“The day that you wake up, and you realize that you have been had, and the person you’re sleeping with is not the person you fell in love with, that’s the first day of your real marriage.” - James Framo. 

In this episode, my husband and I walk you through our journey through the four stages of relationship. From the initial spark of love without knowledge to the mature state of knowing love, we'll share insights into each stage and how they have shaped our 27-year relationship. Whether you're wondering why marriage is so hard or seeking ways to reignite the passion, join us as we delve into the intricacies of navigating these stages and finding grace in each one.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

• How Kurt and I navigated the four stages of relationships: love without knowledge, knowledge without love, the reckoning, and knowing love.
• Strategies we've used to navigate challenges and conflicts in our 27-year marriage.
• The three components of fostering intimacy and connection beyond the reckoning
• Our experience with embracing imperfections and growing together as individuals and as a couple
• The iterative process of facing yourself and your relationship with honesty and authenticity every day

And more.


“Marriage is a crucible that turns you into who you were meant to be... It's like a rock tumbler making gems beautiful, banging off the rough edges.”

I hope that you feel accompanied and supported, whichever stage of love you’re in now. My wish is that you will continue to be present to the mess and the mystery in the majesty of this wild, alive thing of being human with another human.

RESOURCES OR LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Embracing Pain + Beauty with Special Guest Myra Sack

The Five Winning Relationship Strategies episode

The Five Losing Relationship Strategies episode

How to Stay, When to Go episode

100-Year Marriage episode

If the conversations on this podcast are resonating for you and you want to create the love, sex, and aliveness you desire with more ease, I invite you to enter a deeper relationship with me, through private coaching or my group mentorship program. Either way, you get powerful tools, conversation cheat sheets, meditations, and my loving and skillful attention every month, so your capacity for the pleasure and joy you want grows, continuously. CLICK HERE to apply for a consultation.

If the conversations on this podcast are resonating for you, please leave a rating and ideally a review on your favorite podcast platform.

Ready to bring about a transformation in your relationship to yourself, your body, and your partner? CLICK HERE to apply for a consultation.

Today, I'm so grateful to share with you a profoundly moving conversation with Myra Sack, a woman who embodies the essence of resilience and intimacy with life.

In her newly released book, ​57 Fridays: Losing Our Daughter, Finding Our Way,​ Myra brings us into the intimate journey through the immense grief of losing her daughter, Havi, to Tay-Sachs disease. I wanted to bring Myra onto the show to explore the delicate balance between the most painful and beautiful moments of our lives. This episode is an exploration of how we can navigate our deepest fears and emerge with a stronger, more intimate connection to ourselves and others.

It's a must-listen for anyone seeking to face their pain and find a source of profound connection and authenticity.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

• Myra's practice of "Shabbirthdays" and the power of ritual in creating sacred spaces for healing and connection
• How to face and embrace fear to avoid being paralyzed by it
• The importance of emotional granularity in understanding and articulating our feelings to better navigate life's challenges.
• The role of self-awareness and self-trust in developing psychological resilience and maintaining our sense of self amidst grief and loss.
• How to foster meaningful connections and community support during times of profound personal crisis.

And more.  

“We are so afraid to turn towards the deepest, most painful, real reality that we miss the opportunity to experience the deepest joy and the fullest love”

Get your copy of 57 Fridays: Losing Our Daughter, Finding Our Way

Learn about E-Motion, the non-profit Myra founded to “support community, movement and ritual to enhance coping and resilience”

Follow Myra on Instagram @myrasack

May you find the courage to embrace both the beauty and the pain in your life, allowing them to coexist and transform you in ways you never thought possible. Let this episode inspire you to seek out and create sacred spaces for yourself and your loved ones, fostering deeper connections and a richer, more authentic experience of living.

If the conversations on this podcast are resonating for you and you want to create the love, sex, and aliveness you desire with more ease, I invite you to enter a deeper relationship with me, through private coaching or my group mentorship program. Either way, you get powerful tools, conversation cheat sheets, meditations, and my loving and skillful attention every month, so your capacity for the pleasure and joy you want grows, continuously. CLICK HERE to apply for a consultation.

If the conversations on this podcast are resonating for you, please leave a rating and ideally a review on your favorite podcast platform.

Ready to bring about a transformation in your relationship to yourself, your body, and your partner? CLICK HERE to apply for a consultation.

I want to go deep with you today about something that's been coming up a lot in my life and work: what it means to embrace our power and pleasure as women. For the longest time, I used to feel guilty for wanting more, for desiring abundance and joy in my life.

But, after many years of being stifled under my feelings of shame, I realized that by prioritizing my own well-being and pleasure, I wasn't being selfish—I was actually becoming more generous, more present, and more alive. And now, I'm here to share that revelation with you, to show you a different way to navigate this world as a woman.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

• Why viewing yourself as a woman built to receive can transform your relationships and your life.
• The liberating truth I’m learning about seeking approval from others (or pissing them off!)
• How your deepest desires can serve as divine guidance, leading you towards a life filled with passion, pleasure, and purpose.
• The transformative power of embracing self-care as the ultimate act of generosity.
• How cultivating abundance within yourself can enrich the lives of those around you.

And more.


“There's no limit to how expansive your life can be. There's no way in which your expansion takes away from anyone else. You grew it. If you're doing it from your own honesty, your own love, you're not hijacking anyone else to take what's rightfully theirs. You're in fact growing what's yours. And as you do that, you have a right to absolutely anything you can imagine opening your receptivity to. ”-Michele Lisenbury Christensen

As you go about the rest of your day, I hope you will remember that you are the hearth, you are the garden, and your capacity for love and abundance knows no bounds. So go forth, my loves, and tend to your flame with wild abandon.

If the conversations on this podcast are resonating for you and you want to create the love, sex, and aliveness you desire with more ease, I invite you to enter a deeper relationship with me, through private coaching or my group mentorship program. Either way, you get powerful tools, conversation cheat sheets, meditations, and my loving and skillful attention every month, so your capacity for the pleasure and joy you want grows, continuously. CLICK HERE to apply for a consultation.

If the conversations on this podcast are resonating for you, please leave a rating and ideally a review on your favorite podcast platform.

Ready to bring about a transformation in your relationship to yourself, your body, and your partner? CLICK HERE to apply for a consultation.

So often, we find ourselves stuck in the same old patterns, grappling with conflicts or feeling disconnected. We try workshops, therapy, self-help books, but somehow, things just don't stick.

After today's episode, you'll understand why and what steps to take next. Through working in this way, I've seen couples completely turn things around in as little as three days, or a couple of focused weeks. But what I'm about to share isn't just for those who work with me. It's a roadmap for anyone seeking to improve their relationship – a blueprint for success. So today I'm going to show you how best to use your precious energy.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

• What doesn't work in getting help for your relationship. 
• The three things that really do make the biggest difference. 
• The framework that’s been tremendously helpful in my marriage and my clients’
• Why this method works way better for men than the other approaches I’ve tried

And more. 


“The reason we've been doing things the way we've been doing them is because of the patterns we brought into the relationship. We have deep devotion to repeating our patterns because at some point those patterns were survival level necessary” -Michele Lisenbury Christensen

I hope this episode has shed some light on the patterns that might be holding you back in your relationships. Remember, you have the power to transform these patterns and create the love and connection you truly desire. Until next time, may your journey to self-discovery and relational growth be filled with joy and fulfillment.

Learn more about Terry Real at Terry Real - Relational Life Therapy.

If the conversations on this podcast are resonating for you and you want to create the love, sex, and aliveness you desire with more ease, I invite you to enter a deeper relationship with me, through private coaching or my group mentorship program. Either way, you get powerful tools, conversation cheat sheets, meditations, and my loving and skillful attention every month, so your capacity for the pleasure and joy you want grows, continuously. CLICK HERE to apply for a consultation.

If the conversations on this podcast are resonating for you, please leave a rating and ideally a review on your favorite podcast platform.

Ready to bring about a transformation in your relationship to yourself, your body, and your partner? CLICK HERE to apply for a consultation.

I was so grateful to sit down and record with my teacher, Eric Klein, the founder of ​Wisdom Heart​ along with his wife, Devi. I wanted you to hear from him what he's teaching me about my body, mind, spirit, and the way that those interact with the experiences I have in my marriage, my earning, my business -- pretty much in every area of my life.

I am thrilled for you all to hear Eric talk with us about some of the ways that you can apply planetary astrology, the chakras, meditation, and the spiritual path in general to evolve more of what you want in love and life.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

• Both of our journeys with Kriya Yoga and it's relevance for practitioners seeking coherence and wholeness in their busy lives. 
• The power of practice and why it resonates with me and so many other women
• The connection between planetary astrology and our inner chakras
• Our definition of intimacy and how it can show us our greatest teachers

And more.  

“Intimacy is another word for awakening  because it's really reducing the layers of self protection  in order to become more and more connected to life. The most potent aspects of life come to us as human beings.” -Eric Klein

I hope that you feel as nourished and inspired as I do after hearing from Eric. My wish for you is that you receive life’s gentle, insistent, invitations to more fullness and wholeness.

Learn more and connect with Eric at wisdomheart.com or @wisdom.heart on Instagram!

If the conversations on this podcast are resonating for you and you want to create the love, sex, and aliveness you desire with more ease, I invite you to enter a deeper relationship with me, through private coaching or my group mentorship program. Either way, you get powerful tools, conversation cheat sheets, meditations, and my loving and skillful attention every month, so your capacity for the pleasure and joy you want grows, continuously. CLICK HERE to apply for a consultation.

If the conversations on this podcast are resonating for you, please leave a rating and ideally a review on your favorite podcast platform.

Ready to bring about a transformation in your relationship to yourself, your body, and your partner? CLICK HERE to apply for a consultation.

So many women come to me wanting to turn up their libidos and experience more and better orgasms. I start by asking them 11 questions that, on the surface, don’t seem directly related to erotic desire. But the answers that women give me tell me a ton about their relationships with themselves,  their turn-on, their bodies, their sensations, and with their capacity to contain embodied experiences, both desired experiences and not desired experiences.

In this episode, I'm going to ask you those same 11 questions that tell me whether or not you are in a robust, joyful relationship with your own desires, receptivity, and pleasure. You’ll hear about:

• Why I ask each of these questions and the common answers I hear from clients
• Why and how these libido killers affect women specifically
• How to cultivate a desire in ways that have nothing to do with your partner
• Simple practices you can add to your day to experience more turn-on throughout your life

And more. 

Join the conversation by listening, then share your story or response on our voicemail at 206-659-9865 or inside our free Conscious Couples' Circle on Mighty Networks.

“Our capacity for pleasant sensations is always conscribed by our capacity for unpleasant, unwanted sensations, the things we fear, the things we're angry about, the things that we have grief about.”
-Michele Lisenbury Christensen

Hot Moments in This Episode:

• How you wake up matters [10:20]
• A note about dressing sexy [16:05]
• Why you need to put on your own oxygen mask first [25:36]
• What your inner pleasure goddess wants for you [31:15]

I hope that these 11 questions help you see where you can build your capacity to delight in sensation. My wish is that you pick just one area to begin to shift today with the intention of deepening your relationship with yourself, your body, your felt sensations, your yes, your no, and your desire.

If the conversations on this podcast are resonating for you, please leave a rating and ideally a review on your favorite podcast platform.

Ready to bring about a transformation in your relationship to yourself, your body, and your partner? CLICK HERE to apply for a consultation.

The term “gaslighting” has become a buzzword in recent years and, because of its widespread use, the meaning of this term has become a bit murky. In a nutshell, gaslighting is when you are experiencing something and endeavoring to talk to the other person about it, but they flip it around on you so that you wind up questioning yourself, your own character, motivations, and even grip on reality. Today, I want to talk about what I call “gaslighting lite” or the ways that understanding the gaslight effect can help you navigate when gaslighting behaviors show up in your otherwise healthy relationship.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Common areas in which many, many people gaslight our partners or other people in our lives
• Why gaslighting shows up in otherwise healthy relationships 
• How you may be unconsciously participating in this pattern
• How you can extricate yourself from this painful cycle, whichever side of it you are on and turn past gaslighting lite into relationship gold

And more. 

Join the conversation by listening, then share your story or response on our voicemail at 206-659-9865 or inside our free Conscious Couples' Circle on Mighty Networks.

“Subconscious parts of us react in a knee-jerk fashion that might be out of character for us, might almost be like a different person's behavior, and that subconscious part does that in order to protect the blind spot.”
-Michele Lisenbury Christensen


Hot Moments in This Episode:

• How I’ve participated in “gaslighting lite” and how I intervened [13:48]
• The way you or your partner is acting like a 15-year-old [16:28]
• What can happen when you start calling out these behaviors [17:52]

I hope that this episode gives you a starting place to begin to unravel this gaslighting lite cycle and illuminate ​​the blind spots that will turn into areas of new life for you and your partner.

RESOURCES OR LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

We Can Do Hard Things Podcast: Are You Being Gaslighted?

The Gaslight Effect by Dr. Robin Stern

The Gaslight Effect Recovery Guide by Dr. Robin Stern

What is DARVO?  by Dr. Jennifer J. Freyd

If the conversations on this podcast are resonating for you, please leave a rating and ideally a review on your favorite podcast platform.

Ready to bring about a transformation in your relationship to yourself, your body, and your partner? CLICK HERE to apply for a consultation.

You may have heard the term “patriarchy” used to describe a social and political construct, but, as my mentor, Terry Real, explains, it is also a psychological notion. The way that patriarchy defines rigid gender roles becomes subconsciously embedded in the way we think and behave, which has deep implications for both partners inside a relationship. How can we recognize when psychological patriarchy is at play and what can we do to counteract it? 

In this episode, I’ll discuss:

• How our sense of ourselves as humans has been artificially bifurcated into masculine and feminine traits
• Why masculine traits are overvalued and feminine traits are undervalued. 
• The painful consequences of psychological patriarchy.
• How Legacy Love takes couples through five levels of recovery from this deadening way of looking at ourselves and at one another.

And more. 

Join the conversation by listening, then share your story or response on our voicemail at 206-659-9865 or inside our free Conscious Couples' Circle on Mighty Networks.

“We can't build deeper, sweeter relationships than we've had, than our parents have had, than all the ones we've seen around us without dismantling some of the structures that have been invisible to us, that have stopped us from having true partnership, true equality, true intimacy.”

-Michele Lisenbury Christensen


Hot Moments in This Episode:

• Terry Real’s three rings of psychological patriarchy [1:52]
• Why I tackle psychological patriarchy with couples coaching clients [11:21]
• The highest level of Legacy Love I’ve discovered [22:36]

I hope that you give yourself grace as you begin to untangle all the deep and complicated beliefs about gender and relationships that are holding you back. It is my wish that you continue to heal from psychological patriarchy and grow in love together.

If the conversations on this podcast are resonating for you, please leave a rating and ideally a review on your favorite podcast platform.

Ready to bring about a transformation in your relationship to yourself, your body, and your partner? CLICK HERE to apply for a consultation.

Kurt and I have been married for almost 23 years and we're planning on another 50 to 75 together. We think, in terms of taking care of our bodies, minds and spirits and given the way technology is going, we could each live to be well over a hundred which gives us an amazingly long time to grow in love together and to contribute in so many other parts of our lives. Today's episode is about how we think about what I call, for shorthand “The 100-Year Marriage” and how you could think about it too. 

In this episode, we’ll cover:

• Why you should think about the long-term plan for your relationship
• The areas of your life you should consider as you look at the next 50 or 75 years
• Questions you can ask yourself and each other to help define your vision for long lives together
• Resources that have helped expand my thinking about longevity and legacy

And more. 

Join the conversation by listening, then share your story or response on our voicemail at 206-659-9865 or inside our free Conscious Couples' Circle on Mighty Networks.

“You get to have any marriage, you're up for creating.”
-Michele Lisenbury Christensen

Hot Moments in This Episode:

• How to plan for retirement... or not. (11:30)
• The books that changed my outlook on life (13:40)
• How you are living as if your relationship doesn’t matter (27:46)

I hope that your love can be a fountain that nourishes everything around it, an oasis that creates aliveness spreading out and out and out from you as a couple.

RESOURCES OR LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• My Plan for Living to 156
• Cash Flow (game) by Robert Kiyosaki
• The 100 Year Life by Lynda Gratton & Andrew J. Scott
• Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman
• Outlive by Peter Attia
• Lifespan by David A. Sinclair & Matthew D. LaPlante
• Built to Move by Kelly Starret

If the conversations on this podcast are resonating for you, please leave a rating and ideally a review on your favorite podcast platform.

Ready to bring about a transformation in your relationship to yourself, your body, and your partner? CLICK HERE to apply for a consultation.

At 50 or 60 years old, you don’t have the same career, health, finances, or family life that you did when you were 30. Why should your sex life be the same as it was 20 years ago?  As we age, our bodies go through natural changes that can affect our sexual experiences and desires. This leads people to believe that they are no longer able to have the sexual experiences they used to. I’m here to tell you that fulfilling and pleasurable sex is possible at any age.

In this episode, we’ll talk about:

• The mindset blocks that you need to break through to have delicious sexual experiences as you age
• Societal expectations around sex and why they don’t serve you
• Ways to enhance your sexual experiences when things aren’t working the way they used to

And more. 

“If we can get out of the goal orientation, then we don't feel as acutely that "loss" of the way that we were used to performing in our thirties and forties. That opens up the doorway to the kind of sex that's possible now.”
-Michele Lisenbury Christensen.

Hot Moments in This Episode:

• The message about sex I wish we could get rid of (2:19)
• Why I don’t care about “performance” in bed (6:17)
• My thoughts on using medical supplements (8:30)

I hope this episode inspires you to live into your sexuality exactly as you are now without judgment or anxiety. And I wish you many, many more years of yummy pleasure and connection.

If the conversations on this podcast are resonating for you and you want to create the love, sex, and aliveness you desire with more ease, I invite you to enter a deeper relationship with me, through private coaching or my group mentorship program. Either way, you get powerful tools, conversation cheat sheets, meditations, and my loving and skillful attention every month, so your capacity for the pleasure and joy you want grows, continuously. CLICK HERE to apply for a consultation.


Join the conversation by listening, then share your story or response on our voicemail at 206-659-9865 or inside our free Conscious Couples' Circle on Mighty Networks.

If the conversations on this podcast are resonating for you, please leave a rating and ideally a review on your favorite podcast platform.

Ready to bring about a transformation in your relationship to yourself, your body, and your partner? CLICK HERE to apply for a consultation.