In this episode Mark sits down with acclaimed therapist and author of It Didn’t Start With You, Mark Wolynn, to unpack the shocking science and lived reality of inherited trauma. They dive into research showing how war and partner violence can leave epigenetic “fingerprints” across generations, and why so many high-functioning people still wake up with panic, loneliness, or a sense of not being safe, often without knowing why. Learn the powerful “worst fear” question that helps pinpoint whether you’re dealing with attachment trauma or inherited family trauma. This conversation offers a radically clear map for where the pain actually starts and how to finally resolve it.

Mark Wolynn (accent on second syllable) is the director of the Family Constellation Institute in San Francisco. He is a leading expert in the field of inherited family trauma. His book It Didn’t Start With You: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End the Cycle is the winner of the 2016 Nautilus Book Award in psychology, and has been translated into 17 languages. His articles have appeared in Psychology Today, Mind Body Green, MariaShriver.com, Elephant Journal and Psych Central, and his poetry has been published in The New Yorker.

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/markwolynn
• Website: https://markwolynn.com/
• Workbook: https://amzn.to/468KGZJ

—Have a question For Mark to answer on the podcast?https://www.speakpipe.com/TheMarkGrovesPodcast

—Have a question for Mark and want an immediate answer? Mark's Dexa page: https://ask.markgroves.com

—How are your Nervous System + Attachment Style connected? https://markgroves.com/connectthedots

- Subscribe to Mark’s Substack to receive his weekly reflections and insights straight from his heart to your inbox. https://markgroves.substack.com/ 

—Contact us at [email protected] for sponsor product support, questions, comments, or just to say hello!

—This episode is sponsored by: Institute for Integrative Nutrition: Certified Health Coach Training: Use code MARKGROVES20 for 20% off ALL courses from IIN & Chopra at http://bit.ly/MARKIIN

In this episode I deliver a no-BS reminder that you’re not stuck, you’re actually choosing, and the moment you stop owning your choices is the moment you hand your life over to resentment, helplessness, and disconnection. I break down why radical responsibility is the gateway to real freedom (without denying grief, pain, or the ways you’ve been hurt), and why “pretending you don’t know” is one of the most self-destructive habits we normalize. This is your call to stop playing small, stop colluding with old identities and addictions, and start treating failure as feedback, not a final verdict.

Resources:

—Get My Breakup 5 Day Audio Series and Workbook: www.createthelove.com/breakupaudio

Get My Book! Liberated Love - Release Codependent Patterns and Create the Love You Desire: https://markgroves.com/book

—Explore My Courses: https://markgroves.com/courses

Follow me and my work here:

—Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/markgrovestv 

—Subscribe to my Substack: https://markgroves.substack.com

—Instagram - @createthelove: https://www.instagram.com/createthelove

—Facebook - @createthelove: https://www.facebook.com/createthelove

Have A Question?

—Have a Question For Mark That You’d Like To Hear Answered on the Podcast? Leave us a Voice Note Here: https://www.speakpipe.com/TheMarkGrovesPodcast

If you want to dive deeper into Mark’s content, search through every episode, find specific topics we’ve covered, and ask him questions, go to his Dexa page: https://ask.markgroves.com

Drop us a note at [email protected] for sponsor product support, questions, comments, guest suggestions, or just to say hello!

This episode is sponsored by:

• Institute for Integrative Nutrition: Certified Health Coach Training: Use code MARKGROVES20 for 20% off ALL courses from IIN & Chopra at http://bit.ly/MARKIIN

In this episode I take a hard look at our addiction to speed, noise, and constant consumption—and how it’s quietly pulling us out of our bodies, our relationships, and our lives. I unpack why silence feels so uncomfortable, how technology and blue light are reshaping our nervous systems, and why choosing slowness, reading, and presence has become a radical act. This is an invitation to stop outsourcing your awareness, reclaim your attention, and build a conscious relationship with technology that actually supports your humanity. If you’ve been feeling overstimulated, disconnected, or restless, this episode will call you back to what’s real, grounded, and life-giving.

Resources:

— Get the recording for my Reclaim Your Attention Webinar: www.markgroves.com/reclaim

—Get 10% off a Daylight Computer https://buy.daylightcomputer.com/HARMONY

— Get My Breakup 5 Day Audio Series and Workbook: www.createthelove.com/breakupaudio

Get My Book! Liberated Love - Release Codependent Patterns and Create the Love You Desire: https://markgroves.com/book

—Explore My Courses: https://markgroves.com/courses

Follow me and my work here:

—Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/markgrovestv 

—Subscribe to my Substack: https://markgroves.substack.com

—Instagram - @createthelove: https://www.instagram.com/createthelove

—Facebook - @createthelove: https://www.facebook.com/createthelove

Have A Question?

—Have a Question For Mark That You’d Like To Hear Answered on the Podcast? Leave us a Voice Note Here: https://www.speakpipe.com/TheMarkGrovesPodcast

If you want to dive deeper into Mark’s content, search through every episode, find specific topics we’ve covered, and ask him questions, go to his Dexa page: https://ask.markgroves.com

Drop us a note at [email protected] for sponsor product support, questions, comments, guest suggestions, or just to say hello!

This episode is sponsored by:

• Institute for Integrative Nutrition: Certified Health Coach Training: Use code MARKGROVES20 for 20% off ALL courses from IIN & Chopra at http://bit.ly/MARKIIN

In this episode I deliver a wake-up call for anyone who keeps delaying the changes they know they need to make—because the cost of avoidance always shows up as anxiety, addiction, and quiet self-betrayal. I unpack why so many of us wait until a crisis, rock bottom, or brush with mortality forces transformation, and how our unconscious wounds silently steer our choices until we start calling it “fate.” This episode is a direct challenge to stop negotiating with your potential, stop pretending you don’t know, and finally live in integrity—because the time isn’t “someday.” It’s now.

Resources:

—Get My Breakup 5 Day Audio Series and Workbook: www.createthelove.com/breakupaudio

—Get My Book! Liberated Love - Release Codependent Patterns and Create the Love You Desire: https://markgroves.com/book

—Explore My Courses: https://markgroves.com/courses

Follow me and my work here:

—Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/markgrovestv 

—Subscribe to my Substack: https://markgroves.substack.com

—Instagram - @createthelove: https://www.instagram.com/createthelove

—Facebook - @createthelove: https://www.facebook.com/createthelove

Have A Question?

—Have a Question For Mark That You’d Like To Hear Answered on the Podcast? Leave us a Voice Note Here: https://www.speakpipe.com/TheMarkGrovesPodcast

If you want to dive deeper into Mark’s content, search through every episode, find specific topics we’ve covered, and ask him questions, go to his Dexa page: https://ask.markgroves.com

Drop us a note at [email protected] for sponsor product support, questions, comments, guest suggestions, or just to say hello!

This episode is sponsored by:

• Institute for Integrative Nutrition: Certified Health Coach Training: Use code MARKGROVES20 for 20% off ALL courses from IIN & Chopra at http://bit.ly/MARKIIN

In this episode I share a raw, unexpected series of moments—that all converge on one unavoidable truth: life is fragile, and integrity can’t wait. I explore how incongruence slowly kills our aliveness, how the smallest compromises quietly accumulate, and why waiting for the “right time” is the most dangerous lie we tell ourselves. This is a direct, unfiltered invitation to stop negotiating with your future self, to reclaim your attention from the distractions anesthetizing your potential, and to live in alignment with what you already know is true. Because every choice you make is either life-affirming or life-draining, and one day, you won’t have the luxury of pretending otherwise.

Sign up for my workshop: www.createthelove.com/reclaim 

Resources:

—Get My Breakup 5 Day Audio Series and Workbook: www.createthelove.com/breakupaudio

Get My Book! Liberated Love - Release Codependent Patterns and Create the Love You Desire: https://markgroves.com/book

—Explore My Courses: https://markgroves.com/courses

Follow me and my work here:

—Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/markgrovestv 

—Subscribe to my Substack: https://markgroves.substack.com

—Instagram - @createthelove: https://www.instagram.com/createthelove

—Facebook - @createthelove: https://www.facebook.com/createthelove

Have A Question?

—Have a Question For Mark That You’d Like To Hear Answered on the Podcast? Leave us a Voice Note Here: https://www.speakpipe.com/TheMarkGrovesPodcast

If you want to dive deeper into Mark’s content, search through every episode, find specific topics we’ve covered, and ask him questions, go to his Dexa page: https://ask.markgroves.com

This episode is sponsored by:

• Institute for Integrative Nutrition: Certified Health Coach Training: Use code MARKGROVES20 for 20% off ALL courses from IIN & Chopra at http://bit.ly/MARKIIN

Drop us a note at [email protected] for sponsor product support, questions, comments, guest suggestions, or just to say hello!

In this episode Mark sits down with author and journalist Monica Guzman for a deeply necessary conversation about curiosity, fear, and what it will actually take to heal our fractured culture. Together they unpack why difference feels so threatening in the body and how fear shuts out curiosity.  They explore how media, identity, and belonging quietly radicalize us, why talking about people instead of with them keeps us divided, and how simple human contact can dismantle stereotypes faster than any argument. This episode is a powerful invitation to examine your own assumptions, build the skills to stay present across difference, and reclaim conversation as a radical, humanizing act in a world addicted to outrage.

Mónica Guzmán is author of “I Never Thought of it That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times”; founder and CEO of Reclaim Curiosity; advisor at Braver Angels; and host of A Braver Way podcast. Mónica serves on the Board of Directors for the The Viewpoints Project. She received an honorary doctorate degree from Wheaton College, and completed study and research fellowships at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, the Henry M. Jackson Foundation, and the University of Florida. A Mexican immigrant, Latina, and dual US/Mexico citizen, she lives in Seattle with her husband and two kids and is the proud liberal daughter of conservative parents.

—Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moniguzman/ 

—Website: moniguzman.com

—This episode is sponsored by:

• Institute for Integrative Nutrition: Certified Health Coach Training: Use code MARKGROVES20 for 20% off ALL courses from IIN & Chopra at http://bit.ly/MARKIIN

—How are your Nervous System + Attachment Style connected? https://markgroves.com/connectthedots

- Subscribe to Mark’s Substack to receive his weekly reflections and insights straight from his heart to your inbox. https://markgroves.substack.com/ 

—Contact us at [email protected] for sponsor product support, questions, comments, or just to say hello!

In this episode I share a revelation about our relationship with technology that completely reframes why your phone feels so overwhelming—and it has nothing to do with willpower or “addiction.” I unpack the unseen biological stress of living in constant social evaluation by algorithms, why simply having a phone on the table erodes presence and empathy, and how for the first time in human history a version of you exists at social risk 24/7. You'll learn what smartphones are really doing to our relationships — and why your nervous system feels it immediately…This episode will radically change how you understand your urge to check your phone, help you release shame, and empower you to create boundaries so technology serves your life instead of extracting from it.

Resources:

—Sign up for my Reclaim Your Attention Workshop here: https://go.markgroves.com/optin-page

—How are your Nervous System + Attachment Style connected? https://markgroves.com/connectthedots

-Get My Book! Liberated Love - Release Codependent Patterns and Create the Love You Desire: https://markgroves.com/book

—Explore My Courses: https://markgroves.com/courses

Follow me and my work here:

—Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/markgrovestv 

—Subscribe to my Substack: https://markgroves.substack.com

—Instagram - @createthelove: https://www.instagram.com/createthelove

—Facebook - @createthelove: https://www.facebook.com/createthelove

Have A Question?

—Have a Question For Mark That You’d Like To Hear Answered on the Podcast? Leave us a Voice Note Here: https://www.speakpipe.com/TheMarkGrovesPodcast

If you want to dive deeper into Mark’s content, search through every episode, find specific topics we’ve covered, and ask him questions, go to his Dexa page: https://ask.markgroves.com

Drop us a note at [email protected] for sponsor product support, questions, comments, guest suggestions, or just to say hello!

This episode is sponsored by:

Cozy Earth: Use code MARK for 25% off sitewide at http://www.cozyearth.com

In this solo episode, I drop in on what it really means to be powerful — not in the performative way we’ve been taught, but in the deeply embodied, self-honoring way that your soul has been nudging you toward. I talk about the invisible forces that keep us quiet, the fear of being seen, and the biology of why we stay stuck even when we know exactly what we need to do. Because let’s be honest: the gap between who we’re being and who we know we could be? That’s where all the suffering lives. And when we don’t live our truth, we numb, we scroll, we consume… anything to avoid the truth that we’re not doing what we know we should be doing. This episode is a wake-up call: an invitation to microdose change, to stop abandoning yourself in the small moments, and to start keeping the promises you make to yourself. LFG.

00:00 – What Does It Mean to Be Powerful?

00:30 – The Fear of Being Seen & Silencing Ourselves

01:15 – How Past Experiences Shape Our Self-Expression

02:30 – The Gap Between Who You Are and Who You Could Be

03:45 – Microdosing Change: Building Power in Small Steps

05:00 – The Snooze Button = Lying to Yourself

06:30 – “It’s Safe for Me to Be Powerful” Practice

08:00 – Why We’re Terrified of Our Own Potential

09:30 – You Already Know What You Need to Do

10:45 – No One Is Coming to Save You

—This episode is sponsored by: Cozy Earth: Use code MARK for 20% off sitewide at http://www.cozyearth.com

—Have a question for Mark to answer on the podcast?https://www.speakpipe.com/TheMarkGrovesPodcast

—Have a question for Mark and want an immediate answer? Mark's Dexa page: https://ask.markgroves.com

—How are your Nervous System + Attachment Style connected? https://markgroves.com/connectthedots

—Subscribe to Mark’s Substack to receive his weekly reflections and insights straight from his heart to your inbox. https://markgroves.substack.com/ 

—Contact us at [email protected] for sponsor product support, questions, comments, or just to say hello!

In this episode Mark sits down with Anjan Katta, the creator of the Daylight Computer, for a conversation that will completely shift how you see your relationship with technology. Together they unpack the hidden ways screens hijack your biology, through flicker rates, blue light, dopamine loops, and the silent extraction of your attention—and why most people don’t realize they’re being physiologically and psychologically overwhelmed until they hit burnout. Anjan shares the wild six-year journey of reinventing screen technology to honor the human nervous system, and Mark explores why reclaiming your attention has become a modern spiritual rebellion. This episode is a wake-up call about the cost of “processed light,” the rise of the analog revolution, and how healthier tech design could return sovereignty, presence, and actual choice back to our lives.

Links:

—Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/daylightco/

—Website: https://daylightcomputer.com/

This episode is sponsored by:

• Institute for Integrative Nutrition: Certified Health Coach Training: Use code MARKGROVES20 for 20% off ALL courses from IIN & Chopra at http://bit.ly/MARKIIN

—Have a question For Mark to answer on the podcast?https://www.speakpipe.com/TheMarkGrovesPodcast

—Have a question for Mark and want an immediate answer? Mark's Dexa page: https://ask.markgroves.com

—How are your Nervous System + Attachment Style connected? https://markgroves.com/connectthedots

- Subscribe to Mark’s Substack to receive his weekly reflections and insights straight from his heart to your inbox. https://markgroves.substack.com/ 

—Contact us at [email protected] for sponsor product support, questions, comments, or just to say hello!

In this episode I explore the uncomfortable but necessary work of becoming congruent with who you truly are—because the gap between your truth and your behavior is where anxiety, shame, and self-betrayal are born. I talk about the power of ritual in healing our personal and collective fractures, why we must rebuild community if we want to feel whole, and how honoring our own contradictions allows us to hold the contradictions of others. I dive into what happens to the body when we live out of alignment, why authenticity is the antidote to chronic stress, and how every misstep is an invitation to return to integrity. This episode is a call to stop abandoning yourself, reclaim coherence, and live a life that matches the truth you already feel in your bones.

Resources:

—Get My Breakup 5 Day Audio Series and Workbook: www.createthelove.com/breakupaudio

Get My Book! Liberated Love - Release Codependent Patterns and Create the Love You Desire: https://markgroves.com/book

—Explore My Courses: https://markgroves.com/courses

Follow me and my work here:

—Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/markgrovestv 

—Subscribe to my Substack: https://markgroves.substack.com

—Instagram - @createthelove: https://www.instagram.com/createthelove

—Facebook - @createthelove: https://www.facebook.com/createthelove

Have A Question?

—Have a Question For Mark That You’d Like To Hear Answered on the Podcast? Leave us a Voice Note Here: https://www.speakpipe.com/TheMarkGrovesPodcast 

If you want to dive deeper into Mark’s content, search through every episode, find specific topics we’ve covered, and ask him questions, go to his Dexa page: https://ask.markgroves.com

Drop us a note at [email protected] for sponsor product support, questions, comments, guest suggestions, or just to say hello!

This episode is sponsored by:

Institute for Integrative Nutrition: Certified Health Coach Training: Use code MARKGROVES20 for 20% off ALL courses from IIN & Chopra at http://bit.ly/MARKIIN