Video summary
Jillian Turecki argues in her book *It Begins With You* that relationship difficulties often stem from a universal fear of not being enough, which triggers insecurity and leads to acting out behaviors like anger or clinging. She posits that while childhood conditioning and parental influences play a role, individuals are ultimately responsible for their own patterns because no one can stand in the way of our growth more than we ourselves. Turecki emphasizes that romantic relationships and business ventures serve as mirrors exposing these inner beliefs; just as corporate leaders like McNamara focused on measurable metrics rather than sentiment during the Vietnam War, people often prioritize quantifiable proxies like bank balances or social media followers over intangible relationship satisfaction. She suggests that if there were a dashboard for marital happiness, couples would likely invest more effort in it, but instead, they must learn to look within and accept that some relationships do not work out because of immaturity or simply being the wrong fit rather than personal failure alone. The podcast delves into how the mind functions as a battlefield where unexamined thoughts create negative stories about partners, likening this mental chatter to the "monkey mind" in ancient yogic texts. Turecki explains that immature love involves idealizing a partner and pulling away when their flaws are revealed, whereas mature love accepts a person's nuances, shortcomings, and brilliance while choosing them despite knowing they cannot save us from our own unhappiness. A critical component of this maturity is managing the transition from the euphoric honeymoon phase to stable companionship; rather than fearing the loss of excitement as incompatibility, couples should view it as an opportunity to build deep trust, safety, and emotional connection. She warns against taking partners for granted during this shift and encourages individuals to continue pursuing their partner with curiosity even when the initial infatuation fades, noting that deceleration from passion allows space for genuine intimacy to grow without destabilizing anxiety. Accountability is identified as a foundational skill in relationships, defined not as splitting fault fifty-fifty but as taking full responsibility for one's own thoughts, behaviors, and projections. Turecki illustrates how people often project their unresolved issues with parents onto current partners, mistaking the partner for an ex-mother or father figure due to unconscious triggers. She stresses that speaking the truth vulnerably is essential because hiding feelings breeds resentment and prevents a partner from contributing to one's emotional well-being. Furthermore, she highlights specific gender dynamics regarding safety; women often require physical and psychological presence from partners who can protect them in empty spaces, while men frequently feel responsible for fixing problems rather than simply offering listening ears or hugs during times of distress. This disconnect is exacerbated by the inability to convince anyone else—or oneself—to love more deeply, as feelings arise bottom-up through genuine connection rather than top-down willpower. Finally, Turecki addresses the necessity of making peace with one's parents to break generational cycles and secure adult relationships. She advises against viewing this process as an attack on aging parents but suggests grieving the parent one wished for while accepting them as they are, perhaps by recording conversations or asking questions about their lives to foster understanding. While acknowledging that severe abuse requires different handling, she notes that even difficult upbringings can build resilience and drive success, provided individuals do not remain stuck in trauma without healing it into meaning. Using the film *500 Days of Summer* as an example, she concludes that no one is coming to rescue us; fulfillment must come from within, and relationships are meant to enhance our lives rather than fix them. Ultimately, life's mysteries mean we cannot change the past or force love upon others, but by adopting a mindset of self-acceptance and emotional availability, individuals can transform their relationship trajectories regardless of their starting point.
Read the full video transcript
it begins with you they do not have the
power we do all the disappointment
confusion and drama of your former
relationships can be Trace to the
universal fear that you are not enough
yes
um everything that you do inside of a
relationship that you are really
confused about that's been maddening to
you and to your former partners or
anything that
um anything that you that you are
questioning it can be boiled down to the
fact that you are afraid that you're not
enough for this person and if you're not
enough that somehow love is going to be
taken away from you because if
we when we are confronted with that
insecurity that we are not good enough
in some way that's when we start to act
out all our weirdness inside of a
relationship honestly and yes of course
there's childhood there's conditioning
there's there's your parents all these
things are
influences but when people are angry
they're afraid when people are lashing
out they're afraid when people are
clinging they're afraid when people are
shutting down they are afraid and um I
started the book and named it it begins
with you because no one is going to
stand in your way more than you no one
is going to lie to you more than you do
to yourself same same for me this is is
just
everyone and um it's not about you're
the only BL person to blame it's not
about blame it all but if we want to
change our relationship lives if we want
to change our lives at all we have to be
able to look within and see the ways in
which our
insecurity gets in the way of a
relationship and we have to see where
are also not just our insecurity but our
belief system and our conditioning and
the things that happened in childhood we
are the common denominator in all our
relationships that's actually really
good news because it means that you can
actually change something this I this
concept of is the problem is you not
necessarily you know the problem could
very be well be the people who you're
choosing but you're choosing them
so you're choosing them why and so the
first principle the first truth is you
have to you have to be willing to look
within and a lot of people are not
willing to do that until they are
desperate but it's the only way it's
interesting the not enough thing that it
it
makes love and attachment and Care feel
contingent it feels like if if I could
be more if I was able to be dot dot dot
and you know if you listen to a lot of
the discussions on the internet around
romance but also around friendships and
stuff like
that a lot of the time you know it's a
hopeful and motivating message to say
pick yourself up by your bootstraps
outgrow the person that hurt you make
yourself better take this uh curse and
turn it into a lesson instead of a
blessing that it could have been but it
wasn't so now you're going to you know
alchemize yourself into some better
version of you like all of that's fine
but the subtext of a lot of that
conversation is
still you're not sort of worthy as you
are and there's this place that you need
to get yourself to or could get yourself
to and if only you were there maybe you
wouldn't have been rejected by this
person maybe they would have actually
maybe you would have been able to
fulfill their desires to the point where
they would have actually been happy with
you as you yes and that's that's a
losing strategy I mean so much of if
you're reflecting on past relationships
that didn't work the best thing to do is
just to let go and to surrender to the
fact that um you know life is about
making mistakes and sometimes epic
mistakes and um if you are if you've got
someone smart whispering in your ear
telling you to you know take a look at
this and see what you can learn from it
so that you don't repeat it that's the
best case scenario
um you know some things just don't work
out because it wasn't right some things
don't work out some relationships don't
work out because you both were too
immature to make it work out sometimes
it doesn't work out because I don't know
like it wasn't supposed to you were
supposed to learn something it was
supposed to be an experience maybe it
was supposed to be a love affair instead
of it being a marriage you know I I mean
but this is the thing we
um romantic relationships are what are
where we feel most
vulnerable and there's two worlds
there's two worlds where I think
um your inner patterns uh show up in a
very unique way the first one is in
relationships and the second one is in
business always um I think James Clear
says that uh starting a business is a
vehicle for personal growth masquerading
as a wealth making Enterprise yes I I
would wholeheartedly agree with that
I was trying to think about this over
the uh festive period I guess family you
know your whatever birth family is
probably a third area as only child
living a few thousand miles away from
home that's not something I have to
contend with too much but um I I those
three areas and I was thinking at least
about the first two the romantic thing
and the business thing about why it's
the case and I guess it's because
there's very few other situations you
get yourself into where you're pushed so
far that there's if it was a person on
the street yeah I was in New York only
yesterday and there was a person on the
street obviously in a bit of mental
distress homeless guy and you know he's
sort of shouting and talking and
pointing at you and whatever and you go
well I can just walk away I don't have
any attachment to this person I don't
have any sense of obligation to fulfill
the needs of whatever and then I don't
need to think about it anymore but with
the business you know the it's got this
sense of self attached to it it's got
your self-worth embedded in it and you
and you look at all of the time you've
invested in this thing and look at the
future you could have together and the
exact same thing is true when it comes
to romance as well so yeah um business
and relationships are able to expose our
inner patterns in a way that very few
other things can yeah absolutely because
you know you said something about
self-worth being embedded in that
absolutely it's also your belief system
it's you know you know my dad never was
able to make it so I need to make it or
my dad always
put pressure on me to be a certain way
and to achieve it's who am I if I'm not
achieving um who am I if I'm not uh
successful and so um again it's the its
identity its
self-worth it's um it's your entire
childhood being exposed basically in
your entire your entire beliefs it's
your relationship with certainly at
least one of your parents being exposed
pretty much and triggered all the time
uh in business and in uh romantic
relationships and you know if you're the
kind of person who doesn't like to give
up or you're very achievement
oriented then um chances are well
chances are you uh have had a lot of
achievement but on the other on the flip
side of the coin is you have a very hard
time letting go so with everything that
we deal with there's a positive and
there's sort of a corresponding negative
and it's going to be incredibly
triggering for sure that said I think
that um I really think that even if work
is going phenomenally well even if you
have all the money you want even if your
health is good if your relationship
specifically your your intimate
relationship is struggling you're
suffering even if you have purpose if
that relationship is not going well you
are going to wake up
stressed and um you know for some people
you could say the same thing about
business as well but I think that
um I think deep down in everyone's heart
uh they want love more than they want
money and fame well if we think about
what we've created a proxy of with
business success all of those things
ultimately lead back to some form of
status which is tradable for for love
and acceptance from a partner and from
The Wider group so it's a much more
direct route to get the thing which is
the belonging the reassurance the
Fulfillment from the partner as opposed
to all of these proxies but the problem
is that you can't really show a balance
sheet of how much love and care you have
so you know McNamara's fallacy have you
heard of this no it educate me so um the
Vietnam War they were trying to work out
what the best metrics were to measure to
work out whether America was winning or
losing the war and magnamar decided to
use I think it was the number of enemy
combatants that were killed uh because
it's very easy it appears on a balance
sheet you can work that out uh but what
they should have been looking at was
what was the sentiment at home because
the reason the Vietnam War was a massive
L for the United States was not only the
fact that they didn't manage to make the
ground and and and and Conquer in the
manner that they wanted but it was the
way that the sentiment at home changed
so the rule is we intend to measure what
we care about but instead we end up
caring about what we can
measure and the fact that you can see
your number of followers on social media
or the size of your bank balance or the
house that you've got or the car or
whatever it might be and then you can
play this comparison game you care about
what you can measure as opposed to
measuring what you want to care about
and uh yeah if you if you could somehow
if there was some dashboard that showed
everybody's marital happiness I'm sure
people people would pay a lot more
attention like embarrassingly people
would pay way more attention to their
relationship satisfaction if they could
just find a way to to measure yeah
that's interesting you're probably right
absolutely but you know I
mean yeah it's you know it's interesting
I
um it's interesting how many people I
know who uh
uh I think there's people need a sense
of purpose they need to feel connected
to
themselves uh they need to have a sense
of self that they bring into a
relationship and a relationship is a
mirror it is going to show you where
your work lies and where your work is
and
um you know I just was recently having a
conversation with someone and he was
just opening up to me about how he and
his wife are going through a rough patch
they have a eight-month bab eight-month
old baby and babies can really rock the
the foundation of a marriage or a
relationship and he was just describing
he's like you know we're going through a
rough patch like we're arguing about
this and that and you know I don't know
what to do and this idea that he he kind
of wanted to like give up and I said no
no you can't like what no you can't give
up um you right now you're in your head
and you're thinking that it's all her
fault and you're doing everything and
it's not it takes two to tango and so
I'm sharing this story just because you
know so many relationships end because
people don't know they don't have the
tools to make the relationship work and
that's part of the reason why we feel so
incredibly vulnerable there's lots of
books out there about how to make money
how to run a business and all of that it
doesn't address a lot of the books don't
actually address what we were just a
minute ago talking about which is this
is what it's going to trigger inside of
you and there's lots of great amazing
books about communication and
communication let me tell you something
that's that's a skill that that everyone
needs when it comes to
relationship but there's not enough
literature out there to address um this
is like this is what your mind is going
to do to you when you are in a
relationship and if you are not
careful and you let your mind get the
best of you it's
done and so I said to him I said you are
stuck in your head I understand that
it's hard but you don't just leave when
it's hard you figure it out or you do
your best to figure it out and when I
say your best literally your best and
after that you can you both can make a
decision and this is you know there's no
abuse here there's nothing like that you
know they're very committed um but it's
it's amazing to me how well I guess it's
not amazing to me I I think
that relationships are where we feel yes
the most vulnerable but what goes along
with that is sort of like a helplessness
like sort of hopeless you know like I
don't know how to make this better all I
know is that I feel like
[ __ ] yeah the the I think people can put
up with a lot of
suffering If Only They didn't If Only
They knew that there was a root out
right it's the reason that Uber is so
good the reason that Uber was a
revolution wasn't that you could get a
cab from anywhere by using a single app
on your phone it's that you knew how
long it was going to take before it got
to you so it removed the anxiety of
waiting right that was what it was and
not having to take your wallet true okay
yeah I mean look there's lot there's
lots of reasons but one of the things
that people true one of the things
people misunder that they underestimate
is that this relates to the second truth
the mind is a battlefield our minds are
always creating stories and if we don't
question our thoughts and beliefs our
heads can quickly become battlefields
yes um so in very ancient yogic text in
Buddhist text there's this idea of of
the monkey mind so the the the metaphor
is like if you think of a monkey
swinging from Branch to Branch just sort
of swinging moving that's sort of like
the nature of the mind it's just going
from thought to thought to thought and
if we don't and the monkey's wild and so
if we don't learn the tools and if we
don't practice taming the monkey the
monkey will um take full control we are
story making machines we like to make a
story out of everything and some people
have a very um they have a
for um assigning a lot of disempowering
and negative meanings to everything and
and but we're but none of us are immune
to that and so
um what's happening in a relationship
when it's going
well well the story in everyone's head
is that is filled with a lot of positive
meaning and and positivity and
love this the relationship that's not
going well it's you know two brains that
are creating a lot of stories I mean of
course there's other reasons that a
relationship's not going well there's
very very extreme circumstances that
could happen but on the average that's
what's happening and let's take this out
of the context of relationships it's
like you can can relate it to business
or anything else I mean how many times
have you like laid in bed at night
replaying something in your mind or or
replaying something in the morning and
you've created like a whole story about
what they did what they thought and you
know why they did that and you get
yourself all worked up and you get
yourself in such a state and it was all
in your head and I think part of
maturing is being able to catch
ourselves in those thoughts and just
being able to say okay I'm like I'm not
thinking clearly right now I'm you know
my mind is like my mind is messy right
now and
so this was something that I never
learned until I started doing this work
which is
that that you know the story that we
assign to anything determines how we
feel about
anything and that our minds um are
designed to keep us safe they're not
designed to make us happy
and so we have to be able to discipline
our minds and question our thoughts
often this is the whole idea of
mindfulness like bringing mindfulness
into your life or bringing mindfulness
to your relationship is bringing more
awareness awareness of how our thoughts
can get the better of us um how our
stories and the meanings that we assign
to certain things well if he loved me
then or if she loved me then you know
that's that's a big one um I know you
meant to do this or you know you
wouldn't have said that if you didn't do
that or if you didn't feel
that these are the things that um you
know that can really really destroy a
relationship and destroy our experience
of a relationship yeah I suppose it's
you start after a while to not even have
a relationship with the person you have
a relationship with your relationship to
the relationship
you you have your Rel you have a
relationship with the story that you
have about the relationship and that it
doesn't surprise me that you know it
kind of is not necessarily the beginning
of the end but certainly the beginning
of a difficult period that you're going
to have to get over if you want to fix
it because you're becoming increasingly
isolated you're having an experience on
your own which you're not sharing with
the person that it's
about and then you're becoming resentful
correct yeah the Neil Strauss was this
last year I think this was two years ago
uh the best quote that I heard uh
unspoken expectations are premeditated
resentments yes it's
brilliant yes yeah [ __ ] yeah so good so
correct and so accurate yeah well
expectations and you have to really
manage our expectations as well you know
um a lot of times in a relationship
we're expecting this sort of rightness
from our
partner and we seldom do we look within
and think how can I be better as a
partner how can I change something here
how am I complicit in this thing that's
happening absolutely and um you know you
take two people in a relationship who
are willing to ask themselves that
question how am I complicit in whatever
is going on here that is not
working chances are you're going to have
a those people are going to have a
pretty epic relationship
honestly accountability is the most
important thing in a relationship dig
into that for me what you mean when you
say accountability um being willing to
be 100% responsible for your experience
so you're responsible for your thoughts
you're responsible for your perspectives
you're responsible for your behavior
that does not mean that two people come
in they let's say they want coup's
coaching it's not like well 50% is your
fault and 50% is your fault you know it
could be that one person is actually
causing more of the problems but often
times um we ha we have to be very
accountable for our projections so
something that we do in relationships is
we project
so we without before we become more
Mindful and more
conscious we think that we're looking at
the person that we love when really what
we're looking at
is our ex our mom our Dad we're looking
at them through the filter of our
past and instead of actually seeing the
person our unconscious is reminded of
something that our mom or our dad did
that we couldn't stand and then all of a
sudden we are you know we're blaming
them as if for all our unfinished
business and resentment against one or
both of our parents that's projection or
we get into a relationship with a
certain level of insec and low
self-esteem and then when our partner is
not making us happy we think you know
you're not loving me well when you came
into the relationship
insecure so we have so
accountability is being able to say all
right we have a problem there's
something that's upsetting us or there's
something that's upsetting
me what what am I how am I
complicit am I projecting here do I even
know what their needs are have I even
been expressing my
needs so it really truly is in my in my
view the most important it's not the
only one that matters but it's the most
important relationship skill is to be
able to take full responsibility that is
a very good measure of someone's
emotional int intelligence and of
someone's character and yeah yeah
character is so
interesting to think
about yeah are you able to are you able
to put yourself to one side sort of your
narrow need for to be right uh to put
yourself first ahead of this thing
that's supposed to be the thing that you
care about you know yes if if what I
think both of us believe is true which
is you can have a great career and a
crappy relationship and be pretty
miserable you can have an average career
and a great relationship and have a
delightful life yes so what we're saying
is the the most important thing if
you're going to couple up the most
important thing is who you couple up
with
absolutely okay that means that
everything comes second to the
relationship um
well in many ways yes I mean you need to
look after your health so that can show
up like well health health is is
obviously the most important thing and
our relationship to ourselves is the
most important thing but you can't it's
not so separate from the relationship
from the other because you're constantly
going to have to you know I don't know
how there's going to be a lot of if
you're in a relationship for the long
term there's going to be a lot of times
you're just going to be like H they're
being so annoying I don't feel like
dealing and is it really about them or
are you just in a bad mood
are okay you don't really feel like
having this conversation with
them it's it's bringing up a lot of
discomfort for you are you going
to go for the temporary comfort in not
having the conversation or are you just
going to continually make things worse
like we are constantly being asked to
transcend ourselves and our egos in a
relationship but yeah
I think all relationships are the most
important thing they really do um
determine our lives and uh a romantic
relationship look it's the person you
are naked with emotionally
physically it's the person who
um who could leave
you um you have friendships that there's
a level of certainty that we have with
our with certain friendships and with
family members that you know they're not
going anywhere or if we don't speak them
to them for a week our relationship is
still strong those rules don't apply it
just doesn't apply in a romantic
relationship and um everyone fears on
some level being
left you know being unloved being
abandoned in some
way and so in writing this book I really
wanted people to ask themselves well and
to reflect on well what are some of the
things that you do when you're afraid in
a
relationship you know cuz you got to
know what would you say to someone who
is in the middle of the Mind as a
battlefield uh world how do you advise
them especially when it's to do with
relating to somebody else the person
that they care about the most the one
that the most scared of that's going to
leave them how can they
just fix that get out of the head a
little bit get back to some rationality
um to get out of the head is to it's the
the pathway is always to get into your
body so you want to deepen your breath
because whenever you're in your head
like really in your head like in the
thick of the battlefield of your
mind um your breath is
shallow and your muscles are very tight
so the first thing is to just to to take
a time out and connect your breathing
and to take a deep breath in a deep
breath out and let your exhalation be
longer and so you first have to kind of
do that so that you can get in a more
you can calm your your nervous system if
you will and then you can ask yourself
some questions which I and I love the
work of Byron Katie where where she says
you know is it true are you sure that
it's true so you can ask yourself these
questions but it always starts with you
know when you're in your head you're
reactive and in order to transition from
a reactive state to a more responsive
state or use the word a more rational
State you have to incorporate your
breathing you may need to do a little
movement you may need to just go for a
walk you may need to call a friend you
may need to work out you may need to
take a shower you may need to eat
something cuz when we eat it changes our
our nervous system it changes our
physiological State you get more
grounded when you eat you get more
satiated you get more full the Energy
starts to go down so
um that's first and
foremost yeah I um I know the the fact
that people get so so stuck and so
caught up thinking and thinking and
overthinking which makes the
overthinking worse and doesn't allow
them to get out of it I don't know it's
it's a ruthless bind and especially the
sort of people that listen to shows like
this who are a bit thoughtful and maybe
introspective and you know they really
want to they want to do well and they
see their own failings from a front row
seat yes they think oh my God like I
look at how viscerally I'm able to
experience this horrible sensation I
can't stop thinking about or this
thought Loop I'm caught up in or oh my
God my brain's about to tell me that
same story that I told myself about the
situation I'm bored of my own thoughts
I'm I'm bored of myself telling me this
thing that's a good place to
be it's good to be bored with yourself
because typically that's when we start
to
change when we actually can't stand it
anymore otherwise we're just kind of
like the loop keeps happening because
it's so comfortable and it's so familiar
and we're so unconscious about it once
we're conscious and we're just like I'm
so bored of this that's when we actually
start to make a change
actually TR number three lust is not the
same thing as love nope knowing the
difference is essential for building
long-lasting Love Yes um so when we
first meet someone and we're really
excited about
them we enter a sort of euphoric
State some sort of
euphoria and it's the and we think oh
it's this person when really they are
just a metaphor of
um for a feeling of novelty
Adventure a freedom from the monotony of
Our Lives you know or Freedom even from
overthinking sometimes it's it's like
all of a sudden we if we've been living
up here in our heads and then we meet
someone we're really excited about all
of a sudden we feel like we're in our
hearts more and that's always a more
comfortable place for for human beings
to live we're always happier when we are
living it when we're more in our bodies
and less in our heads always and
so and then we get you know people in
this
stage of of meeting someone in a
relationship um there's a spectrum but
some people we can get a we can get
really crazy during this time we can get
incredibly
obsessive and we don't we're not taught
in school how to process our enthusiasm
so then we start you know the crush
begins and we start thinking we can't
live without this person and they are
the one and and that and that whole
narrative when really what is happening
is that you you have chemistry with
someone and that Rush of hormones and
that Rush of
excitement has very little to do as I
said with them and love is not just a
feeling love is actually a verb it's an
intentional practice it's um some we do
love we don't just feel
love and that thing that you feel in the
beginning is not love you know people
are like oh we have such an amazing
connection well great I don't want to
rain on anyone's parade I mean we have a
very fleeting experience on this Earth
and you know that's that's a lot of fun
but we also have to adapt and we have to
process the the fact that what we're
experiencing is um you know it's not
love it's it's chemistry it's
attraction and um and people
think so let's say the honeymoon stage
of a relationship say last anywhere 3
months to 6 months maybe nine months you
know it's
depending and when we start to wake up
from that that that drunkenness that we
are you know we're like drunk on lust
and and excitement and when we start to
emerge we start to sober up and then we
realize oh like you're just a per you
know you're a person and you have flaws
and you know and you're not you're not
coming to save me and you know you're
not better than me cuz we sometime we
want to meet that person who's in some
way better than us when the truth is
you're just going to choose the person
who's on a similar level of
Consciousness as your own and even if
you did meet someone who's better than
you they're not going to want to be in a
relationship with
you so and no one's inherently better
than you but you know what I mean
someone who um maybe has dealt with
their childhood stuff you know and has
their life in order and maybe you don't
right so we wake up from that from that
euphoria
and then we think oh this isn't fun like
you're not you know and then all the
expectations come and you're like well
you're not you're not making me happy
and that depression that I had you know
two days before I met you that magically
went away when I met you it's come back
there must be something wrong with you
or this must not be
love and people are operating like this
more than you think I I know exactly
what you're talking about does this
it's so funny listeners of the show the
OG OG listeners from seven years ago
when we first started it uh will know a
friend of mine Johnny who was being on
the show quite a lot and he once said
this thing to me and it's taken probably
until now for me to actually realize
that it was true he said he saw a lot of
his friends kind of going through the
same cycle which was between a 12 to 18
month relationship that had a good
amount of commitment and then they got
toward the end of that and things just
didn't seem as exciting anymore
there was some conflict and then they
assumed that that meant that it's well
we're not compatible and there's
something wrong and then they'd sort of
Kick the Can down the road and then just
restart the whole thing over and over
again and um yeah I think we really need
to look at ourselves during the first 6
to 12 months of a relationship more like
drug addicts than uh people able to make
rational decisions you know you're a
drug addict but you also happen to be
the dealer and the user yeah exactly
that's actually well said it's very true
and uh yeah that that's very true unless
unless you know you get into a
relationship and you're someone who
realizes this unless you read my book or
unless you read other people's books
right and you're like I understand that
um what I'm actually looking for is not
just this feeling I'm looking for
someone who um will challenge me in the
best possible ways not challenge me to
the point where you know every single
wound in my body is triggered because we
because of whatever is going on between
the two of us but they challenge me to
actually step up they challenge me to be
a better person and uh and we have and
we have the same values and this is
someone who I can build with and
immature love immature love says I am in
love with my projected idealization of
you and the moment you show me that
you're real I going to pull
away and mature love says I see all of
you I see your Nuance I see your
shortcomings I see your Brilliance I see
your quirks I see your past and I choose
you it's
uh people don't often talk about this
you know there's a lot of criticism
around uh giving up too easily uh you're
not sticking about whether it's in a
marriage or with family or just in a
relationship that's maybe going to turn
into one of those things uh but very few
people are
saying or coaching people on how to
bring yourself back down to earth during
the first few months it's like don't
work harder you almost need to sort of
be less en amage with your partner as
opposed to more en amage with your
partner somehow um but one of the things
I think a lot of people will feel is
that deceleration as they move from the
passionate to the companionate
attraction system or go from lust to
love or get out of the honeymoon Fe
period or stop infatuation whatever
terminology you want to use how do you
advise the people that you work with or
how do you come to think about sort of
managing that altitude change because
you are going to feel it yes it it
wouldn't work for you to be infatuated
with your partner for the rest of time
you get nothing done yeah you get
nothing well you get nothing done and
actually You' get pretty bored because
we just don't want to be in one one
state the entire time it's very
destabilizing to feel that way it's not
exactly happiness like we feel that
Euphoria in the beginning but in that
Euphoria also comes a lot of inst ility
and so that's where people get also very
stressed out and so you're right how
people how people cope with the
transition from the honeymoon stage to
the more committed comfortable stage of
a relationship largely determines the
the longevity of that
relationship and so how do I tell what
do I tell people well um you know it's
funny because I love that comfortable
stage of the relationship I mean I want
it to I don't want it to be too
comfortable but I I like that that so
it's you know so I just try to tell
people look it's uh now you can focus on
work as well you get your life back
hooray yeah you get your life back and
now and now you can actually now's when
you can explore real emotional
connection and intimacy now is where you
can actually build trust and
camaraderie now and it doesn't mean
you're always going to have to work to
keep the passion alive but now you can
actually explore things that you can go
deeper you can go deeper and you can
explore what a true emotional connection
is what it means to build safety and
trust and respect inside of a
relationship what it means to have
um someone really be in your
corner and not just because they're
afraid to lose you but because they
truly truly love and support you
and
um I think that's
exciting yeah I think I had something
else I want to say but after you said it
but this is important just that yeah
people who want to who can see the spark
or the excitement in that way that kind
of like high Euphoria State uh to
reframe it as look at all of the things
it now opens us up to do that we
couldn't do previously I think is is a
really lovely reframe yeah I and I and
it's very true and one thing that I will
add is this um this is also what you're
at Great risk of is taking your partner
for
granted and um this is you know stop
don't stop pursuing your partner don't
stop being curious about this
person um yeah maybe you're not in that
crazy stage but
you still because you can go deeper and
because actually love and Trust can
really grow you still have to be very
present and you still have to you know
in the beginning we're all the
ambassadors of ourselves we're like let
me just bring like you know let me put
my best foot
forward what if you continued to want to
or to try to put your best foot forward
years
in what would that look like and what
would that feel
like number four you have to love
yourself self-love is actually all that
it's cracked up to be we need it to
thrive in a relationship so there's two
camps of thought that's sort of
percolating in the zikis one is you
don't have to love yourself to love
anyone else you don't have to love
yourself to be loved by someone else
with with then all of that is true you
learn to love yourself while you're in
relationship then there's another camp
that says you have to love yourself in
order to love someone else or in order
to be in a relationship both are wrong
and both are true in their own
way you don't have to completely love
yourself in order there are lots of
people who don't love themselves who
love plenty of people and there are lots
of people don't love themselves who are
loved by others but you better believe
that if you don't if you really struggle
to see your
value then you allow and you tolerate
crappy things in a
relationship you're in trouble because
our our relationships reflect how we
feel about ourselves so I think of
self-love as self-acceptance I see it as
look you know
um straddling that very delicate line
between understanding that you have work
to do and there are things that you can
improve on and quite possibly absolutely
need to improve on and yet that doesn't
diminish your value as a human being in
any way that doesn't diminish your worth
and self-acceptance is learning
to sort of hold ourselves in high enough
regard without even though there are
things about ourselves that we may not
like self-esteem is critical for a
relationship if it's too high you have
the narcissist but in my world what I
see a lot more of is too low and if if
it's too low then you are pretending to
be someone who you're not running away
from an
intimacy tolerating abusive or
borderline abusive Behavior so it is a
very important conversation to be
had what how much is it the job of the
other person to help you build you up
and build your self-esteem up is this
not supposed to be a diad should it not
be a case that we can go to them flawed
and broken as we are and they will help
us to put the pieces back together it
seems like there's a a degree of
Reliance on the other person but also
you have to sort yourself out first how
do we balance that yeah it's it's it's
it's not an easy answer um I believe
that the best relationships involve
people who have a strong sense of
self but that doesn't mean that they
don't have parts of them that are are
wounded but we can't get into a
relationship and expect another flawed
person to put all the pieces back
together but I do believe that we can
get into a relationship with the
expectation that we are going to hold
each other's
hands as and help each other out as we
Face our own demons and we Face our own
challenges and so
um look there's a difference between
someone needing to be built up by their
partner all the time because they don't
do anything because they're not doing
that thing that they need to be doing to
help themselves versus someone who's
going through a really rough just a you
know having a rocky month you know and
needing their partner to kind of be like
their their greatest fan in that moment
so context matters and I and I know that
that's not popular because so many
people want the black and or white
answer and they want the like how to but
there's Nuance here but know that no one
can actually fill all your
voids it feels like this is related to
your fifth point you need to speak up
and tell the truth if we hide what we
see feel or need a relationship will
spiral quickly yes um I lied a lot in my
relationships and what I mean by lied is
um I'm not I don't think of myself as a
liar I don't like lie I don't tell I
don't say something that isn't
true but I don't divulge the whole truth
of I haven't divulged the whole truth of
what I was feeling in the past
because um number one I didn't I didn't
even know that uh it was okay to have
those needs I didn't know how how to
express those needs like I was so
disconnected from that so it wasn't like
oh I'm going to like not tell the truth
on purpose but every time people are
strategizing to get someone to be
interested in them you know the mask the
ambassador of ourselves
um people don't tell the truth
because they're having a hard time
processing something or they're just so
afraid if I say what I
feel she's going to be so so hurt and
she's going to leave me or he's not or
he's going to become so defensive and
not be able to have a conversation with
me so I'm going to bottle it
up
and I'm just going to be
easy or I'm just going to repress how I
feel because you know who am I to have
feelings who am I to have
needs so people aren't doing this
consciously and they're not necessarily
doing it on purpose they're doing it
because they don't they don't know the
alternative how can people become more
comfortable with speaking the
truth well one by recognizing that the
alternative is worse by not speaking the
truth you become resentful by not
speaking the truth your relationship
deteriorates by not speaking the truth
you betray yourself and by not speaking
the truth in many ways you betray your
part betray your partner because because
then they don't know how to contribute
to your happiness they don't know how to
contribute to the emotional bank account
of your
relationship so there's a very big price
to pay and not speaking the truth and
the way to do it is to be
direct and truthful and also you know
sometimes you'll have to be very
vulnerable I I I'm not into the whole
stoic thing you know it's not about
being stoic um no one you know in a
romantic relationship stoic doesn't get
you very far vulnerability gets you far
why is that the case why why does this
sort of stiffer stronger
self-sufficiency thing not get you far
in a relationship well not when it comes
to difficult conversations I mean it it
has a place you know when you have to
make a decision about something
sometimes bringing that to a
relationship can be very
useful you know but when it comes to ult
conversations about feelings and about
um needs you have to
um you have to be able
to people Bond when they open up their
hearts to each other and they open up
their inner worlds to each other if
you're always hiding behind the mask of
stoicism then it's just a wall it's just
a another self-protective measure and
it's like it's emotional and
availability it it has its place in life
it has its place and pockets in a
relationship but that's not how people
build trust with each other they build
trust when when you are able to open up
about something that's important to you
and then it's
received it's received with care it's
received with interest it's received
with
love that's how you build trust with
another
person does it
mean sometimes we're going to have
to sort of move at the same speed as our
partner that we can't say more to them
than they're able to receive and if we
try to do that and it is kind of
unrequited or it's it's not very well uh
absorbed um that's going to make us more
scared about doing it next time so we
kind of we need to tolerate um that and
regulate how quickly and how much we
do so let me backtrack a little bit
we're training our partners all the
time all the time every time your
partner opens up to you about something
or just wants to share about their day
and you're just like you
know reading something and barely
looking up you're training your partner
to not do that anymore you're training
your partner to now start to withhold
their
experience
um so I think that if you're sharing
something and and someone is not able to
receive
it again that feeds into the
conversation you could say something
like it seem I feel it seems like or it
appears that that this is difficult for
you to hear right now is that
true and
part of being a mature high functioning
adult in a relationship is being able to
have that kind of
conversation and you and you might say
you know what yeah like I think that was
really hard for me to receive maybe I
just need a moment or maybe I need you
to need to ask you some
questions when you're getting to know
someone like in the
beginning you're sort of testing the
waters and maybe opening up a little bit
to see how they receive you opening up
and then maybe you see that they don't
receive it that well and that and then
you might be in the you might be it's
not a guarantee but you might be in the
presence of someone who's
a not actually that interested in you as
you would like hope them to be or to or
be they're not what what is so commonly
and popularly referred to as um
emotionally unavailable
um now that doesn't mean that everyone
is going to be as emotive there's lots
of men of a certain generation who are
just not as emotive as women are um I
think that there needs there there has
men has to learn how to become more
emotive but what's more important is
that they become very good
listeners and um you know I think we all
have to we all have to figure out what
we can and cannot tolerate in in a
relationship but um have you know it's
called a heart to heart for a reason you
know when two people have a
heart-to-heart they're opening up their
inner worlds to each other and typically
what is associated to a heart with a
heart tohe heart is after that heart-to-
heart there's
closeness there's more love so it's
important you've worked with a lot of
women thousands of women yeah and a lot
of men
actually what is it that you know
there's a lot of rumors around on the
internet about what it is that women are
really looking for and this is what
they're publicly prepared to say you
know this is what this is what's
acceptable but really what they want is
this behind the scenes I would imagine
somebody that works from a relationship
coaching counseling perspective has a b
of a transparent view into what it is
that Wom are actually saying that they
wish that they could have had in that
relationship or what they're looking for
in this next one or what their partner
that they're just starting to date is or
is not giving them and this is why it
makes me feel good or
bad what is it that you wish more men
knew about what women want from
relationships um women want safety this
is very important men do not
understand the role that safety plays in
a woman's life
um
we you know walking down we could be in
the best
neighborhood in the world we could be in
a safe town we could be in a city if
we're walking down the street and it's
empty the our antenna is up it doesn't
even matter if it's broad it's broad
daylight that's something that a man
that most men can't even begin to wrap
their
around I'm going to go to an empty
parking lot by myself no way I don't
care if it's 12:00 in the afternoon if I
don't see anyone around and I'm and the
parking lot is empty am I walking to my
car
alone I might be
running and so this is the reality of
women
and biologically you know women it's
like we have the babies we want to make
sure that the babies are protected we
want to make sure that that we're in a
relationship with someone who will
protect us this is partially
biological so how does that translate
into the modern world
well women uh want a
partner who is um and we're talking
about male Partners right so we want
your
presence so this is going to sound very
simple and maybe you've heard it before
but you fixing the
problem is not what you think it is cuz
a lot of men there's a problem they want
to fix it or you know we're having maybe
we're having we're overwhelmed and what
most men do is they come to they want to
come to the rescue and say I know how to
make it so that you're less overwhelmed
you just have to do one two and three
you'll be less
overwhelmed and the funny thing is he's
right Mo a lot of the time he's right
but we but we know that already what we
need in that moment is someone just to
listen or to give us a
hug and
to have presence with us that's like and
then and then we can maybe calm down and
enter our more rational Minds because
women are perfectly capable of
rationality but at first you know we
might be feeling like that intensity of
emotion and here's and here's a thing
about emotions that probably the number
one thing that
women complain about if you will their
male partners that they wish that they
had more of that men need to know is I
wish my emotions didn't scare him
off if I had a dime for every time I've
heard that those that phrase in some way
spoken to me and I that I've thought
it I would have so many dimes I would
have enough dimes to you know Feed the
World kind of thing you know that kind
of thing I wish I I wish that I could be
in a bad
mood and he wouldn't take it
personally I I think and I would this is
my experience and I would love to hear
your thoughts Chris is that a lot of men
when they get into relationships with
their female Partners there's an
unconscious need for their woman to be
happy because they feel so responsible
for our
happiness and I think that you know what
I've been told by many men personally
and professionally that what he's most
drawn to is when we're relaxed and we're
smiling
and we're
happy but we can't we women we can't be
happy all the time and sometimes we get
anxious and stressed and we have a very
delicate hormonal system and you know we
just we have a different mind we have
something called diffuse awareness or
we're taking in we feel responsible for
everyone and everything and we're very
and we're we're not so women have the
capacity to go into the part of the
brain that's very singular focused but
we also have this incredible curse SLG
to just juggle like a 50 million things
at
once and so we're not always going to be
happy also because we're a human being
and a lot of women have said he can't
handle
it he gets very reactive when I'm not
happy and
um so that's it
those are the things it's interesting uh
I'm not sure about the happiness thing
but I certainly know that peace is
something that I think a lot of guys try
to optimize for and that um yeah dealing
with the Whirlwind that can be a woman's
emotions disrupts the peace sometimes
and learning how both people can
regulate to kind of bring that back down
to earth yes is um is very important but
a wh of emotions doesn't always have to
be
drama you know I'm I've certainly worked
with a lot of women to stop bringing
drama there's a lot of men who bring
drama but yes optimizing peace but do
they really want
peace I mean depends who you are depends
what your nervous system set point is I
have some friends that like the chaos I
have some friends that use that as a
proxy for excitement for love for why
they feel the most engaged it's
something that's interesting uh I'm I'm
firmly in Camp peace uh but that's not
necessarily for everyone that being said
uh Whitney Cummings told me this story
which was really great she
was stress checked oh I guess stress
tested uh by a football play that she
was dating maybe a few years ago I don't
know how long ago and she'd been sort of
yapping and yapping and yapping and sort
of playing this playing up this kind of
like Hollywood Starlet style thing and
there' always be something there was
always something going on there's always
something fiery happening and she turned
to him and she said well like you know
if you're dating me it's because you
want a challenge you know like I'm the
girl that you come to if you want a
challenge and he turned to her and he
said what sort of guy wants a challenge
in his long-term
relationship and she was like he's a guy
that spends his days at the training
ground and his evenings playing a
difficult game he has enough challenge
already he's delivering the maximum
amount of challenge that he wants coming
home and finding that there is more
challenge being put on you than this
person needs that they're playing up
some additional level of you know
they're choosing to not do any of the
regulation themselves I think um no no
that's a problem I don't I don't believe
that she but her saying that is I don't
believe that you know it's not it's not
necessarily
true in other words that she had the
choice that what I mean it's like
well if you say if you say well put her
that aside if you're saying well the men
who want me want a challenge well what
is that actually really mean like to me
that that's saying well you're not
willing to actually do the work to
actually bring some Harmony into this
relationship I'm not speaking about
Whitney I'm just saying in general um
you know that's a lovely excuse I mean
uh we're all
challenging you know we one of the you
have to ask yourself how am I difficult
to live with because you know we're all
difficult in some way to live with and I
think that having some level of
awareness of how we are difficult to
live with and then and being able to say
to our partner like I love you for
putting up with this part of me yeah
like that's where it's at it's one of
the most beautiful things that you could
say like to be able to see your own
floor and then to appreciate the fact
that this person has just wordlessly
wordlessly decided that they are going
going to continue to swallow whatever it
is that you do yeah two two aland baton
uh quotes the first one being he says on
every first date you should ask the
other person in what ways are you mad he
says that yes one of the greatest
delusions that single people have is
that they're actually perhaps quite an
easy person to live with yeah look and
some people are easier to live with than
others they just are but we all we are
we all come to the table with stuff and
I think that it's just a matter of when
it comes to a
partner you know a lot of people don't
don't know how to differentiate between
the tolerable and the
Intolerable um because they didn't learn
that you know they saw their one or both
of their parents tolerate a
lot and um so one of the things if if
you keep having if one keeps having
these sort of disappointing
relationships these very painful
relationships one of the one of the
things to explore is
knowing where where your limit is in
terms of what you can tolerate because
we should have a lot of flexibility and
tolerate a lot in a relationship but you
need to know that chunk of whatever that
you just won't tolerate you know you
need to be your best self even after the
honeymoon stress and fear can turn a
secure relationship into a dysfunctional
one we have to make it a priority to
show up as our higher selves as much as
possible yeah well this is what we were
talking about a little bit before which
is that
um we put on we are there best selves in
the beginning and then we get
comfortable and then we have this
unconscious belief that this person that
we're that that loves us um
should should love us no matter
what so even if I'm coming to the
relationship consistently and I and I
really want to emphasize consistently
because we will do this sometimes
consistently stress
Moody um
irritable
cold um why would you expect anyone to
put up with that on a consistent
basis
and
relationships are what we make of
them and they need
attention and they need atten ion in the
form of our
mindfulness and that means that we're
not going to be
perfect
but you can't
do all these wonderful things in the
beginning and then stop doing them and
expect your relationship to be a good
relationship it's really as simple as
that and this is what people do this is
what I've never met
anyone who's never who hasn't done this
who hasn't it's a law of
familiarity we we get used to something
and we start to take it for
granted we think you know we Comfort is
a wonderful thing in a relationship too
much comfort often leads to the demise
of a
relationship get so comfortable that we
think you know it's like how a lot of us
can be around family
we can regress to our seven-year-old
self and be a total [ __ ] and we know
we're going to be loved anyway people do
that in their romantic relationships and
they and it's a mistake it's a mistake
to do it anyway but it's really a
mistake in your romantic relationship so
we think you know we do forget and I've
said this before we forget that the
person that we love is a gift and we
think that they're
given and that is just the law of
familiarity and it's because we become
unconscious and Mindless in our
relationships our a relationship really
has
um we think that you go into a cave or
you go into an ashram or you do some
sort of you know psychedelic trip that
that's the spiritual work no the
spiritual work is in a
relationship what's the stress and fear
bit turning a secure relationship into a
dysfunctional one I understand that uh
yeah
familiarity breeds like laziness in a
way uh but how does stress and fear play
a role
there where in the honeymoon stage of a
relationship there's this illusion that
all are goes
away because this person has come into
our life and we feel that Euphoria and
we feel so excited and it's
new
and then our stress comes
back and we might put on a Really Brave
face or we we are we treat our
co-workers great we treat we we smile at
a stranger on the street and then we
come home and we're like let me just
unload all my stress on
you or we come home and we think I don't
have to actually be really that nice to
you law of
familiarity very very hard sad and
stressful things can happen in
life but more times than not
people are not reacting to something
difficult they are in a habit of just
being reactive to everything so their
threshold for stress is really
low and maybe it is there is something
stressful like money and
children they people don't know how to
manage their stress and so they start to
fight with each other
and they start to create negative
stories about each
other or they start to um look at their
partner and see everything that is wrong
about them when when what's really going
on is a turbulent mind what's really
going on is a turbulent nervous system
what's really going on is stress in that
person's
body that is making it so that they are
not seeing
life and their partner
clearly this is what ends relationships
is not knowing how to handle stress and
not knowing and not identifying when
stress is the problem versus the actual
[Music]
relationship and I suppose because that
person's so close to us and because
we're familiar and because we hope slash
know that they're not going we we can
use them as an emotional crutch punching
bag yes and and also because you
know it's very
common if a family is going through
let's say money
problems for that to
tear Mom and Dad apart or Mom and Mom
apart to tear the couple
apart it's not so so it's the it's how
they were reacting to life which I have
nothing but compassion for one of the
things that we just don't learn in
school it's how they were reacting to
life that made it so that they were I
mean think about it when you're really
stressed you don't want to be touched
you don't want to be told what to do
you're not feeling sexual you're not
feeling sensual you're not feeling open
you're not feeling loving you become
totally self-involved and emotionally
unavailable and you've got two people
like that on a consistent basis
then this is what's going to happen the
relationship is going to suffer and it's
because of how they're actually dealing
with the birth of their first child it's
how they're dealing with the money
problems it's how they're dealing with
certain things that and these things
might be real problems that are highly
systemic but we think that once the
stress gets better that the relationship
will get better when the truth is how we
how we it's how we respond or react to
what's happening in life that will
ultimately improve the
relationship and sometimes you know
families and couples really need help to
deal with um very big
things but like I
said you'd be shocked to learn that
often it's not
something legitimately stressful like
you lost all your money or you can't buy
groceries or your child is sick you know
these are real things often time you're
I'm seeing it all the time in couples
who are just like stressed out about
nothing you cannot convince someone to
love you as much as we
try yeah it's the law of the
land you cannot convince anyone to love
you you can't beg them to love you you
can try to jump through what ever Hoops
you want to get them to love you you can
try to change
yourself to get them to love you or to
choose
you you can use your kids as pawns to
get them to stay I mean you could try
all you can but it's impossible to
convince someone to love
you the ruthless other side of this uh
and I was texting Conor beaten about
this 90 minutes ago oh love um we would
we were just talking about this on the
way in and uh I was basically talking
about the same but in reverse that it's
true you can't convince anybody to love
you but you also can't convince yourself
to love anybody either they said if you
can't get what you want you can Will
yourself to get what you can get but you
can't will yourself to want what you can
get like you don't get to make yourself
and there's a lot of times you know I've
spoken to friends that have been in
relationships previously dude you know
what is is she's so amazing for me she
takes all of the boxes I I don't know
what it is I've tried and I've tried and
I feel awful and guilty and I'm racked
with fear and shame about it and I'm
probably going to move on to some chick
that is going to be none of the things
that I think that I'm supposed to want
but I can't help the way that I feel and
I just don't feel the right way about
this person we we relationships or the
way that we feel about people and desire
happens bottom up not top
down um and yeah as much as we wish that
it was a dictatorship a lot of the time
unfortunately it's a democracy yeah it's
very true although we have to use a
little bit more of this head for sure
when we're making these decisions
um yeah it's very true you I mean you
just can't you can't make yourself love
someone you can't make yourself feel
those feelings and um you can't convince
someone to choose you and and people are
doing it all the time in very in very
subtle ways way um they're trying to
seduce they're trying to convince
they're trying to change themselves and
um there's so much
grace
in accepting even if it shatters your
heart accepting when um accepting this
truth and life becomes a lot easier when
you um adopt this
law into your DNA
basically no one is coming to save you a
relationship is meant to make us happier
not happy
yeah so um I think that people
intellectually understand this
but people do get into relationships
thinking that the relationship is going
to be the thing that fulfills them and
that the person is going to be the
person who fulfills them that there's
this perfect person who's going to come
in and rescue you and and again even
though we know logically that's not the
case um we do in many
ways have this fantasy that when this
right person comes into our
lives everything's going to be better or
when our partner is you know not able to
you know it's just not making us feel
all delightful and happy one day that
somehow it's their responsibility to do
that fulfillment can only come from the
inside it really I mean we we get
fulfillment and happiness from various
sources and from doing various
things but there's no one who is coming
there's no night and shining armor
there's no um there's no one who's
coming
to to save you and and look we seen so
many movies there's a movie that I
reference in the book because I think it
is so perfect and it's interesting
because it's it's a it's a guy expecting
to be rescued which I think goes against
what's more commonly thought about as
like the woman you know in the dam Zone
distress I don't know if you ever saw
the movie 500 Days of Summer no it's a
fantastic movie that really incredibly
illustrates um this point which is
he he's a guy he's got he's totally
depressed he's got no purpose in life he
hates his job he has a passion that he's
not pursuing so he's in this job that he
can't stand and then this girl comes in
and she's like you know beautiful and
cute and he's just like from the moment
he sees her he's just like he's done
right and so his whole the whole movie
is him trying trying to convince her to
love him because she's just not that
she's like dates him and sleeps with him
but she's just You Can Tell She's Not
all in and on the surface what it looks
like is oh something's wrong with her
she's totally avoidant um you know
what's what's wrong with her you know
he's such a nice
guy and what's really going on is that
she's not even a fully formed character
she's a metaphor
for him needing to be
rescued because then and what she does
is is she mirrors back to
him why she doesn't choose him like she
never says it but of course the reason
is is because he's
desperate for his happiness in
her and he's desperate to use her he's
the user he's using her to escape his
own
misery and it's only after she breaks up
with
him that he is able to actually confront
himself and so it's a great movie to
watch that illustrates the point that um
you know we do try to escape ourselves
through
relationships um that could be someone's
pattern that's more than someone else's
pattern um a
relationship can't actually make you
happy no one can really make you happy
but the expectation the healthy
expectation is this person is adding to
my life they're making my path a little
better but they're not but no one can
walk the path but
me and I think that this is going to be
the hardest truth in many ways except
for the last one for people to face
because people are very resistant
because they think oh no I don't expect
that no I understand that but then watch
look at your relationship history or
look at your current
relationship how many times have you've
been resentful towards your current
partner because they're not making you
hap happy in that
moment the final one which you say and I
is kind of interesting you know we've
talked about relationships throughout
this some inner work who sort of nodded
toward attachment stuff previous
patterns breakups expectations even
romance culture uh and then for no
reason you decide to assault everybody's
most raw wound um which is we must make
peace with our parents grief a parent
you never had be open to looking at them
differently have a conversation with
them yeah so
um making peace with your parent is
making peace with with is reframing and
investigating the story that you've had
about one or both of your parent that
may be um that may have a choke hold on
you and Release emancipating Yourself
from the prison of your own mind and of
this story that you have about them you
could have a great relationship with
your parents and peace with your parents
might mean that you break up with your
parents metaphorically as the leaders of
your belief system so
they always wanted you to be a doctor
but in your heart you are an artist but
you've but and you've been living your
life as a doctor miserable because
that's what your parents wanted and you
decide you know what I love Mom and Dad
but I'm going to become an artist
because the best way to really honor
myself and my family is to be happy so
that's making peace with your parents I
I I put a disclaimer in this chapter if
you've been if there's been severe abuse
if there's been any sort of molesting I
I in no way put that expectation on you
I had a extremely troubling relationship
with my father and much of my life was
about um trying to find some resolve
there which I
was able to mostly do before he died a
year ago
[Music]
and you know our our adult relationships
will very much
reflect our relationships with our
parents
and um it's important
to
to look at your parents and to explore
the relationship that you have with one
of your one or both of your parents
through the filter of your adult self
rather than just the filter of your um
little boy or little girl
self
and um
it will it will absolutely change your
life so that was a very I wrote that
chapter um as he was dying he kind of
died unexpectedly but he died I was
writing that chapter and it was I have a
lot of case studies in there of all
sorts of experiences with parents and
you
know yeah you you have to start to um
think of them differently and you know I
lost a lost both my parents and I was
close to my stepfather and I lost him
too and one thing that I learned about
and I was very close with my mom but of
course
I there's certain things you know that
mother daughter relationships can be
kind of
complicated and I learned something
profound
about relationships with parents after
they died which is that
you kind
of you kind of let go of some of the
resentments that you had when they were
alive um and you build a little
compassion you could you could decide to
never speak to your parent
again but you have to do that from a
clear head
not from a place of reaction because I
was estang from my father
for 13 years or something and it did not
help
me what helped me was learning how
to not be afraid of him and to investig
and to start to stand up for
myself and to also
start to examine the story that I've had
about him for so many years and that's
what I try to explain in this
chapter what do you say to the people
that sort of
still they're worried that their parents
are sort of coming toward the end of
their lives maybe they've tried to
approach conversations not too
dissimilar to these previously even the
first couple of steps and maybe they've
not been received particularly well and
they've got this sort of balancing act
in their mind where they go go can I
even sort of bring this into land over
the next you know five years 10 years I
don't know however long they've got left
am I just opening a can of worms that is
going to have their paring memory of
their role as my parent being one of
failure and dissatisfaction and I'm
going to bring up all of this stuff and
it's going to feel like an attack on
them and you know this is this is how
I'm going to the swan song to mine and
my parents Rel relationship is maybe
going to be me trying to do this selfish
healing in a child [ __ ] can I not
just put up with the piece and and and
sort of leave it on the table yeah I
would say a third option which is even
better um let go of whatever story you
have and start to accept them for who
they
are and grieve the parent that maybe you
wish you had but didn't have and maybe
ask them some questions about their life
and their experience
and start to relate to them differently
one of my friends this Christmas
recorded I think he did it with maybe
did it with both his mom and his dad but
separately uh he recorded a 2hour
podcast with each of his parents um
where he just said tell me about your
life so what was growing up like and
he's recorded it in I not exactly
publishable quality but you know it's
more than good enough for him and he
just wants to keep doing that and he's
set himself at task of doing that every
year now that he wants to have this
Archive of him talking to his parents
about them and what it was like raising
him and you know he wants to have this
sort of self Li self- knowledge Library
I guess which I love that pretty cool
yeah very cool the most podcast solution
ever is to record a podcast with your
parents to come up to heal your inner
child yeah and it's you know the whole
healing your inner child thing I mean
it's really about um
yeah well
again you know learning how to
uh it's hard it's hard you know your
parents as children they're supposed to
be our heroes but then you grow up and
you realize you're just a person just
like me and maybe there can be some
compassion there because of that well if
you know that or if you have this sense
it's unfair if not for the way that my
parents raised me I would have been dot
dot dot I would have
been more balanced I would have had
secure attachment I would have not had
my yeah fears I would have not had all
the rest of it and you go okay well just
go back one generation if you say that
you're at the mercy of your
parents who are they at the mercy of
yeah absolutely no that's different
because I I'm you know they were
supposed to look after me and it's like
yeah I you don't get to have it both
ways
you don't have to have it both ways and
I know you know this might come off as
corny but you know [ __ ] it it's really
true which is
that what did you gain by not getting
what it is that you
needed you know I life is very
mysterious I know people who' have had
great parents and great upbringing and
had got everything that they want and
they ended up being drug addicts how
does that happen and I know people
who've had real abuse like really messed
up stuff and they are they have they're
very successful in their marriage how
does that happen so life in many ways is
a mystery and I certainly would not be
sitting here today had I had the father
that I wish I had I just wouldn't be
there's no I am convinced because I
never would
have had the the marriage that I had I
wouldn't have chosen that man and I
wouldn't have had that relationship that
led to so much heartbreak that led me to
delve into this work that led me here
and I don't know if I ever would have
you know I have a long history in
teaching yoga and a yoga practitioner
over 25 years I don't know that I would
have been seeking out that in my life
had I not had the pain that I endured in
childhood you know I I don't know but I
I think that
[Music]
um there is a resilience that comes with
not uh getting what you deserve
sometimes yeah it's an interesting
double-edged sword I think a lot of the
time people think well I wouldn't have
this uh success or this sort of um the
work ethic the resilience all of that
stuff uh which has brought me all of
these things that I really value in
myself I think an uncomfortable deeper
question is to say well would I have
needed that had I have not been exposed
to the difficulties in the first place
you go right okay so I I I don't get to
go back so I can't change it so it's
pointless it's kind of a moot point in
any case so what you say is what are the
things how can I take this thing that
was bad and turn it into something uh
that has lots of light sides to it where
the lighter side of the edge is better
than the dark one and then if I can get
rid of that then I get I do get to have
my cake and eat it too I get to get all
of the advantages of the additional
resilience and and the self-supporting
nature and the fact that
had an impact and it's driven me to do
things that I'm very proud of and so on
and so forth and I've let go of the
trauma that that sort of drove it in the
first place but if you don't do the
second bit if you don't do the going
back in the healing bit what you're
stuck with is this sort of double-edged
Sword yes absolutely and look that's
life I mean it truly is about making
lemonade out of lemons I mean I hate to
say it but it is I mean that's what
leads to more fulfilling life is being
able to take the things that have been
hard and create some sort of meaning out
of it
um that's what it's all about Jullian
Shi ladies and gentlemen Julian I really
appreciate it I think it's uh very much
of the moment um touching on all of the
things that everybody's interested in
and stepping into the new year as well
as a lot of uh winter relationships and
spring relationships maybe beginning
it's it's very timely where should
people go they want to keep up to date
with you're doing and check out your
work yeah of course my book it begins
with you which I believe will be is out
um and uh you just need to know my name
Jillian tki find me on Instagram all
over social media my podcast Jillian on
love and uh yeah that's where people can
find me heck yeah Julian I appreciate
you thank you I appreciate you thank you
do you think that your algorithm on
YouTube is a bit of a God is able to
know things about you that you don't
know about yourself well the gods have
selected this episode specifically for
you bespoke so go and go and check it
out