What really matters?

Can you go back?  Do failed relationship work on a second try or is the damage too profound to ever repair.  In this episode, Alvean and Doug offer their thoughts on the pitfalls and possible benefits of a second chance.  For a full transcript, click here:LL21-Getting Back with Your Ex

Maybe you have had the experience or perhaps heard about such situations.  When a relationship ends it is often more than painful emotionally, some partners go that extra step to inflict even more pain, emotionally, financially, or in other ways.  How does one handle such a situation and even more pertinent, how does one avoid it in the first place.  Listen to what Alvean and Doug have to say in this episode: LL20-Vindictive Ex's

If there is a human trait that matters more and least understood, it is empathy.  In this episode, Alvean and Doug talk about why empathy is at the core of all durable relationships, ib life, work and love.  For a full transcript of this episode, click here: LL19-Empathy is a Lost Virtue

It takes a secure person to open themselves up to others but it is only through vulnerability that true emotional connection can flourish.  Alvean and Doug explore this paradox in this episode and offer vivid examples from their own experience.  For a full transcript, click here: LL18-Vulnerability

Philosophers and everyday men and women alike wrestle with the question, what is my purpose in life?  What actually matters--and how do we discover the answers?  In this episode, Alvean and Doug take on these pithy questions and offere their own experience and insights in response.  For a full transcript, click here: LL17

It sounds counter-intuitive but Alvean and Doug would tell you that some of our most painful experiences are also incredibly important teaching moments.  Although no one seeks out suffering, especially where relationships are concerned, emotional pain, loss and grief take us to places where we can look at ourselves and our lives in a more objective perspective and emerge--either through one's own devices or with help into a better and healthier life.  For a full transcript of this episode, click here:LL16

Can we truly deceive ourselves?  In this episode, Alvean and Doug talk about the ways we obfuscate, pretend and misdirect our intuition and intellect when matters of the heart are concerned. For a full transcript, click here:LL15

Some have said that a broken heart is worse than any physical pain, and for many it is one of if not the hardest thing they may face at a young age. Alvean and Doug discuss the ways we mend and build on a stronger foundation following a difficult passage such as this. For more and a full transcript, click here: LL14

As a followup to last week's episode, Alvean and Doug take on the thorny question, can anyone prevent their partner from cheating?   Alvean unfolds her now famous dry grass analogy to explain how relationship fare when they are not regularly tended.  And Doug tells a story about a marriage that foundered through inattention. For a full transcript, click here: LL13

It may be the hardest test of a relationship, when one partner is unfaithful to the other.  In this episode, Alvean and Doug discuss how to move on --whether the relationship is at its end or otherwise and how to know the difference between someone that cheated (and why) and someone who is a cheater.  For more, and a complete transcript, click here: LL12