Creating Sparks That Last & All Things Relationships

How to Live Life on Life's Terms [I invite you to sit back, relax and take in the extraordinary information that our  Guest Blogger, Human Behaviour and Social Change Expert, Kristy Riggal, has written.] Relationships have evolved a lot since the 50’s and 60’s. Divorce rates are skyrocketing, as is the epidemic of anxiety and depression. I have dedicated the better part of the last 7 years + of my life to understand the why, through field research and my education. Here is a morsel of what I know to be true and factual. https://unsplash.com/@tylernixcreative Did you know the first 10 years of your childhood development set you up for your adulthood and how you show up in your adult relationships? There are actually 5 peak waves that shape and mould you before the age of 18/19 years of age. The child brain doesn’t fully develop and is largely ‘unconscious’ until around the age of 8-10 and continues to develop into your 20’s. Those first 10 years are crucial, as a child relies solely

 A Deeper Dive [I invite you to sit quietly, read and contemplate this resonant article by Guest Blogger Kate Jiggins] At this point in my life, I have two “jobs.” Job number one is a people helper. A listener. A psychotherapist. I have been sitting with people – witnessing their stories – for close to 20-years. Yikes! Sometimes it feels like I am just out of graduate school. Like a new puppy. Wide eyed. Enthusiastic. Image credit Canva My other “job”? I write. I tell stories about real life. Real people. Real struggles. Real triumph. Real inspiration. Stories that connect, support – hopefully inspire people to push themselves - explore what’s on the other side of that unhelpful conditioning. Limiting beliefs. Crappy stories. Those re-runs that keep us stuck.  Overtime, in my personal work, and my time with couples, I am beginning to see – more importantly understand - the power of story. Mine. Yours. Theirs. Others. It’s true, we all have unique stories. However, the big question is

Finding Acceptance and Purpose  https://unsplash.com/@mscheid I invite you to read our inspiring article on the formative relationship between parent and child by Guest Blogger: Maria C. Palmer I was a recent college graduate, who like many  twenty -somethings had no clue what path my life would take. I was floundering. My feet were planted in two worlds     I was creating a new life in the land of dreams in Los Angeles, CA, all while keeping secret my life back home in Pittsburgh, P.A., where my father was unexpectedly incarcerated. I found acceptance and purpose in a charity started by a drinking, smoking, swearing, gambling Catholic nun, who was much too fashionable to be caught dead in a habit. Get On The Bus brought children to visit their mothers and fathers in California state prisons. As Sister Suzanne passionately reminded anybody who would listen, “ This program has nothing to do with the parents, and it is all about the children. Children are the silent victims of crime. Th

  Reviving a Lost Art Image credit Jill Wellington courtesy of Pexels  [I invite you to read this thought-provoking article on self-reflection by guest blogger Janice Melmed] I’ve been feeling quite overwhelmed lately. There has been so much going on in my life and I have felt pulled in so many directions at once. Distracted and not fully present, I reversed my car into a lamp post and jarred to a stop. I drove carefully home and I finally pressed pause on the chaos. I sat down and for a few moments I tuned into my body and I asked myself what I needed. Never mind what everyone else who I was giving my energy to needed, what did I need? I was surprised when the answer came back as gentle loving kindness. I decided to explore that a little deeper and to really understand what it was I was craving. Closing my eyes, I focused on my breathing, and once I was still, I allowed my senses to explore the words.   Gentleness brought images to mind of soft pastel colours, the sounds of tink

  Treat others like you want to be treated https://unsplash.com/@isthatbrock As I have traversed through this maze of uncertainty, blindly forging my way ahead without being able to see the way forward, I found many forms of growth and awakening processes along the way.            En Route: The best is yet to be by Elora Canne As I have matured and supposedly wizened up and been open to the teachings of the universe, it has dawned on me that maxims such as ‘treat others like you want to be treated’ cannot be directly translated, just like many foreign languages cannot be directly translated.  🙊 Treat others like you want to be treated  actually works by default. For example, although in my mid-adult years I have focused on being very literal and positive with my words (mostly) when speaking with other people, this certainly does not always come back to me directly, but in a roundabout way instead. 🙉 Say what you mean and mean what you say – with love. This has been my motto for many

Grow Into Love As I see it, a relationship should evolve with experience and maturity just as our preferences in foods and beverages do. Elora Canne: En Route memoir To explain the quote above, we'll start with loving ice cream and later, with a more health conscious awareness, we turn to frozen yoghurt as a delicious alternative.  As age creeps up and with it a broader perspective, green smoothies become the next best thing to improve our health and meet our flavour needs.  Then time wears on and we try an even healthier option – say kombucha – as our bodies begin the journey into our wisdom years. Let's Thrive on our Relationship Journey By and by we realize there really is no magic elixir to prevent life and relationship mishaps, but most importantly of all, the realization hits that all of these beverages we’ve enjoyed along our relationship journey have one thing in common – they have been primarily mixed with water. Bland, tasteless, colorless water. And that is exactly w