Love Vitamins for Life

"Love to me is not something that I sit around and wait for", says Paul. For him, its an active approach - which led him to create the Love Dice. The different faces of the die represent different Love Languages.

"Use the Love Dice to recognize the Love Vitamin of the day. Giving love away is really going to help you a whole lot more than sitting around waiting for it to come your way."

Here's what you have to do

🎲 Roll the die every day

🎲🎲 Take note of the Love Language rolled

🎲🎲🎲 Practice giving away the love all day to everybody

Love Languages don't need to be just for your partner. Paul says, "give it away to everybody, you have opportunities all day long to spread love and kindness."

The gamification makes it simple to try out all of the different forms of Love Languages. For a lot of us the concept of love languages is very prevalent. Everyone's kind of heard of it in a roundabout way, but we always think about it in terms of what fits me. Turning this into a game, gives one an opportunity to try out all of the different flavors.

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If you enjoyed listening to this episode (or the podcast), please share your diagnosis with someone you love. Small doses over time is how you grow the love.

In the first half of our conversation with them, we talk about what makes their relationship special and did a dive into love vs intimacy and much more. In this second part, we share how they demonstrated to use the exercise of Cherishment.

Francesca and Stan Levine have decades of experience practicing counseling, so we were curious to explore what it is that makes them and their relationship special. Stan jokes that "with my white hair and the wrinkles, it makes a big impression because that indicates to them experience, which clearly there is and sometimes they believe I'm wise and I'm not sure about that, but they seem to think so and it gets through. So it works." To which Francesca adds that he is wise as he's learned everything from his wife. But what really attracts people to them, Francesca says, is that, "They see us in the waiting room. We can't pass each other without a hug and a kiss. Right. And this is true and it's just, it's fleeting, but it makes a very lasting impression. You know, we are very connected." She says, "You know, ours, I believe is a very romantic and true story. We could put it up in Hollywood and people will say, this isn't real, but it is. So it's who we are. That makes, I believe." Stan agrees and she continues, "It's who we are. That makes a difference. So even in the momentary passing or when we are teaching, cuz you know there are weekend workshops and things. It's the energy between us. It's not what you say, it's how people feel. That's what they remember. And I think the, the, the love and joy and fun we have, so lots of, we can laugh over a lot of things, right? And I think after so many years that there's still fun, joy, and love and hot sex. Hey, what else do you want? Good food. We don't even have to leave the house." to which Stan agrees.

Takeaways

1️⃣ Love is contagious. When you are in love and have a healthy relationship with your partner, you'll pour out the love to people around you. As Francesca said, "It's not what you say, it's how people feel. That's what they remember."

2️⃣ Love and intimacy have similarities but are different. Love is more encompassing, and intimacy is a way how you would show up in the relationship.

3️⃣ Working on your relationship is not hard work. it doesn't have to be. It can be the easiest thing in the world. With time and consistency, using different frameworks and exercises that work for your relationship, you can build it into a healthier one.

If you enjoyed listening to this episode (or the podcast), please share your diagnosis with 1 close relationship or anyone else who would enjoy listening to this as well.

“The best thing that you can do for your partner is work on yourself. The best thing that your partner can do for you is work on themselves.”

“Intimate relationships can mirror both of our own stuff that we get to work through, but also reflecting back the goodness that we are.”

“The stars had written a message for you when you were born, and it's up to you to discover what that is. And what I mean by that is life has a natural, beautiful unfolding that is happening, and it's like a flow of a river.”

These are just some of the few quotes Zach shared with us in our conversations. We talk about many topics - Value of Intimate Relationships, Identifying Emotions passing through you, Digging deep within yourself to identify patterns of pain and suffering, and much more.

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Here are some of our takeaways from the episode:

1️⃣ Extend your love to others with compassion. When someone shares with you OR you share with someone deeply vulnerable things , it opens the heart for compassion.

2️⃣ LOVE has the power to heal us. Work on building an intimate relationship and use the love from that relationship to work on your own stuff that comes up in a relationship and your own growth.

3️⃣ The best thing you can do for your partner is to work on yourself. The best thing that your partner can do for you is to work on themselves.

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If you enjoyed listening to this episode (or the podcast), please share your diagnosis with 1 close relationship or anyone else who would enjoy listening to this as well.

At LoVita, we believe the workings of a successful relationship are similar to the workings of a successful corporation. Or at least they should be. Successful companies have a mission and vision. They have goals and targets. So should relationships. Have you ever considered what are your values in your relationship? Companies are always trying to do the best and accountable to the shareholders and customers. The shareholders and customers in your relationships are you and your partner. Similar to companies, most relationships need a strategy, which should be discussed periodically. Relationships need frameworks to provide structure. Each couple is unique and you have to innovate and be creative to personalize what works for your relationship.

Amongst the many insights that our guest, Aaron Shelly, shares with us he says "One of the big things that I wasn't understanding was the value in social connections and relating that social resources and how much like my mom invested in that." Our relationships in our community can actually have much greater magnitudes in our life than just having a monetary value. The payoffs from maintaining our relationships are massive and unknown. He adds "If you're not investing in social connections, it would be the same as if a company said, we're not gonna have sales and marketing. Which every company would say that's suicide."

Takeaways

• The workings of a successful relationship can be very similar to the workings of a successful corporation. Relationships can benefit from having a strategy, vision, goals and more. Keeping track of logistics, identifying root causes of conflicts, and keeping track of growth with regular check-ins can help you build a healthier relationship.
• Invest in your relationships with your partner and your community. The value of your network that you build with trust and time, has a much greater positive impact on our life than just having a monetary value.

If you enjoyed listening to this episode (or the podcast), please share your diagnosis with 1 close relationship or anyone else who would enjoy listening to this as well.

In our conversation with Jerry Dugan, he says, "like live in a way that. She's gonna be like, all right, yeah, I choose him again for another day." So we asked him what his thoughts were on how to make sure that the love between partners doesn't just stay at a constant rate.

The biggest thing is making sure I'm listening more than I'm speaking in the relationship.

Listen to the full episode for Jerry's story on how he was putting them first and, and also communicating something he would want to do.

We also learn about - H.A.L.T - A framework which can be used to reduce conflict in relationships. Before you say, anything to your partner, halt and check for the below

• H - Am I hungry?
• A - Am I angry about something else?
• L - Am I feeling lonely?
• T - Am I tired?

And if the answer to any of those things is a YES, then the conflict or conversation between you and your partner isn't about whatever's going on - it's about something else entirely. So what can you do? Simple answer is to take care of yourself and let your partner know. If you're hungry - get a snack. If you're angry or feeling lonely or tired - let your partner know.

Takeaways

1. The biggest thing to do in a relationship is making sure you're listening more than speaking
2. Put your loved ones first and communicate with them if there is something you would like to do
3. Use HALT - the self assessment tool to halt the conversation if you find yourself Hungry, Angry, Lonely or Tired.

If you enjoyed listening to this episode (or the podcast), please share your diagnosis with 1 close relationship or anyone else who would enjoy listening to this as well.

In our conversation with Jerry Dugan, he shared with us their habit or ritual that he and his wife had had worked over the years to keep their love intentional and alive in their relationship. Listen to the full episode for the full explanation but we broke it down to the three steps below.

1️⃣ Recharge or regroup yourself - Put yourself in the right frame of mind before you enter into the door and meet your partner and/or family

2️⃣ Prioritize your partner - Take some time out to catch up on the day with your partner before you do anything else

3️⃣ Be present and engaged - Be there for each other

Since Jerry had been in his relationship for a couple decades, we asked Jerry for some advice for people new into relationships and marriages. He gave us some more compelling reasons why we should put our relationship with our partner first before our children and extended friends and family. For their family with a Christian faith he says, "we put God first and then we put each other second, and then we would put our kids third." He adds that if you could just replace the first part with your faith but the main point was that the relationship between him and his wife would have precedent over our relationship with their kids, extended family, friends and co-workers.

Takeaways

Let's bandage the takeaways for todays episode on why we should prioritize our partners our relationships with them before some of the other relationships

1. Before you interact with your partner - take a moment for yourself. Recharge and regroup to put yourself in the right frame of mind

2. Prioritize your relationship with your partner - Take time to catch up on the day. Work on your relationship so that your partner chooses YOU every single day.

3. Teach your kids by example, that you and your partner are a strong team together.

If you enjoyed listening to this episode (or the podcast), please share your diagnosis with 1 close relationship or anyone else who would enjoy listening to this as well.

"I truly believe that salespeople will heal the world. And the reason is for the same reason that this podcast here exists. A successful sale is a relationship." Joe shares in this episode.

He shares 4 things to make you better in every capacity

1️⃣ Prudence - Having knowledge and passion about a specific topic

2️⃣ Justice - Wanting to be with you on a relationship level for your merit

3️⃣ Courage - Figure out a way to get out something boils inside of you

4️⃣ Humility - Balance. Humility is neither I am the greatest and most important person on this planet, nor am I small and insignificant. It's truly that balance.

Takeaways

1. Best thing you can do for your relationship or to work towards a healthier relationship is work on making yourself better.

2. Sometimes getting closure in a relationship is more important for peace of mind.

If you enjoyed listening to this episode (or the podcast), please share your diagnosis with 1 close relationship or anyone else who would enjoy listening to this as well.

Most conflicts follow some variation of this Conflict Resolution Curve: 

🆕 Inception - The moment a conflict is registered

🌶️ Getting Hot - The in-between space

💣 Big Bang - The climactic moment of the conflict

🧊 Cool Down - The period after our conflict reaches a “resolution”

🆕 New Normal - How life will be after this conflict

BUT WAIT!! There’s one step that we often miss after a New Normal has been established.

Saying what you feel and asking for what you want with your partners can often be very difficult. But why is that? And even when you gather the courage and patience to do so, they still don't understand. Kimberly shares that this is common, "What seems to be one of the most difficult conversations for a man and or woman to have in their relationship or in dating is saying how we feel and communicating when we have a need."

This is an exercise to help you fill in what you are feeling and what you really need.

-> Get a pen and paper and write the below down

______,

I feel _________.
Because _________.
I would like it if you would __________.
I hope you understand that __________.

To learn more about how this works, listen to the full episode.

1️⃣ Make sure before having a conversation with your partner, they are in the present and free of distractions

2️⃣ When addressing an issue, focus on the behavior. Rather than blaming or pointing at your partner, find the behavior that is causing this conversation to happen.

3️⃣ Ask for what you want, rather than what you don't want. After sharing your feelings on how you feel, go that extra step further to suggest a solution.

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If you enjoyed listening to this episode (or the podcast), please share your diagnosis with 1 close relationship or anyone else who would enjoy listening to this as well.

Julie shares with us how she sends out energy to her Angels through a wish or a prayer or whatever term people might prefer to use in their own comfort. The idea being that you're not using directive action to ask for something. You're more of sending out this energy and this request to the things that you don’t have a lot of control over.

Some other things we talk about in the episode

1️⃣ Importance of Self Discovery

2️⃣ Looking at Polarity

3️⃣Conflict Decision Making Tree

Sometimes we don't have the healthiest ways to deal with conflicts. This framework can really benefit making conflicts easier. Here’s how it works.

1️⃣ Take a deep breath and ask yourself, can you think of one nice thing about your partner?
2️⃣ Can you say what really made you upset?

3️⃣ Can you honestly say what you need at this moment?
4️⃣ Can you honestly say what you need at this moment.

If you enjoyed listening to this episode (or the podcast), please share your diagnosis with 1 close relationship or anyone else who would enjoy listening to this as well.

In this conversation with Branch Isole, he shares some amazing exercises to build better communication in your relationships. We discuss the different levels of pain and the seven Rs that people in relationships can use as an opportunity to address issues and work towards finding a solution to reconcile and repair the situation. And repair the relationships.

He shares the seven steps that a couple or people in relationships can use as an opportunity to address the issue and work towards finding a solution so that you can reconcile and repair the situation, repair the relationship. All it costs you is an investment of your time and your emotions.

1️⃣ Recognize that you have harmed the other
2️⃣ Take Responsibility for your actions
3️⃣ Have Regret
4️⃣ Have Remorse
5️⃣ Redress
6️⃣ Repetition
7️⃣ Repent

If you enjoyed listening to this episode (or the podcast), please share your diagnosis with 1 close relationship or anyone else who would enjoy listening to this as well.

Our conversation with Saami and Nathan Jaeger was filled with fun Activities, Practices and Rituals that Partners can take away and practice in your relationships to add fuel to your love Tanks. First they share about a Gratitude Practice that they use for MANAGING RESENTMENT. Then, we get into one of their rituals of 2 COFFEE AND A TREAT and I love it not just because it has 2 coffees in it but also a treat. At the end, we get into their practice of 2 x 2 x 2 DATE NIGHTS.

The Framework of 2/2/2 Date Night, which they found on a Reddit feed sometime ago, adapted to their liking, is that

• Every 2️⃣  weeks we go on a date
• Every 2️⃣  months, we go on a weekend away
• Every 2️⃣  years (or twice a year), we'll go on a bigger adventure or a bigger holiday

This is definitely another exercise that we are excited to try out in our relationship. Our cadence might change to different numbers but the idea remains the same. What do you think would be an ideal frequency for your date nights - 1/1/1 or 2/3/2 or something else? Let us know in the comments below

Listen to the full episode to hear what they share about how this changed their relationship and got them out of their worst fight early on.

If you enjoyed listening to this episode (or the podcast), please share your diagnosis with 1 close relationship or anyone else who would enjoy listening to this as well.

We chat with Sammi & Nathan Jaeger, Co-Hosts of The Date Forever Podcast about how to increase the positive or the goodwill in your relationship to help you counteract the negative or the deficit that we tend to collect in our relationships.

Saami and Nathan were around 23 and 24 when they got married in December 2012. And they've been together now for about 15 years, just celebrated their 10th Wedding Anniversary. Congratulations! At LoVita, we're always curious as to why people get married. Everyone has their own reasons, and we really wanted to know why they decided to make that step after 5 years of being together in their relationship. Sammi mentioned that's something she had struggled with herself in the beginning and shares their wonderful story of how she ended up eventually taking the name Jaeger.

Bonus - an exercise to keep fueling their love tank. They had so many things to share. One of the first things they talked about, which I loved, is how they phrased it "let air out of the balloon". It's a weekly check-in conversation to help prevent resentment in their relationship. On what they do to build a healthier relationship, Sammi starts with saying they put goodwill into our relationship all day, every day. Listen to the episode for more.

If you enjoyed listening to this episode (or the podcast), please share your diagnosis with 1 close relationship or anyone else who would enjoy listening to this as well.

Have you tried the Quiz to find your Apology Language yet? If not, check it out from the link below and find out what’s your style?

There 5 Apology Languages are

• Planned Change: outline the changes you intend to make and show how you will live up to them as a form of retraining broken trust.
• Make Restitution: Apologize by indicating what action you plan to take to make things right.
• Accept Responsibility: Admitting that you regret your past behavior and acknowledging your role in the wrongdoing.
• Expressing Regret: saying sorry and adding specifically what action has spurred the regret.
• Request Forgiveness: is adding will you forgive me? To your apology.

Learn more about our inspiration for this episode from the link below 🔗
https://5lovelanguages.com/quizzes/apology-language

If you enjoyed listening to this episode (or the podcast), please share your diagnosis with 1 close relationship or anyone else who would enjoy listening to this as well.

Amanda shared with us her story about the troubles and challenges she had in her life. How she was able to use Kinesiology to understand all these layers and get out of an unhealthy relationship. Her journey of self discovery helped her explore other relationships. She shares a funny and insightful story about how she used Tinder, as a tool, to find what kinds of energy she was attracting and her journey of how she met her current partner. A couple things she mentioned that she realized what she was intentionally looking in her partner and the relationship was were

1. Reciprocal relationships
2. Somebody who was able to hold space

Amanda knew what she wanted and the universe was waiting for her to identify that within herself before those people could be highlighted for her from the universe as a gift. It was bound to happen. One of her messages that I really loved -

“I was really conscious of finding in that reflection what was left unhealed in me because I knew that when I went into my next relationship, I did not want it to be the same. I did not want to be the kind of empath who naturally attracts another narcissist. I didn't wanna be that flame for the moths.”

If you enjoyed listening to this episode (or the podcast), please share your diagnosis with 1 close relationship or anyone else who would enjoy listening to this as well.

In this episode with Liam Naden, a relationships and marriage coach. He talks a lot about the responsibility that we have as individuals to do the, “I” work to make the, “we” work. It gives us the understanding of what is an individual's responsibility for the common components that make something like a relationship or a marriage successful. It also brings a lot of empowerment and responsibility and accountability for what we can actually do to build the relationships that bring us joy back into our hands and makes us feel like we truly are individual agents that are capable of change and leading a life that makes us happy.

Some other topics we discuss

• How do you identify if a relationship is great or not?
• Shifting the focus from the "We" to the "I"
• Counseling or Un-counseling
• What can individuals do to be more attractive?
• “Then what?” Exercise

If you enjoyed listening to this episode (or the podcast), please share your diagnosis with 1 close relationship and ask them .

Kim Sorrell and her husband were diagnosed with Cancer 4 months apart and only one of them survived. In this episode, she shares stories of grief and humor to put forward her thoughts as an expert on love.

A couple of our biggest takeaways from this episode that Kim shares

• “Love is a one-way street. Love is not a transaction… Love is 100% up to you to give, period. Whether you get it back or not. You don’t give love to get love.”
• “ The best gift you can give yourself is to get outta yourself a little bit and stop thinking about what you need to receive and think more about what you wanna give and want to give desire to give, because it's fun to give.”

If you enjoyed listening to this episode (or the podcast), please share your diagnosis with 1 close relationship or anyone else who would enjoy listening to this as well.

In this episode we chat with Silvia Dutchevici, a psychotherapist with more than 20 years experience working with individuals and couples on topics ranging from relationships, intimacy and how to survive a long term partnership.

Some of the topics we discuss

🧑‍⚕️ Therapy to understand ourselves and our Partners

💪 How Power shows up in Relationships

⛪ Traditions and How People hide behind Culture

🎯 Shared Vision and Goals

🥷 Dealing with Conflicts and Practice to Fail

We discuss how to become aware of power statuses in relationships and the power struggles so that Partners can lead into power negotiations.

1. Shift our understanding of power is not something bad
   Cuz if it's something bad, it's something we don't wanna have. And then when we have it, we pretend we don't have it. And that gets really problematic, especially for couples
2. Power means responsibility
   I have a responsibility to you rather than I have power, I exert it over you.
3. Shift the way we talk
   Language is powerful. Pay attention to how you talk. Rather than saying I'm doing this for you, try I'm doing this cause I love you or as a gift to you.

If you enjoyed listening to this episode (or the podcast), please share your diagnosis with 1 close relationship or anyone else who would enjoy listening to this as well.

At the age of 83, Dr. Laurie has been married for 62 years, business partners with her husband for the last 50 plus years. She shared some details about that journey along with us in this week's episode.

Along with many other things, she shares a few simple steps on how and when Partners should communicate when there is a conflict which arises.

• When to communicate - The moment you (or your partner) notices there's something wrong.
• After noticing - Take time to think about it.
• After thinking about it - At the first opportunity, tell your partner that you'll like to share with them what you've realized.
• Just say it straight out - Ask them instead of trying to read their mind

Some of the other topics we discuss

• Serious Relationship Problem vs Ordinary Growing Pain
• Release Stuck Energy
• Stories from Laurie Weiss

If you enjoyed listening to this episode (or the podcast), please share your diagnosis with 1 close relationship or anyone else who would enjoy listening to this as well.

In our conversation with relationships coaches and experts, Dr. Ray and Jean Kadkhodaian, share their personal stories and many frameworks to help people build healthier relationships, listed below

👩‍❤️‍👨 Time for Hearts - Relationship Check Ins
3️⃣ Things you can do to change your relationship right now. Spoiler: Something new, Surprise each other, Sleep naked
⏳ Finding time and building deeper connections with your partner
🤕 Dealing with conflicts and pain - Comfort vs Discipline
🪴 Individual Growth

LoVita - Love Vitamins for a healthier is a community by Partners for Partners. We share stories about how Partners are working intentionally towards building a healthier relationship. To learn more check out the links below 🔗

In this episode, of "Skip the Beat", our discussion revolves around themes like

• Small gestures of love
• Specific Love
• Gratefulness toward your partner

Takeaways

• Play with all intensities of showing love: show love in big moments and show love in everyday moments
• Show love often. We don’t have to wait for a big moment to show love. Love is an action - when we show love in everyday moments, we receive the opportunity to build a home that is filled with love.

The moment of celebration should be special. We should make our partners feel like they are loved. Celebrating every day does not and should not detract from celebrating the special events and milestones. Instead, it is about adding to the celebration we do every day. The craving for giving love and receiving love can be fulfilled every day, we don’t need to wait for the big moments to express it.

Two things to consider here are

1. How - Intensity - how grand of a gesture you want your display of love to be
2. When - Frequency - how often do you want to share your love

Traditionally, the norm has been about High Intensity and Low Frequency, celebrating love every day is about Low intensity and High frequency.

Planned spontaneity can help ease some of the anxiety that might revolve around planning surprises too often or not, based on how your partner defines what that frequency is.

If you are requesting a form of love, be willing to show that form of love. Starting with self-love, if showing love that you would like to get from someone else, seems challenging as well.

LoVita - Love Vitamins for a healthier is a community by Partners for Partners. We share stories about how Partners are working intentionally toward building a healthier relationship. To learn more check out the links below 🔗

In this episode, we bring to you a quick and easy free at home date night idea called creating a Shared Relationship Vision.

It doesn't matter if you're just starting your relationship or you've been together for several years, it's never too early or too late to sit down with your partner and talk about what you aspire from your relationship. This is why we came up with a list of deal breaker questions. By taking the time to go through these questions, you can create a Relationship Vision that you and your partner are willing to invest in.

A quick and easy, free, at home date night idea.

Here’s how the activity works - Each person takes turns to click photos from your phone or camera to make a story in 2 minutes. So, if you are the storyteller first, your partner will have to leave the room and set a timer for 2 minutes. In that time, you'll use your phone or something to click photos. These photos can be of yourself, or any objects as props around you. After 2 minutes your partner will come back into the room and look at your photos as a slideshow and try to narrate the story. Once they're done, you'll share what you had in mind. Then take some time to discuss the differences and similarities. When done, switch roles. Do this in parallel if you have different rooms available.

Things you need

🤳 A phone or camera to click photos with
⏱ Something to keep track of time.

Rules

1️⃣ You have 2 minutes
2️⃣ Use selfies and things around you as props
3️⃣ Click photos and share your story

Takeaways

1️⃣ This was a great activity to see your partner's perspective. It's very unlikely that both of you are going to have the exact same story or even something close to it. So this gives you an opportunity to see how your partner sees the world and how they interpret it versus how you do and then talk about it and get to know each other.

2️⃣ Introducing or reintroducing the idea of play. As we grow up and become adults, quote unquote, with responsibilities, it's very easy to stop prioritizing the concept of play, but the role that it plays in our relationship is bringing back lightheartedness and re-introducing opportunities for you and your partner to connect with that same childlike enthusiasm. Curiosity and playfulness that you used to when you were a child.

Everyone likes to take pictures or see pictures that others have taken. Communicating with photos has two layers - the first: what the photographer perceives, and the second what the viewer conceived. This date night activity combines both of these ideas to play with your partner, get creative - and learn what kind of stories we tell ourselves.

The point of this is to enforce that your partner is not the same person as you. Even though they might see the same things as you do, they interpret it differently. This is an exercise to appreciate each other's creativity, and get to know their thought process a bit better. Depending on how much time you have to spend, you can deep dive on the “whys” and “hows”.

LoVita - Love Vitamins for a healthier is a community by Partners for Partners. We share stories about how Partners are working intentionally toward building a healthier relationship. To learn more check out the links below 🔗

In this episode, listen to Charlene Byers talk about masculine and feminine polarity, feminine embodiment and romantic relationships. She is an expert on male/female relationships. She shares her stories and learnings from her 25 years as a relationship coach. She talks about her struggles as a woman that she faced early on and how she was able to overcome them and build a healthy relationship with her husband.

We explore the answer to the very important question of “How do Women Want to Feel in a Relationship?”

Learn about the RAM (Relationship Attachment Model) Model and how it can help you in your relationships.

In the full episode we go over the below topics

1️⃣ Impact of men around Charlene in her youth
2️⃣ The effect of that in her Relationships as an adult
3️⃣ Struggles of leaving the past behind
4️⃣ Slowing down to find alignment

And much more…

LoVita - Love Vitamins for a healthier is a community by Partners for Partners. We share stories about how Partners are working intentionally towards building a healthier relationship. To learn more check out the links below 🔗

In this episode, we chat with Victoria Rader, a possibility coach on how to unleash prosperity in your Relationships with Victoria Rader, a Possibility Coach.

Amongst other things, we learnt about a 4 step Ass Principle

1️⃣ Validation      "What an ass."
2️⃣ Ownership    "But he/she is my ass."
3️⃣ Forgiveness  "I choose to forgive them."
4️⃣ Love               "I choose to love them."

In this episode, we talk about a fun and gamified way to share among partners more about each other's day. Here's how the activity works

🙋‍♀️ One of the partner is the Storyteller. Your role is to start by sharing more about how you spent the day. When you hear EXPAND, stay on the event you just mentioned and give details. Continue giving details until you hear ADVANCE, after which you move on to the next event of the day. Continue for 2 minutes.

🧟‍♀️ The other partner is the Listener. With the power to use only two keywords "Advance" and "Expand". Say EXPAND to have the Storyteller share more details about what they just mentioned. Say ADVANCE to move ahead to the next event of the day.

🔀 Switch roles. Play daily or when needed. Increase time as you see fit.

Takeaways

• Find a time-bound way to share about your day with your partner while sharing the responsibility of storytelling
• Find opportunities in your day to savor the small moments that can easily slip away
• Give your partner the control to be curious and learn more about your day - encouraging them to use the keyword Expand to dive into more details

Our inspiration for the activity was from an Improv exercise called Advance and Expand, used to explore environments in more detail.

LoVita - Love Vitamins for a healthier is a community by Partners for Partners. We share stories about how Partners are working intentionally toward building a healthier relationship. To learn more check out the links below 🔗

A quick and easy date night idea to build a healthy relationship. Here’s what you need

1️⃣ 2 pieces of paper
2️⃣ 2 pens
3️⃣ 60 seconds with your partner

All you have to do is look into your partners eyes and draw them. There are 2 simple rules

✍️ Draw a single continuous line without lifting the pen from the paper
👁️ Maintain eye contact for 60 seconds

Our inspiration for the activity was from a Ted Talk given by Wendy MacNaughton - The art of paying attention. In an invitation to slow down and look at the world around you, the graphic journalist illustrates how drawing can spark deeply human, authentic connections. Ready to try? Grab a pencil and join MacNaughton for her delightful talk. "Drawing is looking, and looking is loving," she says. Link below 🔗

In this episode, of "Skip the Beat", we talk about

• Embracing Imperfection in Relationships
• Great Relationships are not born, they are made

Takeaways

• Lead with honesty; true emotions always find a way to leak
• Find your peace with imperfections; lead with curiosity so you can take a second look at things you might automatically dismiss
• Give yourself and your partner permission to be imperfect without sweeping into quick judgment

We talk about emotional leakage in your relationships. How best to manage this and communicate with our partners? The best way to dig deep into our anxieties and our needs for having everything “perfect” is to lead with curiosity.

We talk about the middle path between the extremes of lying to keep your partner happy or being honest and possibly hurting your partner.

Things are rarely perfect, and that’s exactly what makes them perfect in relationships. Learn more on how to find the perfect moments, acceptance in imperfection, and appreciate these moments to find joy and happiness.

This will help your partnership develop the capacity to hold the space so that your partner can flourish in all the ways they have desired outside of judgment. Set yourself free of the concepts of duality like, right or wrong. Dig deeper into layers to find what it is that brings us joy and happiness in our relationship.

To live fully and abundantly is the most beautiful opportunity that life provides. Work on creating a partnership, to encourage and empower each other to explore and wonder without judgment.

Remember, you are perfect in every imperfect moment and so is your partner. And when you find something imperfect, seek out the perfect moment to communicate and share with your partner your feelings.

LoVita - Love Vitamins for a healthier is a community by Partners for Partners. We share stories about how Partners are working intentionally toward building a healthier relationship. To learn more check out the links below 🔗

In this episode, of "Skip the Beat", we talk about

• Self Identity in a relationship
• The balance between Sharing vs Controlling
• Setting healthy boundaries in your relationship

Takeaways

• How others see us is crucial for our self-identity; start by understanding your beliefs and then share what you learn and know.
• Remain adaptable; acknowledge that your identity is malleable and that conflicts aren’t bad - just opportunities for curiosity and growth.
• Regardless of how you are received when you share your truth, stand by your boundaries

Before you can share with your partner what you want, there is a lot of self-identity work that is needed to be done to answer how you are and who you want to be.

Doing identity work, we start to realize that identity as a concept is quite malleable, it’s quite fluid. Looking at it in terms of “this or that” is very reductionist. Identity is more of an amalgamation or a culmination of different moving parts.

To discover the fine balance of how much and when to share in a new relationships

1. Digest and discern what are the important things to share
2. Start to build a foundation of mutual respect and understanding by sharing in small doses and using curiosity to ask questions

Start with - Sit with yourself, and identity, what are those non-negotiable boundaries within you? What are the things that you don’t know you can’t function without?

Navigating the fine line between controlling and letting go can be tricky. We often feel like we have to give something to get something. By transforming our ORs into ANDs, we can change this negotiation in our favor. Start having these conversations with yourself, to understand where our boundaries start and when it gets to sacrifice.

To build a healthy partnership, work on laying down the foundation for your relationship so difficult conversations don’t have to be hard ones and can be everyday, honest and real conversation. Building a healthy relationship requires hard work and being intentional about normalizing such difficult conversations.

LoVita - Love Vitamins for a healthier is a community by Partners for Partners. We share stories about how Partners are working intentionally toward building a healthier relationship. To learn more check out the links below 🔗

In our latest episode with Brenden Kumarasamy, communication expert and the founder of MasterTalk, shares some tips on topics like

• Setting boundaries in a relationship
• Healthy communication practices
• Establishing a shared vision in your relationship

Boundary setting in your relationships

1. Set clear and healthy boundaries
   Specificity is the key to boundary setting. Writing them out helps.
2. Make it fun
   Start easy and start with something small. If you can’t argue about the small things, forget about arguing about the big things.
3. Celebrate and reciprocate
   Ping pong on boundary setting with your partner.

How do being an effective speaker skills help you build healthier relationships? The key is, that it doesn’t matter what you say, as much as HOW you say it.

Use Relationship Visioning, as a Framework to define what you want the relationship to be. Use Relationship Selection to ask all the hard questions upfront.

Make a list of every quality you want in someone else. Look at the list and become that person. The key is to try and be the best version of that person and if you are true to it you’ll attract such people to you.

LoVita - Love Vitamins for a healthier is a community by Partners for Partners. We share stories about how Partners are working intentionally towards building a healthier relationship. To learn more check out the links below 🔗

How often do we let our partner make mistakes? In this episode of LoVita we talk about how to give the benefit of doubt and believe in our partners, while being there for them even when we might be certain that they are going to fail.

Some of the topics related to relationships that we discuss are

• Forgiveness
• Feeling of "I told you so"
• Criticism and contempt
• Yes, And

LoVita - Love Vitamins for a healthier is a community by Partners for Partners. We share stories about how Partners are working intentionally towards building a healthier relationship. To learn more check out the links below 🔗

“Until you can know yourself, you don’t know what you have to offer. Till you know what you have to offer, nobody else knows what you have to offer.” - Juan Lee on his teachings on love.

In this special episode with Juan Lee, we learn about how Juan and Tracy do to build a healthier relationship.

Some of the topics we talk about

• Build together
• Identifying and working with your partner's strength.
• Open communication
• Vulnerability

We talk about Building together - relationships get built together collectively over time. It's a daily effort to bring something to the table and bring our own strengths individually to the table. Recognizing what your partner's abilities are at work.

LoVita - Love Vitamins for a healthier is a community by Partners for Partners. We share stories about how Partners are working intentionally towards building a healthier relationship. To learn more check out the links below 🔗