these feelings. I also answer a listener's question about how to move forward in a relationship without bringing emotional baggage, why couples need to focus on their willingness to examine and work through emotional hurts and difficulties, as well as highlight the importance of celebrating successes in overcoming emotional baggage.

"No matter how jealous we feel, we need to find a way to come back to ourselves. Know that no matter how strong these feelings are, they will come and pass." - Pripo Teplitsky

This week on Relationships! Let's Talk About It:

• The detrimental impact of jealousy on our relationships and how they push our partners to put up boundaries
• The definition of jealousy and how it's different from envy
• Common evolutionary explanations of jealousy
• The biggest driver and causes of jealousy
• How working on your sense of self can help soothe feelings of jealousy
• How open and honest communication can help couples overcome jealousy
• Why paranoid and obsessive tendencies can trap a person into jealousy
• How jealousy can make us block our partners
• Using humor and light-hearted conversations to address feelings of jealousy and anxiety
• How our inner critic perpetuates destructive thoughts and feelings
• Dealing with jealousy through acceptance and self-compassion

Listener Questions - Let's Talk About It:

• How do you move forward in a new relationship without bringing emotional baggage?

Related Content:

• Emotional Infidelity: Is It Really Cheating?
• Transforming the Inner Critic
• The Art of Apology

Let's Talk About It!

Thanks for tuning into this week's episode of Relationships! Let's Talk About It - the show to help you forge deeper, more meaningful connections and relationships with those around you. If you enjoyed this week's episode, please head over to Apple Podcasts, subscribe to the show, and leave us a rating and review.

If you have a relationship question you'd love to have answered, visit our podcast page to leave us a voice message. Your question may be featured on a future episode!

Don't forget to visit our website, like us on Facebook at HeartShare Counseling, join our Relationships! Let's Talk About It Facebook group, and follow us on Twitter and Instagram. Share your favorite episodes on social media to help others build better, more meaningful relationships.

And if our content has helped you forge deeper connections and more meaningful relationships, be sure to help support the show by visiting our Support the Podcast page!

Theme music "These Streets" provided by Adi the Monk

At a very young age, Cathy Courtenay felt an urge to find truth and has since been living her life responding to its call. Cathy brings her heart into everything that she does, whether it's leading the Art of Circling, Body-Mind Centering, or working with her clients as a Conscious Relating Coach. She helps people fully stand in what's real for them, and all of her work ultimately teaches authenticity and sovereignty that creates a greater space for a love that helps uplift humanity.

Cathy joins me today to discuss the elements that make a relationship worth the hard work. We share some of our professional and personal and experiences with learning the meaning of hard work in relationships. We reveal why individuals need to understand their own values and find common relationship values. We illustrate the importance of self-awareness and communication skills, especially during conflict situations. We also explain why hard work in relationships doesn't need to be a struggle as well as highlight why you need to ask yourself if you become a better person through the relationship.

"It's a spiritual experience to connect with a partner who's deeply appreciating, and seeing and loving who they are in the world." - Cathy Courtenay

This week on Relationships! Let's Talk About It:

• The impact of self-awareness in relationships
• The role of compassion and love in healing and repairing your relationship after conflict
• The importance of having shared values in a relationship
• Why the individuals in a relationship need to explore their personal values
• Connection, the feeling of being met, and other elements that make a relationship worth doing the hard work
• How openness and curiosity affects a relationship
• How and why it's essential to maintain your sovereignty and differentiation in relationship
• What trauma bonding is and what should be done when a partner has had a traumatic experience
• How to identify when it's time to move on
• Why "hard work" doesn't necessarily need to be a struggle
• Why some couples lack sexual intimacy in their lives
• The power of appreciation and how to bring back sexual intimacy
• Why you need to ask yourself if you become a better person through the relationship

Related Content:

• Difficult Conversations
• Falling in Love
• Helping Men Learn to Connect with Women

Connect with Cathy Courtenay:

• Cathy Courtenay
• Cathy Courtenay on Facebook
• Cathy Courtenay on LinkedIn

Let's Talk About It! Thanks for tuning into this week's episode of Relationships! Let's Talk About It - the show to help you forge deeper, more meaningful connections and relationships with those around you. If you enjoyed this week's episode, please head over to Apple Podcasts, subscribe to the show, and leave us a rating and review.

If you have a relationship question you'd love to have answered, visit our podcast page to leave us a voice message. Your question may be featured on a future episode!

Don't forget to visit our website, like us on Facebook at HeartShare Counseling, join our Relationships! Let's Talk About It Facebook group, and follow us on Twitter and Instagram. Share your favorite episodes on social media to help others build better, more meaningful relationships.

And if our content has helped you forge deeper connections and more meaningful relationships, be sure to help support the show by visiting our Support the Podcast page!

Theme music "These Streets" provided by Adi the Monk

Conflict is an inevitable part of committed relationships, marriages, partnerships, or even in our relationships with family and friends. Yet many of us avoid it. We don't know how to properly open ourselves to conflict, let alone handle it properly. But conflict, when managed constructively, can be a source of growth and connection between all disagreeing parties involved. We need to understand and cultivate the tools we can use to transform conflict into a constructive experience.

Today, I discuss what makes conflict healthy, how to foster it, and how we can benefit from it. I describe how parents can better manage conflict with their teenagers as well as the role of intent in resolving disagreements. I share communication tools you can use to get through disagreements and arguments. I also explain why we shouldn't aim to win an argument and instead aim to gain insight into ourselves and understand our partners.

"The goal of healthy conflict is to get understanding for your relationship to grow, for more intimacy, for more closeness." - Pripo Teplitsky

This week on Relationships! Let's Talk About It:

• The need for good communication skills to alleviate conflict in relationships
• Why we shouldn't aim to win an argument with our partners
• How emotional availability can help us move through conflict
• The primary goal of conflict
• How to transform relationship conflicts into something constructive
• The role of mindfulness and intention in resolving relationship conflicts
• How to better manage conflict between parents and teenagers
• My wife's conflict with her mother and how she let go of the power struggle
• Why it's wise to choose our battles
• How my wife and I resolved a conflict and how we benefitted from it
• How conflict resolution can make people closer to each other
• What makes conflicts between couples unhealthy?
• The causes of aggression and violence during conflict and their physiological effects
• The "four horsemen of the apocalypse" in a relationship
• How collaboration and compromise can turn a conflict situation around
• The importance of understanding each others' triggers

Related Content:

• The Art of Listening
• Stonewalling: the Silent Treat That Blocks Communication
• Generosity: Contemplating How We Show Up in Our Relationships
• Emotional Availability in Relationships

Let's Talk About It!

Thanks for tuning into this week's episode of Relationships! Let's Talk About It - the show to help you forge deeper, more meaningful connections and relationships with those around you. If you enjoyed this week's episode, please head over to Apple Podcasts, subscribe to the show, and leave us a rating and review.

If you have a relationship question you'd love to have answered, visit our podcast page to leave us a voice message. Your question may be featured on a future episode!

Don't forget to visit our website, like us on Facebook at HeartShare Counseling, join our Relationships! Let's Talk About It Facebook group, and follow us on Twitter and Instagram. Share your favorite episodes on social media to help others build better, more meaningful relationships.

And if our content has helped you forge deeper connections and more meaningful relationships, be sure to help support the show by visiting our Support the Podcast page!

Theme music "These Streets" provided by Adi the Monk

Trish Kruger is a duo-licensed professional counselor and clinical addiction therapist. Trained in trauma-informed care and motivational interviewing, Trish believes in the value of talk therapy, mindfulness, and expressive arts which she includes in her practice. She completed her graduate degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at Western Carolina University and currently works at Blue Ridge Treks, a community of mental health therapists in Asheville, North Carolina.

In today's episode, Trish and I share stories from our professional and personal lives regarding the power and effect of words. We illustrate how our central nervous system responds to the words we use and receive. We explain how a slight change in the words we use can create belief systems and open us up to new possibilities. We also discuss the different challenges the younger generation faces and how self-compassion, compounded with Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy techniques, can help them.

"Every belief started as an experience. We begin telling ourselves a story. As that story gets rooted deeper in our brain, we develop a pattern." - Trish Kruger

This week on Relationships! Let's Talk About It:

• Our experiences with growing up with sarcasm
• How Trish's son teaches her about the power of words
• How words and affirmations create belief systems
• How our physiology responds to thoughts
• How the central nervous system responds to the words we receive
• The four steps of classical Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
• The importance of self-compassion and how CBT skips over the self-compassion stage
• The power of words of affirmation and visualization and how the central nervous system responds to them
• How to use reframing techniques to improve relationships
• Why the word "should" is a violent word and a constructive alternative to replace it
• Working with the unique challenges that the younger generations face
• Why parents need to learn to say 'I'm sorry'
• The difference between apologizing and making amends
• The brain science behind the power of gratitude
• Using breath to bring awareness over the words we use

Resources Mentioned:

• The Art of Apology
• Self-Compassion Can Improve Your Relationships

Connect with Trish Kruger:

• Blue Ridge Treks
• Blue Ridge Treks on Twitter
• Blue Ridge Treks on Facebook
• Blue Ridge Treks on LinkedIn
• Trish Kruger on Facebook

Let's Talk About It!

Thanks for tuning into this week's episode of Relationships! Let's Talk About It - the show to help you forge deeper, more meaningful connections and relationships with those around you. If you enjoyed this week's episode, please head over to Apple Podcasts, subscribe to the show, and leave us a rating and review.

If you have a relationship question you'd love to have answered, visit our podcast page to leave us a voice message. Your question may be featured on a future episode!

Don't forget to visit our website, like us on Facebook at HeartShare Counseling, join our Relationships! Let's Talk About It Facebook group, and follow us on Twitter and Instagram. Share your favorite episodes on social media to help others build better, more meaningful relationships.

And if our content has helped you forge deeper connections and more meaningful relationships, be sure to help support the show by visiting our Support the Podcast page!

Theme music "These Streets" provided by Adi the Monk

Susan Patrice is the Principal Consultant of Makers Circle, an organization that sparks change through the creative process. As a documentary photographer, arts educator, and community facilitator, Susan has been using her talents to transform people and communities over the last 12 years. Susan has supported communities worldwide to address problems such as gender equality and racial equity through photography-centered, arts-inspired programs. At the heart of Susan's work is the desire to help people around the world tell their stories to touch lives and inspire action.

In today's episode, Susan and I reflect on our relationship with our creative practices. We discuss why the creative process is a practice that unfolds over time. We illustrate how Susan created a collaborative and intimate relationship with nature and how this impacted her work as a photographer. We reveal the reason Susan started hand-building cameras and what inspired her to pursue photography. We also explain how one's creative process affects their relationship with others as well as highlight the power of photography to engage us with the world.

"Photography requires us to engage with the world. It allows us to be in this middle place between self and other, or spirit and matter. It's a magical medium." - Susan Patrice

This week on Relationships! Let's Talk About It:

• Why Susan thinks the creative process is a practice
• The similarities between photography and dating
• How Susan's creative process changes her relationship with people
• A recent experience that taught Susan about collaborating with nature
• Why photography is a contemplative practice
• Creating a collaborative and intimate relationship with the world
• How our relationship to our own bodies affect our relationship to nature
• The reason Susan started hand-building cameras that took round photos
• How Susan's relationship with nature influenced her photographs
• What Susan's photography projects teach her about love and relationships
• The danger of considering the creative process as a spiritual process
• Poverty porn and the conversations between photography and consent
• How photography reveals one's capacity to love
• Translating the difficult moments of life into creativity

Resources Mentioned:

• Why Communicating Consent Matters in Healthy Relationships
• To Be Healed by the Earth by Warren Grossman

Connect with Susan Patrice:

• Susan Patrice
• Susan Patrice on Facebook
• Susan Patrice on LinkedIn

Let's Talk About It!

Thanks for tuning into this week's episode of Relationships! Let's Talk About It - the show to help you forge deeper, more meaningful connections and relationships with those around you. If you enjoyed this week's episode, please head over to Apple Podcasts, subscribe to the show, and leave us a rating and review.

If you have a relationship question you'd love to have answered, visit our podcast page to leave us a voice message. Your question may be featured on a future episode!

Don't forget to visit our website, like us on Facebook at HeartShare Counseling, join our Relationships! Let's Talk About It Facebook group, and follow us on Twitter and Instagram. Share your favorite episodes on social media to help others build better, more meaningful relationships.

And if our content has helped you forge deeper connections and more meaningful relationships, be sure to help support the show by visiting our Support the Podcast page!

Theme music "These Streets" provided by Adi the Monk

Everybody has family dramas. But while no family is entirely healthy, it's always great to be in a family where there's less drama. My wife, Yvonne Rainbow Teplitsky, brilliant artist, founder and owner of Artsy Goddess Studio, hails from Denmark. With my American background and her upbringing from a different culture, we've had our share of family drama with our relatives. How can a couple stand up for themselves and their happiness amidst the expectations of their family?

In today's episode, Yvonne and I share how we handled family drama and stood up for the decisions we made for ourselves. We explain how deciding for your happiness can get genetically or energetically passed down to the next generation and change your family's narrative. We reflect on how standing up for our decisions made us happy and set the tone for the rest of our lives together.

We also discuss why we shouldn't make decisions to satisfy other peoples' expectations and highlight how setting up boundaries can break family drama. I also answer a listener's question about whether she should invite her relatives to her wedding next fall and why planning your wedding shouldn't be about protecting other people or their feelings, but about celebrating the love you share with your partner. I explain what you should consider when deciding who to invite to your wedding celebration to stay authentic and true to yourself and your feelings as well as my philosophy on the younger generations often surpassing their parent's ability to set boundaries.

" We felt into our hearts and co-created what this family was going to be about." - Yvonne Rainbow Teplitsky

This week on Relationships! Let's Talk About It:

• Why you shouldn't make decisions based on other peoples' expectations
• The impact on our children when we stand up for ourselves
• How setting up a boundary can shift a family's pattern and break family drama
• The reason decision-making has to be outside of other peoples' expectations
• Why you shouldn't offer an explanation when you say no
• The long-term effects of choosing our happiness
• How Rainbow and I handled family drama when we were getting married
• Why we decided against a church wedding
• The family drama over the birth of our son and how we handled it as a couple
• How standing up for our decisions set the tone for the rest of our relationship
• The way Rainbow supports me whenever I need to make a decision

Listener Question of the Week:

• Should I invite my relatives to my wedding?

Related Content:

• Courage In Relationships
• Taking Responsibility In Your Relationships
• Managing Conflict In Relationships
• Encourage Your Partner's Authenticity
• Encourage Your Partner's "Deeper" Authenticity
• Time Apart vs. Time Together: What's Healthy?

Connect with Yvonne:

• Artsy Goddess Studio
• Yvonne on LinkedIn
• Yvonne on Facebook
• Email: [email protected]

Let's Talk About It!

Thanks for tuning into this week's episode of Relationships! Let's Talk About It - the show to help you forge deeper, more meaningful connections and relationships with those around you. If you enjoyed this week's episode, please head over to Apple Podcasts, subscribe to the show, and leave us a rating and review.

If you have a relationship question you'd love to have answered, visit our podcast page to leave us a voice message. Your question may be featured on a future episode!

Don't forget to visit our website, like us on Facebook at HeartShare Counseling, join our Relationships! Let's Talk About It Facebook group, and follow us on Twitter and Instagram. Share your favorite episodes on social media to help others build better, more meaningful relationships.

And if our content has helped you forge deeper connections and more meaningful relationships, be sure to help support the show by visiting our Support the Podcast page!

Theme music "These Streets" provided by Adi the Monk