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Happy New Year and Last Chance to Register For Early Bird Pricing

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Tonight my husband and I have plans for a lovely dinner to celebrate New Year’s eve.

Yet, this morning, I found myself wishing for a drive along the majestic California coastline.

These tumbling thoughts can turn into complaints and always catch me by surprise. They force me to pause and reflect.

Maybe… just maybe it’s our nature to crave things we don’t have in the moment. It also saps energy and can bring on the blues.

The quickest FIX I know of is a GRATITUDE list. So we did one…. together.

Continue Reading Happy New Year and Last Chance to Register For Early Bird Pricing

Moment by Moment / Grace and Gratitude

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Just a simple reminder on how well you’re doing.

Those anxious moments you had a year ago are gone.

The problem was either resolved or it faded into the background. Something you live with but no longer think of as urgent.

Today there are other issues – for sure!

And, knowing you can get through every single overwhelming moment makes it easier to see what’s real.

When we give our attention to the important stuff instead of the panic within, we learn to build a cycle of goodness.

Continue Reading Moment by Moment / Grace and Gratitude

It’s been a tough year…

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Yes. It’s been a tough year and here we are!

We’re well into November and it’s finally time to acknowledge the launch of the 2018 Holiday Season. (Delicious, stressful, merry and expensive!)

I get it….the big box stores started their holidays in August but we’re less than 60 days till the end of the year…..and it’s mind boggling how fast it all goes.

For me, 2018 has been a year filled with extraordinary growth AND extraordinary challenges. If it’s been that way for you too, I understand.

All year, one little phrase has kept me moving forward. I borrowed it from someone with a very wise mother…. (who said it often). It’s a phrase I journal, say to myself and say out loud, to anyone who needs encouragement….. the kind it takes to keep moving forward.

EVERYTHING is figure-out-able.

No doubt….you’re doing a lot. You’ve got a ton to be grateful for. And… you’re maneuvering through some BIG challenges.

If one of those challenges is relationship conflict, it may be time to take a closer look at how things work. Those difficult situations don’t come out of ‘the blue.’

They exist to teach us what we need to know in order to grow and love more deeply. Loving well will teach you (and your partner) how to be more of who you really are.

YOU are the very essence of Love. It’s who you are. You are also smarter and stronger than you realize. And you have what it takes to figure things out. (That doesn’t mean you have to do it alone!)

Continue Reading It’s been a tough year…

Registration is open and I’m super excited!

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I’m thrilled to announce that Early Bird Registration (big savings!) is open for our 2019 Hold Me Tight® Workshops here in Charlotte, NC.

We have four 2-day weekends to choose from!

 

Yep. I’m that excited.

Most of us value our primary relationship and truly want to make it better – we read books and spend hours scouring the internet wondering how to make that special connection happen.

We carefully and regularly attend to our…

  • children
  • careers
  • cars
  • yards
  • mortgages and
  • home improvement projects

with LOTS of success.

But if you work your tail off and can’t figure out why things aren’t getting better between you and your partner — you are not alone.

(HINT: this is not something we’re taught in school. And people rarely recognize emotional closeness as a skill worth building and cultivating. Turns out, it’s as essential as oxygen!)

Make no mistake – the ability for a couple to have enough closeness and trust to have an important conversation (or any conversation for that matter!) without slipping into a negative spin – is a must-have for 21st century relationships.

And that’s exactly what you’ll learn in our Hold Me Tight® Workshop for Couples.

After 2 days and 7 conversations, you’ll walk away with concrete ways to communicate and pull your partner closer.

Talking, listening and being heard for the first time in a loooooong time is exactly what you’ll experience.

Click here and select the date that works for you……

Continue Reading Registration is open and I’m super excited!

Star Stuff and Love

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We dream of stability and permanence. What shows up is confusion and paradox.

Sometimes being in an intimate relationship means choosing between compromise/conformity and taking a powerful stand for uniqueness instead; two people on separate and individual journeys – together.

One is riskier and means moving from what we know to what we don’t know.

Kind of like when the ancients suspected that Earth was not the fixed center, and was moving at unimaginable speed beneath their feet. It took thousands of years to prove this theory and in 1929, Edwin Hubble, established that we live in an ever expanding Universe.

Continue Reading Star Stuff and Love

What’s It Worth?

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What’s an extraordinary relationship worth?

It’s worth a lot to some people but what is it worth to you?

We know the definition of the word love and we all have an idea of what a relationship ‘should’ be.

We also know what normal looks like. It’s what happens when two people get together, do things and make a pledge.

But connection is rare. It’s when we show up whole, experience the harmony of opposites and surprise ourselves in unexpected ways. It’s an experience beyond normal.

Connection isn’t loud. It creates a kind of tension that buzzes. It’s disruptive and calming at the same time. It unnerves us and feels scary as it breaks through the status quo. It’s full of power, yet has nothing to do with power-over. It changes both people; the giver and the recipient.

Continue Reading What’s It Worth?

Is It Worth It?

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It depends.

Before we can even begin to evaluate the worth of a good relationship, it’s important to understand what’s at stake.

The answers aren’t always clear in the near term.

But we’ve learned a few things over time.

If you want to know how valuable a good relationship is, the Harvard Study is a great resource.

It started in 1938, is still going on, included only men (Harvard wasn’t coed at the time) and now includes wives, children and grandchildren.

  • Close relationships keep us happy over time; significantly more so than money or fame.
  • Relationships and how happy we are in them has a powerful effect on our health.
  • Loneliness kills and is as dangerous to our health as smoking and alcoholism.

Continue Reading Is It Worth It?

The Relationship Dance

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Sue Johnson, the world’s leading couples therapist and researcher talks about intimate relationship as a ‘dance that shapes and recreates the dancers’.

Relationship is about relating; ‘It’s a dance of synchrony requiring partners to improvise and tune in to each other’.

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For entertainment we watch movies where brilliant actors talk and pick up each other’s flawless cues.

They respond perfectly. Dreamily. Lovingly. That’s why we pay them $20 million a picture, after all.

Continue Reading The Relationship Dance

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