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What did we actually get sober from?

For so long, alcohol marked what it meant to be fun. Celebratory. Free.

But underneath that, for both of us, was something different - an unease we couldn't quite name. In this episode, we get honest about that gray area, the ritual that turned drinking into an actual choice instead of a habit, and where a lot of this really started for Kevin - a version of himself he's spent years afraid to let people see.

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Hormones influence half the population, and yet most of us were taught more about condoms than about what actually happens inside a woman's body every month.

That gap doesn't just cost women information. It costs relationships. When hormones go unspoken and unsupported, partners are left guessing, dismissing, or checking out at exactly the moments connection matters most.

In this episode, Raychel and Kevin get honest about hormones: what they actually feel like, why they've been left out of the conversation for so long, and what it looks like when a partner actually shows up for something that's usually carried alone.

This one's for both of you.

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This is This Love in Action.

Real conversations about what it actually takes to build a conscious, honest partnership: the hard mornings, the patterns we're still unlearning, the moments we get it wrong before we get it right.

We record these live, camera on, nothing scripted. If you're looking for real over polished, you're in the right place.

New episodes every week. Full episodes on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.

#consciousrelationships #couplegoals #relationshippodcast

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Have you ever tried to help your partner through something hard, only to end up in a fight instead? 

In this episode, Raychel and Kevin walk through something that happened to them that same morning - a rough night, a funk, and the instinct to fix it that almost turned into the very fight they were trying to avoid. They get into what happens when a partner people pleases instead of leaning into their authenticity, and what this behavior pattern is actually about. 

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Kevin and Raychel trace their worst recurring fight back to its actual mechanism: Kevin's habit of swallowing small frustrations until they only surfaced when Raychel was raising her concerns. She would bring one issue up and would be met with Kevin unloading a backlog of his own. They name the belief underneath it (naming frustration equals abandonment), the rule that broke the cycle, and the individual work each of them now does to separate an old wound from a present-day irritation before bringing it to the other person. 

Key Takeaways:

• Why withholding a frustration doesn't neutralize it
• How bringing up a problem is not the same act as keeping score
• Why your partner might get defensive when you raise issues
• What you can do before a conversation to influence the outcome
• Why a genuinely thoughtful gesture at the wrong time might not land

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What Is "Mental Load" and Why Is It Destroying Marriages?

They almost didn't make it. Kevin and Raychel pull back the curtain on eight years together to get honest about the invisible workload, the "mother-son" dynamic, and the codependency that nearly broke their marriage before they built something real.

Summary

In their first episode, Kevin and Raychel reject the highlight-reel version of relationships shown on social media and reality TV in favor of an unfiltered look at what it actually takes to keep a marriage working. They break down "mental load," the constant, invisible mental tracking of a household's needs, and how it turned their dynamic into something closer to mother and son than two equal partners. It's a raw conversation about perfectionism, people-pleasing, shame, and the slow work of rebuilding trust after years of one partner carrying everything.

Key Takeaways

• Mental load is the invisible tax of running a household. It's not the tasks themselves, it's the constant background tracking of appointments, groceries, schedules, and deadlines that never turns off.
• Perfectionism can quietly sabotage shared projects. Raychel's need to control the podcast's execution turned a shared vision into a one-person burden, while Kevin's people-pleasing meant he never pushed back or contributed his own ideas.
• Naming the pattern is the hard part, not the fix. It took repeated, exhausting conversations (and real defensiveness from Kevin) before the "mother-son" dynamic was even acknowledged.
• Trust has to be rebuilt through consistency, not declarations. Raychel didn't trust Kevin's follow-through until he showed a track record, not just a single grand gesture.
• Codependency runs both directions. Raychel admits she chose a partner who needed her and reinforced that need, meaning the imbalance wasn't something that just happened to her.

Timestamps

• [00:00:00] Why they're finally doing this podcast, and why relationship content online is mostly fake
• [00:02:00] Eight years together, five married: how much they've each changed and what that means for staying together
• [00:04:00] The failed podcast attempt two years ago, and why trying again mattered
• [00:05:00] Raychel on stepping away from perfectionism and wanting the process to actually feel good
• [00:07:00] How perfectionism bled into the podcast itself, and Raychel "helicopter parenting" their creative process
• [00:08:00] Kevin's people-pleasing role, and how being a "yes man" fed the imbalance
• [00:09:00] Introducing the "mother-son" relationship dynamic
• [00:10:00] Defining mental load: the constant scanning and tracking no one sees
• [00:14:00] How Kevin actually learned to notice and take on tasks without being told
• [00:15:00] Why bringing up mental load over and over was exhausting for Raychel, and Kevin's defensiveness
• [00:19:00] Rebuilding trust after a history of dropped follow-through
• [00:20:00] Codependency as a two-way street: Raychel's own accountability
• [00:21:00] Closing thoughts and the invitation to follow along

Resources & Links 

• Instagram: @thisloveinaction 
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThisLoveInAction/featured

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