Habits and Hustle - Episode 297: Dr. Nicole LePera: The Holistic Psychologist on Why You Feel Stuck in Your Relationships + What to Do About It

Episode Date: November 28, 2023

It's shocking how many people feel lonely in their relationships, even in seemingly picture-perfect ones. Especially in a place like LA, when it looks like someone has it all, but then you speak to pe...ople and they’re really dissatisfied and lonely in their relationships. How do we overcome this? That’s what we explore in this episode of the Habits & Hustle podcast with Dr. Nicole Lepera, AKA the Holistic Psychologist.  Dr. Nicole LePera dives into why we don’t have a picture perfect relationship and what we can do to deepen and feel satisfied in our relationships. She also discusses the profound impact of childhood trauma and memory suppression on adult relationships, the possibility of shifting trauma bonds and dysfunctional relationship patterns to create more secure, authentic connections, the importance of effective communication about shared goals, and a commitment to personal growth and change for optimizing your relationships.  Dr Nicole LePera is a holistic psychologist, and author of the number one international bestseller, How to Do the Work. She received traditional training in clinical psychology at Cornell University and The New School of Social Research. What we discuss: (0:00:01) - The concept of relational trauma and memory suppression and how these can influence adult behavior and relationships (0:08:50) - Understanding the impact of childhood experiences on adult relationships, including the patterns we unconsciously repeat from our upbringing (0:19:10) - The difficulty of breaking patterns of behavior passed down through generations and the role of the nervous system in these behaviors (0:23:39) - Attraction and love languages, and how to adjust our patterns of attraction to prevent making the same decisions repeatedly (0:32:33) - How trauma bonds can shift and the steps to move from a dysfunctional relationship to one that is more secure and authentic (0:37:46) - The challenges of breaking generational patterns of behavior and the importance of reconnecting with oneself to foster deeper connections in relationships (0:50:16) - The dynamics of turning a professional relationship into a personal one, and the feelings, conflicts, communication issues, and struggles that come with it (0:56:26) - The unique dynamics of a three-person relationship and the challenges that come with it (1:05:29) - The growth of the global community platform and its benefits (1:15:27) - The importance of self-care in parenting and the significance of showing children how to take care of their own needs (1:21:03) - The importance of secure connections with parents in understanding adult relationships  Thank you to our sponsors: Greenfat: Head over to Greenfat.com and use code Hustle20 to save 20%! Therasage: Head over to therasage.com and use code Be Bold for 15% off Pendulum: Head over to www.pendulum.com and use code JENCOHEN for 20% off. Find more from Jen:  Website: https://www.jennifercohen.com/ Instagram: @therealjencohen  Books: https://www.jennifercohen.com/books Speaking: https://www.jennifercohen.com/speaking-engagement Learn more from Dr. Nicole LePera: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the.holistic.psychologist/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theholisticpsychologist YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheHolisticPsychologist Website: https://theholisticpsychologist.com/ Book: https://howtobetheloveyouseek.com/ Tour Tickets: https://howtobetheloveyouseek.com/events/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 I got this Tony Robbins you're listening to Habitson Hustle, Crescent. So Nicole Appara is on the podcast again because I love her and apparently so does everybody else. She has another book out and it's called How to Be the Love You Seek. And if you guys are not living under a rock, of course, yeah, you know who she is. And all of your book, your work on self-healing on trauma has obviously touched a massive chord with because there's not one person, by the way, that does not know who you are. Like, I told you, I was telling you before this, I was at a dinner and I was like telling them that you're on this podcast, like, the whole table was like, oh my god, I love her. Like, you're like bigger than like,
Starting point is 00:00:45 I don't even know who was the, like, Rion at this point. It's where, it's amazing. So congratulations. Thank you. And thank you for having me back, Jennifer, as always, I love our conversations. I love you, you're the best.
Starting point is 00:00:57 Your book is so, all your books. And I was saying like, I feel like ever, it hits such a chord because I feel like all of us have had some form of trauma in our life that we, even if it's not a big trauma, these small traumas that are affecting our relationships and everything we do, even from a small child, those things affect what we do as adults. And there's a disconnect a lot of times. We don't know why we do the things we do. And then why I'm even saying this is because I don't
Starting point is 00:01:31 even remember so many things in my childhood. Like I have friends who like remember everything about their childhood and I have a few memories. But I don't like remember a lot. And once I started saying that out loud, people they're like, yeah, I mean, either, which then thought to myself, it must be common. And what does that mean if we don't remember so much of our childhood?
Starting point is 00:01:55 I want to go back to this idea of the things that could happen to us, because for a very long time, similarly, not being able to recall my childhood and not having, you know, or so I thought, the big things that I was trained to look for. I'm not having had those happen in my childhood, those, you know, big cataclysmic moments, instances of abuse or physical neglect, I always had a present parent that celebrated me in a lot of ways for my multiple achievements.
Starting point is 00:02:23 So not having an understanding that anything had happened to me, I was really left at a loss and I was joking with you beforehand and but jokes aside, I mean, I thought I'd been considered that maybe there's something structurally wrong with my brain. Because probably around high school, I started to realize when my friends at that time
Starting point is 00:02:41 would share what their childhoods were like, what memories of Christmases were like and things like that. And it became actually a running joke that, oh, Nicole, doesn't remember anything. And then that was kind of compounded by, oh, well, because, you know, I like party in high school. So maybe, you know, remember anything, because she likes the party too much, you know. And again, meanwhile, though, I'm like, well, what is wrong with me? Why don't I remember? And I talk about in my first book, really expanding the definition of trauma and absolutely applies to this book, because the reason I wasn't remembering
Starting point is 00:03:11 wasn't because the big bad thing happened. As is the case for a lot of us, it's what didn't happen. And what didn't happen in my relationship, at least, in being a relational creature, I mean, were fully dependent on another human to care for our physical self in childhood and actually to help us emotionally regulate in childhood. And when we don't have that attunement,
Starting point is 00:03:33 I did not have that in my family. My family was consumed in their own survival mode, struggling with chronic illness, with health crises, and my mom again, ill-equipped, not taught, not attuned to by her own parents, wasn't able to be emotionally available for me. So, in absence of the big thing that happened, having the stress of not having that safe parent figure, to attune to me and more so to help my nervous system quite literally deal with the stress of daily life,
Starting point is 00:04:01 of what was happening and then how I adapted as we will all do because we need those bonds. We need someone to care for us enough to keep showing up in service of our survival. So we begin to modify who we are and how we are in terms of the ability then to recall. And again I'm being very intentional but not calling it a memory because we actually do remember the ability to recall though is impact it when cortisol the stress hormone right when stress is happening in our body and that happens beginning in utero for us. So I think a lot about my stressed out mom all of the cortisol running through her body her body's
Starting point is 00:04:39 inability to regulate it and then the impact that that had on my developing brain then of course once I was born, same amount of cortisol, unable to regulate it, that impacts a part of our brain called the hippocampus, which deals with memory. So that's why a lot of us, we can't pull that movie screen up or retell what it was though again, very intentionally. We do remember it. We remember it in our habits, in our patterns, in things that I saw as, I'm sure, we'll continue to talk about my way of being in my relationships, the way I navigated stress, which was not
Starting point is 00:05:09 well at all, detaching, dissociating. So our bind and our body actually does remember. We're a living memory. So of course, I think the next question is, well, can we create change if we can't recall it? Yes. Absolutely. We can become really present.
Starting point is 00:05:24 I'm sure to some of the habits, relational habits that we'll talk about today. But I mean, relational trauma is real. It's now seen in the psychiatric or psychological community as CPTSD that comes from relational trauma. So, again, those big moments, we used to give the diagnosis of PTSD. Right. And now we're understanding that complex trauma happens when you don't have that secure attachment figure. So does that mean then when we're not recalling our memories? It's because we've had these little forms of trauma or experiences that were obviously very unpleasant in some way. That it's just something that we suppress. Yes, and then there's, I think psychologically, there's that aspect of it too, right?
Starting point is 00:06:06 There's almost like a split in our consciousness, the more stressful overwhelming things happen, and the more ill-equipped we are to deal with it. It's a kind of like suppression. So it's there, right? In these neural networks, some subconscious mind, oftentimes, it's manifest in these deep-rooted beliefs
Starting point is 00:06:23 that we have about ourselves, when we feel unworthy or unlovable, unless we're doing whatever it is that we imagine or learned. We have to do so it's all their suppress to use your word beneath the surface. Does that mean that people who do remember like the friends of mine who like remember every single birthday celebration, every Christmas, Hanukkah, whatever it is, is it because they've had no trauma? Not necessarily.
Starting point is 00:06:46 I think some of us can hyper-remember. Lolli, my partner, is one of those people who had very much an overwhelming childhood, though I call her, say she has an elephant memory, she has an ability to remember, I mean, everything from her childhood, everything from our relationship, which was, again, in the beginning,
Starting point is 00:07:06 one of those points of, she'd be like, do you remember when? And it's interesting, because my language back, so say we would even go to, you know, a bar restaurant, whenever we walk in, and she'd be like, do you remember we were here last? Whenever, with so and so. And I'd be like, oh, it feels familiar. And I always noticed myself when they would, friends or partners would recollect something. I would say, hmm, I feel familiar. And I always noticed myself when they would friends or partners would recollect something. I would say, hmm, I feel familiar. It feels like something.
Starting point is 00:07:30 I think that really illustrates my body walking into that place. When you're retelling this story, it's activating the lived experience because I was there. Right. So I'm feeling in my body. But I started to note that there wasn't, you know, I was using feel, I should say, because it was a feeling of familiarity, even though my mind couldn't say, oh yeah, we were at that table and that's how and so was here,
Starting point is 00:07:57 but my body was generating that familiarity. So when it was, when is it considered just having a bad memory and something like that that you were mentioning with Lollyi versus you having a bad experience or traumatic situation where you are now disassociating or detaching from it? I think so what we're really getting into is, is there a, is there ever a biological or physiological thing, symptom origin. Maybe that's what I wanna say here origin for something outside of environment or experience.
Starting point is 00:08:32 And I believe the answer is no, that there's always an interaction, we're developing physiological organism again in a body that's impacted by all of the life choices of that human before we even began to develop and that then when we were developing and then the environment that we're born into. So it's kind of like the nature nurture thing. And I think this is why sometimes it can be confusing because structurally we do see changes in a brain say if we were to give an FMR higher whatever the technology is,
Starting point is 00:09:02 right? You'll see oh brains look different. And so for a while, we said, oh, we attribute it to, well, brains look different because genetically, right? You had that chip and you didn't have this chip or it was our DNA. And now, I think we've evolved the science to a more epigenetic model, which is like, yeah, genes are playing part of the story, though so is lifestyle or environment.
Starting point is 00:09:25 So to speak to your point in terms of memory, right, art, capability, our ability to do anything cognitively in my opinion, can't just be reduced to, oh, it's just a bad chip or a fault to wiring, right? It's always a connection to the choices around us. And I've yet to meet a human actually that has come from a really securely connected, all needs consistently met childhood, and I think mainly because of generations, and generations that came before us,
Starting point is 00:09:55 didn't have access to information, had a lot of socio-political things happening, a lot of lacking resources. And I think therefore you see more of us that are, you know, carrying a trauma or something from our unmet needs and childhood. You know, it's so interesting, like, when I read your book, right, because it talks a lot about, like, repeating patterns and all these things. And someone like myself, who I do that, all, I mean, it's like, oh, I do this's a new talk about your whole origin story, how you evolved in your relationships and romantic relationships.
Starting point is 00:10:28 And like it really did strike a core, because I feel like everyone can relate to that to some degree, right? And no matter how intelligent you are, right? But that doesn't mean I find so interesting. There's such a disconnect because you still repeat the pattern, even if you know better. Yes. Why?
Starting point is 00:10:44 Yes. And I would see this, not only in, I did a lot of work with individual clients, but also couples work. you still repeat the pattern, even if you know better. Yes. Why? Yes. And I would see this, and I did a lot of work with individual clients, but also couples work. That was very interested in dynamics and ran a lot of groups and sitting in the room with couple after couple. Yeah. And coming up with tools, new plans of action, new ways to communicate, doing that for maybe
Starting point is 00:11:00 50 minutes together in a room. Yes. You know, troubleshooting, whatever the explosive argument could be that happens throughout the week. And this is what you're going to do differently. Yeah, right. And break. And yet, flash forward next week.
Starting point is 00:11:12 And or in the office a few minutes later, right? I was watching this reenactment. And the reason why, again, is because a lot of us revert back in this conscious moment. Where we're reading the book, or we're getting the tool from the therapist, or having the insight, we're in a different part of our brain entirely. We're operating with the very powerful
Starting point is 00:11:33 prefrontal cortex that can consume new information and imagine a future that's different and create all these new solutions and use this insight though oftentimes when we're going about our day, especially relationally because this brings up so much of our childhood patterning and our wounding, we're operating from our subconscious mind and especially in moments where we're stressed out, where there's conflict, where we're at odds, right now physiologically even, the blood is flowing
Starting point is 00:12:04 away from our prefrontal cortex is only flowing to that lower lizard brain, I think the language that many of us are familiar with. Totally. And we actually quite literally lose access to all of the beautiful insights and things that we know to do better. But I think this is to speak to your point, a really shameful space to be in, especially as we have all this insight and all of these nobatterers, and many of us have collected decades
Starting point is 00:12:27 of consequences that come with these same patterns. Yes. And sometimes we have well-meeting loved ones and friends in our lives saying, hey, red flag, don't you see this is the same relationship yet when we're in those moments. Again, we're so reliant on, and for some of us, it's the identity that we've created
Starting point is 00:12:45 about ourselves in childhood. The role, I talk a lot about the neurobiological roles that I call condition selves, right? This caretaker, overachiever, underachiever, you know, hero worship, or all of these ways of being then that have become our familiar. That's how we know ourselves. That's how we know how to connect and how to relate to others. And for some of us, that's how we define love. And we then rely on the familiarity of that in our mind, in our body, and we're pulled again for all this physiological reasons to continue to repeat those patterns, even if they don't serve us. As you know, I always
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Starting point is 00:17:30 Beautiful question. And my answer will always be, I like to simplify change into two steps. And the first step will always be becoming conscious of that role for this conversation purposes. Notice how is it that you're showing up in your relationship? Are you connected to you? Are you able to self-express your thoughts, your perspectives, your emotions, just be yourself?
Starting point is 00:17:52 And how is it that you are in relation to another person? Are you taking on a role in and of itself? So really kind of being that conscious observer where we're seeing how it is. And I really am specifically saying that first point because I noticed and myself included in many past relationships, I didn't have a self. I showed up solely in service of the connection, the relationship, just like I did in childhood, I squashed my perspectives, my real thoughts, my emotions, because in childhood there wasn't really space for those. Any time that I would, you know, say something or do something or express in a way that, you know, was against my mom in
Starting point is 00:18:30 particular, her wishes should be disappointed, she would be angry, she didn't like it. One of the main ways that she coped with her emotions because she didn't learn how to in her own childhood was to distance herself from me at times when it was at its worst, to give me the silent treatment me and others. So, right, the more consistently that happens, and of course other people might have had was to distance herself from me at times when it was at its worst to give me the silent treatment me and others. So the more consistently that happens, and of course other people might have had an explosive parent, a reactive parent,
Starting point is 00:18:52 whatever it was that we learned in childhood and whatever space or lack thereof for our uniqueness because we need those connections will modify and we'll begin to play those roles. So I saw myself not being, right, being hyper vigilant, falling as we call it. I think a lot of us as a protection, right? If I'm attuned to you and if I kind of notice
Starting point is 00:19:14 how you are and what you need and I don't cause upset, then just like in childhood, I'm more likely to stay connected in this relationship. So I saw that play out where, I mean, it wasn't even really about if I liked you in relationships, it was, do you like me, right? Even if deep down, I'm like, oh, this relationship isn't feeling great for me.
Starting point is 00:19:32 It was really just keeping that connection based on again, what someone else needed. I think that's very common. People get very hung up on if that other person likes them and that keeps them going, you know, could they need that validation versus ever checking in and be like, do I even like this person in the first place? So is that stemmed from this place of like feeling good enough, being good enough? Like the other persons need is so much more valuable than
Starting point is 00:19:59 your own. Yeah, I think when it really comes down to it, we share and I started to, as I, you know, would speak to people Especially now as I have the opportunity to speak to people who've created incredible, right? Like much like yourself things in their life and as you know, conversations would continue I started to hear a theme that very few of us feel truly worthy and I started to kind of explore like, you know Why could that be? Why could it be no matter what you're, you know, creating in your life or how you're, you know, you might even have the possibility of relationship after relationship, yet you are that person again who's so worried about being liked as opposed to tuning to myself. And I believe, and I talk a
Starting point is 00:20:40 bit about this in the book, that again, in childhood. If and when we didn't have our needs consistently met, beyond just our physical needs, right, the roof over our head, the food on our plate, when we didn't have someone who was curious about our thoughts and our perspectives and our emotions, and didn't just project their emotions on to us and helped us learn how to regulate who it is that we are, when we didn't have that, right? Again, we had to modify ourselves to fit in to how it was that that person was available. And internally, though, to make sense of it, because we're always trying to make sense of the world, right? Why is this person not physically present? Why is this person not emotionally present? When we're in, from birth until age seven,
Starting point is 00:21:23 developmentally, we're in what is called an egocentric stage of development. We can't zoom out like we get the capability to in adulthood and right, hold all these different perspectives kind of see that, you know, mom or dad or whomever the caregiver was had other things going on, maybe they had a grueling job that they had to, you know, pay the finances to keep the food on the table for us.
Starting point is 00:21:44 We couldn't understand that or in my instance, I couldn't understand that emotionally. My mom was ill-equipped to be emotionally available to me. In childhood, when the world revolves around us in that egocentric way, the only way that we can make sense of the world is it has to connect back to us. So their presence, their lack of presence, their emotional capacity, all has something to do with us. So to really simplify it, when our needs aren't consistently met in childhood, we do develop some kind of narrative
Starting point is 00:22:15 around, oh, I must not be worthy to have those needs met. I must not be lovable enough to be connected to or to be cared for in the way that I need to. And again, I believe that the large majority of us at least have had some unmet needs. So that's why I think at our core, we do feel unworthy and then you see all these manifestations where I'm only worried about being liked or where I only have to show up in service of you. And that's how I maybe keep you to stay around and do all of these different things to maintain that connection. Because again, we don't feel like just being me is enough. It's so
Starting point is 00:22:47 interesting because I guess if we were like if I were to think about it right like all our parents from our generation right they didn't have the tools and the assets that we have now right or they didn't have them to like therapy wasn't the thing back then and they didn't have all these people like you to give them insight or whatever. So we're all a byproduct of that. And that's probably why this is so striking a core to so many millions of people. And that's why we're all, I would hate to say that we're damaged in a way because we're
Starting point is 00:23:17 not damaged, but we're traumatized in a real way. And to like, I guess even if we have the wherewithal to know where it's coming from, to behave differently, is so hard to do. You know, like, where do people start? I know you said, like, recognizing it, being conscious of it. But then day to day, don't we always just fall back to our baseline? It's so easy to fall right back to what we're comfortable with. Yeah, I just want to say something to about generationally because there was a time where when outside of when we didn't have resources, I mean, even just here in the state, going through the Great Depression and things like that where there weren't financial resources,
Starting point is 00:23:57 physical needs weren't being met. When access. Yeah. And again, they're so lack-saccess here and outside of here, many other countries don't have any of these tools and resources. Though when psychologists did come on the scene, this blows my mind and parenting was a topic for very many years, decades, even. And so, really recently, the main model of parenting was a behaviorist model, which is
Starting point is 00:24:21 simply like treating humans like an animal with reinforcement, rewards and punishments, right? And it's just kind of like cry it out in the bedroom type of parenting, again, all very well intentioned thinking that humans were like animals so true in a lot of ways. So to speak to your really wise point, Jennifer, I mean, the reality of it is they were ill equipped. And many until today are taking these models where we're not viewing the human and the tiny developing human as an emotional being
Starting point is 00:24:52 that has more needs and not and that we're dealing with emotions and this behaviorist way. And that just really doesn't work. But to speak to your point, becoming conscious, seeing the patterns are part of the journey. But then that second step that I didn't yet mention is making new choices, beginning to break those patterns now, which means we have to create a habit or create the space in our day to shift, whatever it is that we're doing, to do something different. And for a lot of us, it really means building the ability in our mind and body which is why when you read this book it does focus a lot on the holistic side of the human relational being and a lot of it is on yes it's
Starting point is 00:25:34 on relationships and relating to other people though it's also on rebuilding our relationship with ourselves and our physical body and our nervous system in particular because when we don't right we are going to be in that subconscious autopilot when we're feeling stressed like I was describing earlier for all those physiological reasons. We're going to somewhere after the fact and sometimes I'm even saying something out of my mouth that I know I don't mean and I'm like why are you saying that and calling you now because I've already lost that conscious control and the ability to choose. So it's the daily commitment to building the practices in so that I can retain my space of consciousness.
Starting point is 00:26:12 I can be that observer in real time where I'm going to say or do, we're reacting that way and I can begin to make that new choices and more often than not the new choices originate in my body and actually regulating, right? The increased heart rate, the quickened breath, the tension in my muscles and all the things that are going to quickly send me over that point of no return, reacting or dissociating and attaching, whatever it is that you typically do. And those are the moments where, as I learned to widen my window or be able to deal with more stressful moments, while I'm calm and grounded
Starting point is 00:26:45 and responsive, then I actually get the opportunity to make those choices, which is why I think it's really frustrating. We can read beautiful books and have all of this information. And if we're not every day, as I am still committed to taking care of our body and our nervous system and actually teaching ourselves how to be responsive and be in power. I talk a lot about an empowered relationship retaining that space of choice. We're not, we're gonna be really frustrated and probably really shameful and really damaging to our relationship with ourself and with other people.
Starting point is 00:27:15 That's so true. We talked with before, but it's all about regulating your nervous system too, right? How do you, right? I mean, we may hear these things, you may talk about them, and then the acting of them or knowing what to do with it is really hard.
Starting point is 00:27:31 So I would like to talk about the basics, they're not so basic, but like these trauma bonds, because it comes down to who you're unfortunately, who you're actually attracted to, right? Like, all this could be moot when you're physically only attracted to a certain type, you won't make a choice towards the better choice, right? Because you're gravitating to the wrong choice. And how do we switch or change who we're attracted to?
Starting point is 00:27:57 So we're not making the same bad decisions over and over again. Often when I hear you say attract it, and I think a lot of what we're doing, or what's happening in those moments, right? It's because again, attraction, I think a lot of it's like, oh, I think you're, you know, attractive. And I want to like, you know, I have something on it.
Starting point is 00:28:16 Often what we're attracted to is the familiar. Yes, yes. So we really have to, you know, give some nuance, or if you will, to what we're actually feeling. And often what we're feeling, and sometimes it is the familiarity of that high, right, stressful, which sometimes feels like passion, that rollercoaster moment. Then, though again, that might not be attraction per se, that might be the same nor biological chemical cocktail that maybe was very consistently present in our traumatic childhood
Starting point is 00:28:51 with a reactive parent or whatever was happening in the home or instability and all of the feelings that come along with that. Though, yes, to speak to your point, we're going to be subconsciously gravitating towards certain people and dynamics more so. That are, again, replicated, or usually a familiar type dynamic, then is the first one that we've experienced.
Starting point is 00:29:14 But for a lot of us, it means like the same biological feelings are going to be what feels good, which is, I think, why for a lot of us when we go to that honeymoon stage, or even when we meet someone where we don't feel like we're on that dramatic roller coaster to begin with, right? We're like, oh, I'm just boring. It might not be for us or maybe this relationship is over now that those feelings went away. And what we might be reacting to is not a lack of attraction. It might be the lack of that familiar physiology that again we've learned to define
Starting point is 00:29:46 as connection, as love, as someone appealing for us. That's so on point I agree with that so much. It makes so much sense to me. So if you guys have been listening to the podcast for a while, you know that I do not mess around when it comes to anti-aging or longevity. And I absolutely love realistic things you can do every day to help support the process easily. And I've recently started taking a brand new Omega 3 supplement called Green Fat.
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Starting point is 00:32:22 which I also use it for. I personally use Therasage tri-light everywhere and all the time. It's small, it's affordable, it's portable, and it's really effective. Head over to Therasage.com right now and use code B bold for 15% off. This code will work sight wide. Again, head over to Therisage, THER, ASAGE.com, and news code B. Bold for 15% off any of their products. One thing it's funny because you talk a little, you mentioned this in the book actually the five love languages and it's so trite to me, you know, like well if you like to, if you like to, you know, words of affirmation, I wish it was that simple, right?
Starting point is 00:33:18 If I can just tell you, if I can show you your love language of, I'll just compliment you and then you could just buy me things or whatever the non like that is. What is your take on that? Like do you think that type of simplicity works to help relationships flourish? Because it seems to me it's not taking into consideration a lot of other things that are happening. I think what can be incredibly helpful and has benefited a lot of us when we've learned about or heard this concept of the law of languages.
Starting point is 00:33:46 It introduces the reality that there's a different other person. Right. Right. That might register for in this context love or these gestures in a different way. And again, that's big because we are all driven. And I think about childhood a lot. And I use this example often of when we're at children in our home until we go over to friends homes, there's a very big part of our world that imagines every family looks the same. Right, every family has the same kind of daily routine or lack thereof.
Starting point is 00:34:20 And then we start to go over and like, oh, this family doesn't have that caregiver present or dinner time looks a little different over here or mom acts a little different, right? And then we start to widen our perspective to see different other people. So when we meet a concept like love languages and you can have a conversation with a partner or you know a friend or a friend and say, well, I like gestures and hear, oh, I like words of affirmation. Oh my gosh, okay. Now I can learn how to speak. I'm introduced to the fact that you're different,
Starting point is 00:34:49 and different experience with this concept, and I can learn if I so choose, right, how to speak your language that you can register love. I think what does become, sometimes incomplete with that concept is, and I fell into this a lot with my past partners and with Lolli in particular, sometimes the language that we're most attracted to, again, we have to remember
Starting point is 00:35:12 was born in a particular dynamic, right? So it might not be a full expression, so just to use my example, I came from a very predictable household. One of the major ways that all of the stress and overwhelm of all of the health-related things that were happening was through this. I mean like breakfast of that at a certain time, there was a certain amount of foods that were eaten for breakfast. Dinner was at 5.30 the second my dad got home from work like predictable. Everything was the same and one of the main ways my mom showed love or connection to us. The whole family was because in absence of being able to emotionally attune, she would very much cook the dinner, make my favorite meal,
Starting point is 00:35:49 make sure my clothes were higher and then in my thing. You know, that's how love was displayed. So now flash forward in time. And this was really apparent to me with Lolli. When we met and I would get home from work, I would work later, excite sessions and well until the evening. So she was typically home and I would get home with an expectation that predictably, right?
Starting point is 00:36:09 There'd be dinner on my table. Or that dishes would be done. The house would be clean just like I learned growing up. That I would walk in and lo and behold was I in first surprise because none of that would be the case, right? So I have an expectation and now it's being unmet, so now I'm upset or disappointed.
Starting point is 00:36:25 And then I assign this old meaning while she must not love in my language, consider me because that's what I was used to. That was consideration. When dinner was on the table, that's how my mom considered us all. And when dishes were done, little did I know, as I learned more about Lolly and her past,
Starting point is 00:36:42 not only did her family not have a cohesive unit, they were very much like, fend for yourself, we all eat dinner at different times and do our own thing. There was actually a lot of reactivity that she experienced when around like, tightiness and chores and when she wasn't naturally tidy or didn't do chores, there was a lot of explosion.
Starting point is 00:37:01 So now I'm coming home, disappoint it, feeling unloved. As you can imagine, I didn't say, thank you for doing that. I said, I erupted sometime. I would close myself off and she's like, what's wrong, aren't you gonna make dinner? No, I'm not hungry, right?
Starting point is 00:37:17 Clearly upset. Which would only then like dominoes upset her because now she's going back to her childhood where she doesn't know why I'm upset and I'm now Making accusations you don't love you don't care. You don't consider me She's at a loss because there probably were seven things that she had done that day that were in loving care Acceleration of me right and I'm so hooked on this only one way because I learned it in childhood and again my Reactivity set off her reactivity and then we just became a ball of conflict around that. So in general, again, that's just
Starting point is 00:37:50 one example of how very clearly, you know, even our past relationships with what I was defining as love, as gestures. Yeah, it's nice when there's dinner made for me, but now I've learned that there's many other ways that I'm loved and cared for and considered that I can now see and work to receive, especially around emotional support in my relationships, which is what I am kind of impotitioning for. Yes, love languages can be part of the journey, but again, even to speak to the title of the book, I think what I'm hoping to help us all evolve to in our relationships is being in that kind of state of love, connecting with our heart, where we can allow, right, an individual self-expression, be what it is, and beginning to open up
Starting point is 00:38:30 those blinders where we can maybe see all of the other ways and allow in other moments of connection, especially if you do have a partner that your preferred love language, per se, right, isn't something that comes easier and natural to them. Well, yeah, you know, and then when I was reading your book also though, because you do it, I mean, I think we all do the same thing. It's like, well, we're obviously not getting along. Let's go find someone who would get along with better. Right? That's like the go-to, right? So, like, when do you take ownership? When is it about you having your set, not you person? Like, when we have our set ways of thinking because of what we've dealt with in our life, versus if someone's just a bad fit for us.
Starting point is 00:39:09 Yeah, and I very much think like many of us, prior to Lolli, would come to the conclusion or the resentment would build up so much. And I would deem that relationship just not good for me. I tried to find, again, this more perfect partner. I think as you go on this journey and become aware of what you're doing, what you're bringing in, what you're creating in terms of the dynamic, you know, you could, you know, go on a few different directions, you could begin to see and
Starting point is 00:39:36 celebrate. And of course, if you have an aware and committed partner to also hearing your perspective and learning how to give and receive support and maybe ways that could work for both of you. I do think the dynamic of a trauma bond, much like Lallie and I went through, can shift. Tell everyone if they don't know what a trauma bond is. So we've been essentially talking about that. It's all of these dysfunctional patterns or ways that we show up in a particular relationship that doesn't allow us to honor ourselves as a unique being
Starting point is 00:40:06 with our needs, doesn't allow us to give and take support. I think, you know, any time it doesn't, we're relying again on those older habits, usually ends up being, we don't feel fulfilled, we feel resentful, we feel angry, we don't feel like we're getting our needs met in our recent weeks. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:40:22 And then we continue to, no matter how much we want to change or be different, we continue to be stuck in those patterns. We need some at least. We need some at least. We need some at least. We need some at least. We need some at least. We need some at least. We need some at least. We need some at least. We need some at least. We need some at least. We need some at least. We need some at least.
Starting point is 00:40:32 We need some at least. We need some at least. We need some at least. We need some at least. We need some at least. We need some at least. We need some at least. We need some at least.
Starting point is 00:40:40 We need some at least. We need some at least. We need some at least. We need some at least. We need some at least. We need some at least. We need some at least. We need some at least. We need some at least. That was day in and day out. So we came to an awareness like I described, we're able to shift it into a more safely and secure authentic relationship that you might continue to be in.
Starting point is 00:40:51 Though for some of us, the end road is, we're not aligned. And I think the bigger, deeper things to be aligned around are your own kind of individual values. And what it is that you want and see for your future. And even going back to, you kind of us both acknowledging that very few of us kind of drop in and assess whether or not we're interested or you know, attract it to the other person. I think something else that lacks in relationships or developing relationships is communication
Starting point is 00:41:21 around shared goals and visions and even definitions of like what you want for your future and do you want marriage and our kids a part of it and where might you want to live and those type of deeper things. Totally. I think they're not talked about as much for many different reasons maybe because we don't yet know ourselves enough, maybe because we're so afraid to share what it is that we want in fear of not hearing that, you know, agreement from someone else, but I think those are the things that as you go on this journey, if there is a misalignment, if you can't, you know, if you want a family or a committed marriage, you know, kind of in any sense, and it doesn't look like what you're hearing
Starting point is 00:42:03 that your partner wants. If you don't want to live in the same environment, I mean, these are big, you know, big kind of life choices that I think could, if there's not alignment there, might be we decide to move on. Right. But it's so easy though to like to blame the other person, right? But it's because it's, it's very easy to like, well, this is not working because they're this way, like the blame game, right? Right. And to, why did you work it through with Lolli?
Starting point is 00:42:28 Let's say, because you were at a place already in your life where you had enough self-awareness, you saw that you were the common denominator, of course. But like, what made you do this with, like, with Lolli, work through the dysfunction to get to the place where you guys are now? Yeah, I think part of it was where I was in terms of awareness. So prior to meeting Lally, I was in a marriage previously. When I was in a... Vivian? Vivian, yes, that's the name. Name, wait, wait. It's in the book. That is her student name, is not her real name. She and I, though, we moved from New York to Philadelphia
Starting point is 00:43:06 together, and at that time, I was finishing up my clinical hours, and I was doing so at a psychoanalytic institute for learning and seeing clients and all the things. So saying that to say, I was in my own analysis at that time, and also a group analysis. One hour, one hour and a half, a week, I would sit in a room with other analysts.
Starting point is 00:43:24 It was very overwhelming, and we would essentially just free associate and discuss our experience and dynamic with everyone in the room. So at that point was when I started to in hearing other my colleagues, perception and experience of me, and I really started to kind of getting an a percolator of like, oh, okay, like, so I'm bringing some dynamics into at least my work relationships. And at that point, then really kind of highlight it for me. In addition to the move itself, coming from a very, you know, kind of close knit
Starting point is 00:43:57 social community, I had a whole life bill in New York. I was there for almost a decade before we moved. So when I met Vivian, I had a whole, you know, very busy. And this is one of the ways I dealt with all of my underlying stress and anxiety and all of the emotions that I didn't learn to deal with. I kept myself busy. I kept myself planned. There wasn't a day or of the week that I didn't have someone to hang out with. Right. I was living in New York City, which is like an endless, you know, amount of stimulation. Distracted constant range. And that's again, I talk about distraction as a flight response, how some of us, and sometimes it can
Starting point is 00:44:29 look very socially validated and accept it, right? I'm just on the go all the time and endlessly achieving and I'm at the PTA meeting and the work and the this and the that. For a lot of us, that's how we've learned to, you know, cope with all of the deep rooted feelings, which is why we end up feeling exhausted and empty, even when, and this is what I felt, even getting all of these accomplishments when I kind of like, check that last box, I hung my shingle, I did all the things. Why was I feeling so exhausted and so empty? To the point where I was fantasizing of leaving, of running away, I would joke with Lolly
Starting point is 00:45:02 when we first met about, I want to go be a barista in an island somewhere. She's like, you just got your PhD, it took you eight years, what are you talking about? I don't wanna do it anymore because I'm just so tired and it doesn't, it's not fulfilling for me in any way. So when we moved out of Philly prior to meeting Lolli and didn't have that social network, it really, in addition to being in this training program,
Starting point is 00:45:25 it really got me seeing, again, the disconnection that she and I had had. So, when I then, I committed to being single for a bit, I lived on my own for the first time. My mom thought I was crazy because she and her family lived right over the bridge in New Jersey. She's like, don't you want to move home? There's a very co-dependent mom. She's like, there's a room upstairs. And I'm like, no, I must live on my own. This is important for me. I want to have this experience and then I met Lolli and the reason why I was sharing.
Starting point is 00:45:52 So I was already starting to, as Taylor Swift, so beautifully put it, the problem it's me. And I was starting to somewhat become aware that I was at least a little part of it. And she was too very committed, something we had talked about from the beginning, and you kind of her relationship passed, and we were both very much committed to growing
Starting point is 00:46:11 and learning and had a particular vision for the type of relationship that she and I had wanted. So knowing that she was kind of committed as well is what kept me working through very difficult, you know, points and challenges that as we were navigating all of this old stuff and even just going through and awakening really together and changing is very difficult and watching that our relationship change.
Starting point is 00:46:34 Yeah, you know, in the book you talk about this a lot, you just touched on it now about the loneliness factor. I find it so interesting how many people are really lonely in a relationship. And it's something that people don't talk about a lot I think it's like they're shame around it. They feel they feel bad. They feel they feel like it's shameful really that's the best way to put it and you know is it because they're again is that the lack of communication? Is it because they're not well-suited? How do you start breaking down that problem
Starting point is 00:47:08 and that pattern? Because I'll tell you, especially here in LA, right? With kids and work. And you look like you have at all, especially with social media, you have a sliver of someone's life. And you're doing all the things. And yet, you look perfect together.
Starting point is 00:47:24 But most of those people, you really like speak with them in a real way are Really dissatisfied and lonely in their relationships. I really appreciate you asking and I think that that alone in a crowded room cliche or saying yeah, it is really again Those that decade I spent in New York as I'm describing it. I was never actually alone, though I never felt connected. I never felt more alone, more alone in the crowd at room. So that really is real, and I do think for, you know, we feel very shameful to say it. So, you might even hear reflected back, you know, what you have someone, at least you have someone, be happy with what you have. And, again, I think a main cause, at least for my loneliness was, as even I was describing
Starting point is 00:48:06 it earlier, right? There was no me. I wasn't even really connected to me. I wasn't actually sharing my true thoughts and perspectives and wants and needs and emotion. So, of course, and this was then no surprise with my major complaint and all of my relationships prior to now was, I'm not emotionally connected to you. I don't feel that depth. I don't feel what I'm looking for. Yeah. And again, you were always the problem until I realized, how could I ever feel connected
Starting point is 00:48:33 to someone if I'm not in my body to feel connected to me? And more so, if I'm not actually expressing my true self, my true thoughts, my true feelings. If I'm not being in the relationship, I could have a million people around me, and of course I feel lonely, and I think for a lot of us, there's a deep disconnection. So as much of the, again, this is a book about relationships,
Starting point is 00:48:55 there's so much foundationally in it, about rebuilding that connection with you, because to be and feel that level of attunement, there has to be that expression. I have to share with you my true self, what it is that I'm really thinking in this moment, how it is that I'm really feeling, that feeling of connection is actually a energetic experience
Starting point is 00:49:19 of, again, giving and receiving of this self-expression. And when we're not, as I was in, a million miles away on my spaceship, just deferring to whatever you wanna do for plans, couldn't even, I mean, I was that person, what do you want for dinner, I don't know, what do you want? Like I couldn't, and it's taken me now, right, because again, I was-
Starting point is 00:49:35 I just asked you that before. I was told, and that wasn't coming from there, I could actually drop it and tell you what I wanted, but it's taken me a lot of practice, and even back to this idea of like nervous system and wellness of tuning to my body and eating not just at breakfast time and lunch time, whatever designated time I learned, but when is my body hungry?
Starting point is 00:49:52 And more so, what is my body want to eat? And there's many moments, even now living with two partners where I'm eating or doing and at a different time, then they are. And that's a big challenge, but it's so small things, right? Because now I'm asking me and myself and my body and what I need. And then how do I feel? And what do I want to do with my day and my time, especially if it's not what's happening around me?
Starting point is 00:50:15 See, okay, that was a great segue, girl. Okay, I mean, there's no way I could hear this. You basically, you left it for me on a beautiful silver platter. Okay, I don't know if you caught it, but Nicole said with my two partners, because now the whole podcast will, I don't know how I can get off of this topic, but so Nicole talks about this in her book about an expanded relationship, right? So she, you're not married though, right? You have two.
Starting point is 00:50:43 I'm married to. Well, you're married to, but you've married. Oh, yes, but I'm married to. But, right, you're married, because you're not married though, right? You have two. I'm married to. Well, you're married to, but you've married. Oh, yes, but I'm married to. Right, you're married, because you're not, not technically not. You're not, you're not. Yes. Okay, so Lolli is her wife, and then they also expanded
Starting point is 00:50:55 the relationship and they have a girlfriend named Jenna. And it's called, now it's, you call it an expanded relationship, but it is a thrupple. Yes, a technical name. But I, I learn googling it myself. I know, I love it. I'm wondering if it was a possibility. And so, Versaul, I knew about this before,
Starting point is 00:51:13 and I was like, I wonder if it's going to be in the book. I wonder if it's going to be in the book. Because the book is all about relationships and boom. Like in the end of the book, there it is. And I felt like I was like, I was just, as you could tell, I've been saying it now. I'm like, just, I have to ask you about it.
Starting point is 00:51:28 You have to describe it. How did you get to a place where, number one, like having one wife or girlfriend is difficult. Now you have two. How did you evolve into that type of relationship? Like, you have the floor, just the stark. It actually the evolution really maps on to a lot of the concepts that have shared throughout the book.
Starting point is 00:51:51 And again, like I was actually just sharing, Lallie and I have been since the beginning of our relationship committed to our individual and relational happiness, meaning we were both committed to honoring space and time for each of us to explore ourselves as people and to continue to assess and make sure that our relationship as a couple was a space that was benefiting both of us. So we've always been committed to that and on our journey of evolution, you know,
Starting point is 00:52:19 it's gonna be just authentically ourselves. You'd both spent a lot of time being different things for different people. So Flash Forward in Time, actually, Jenna is someone that we connected with within the community. As soon as I create the Instagram account, she started to really drop meaningful comments. As soon as, more or less, she was found. How many years ago?
Starting point is 00:52:38 So it's the origination of the account 2018. She had to have a beautiful story about this too, where she was introduced to the account by one of her late brothers, girlfriend at that time, and showed her the account because Jenna was on a very similar journey in terms of her own evolution and wanting to create a wellness healing based community in the world. So she was kind of doing that on her own. She shares a beautiful story though, it's more hers to tell, but of being, you know, introduced to, well, do you know this person?
Starting point is 00:53:06 She's doing the thing that you wanna do. I didn't know that. I had this whole experience. It was very early on when I first set up the Holistics Psychologist account on Instagram and she started to then when she hit follow, drop really meaningful comments. I could see the alignment so much so that I knew her
Starting point is 00:53:20 as her handle at Jenna Weakland. As is still the case, I mean, there's still community members that like, I have a knowing of them just because they've been around or what they comment and you know, being just, so she's the beginning. So she was there from the beginning. But have any followers at this point when you were like,
Starting point is 00:53:36 I mean, less than a couple, you know, tens of thousands. Well, so the beginning so much, so that when I came out, then I had the opportunity and it was still I think I might have only had 100 plus thousand maybe a hundred thousand when Lewis Hals reached out. I mean wanted to have me on school of greatness. I had been such a fan of his work for so long. So I was like, Florida, oh my gosh, you want to talk to me. So absolutely, I'll fly out to California and do that. And I had a couple other podcasts while I was out here. So I was living in Philly.
Starting point is 00:54:05 It was still very new. Lallie and I fly out. And while we're here, we're like, oh, there's probably a lot of community out in California. I want to do a free meditation. So I literally dropped a pin on a beach. I was like, I think this is be where it is. It was some random beach,
Starting point is 00:54:20 like just like some random pull-up in Venice Beach. I probably wasn't even allowed to do that because I didn't have a permit. And I just told the community without knowing, really scared out of my mind because at this point, everything I did was virtual. I'm very scared of speaking in front of people, but I thought this is important. I want to hold a meditation.
Starting point is 00:54:36 So lo and behold, the morning comes like thousand people. It was so many people. How many people? Like almost a thousand people showed up. It was wild and how many people were there. On the beach I have this beautiful picture, a photographer came, it's hanging up. It was such a moving experience.
Starting point is 00:54:51 I did a free inner child meditation and afterward, they all, many of them lined up and oh my gosh, you're winding up to meet me. So I met everyone as I still do this to anyone. So if anyone ever sees me and says hi, or sees me out, please say hi. You would just realize by the way, Nicole, if you had a thousand people show up
Starting point is 00:55:08 when you had a couple hundred thousand people following you, can you imagine what mayhem would happen now? You have like what eight million people on there for seven million, yes, have a point two while I was floored. I never, I mean, I knew California was probably a lot of people that were resonating with my work, but I wouldn't have. You can still imagine. You can still have the stadium. I wanna say someone even flew in for that particular.
Starting point is 00:55:29 I was so, I mean, they're really, I have chills right now. I mean, too, that is crazy. Really was tangible the impact that the community was making on myself and for them. So, I'm just, because you know, just realized that, because that just shows how engaged, that, because of a thousand people. It was incredible.
Starting point is 00:55:50 You would literally, like, you would fill up, like, the Sophie Stadium or like, the stadiums here, with what you have now. If a thousand people showed up there. I was floored, scared, shitless, all the things. At the end of the line, though, Jenna ended up. She the last one there. She was the last one there. She has our whole story about that day where she almost didn't come. Very typical Jenna style, but she comes and I registered her right away and she gave me a very meaningful gift
Starting point is 00:56:16 and we had an exchange and she then left and shortly after we opened up enrollment for the South Healer Circle. And right when we opened up enrollment because there were so many people, we did it right from Instagram, hey, it's open, so everyone clicked on it at once and we literally crashed the server, the billing system, and it had quite a technological pickle on our hand. It was at that point, just Lolli,
Starting point is 00:56:40 and I trying to navigate it all. So within, we were very transparent to the community, we put up a story, letting everyone know what was happening, and just updating them that we were like resolving it. And Jenna immediately upon seeing it sent a DM, and it was like, I know what you're doing, I see what you're doing, I'm doing the same thing, like I'm here to help in any way, we saw it literally within a second of her sending it even though we had all those followers and we're on a call with her and she then began to help within the circle and has been an integral part. So by the time then she was still living, she was living in Palm Springs
Starting point is 00:57:16 actually here with a friend and we were still in Philly knowing we were moving out here. So I think within the next year we ended up moving to Venice Beach. She got an apartment a a couple blocks away, and then we started to kind of work together. But she was working for you guys. She was working. But so what was her role, like, kind of community, or she was, like, hand in hand with me running the circle?
Starting point is 00:57:36 Oh, she was. She was, yeah. And she's also the one who you do all your videos with, right? Yes. Videos, podcasts. Like the one where you're like, you guys act like actors. Yes. By the way, those are, that's brilliant because people can, like, I love those because you can really understand
Starting point is 00:57:50 the dynamic though too. Yeah. And so she's the one you do those with. Yeah. So she's the one, but she's been very much like helping me create the circle, helping us navigate all the emails and tech issues that come in. Now building it out, we've built out our own private portal.
Starting point is 00:58:03 I mean, we have a whole tech team now that she leads and a whole team under her that helps support. She haven't served them. She quit at the time to come do this with you. Or she was, yeah, she was pursuing her own, she was like kind of doing her own care-level trying to do it.
Starting point is 00:58:18 Yeah, and then she was like, let's just do it together. That's amazing. Being just such, I mean, she, her, Strunson, Talon's, and Gifts are such a complement to Lollie and I. So as you can imagine, we spent a lot of time together. That's amazing. And being just such, I mean, she heard strengths and talents and gifts are such a complement to Lollie and I. So as you can imagine, we spent a lot of time together living in California, running this business, and then obviously that bled into like, you know, doing personal things, celebrating birthdays and all of the things.
Starting point is 00:58:37 And so as then time went on, there became a period of time where things got really difficult and there was a lot of conflict and there was a lot of Just like upset over stupid things and communication issues and all three of us being very committed to the cause to the vision to the business Yeah, we started to then openly be like what's going on like we need to figure out why we're struggling Why we're having conflict why we're struggling to communicate? So we were all kind of doing our own like hmm, hmm, like trying to figure out what it was. And when did that start? Like how long ago did that happen?
Starting point is 00:59:10 So I want to say we were almost together, officially the three of us for two years. So in a couple months prior to when we, things started to like hit, like we need to talk about what's going on in place. And it so happened that the course in that month, whatever month that it was, we had the conversation I forget now, though I could look on my little schedule and figure out exactly. It was all in heart authenticity, courageous authenticity, connecting with your heart and speaking your truth. And that was inspired. So one morning we were doing our regular farmers market Friday that we did every Friday and Jenna rolls over in that particular morning she was meeting a friend before we went to
Starting point is 00:59:48 the farmers market but she stopped by and she wanted to speak to us and both separately. Okay so she comes in and sits me down and was like you know I've been thinking you know and kind of exploring for myself what it is that's going on and you know I could tell she was like wanting to tell me something that was emotional and she then goes on to say that the course, you know, even the topic idea was, you know, really kind of inspired by this desire to like, just live your truth and speak with someone on your heart. And she's like, so I, you know, I want to tell you that what is continuing to come up for me is that I want more than a professional relationship with both you and Lolli. I'm attracted to you both, like I have feelings for you
Starting point is 01:00:30 both, like I'm not even sure what to make of this myself. I can't imagine what you're sitting here thinking right now, you know, though I know it's important. And Jenna's been someone, one of her incredible gifts that ever inspires me today is her ability to always have been despite all of the things terrible things that she's had And navigate in her life. She's always been connected to her heart and followed her heart So she's like I want I need to speak this to you like this is what's on my heart What I do know is I I want to preserve our professional relationship Just as much as I you know want to share this with you
Starting point is 01:01:03 So I don't you know, I want you to take time and tell me and kind of drop into your heart and tell me what it is that you make of this. Though ultimately I don't want this to impact our business. And then went and went and saw our friends. So I didn't necessarily respond in that moment. She didn't want me to respond in that moment. Though after we're lollying, I obviously had a point to come and get art.
Starting point is 01:01:22 You get art. Yes and no. I think I was relieved because I think obviously there was a part of me that was feeling obviously the same attracted to her, I'm sure what to do with it wouldn't even speak that in my mind. I thought relieved that finally that there was a reason if you will for all of these moments of tension. And again, I go into the signance behind that, You know, when we're living in misalignment,
Starting point is 01:01:45 you know, we're not in that kind of heart-brink coherence and I talk all about it really can contribute. It doesn't mean obviously that, but once being an expanded relationship, but I mean, there's a lot of moments where we're not really saying what's on our heart. So we are, you know, picking a fight about the dishes not being a hundred percent of a family of stupid things
Starting point is 01:02:01 that things because we're not really telling you what's on our mind or what's really wrong, you know, or whatever it is. So. It is ingrained in me to never miss a workout. I know I show up better as an entrepreneur, a business partner, a mom, a friend, a wife, and actually for myself when I get my daily workout in.
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Starting point is 01:05:31 Trust me, you will feel incredible. I'm glad to know that you do that too to this day. That that's still happening with you, even with all the information that you have. It's all still happening. That's why I even say like I'm having two partners trying to still emotionally connect it with them is still very unfamiliar, even though I've all the love in the world in front of me by two different people. There's still that little girl that feels so vulnerable sharing my emotional needs, giving
Starting point is 01:06:04 and receiving. Exactly. Actually, an embodied practice. So it can be present, and it can still be those old habits that are there. Go on, go on those. What happened? So then Lali and I had a conversation afterward
Starting point is 01:06:15 and kind of acknowledged both of us feeling relieved that that's what has been there, and both interested, and wanting to see. So Lali also was as interested as I was. Really. And we then, the three of us were like unsure. And so jokingly, I mean, when I said I googled it, we went online.
Starting point is 01:06:36 Lally is a big researcher. She's like, I'm gonna just go see what other people are doing. So she starts pulling up videos. And there was very limited, which is again, a reason why I will continue to share that aspect. And we did then come out publicly at a later time so that I, you know, could be more transparent. We were running a podcast together. But we started googling and the few examples we learned the word throttle because we knew we weren't, we weren't wanting to open the relationship. And again, that is some people's path or data. Other people, we really were like wanting to see like can three people be in a relationship? Yeah. It turns out that someone at one point named it a throttle. I thought it was a cute name.
Starting point is 01:07:13 So I was like, sure, I guess that's what we're trying now. And we then kind of continued and evolved the relationship and figured out how to navigate three people in a relationship and all three women yeah like I mean is there like so and I asked this before and I'm this the thing I always think like is it because you and Lolly know each other right for so many years prior you are married like what's the distinction like is there jealousy which does Jenna move into the house do you guys all live? Are you guys sleeping in a bed? Do you guys take turns in the bed? Like what are all the details? We, when it began, Jenna still had officially her apartment in Venice. Venice. And we had a much smaller bed than we do now.
Starting point is 01:07:56 Although she began to spend many more overnight in time with us in Venice. And then when we moved from Venice to Scottsdale, we moved into the same home. Where we live, we got a very large bed. They have those. I know. Exercise bed. What kind of size? It's like a triple or a king and a half. It's obscene looking. It takes up, we can have room. It's very large room. It takes up the entirety of the room essentially so that the throwless can sleep. We do share the bed, same bed every night. And with my cat, we need room for my little awl. Oh gosh, don't forget about the cat.
Starting point is 01:08:29 Don't forget about the place in the bedroom because she can't live out with the other boys. So yes, we started living. The boys, we have other boy cats. Okay, okay, I was like, what? No other people can't have like, what? Just asking cats, but my cat doesn't get along. Where she's too old to be around the other cat.
Starting point is 01:08:42 So she sleeps in the bedroom and sleeps with me. Who sleeps in the middle? Right now Lali, typically. Did it change? Well, I sleep on the end because I sleep with my cat Hadley and Jenna prefers to sleep on the end because she flails a bit. Oh my God, this is hilarious.
Starting point is 01:08:56 When we travel though, so this has opened up a whole interesting world of accommodations when we travel and people like, do you want to cut or's this going to work? And will the bed be big enough? Because we do operate as a unit. We sleep together and we look, you know, we are, I mean, there are times I'm here now in California
Starting point is 01:09:14 and the two of them are home. So we have times where there's like a separation of one or two or two will travel elsewhere together and have time together to build like individual relationships and dynamics. So of course there was a shifting and opening and a kind of difficulty, you know, to some extent, I'm Jenna integrating
Starting point is 01:09:35 into an established relationship. How does it happen? It's a first step. I mean, just living it and figuring out, I think there's not like a plan of our day. Do you wanna date the first time? No, we just, I mean, we're kind of just hung out as usual. And it's amazing. And then, you know, it was a very interesting, natural.
Starting point is 01:09:56 It was like that was just the only missing piece, the physical aspect of our relationship. And then when it was there, I was like, oh, it makes total sense. But then obviously there's been growing since and figuring out different dynamics. And, you know, there's always, I think, a tendency that all of us human have to compare, you know, and feel jealous about time or way time is spent or what you perceive as a connection. And, you know, am I getting my amount to, and, you know, So that, you know, is, I think, a natural thing
Starting point is 01:10:26 that is still in the back at times. At times only? Like, it doesn't feel like... No, like, I'm here now and I'm very grateful that the two of them have time together. I'm not feeling left out. I'm actually feeling enjoying my time in my space. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:10:39 So why would you get in the, an older version of me, A, to be, it was until I remember when I went on my first trip alone. It was up to New York for an overnight when I just started the Holistics likeologist account. So four years ago, it was the first time I traveled anywhere alone by myself. And it was just forever. Ever. I always had a partner or someone I went with. I flew from Philadelphia to Australia to visit my girlfriend at the time in college.
Starting point is 01:11:04 I was on a loan on the air. But no, I was never, I never spent overnight or time away and I came from a very dependent household. We didn't do that. I mean, to the day my mom died, they did everything together, my mom and my dad. Wow. So, now I've gotten to the point where I appreciate my alone time. Many opportunities now to come out here and do
Starting point is 01:11:25 all the two things like this. And now what that means, though, is I leave right the two of them. And there's no jealousy. I feel grateful that they have their time. Because I've learned that the security of all of our connections to the pod, if you will, the trouble to each other really does translate in. You know, the better we're all will, the throttle to each other really does translate in. You know, the better we're all feeling the more connected and securely connected,
Starting point is 01:11:49 we're all feeling to each other and to the group really does then bleed into just feeling better across the board for all of us. It's interesting because like three usually one always feels left out, right? Like if it was four, it'd be a little bit more, we're all set. Yeah. I'm not out. I'm not out. I'm out.
Starting point is 01:12:08 I'm just saying in general. That would be, yeah. Yeah. But for some people, for five, you know, I mean, I do think that we're moving into a space of people exploring different versions, even with two, a lot of people in the community when we post about different living arrangements. Yeah. You know, there's a lot of couples who choose not to for different reasons sleep in the same bedroom.
Starting point is 01:12:28 There's some couples who choose not to even live in the same home and have different versions. I've been hearing that a lot. Of relationships. I just want to normalize. There's so many different ways that we can find fulfillment. There's some people that don't even want a romantic partnership and maybe we'll just continue to find fulfillment and deep friendships for the rest of their life. So I think that we're moving just toward a more open future of types of relationships.
Starting point is 01:12:53 I feel that way. I feel like, well, because this is what you do, do you feel like you're hearing more maybe because you're doing it? Then people are more open to talking about it. But do you feel like you're, you're hearing more about open relationships, more about thruples, more about these like alternative ways of having relationships? Do you feel like that is on an uptick? Yeah, I think Googling it now. I have many different examples and even what is it the three years ago when I did. And yeah, I think it's a byproduct of people are becoming
Starting point is 01:13:23 more comfortable. It's kind of like dominoes again in a way where more people, one person starts talking about it, kind of opens the door for another person to talk about it. Whether or not it's a new thing, I'm not sure. I mean, I'm imagining it probably isn't. Right. I mean, I even think back to our tribal days in a lot of ways.
Starting point is 01:13:43 There was very much a communal way of living, whether or not there was a romantic nature to it or not. I mean, you pass the baby around or whatever caregiver is available. So I think in a lot of ways, we're kind of going back to things that aren't necessarily new, and I think a lot of it was probably happening behind the scenes for a lot of people,
Starting point is 01:14:01 maybe with a lot of shame and now with the visibility of internet and the ability to talk about these things and normalizing that happens. As a byproduct, I do think you're seeing much more of it. How about kids? Do you guys ever talk about kids? I have been pretty set for my entire life that kids aren't. I don't have something that I'm aligned with, Lally as well. Jenna has very much a maternal.
Starting point is 01:14:27 She's been a lot of time as a teacher and a kind of nanny caretaker for children. For many years, she very much has a maternal driver instinct, though is equally as comfortable with not being a parent and being a pet parent instead. I can't, I mean, it's wild. I love it. Because what it says to me is that, and I said this to you, I'm gonna say truth, the authenticity of who you are.
Starting point is 01:14:52 Like, you're not, you're not gonna be somebody that you're not. You're gonna live your truth. You're gonna say what it is, regardless of what people feel, think, whatever. And I think that's like the beauty of who you are and why you've had such great success. And I feel like, how do I even ask you any other questions after this ruffle, right?
Starting point is 01:15:09 Like, where do I go from there, Nicole? What am I supposed to say? Well, thank you for saying that. And that is one of the major reasons that we decided to make it public in the relationship when we did, because we were both getting to the place, Jen, and I, you know, running the circle together,
Starting point is 01:15:23 hosting the podcast together, where we had many events or, you know, running the circle together, hosting the podcast together, where we had many events or, you know, podcast episodes where we were like, oh my gosh, we were like censoring, you know, like I have to either not tell the story or change the person in it. And it wasn't feeling good. And, you know, obviously, as visibility continued to increase, you know, being out in public
Starting point is 01:15:42 and her and I and Be Out in public, it wasn't something where I went like, you know, don't touch me. I want you to hold my hand. I want to be, you know, loving and affectionate to you. Yeah. So, the choice to be, you know, kind of authentically, if you will, out in this way, it was really a no brainer, non-negotiable because the other option was to have to modify or censor, you know, pretend and I don't ever want to go back there. So, and honestly, the community was just so receptive
Starting point is 01:16:11 and so supportive and really made it, you know, kind of easy to continue to speak about it in the ways. That's amazing. How big is the community now, like, to be a member and all that stuff? Like, how does it work? Is it, like, to be a member and all that stuff? Like, how does it work? Is it like a pay a membership? And then, I'm so-
Starting point is 01:16:28 So, have access to- Yeah, so the circle is, I mean, obviously, where all of the free access platforms now across pretty much any social media platform, we've grown to is always a priority. I see it, and I actually talk to the members about this a lot. Like, the membership is what funds are ability to grow social media teams and keep the podcast out
Starting point is 01:16:51 and all the different things and pay for all the tech to put it out there because that is a priority. So we're very aware of how global our community is. And I mean, daily I read heartbreaking messages from members who just are in really repressed countries,ressed of information, don't have any sort of support, and are like that is their lifeline. And the comment section is just such a beautiful place. So, the social media to hear other people's journeys and to connect.
Starting point is 01:17:17 So, I'm always shouting out any of the social media accounts, and they will always be a free resource in a top priority. And my hope is to continue to grow them. I mean, we actually just opened up an Arabic page. You did? We pay an Arabic translator because that was a big, big community that was under-resourced and very much ined of a lot of these conversations. So my hope is into a future of being able to have all different varieties of translation
Starting point is 01:17:43 accounts and just to continue to get this word out though there is obviously the paid membership option the circle right right that began it all with Jenna and I that it opens three times a year It's 26 dollars a month and you get access to at this point I mean we're nearing four years old on November 1st So every month we put out a new kind of mini course, if you will, with PDF content and worksheets and guided meditations and little journaling prompts to kind of help you create habits. It's very much on kind of creating consciousness and those new habits, very holistic models. So we have so many different conversations around attachment and the nervous
Starting point is 01:18:20 system. And this, this couple of months we're talking about nervous system regulation and all these, these different tools. So when you are a member, you have access to the entire library, every course that has ever come out from the beginning of it all. And then every month we release a new course. At this point now, we have four, at least, if not more, because oftentimes we have special pop-ups, we'll have book authors come in where their book club, we give a book club suggestion for every course topping and a lot of times you have the opportunity, you actually have the author in and do a pop-up,
Starting point is 01:18:51 but we have at least four live events, which means four times a month for at least one hour, those sometimes the events are a bit longer. We have whether it's I'm presenting, where you have a lot of outside presenters come in, because I think it's important to expose not just to the way we think of these topics, but to the way other people in kind of their area of expertise
Starting point is 01:19:10 or thinking about all these different topics. And we get some incredible presenters coming already and some more to come. So and it's an opportunity for the community who is on that live event to engage in a live chat. So one of the events we even just call a community check-in, we're chatting and I just hang out for an hour and engage directly with the community. So we have the workshop, a check-in, a content teaching, and then every month is a Q&A. So any of the questions that come up that members submit so they can actually have their questions
Starting point is 01:19:40 answered by me live, I spend an entire hour answering questions on that month's topic. So it's an incredible resource and it really is an incredible opportunity not only for the community but for me. My community, you know, it's a time, you know, a couple times each month where even if I'm not giving the workshop, I'm in the in the comments. And at this point now we've been able to build our own custom house for it all that has all of that content that livestreams the videos. So you go on our own private website, you have your own private login. And we also built, it very much looks like Facebook
Starting point is 01:20:11 where every member has their own profile page that can create it however they want. It can be their real name, it can be a fake name because a lot of people do wanna be anonymous. And they can put up posts, connect with other members. We have an incredible cool feature. It's a Google map, essentially, but you can drop their location.
Starting point is 01:20:27 So you had some real life in person meetups. I think the Portland area has a regular one where once a month, people in the circle now get together because they've been able to find each other on the map and create in person. I think we have officially one or two relationships that have developed in and over these four years. I think it's wild.
Starting point is 01:20:46 Yeah, so the community aspect is an incredible part of it. And like I said, I'm in that portal as we call it every day and the activity feed, interacting with members and it's healing for me too because I'm still on it. And so many times a member will drop a post and I'm like, oh my gosh, yeah, I really, I'm struggling with that or you know thanks for that reminder. This is literally changing people's lives which is remarkable and I didn't even you know like of course I know but I didn't think about it like it's so worldwide like I didn't even realize of course like the Arabic world and all like Saudi Arabia
Starting point is 01:21:23 all these places like what is the percentage of your community that's overseas in these areas? I think we have some upwards of probably more than 180 countries represent it. In the membership itself, that's not, I don't know, social media, I'm sure we're much greater than that, but officially as a member, I think we're over pioneering 200 countries, representing.
Starting point is 01:21:45 So I sometimes just blow off that map and look at it and you like, get chosen. So it's insane. I'm like, wow, I didn't even know that was a country or like, where's that at? No, it's a member thinged in there. It's really unbelievable. If we really think about it, like the breadth of what's like,
Starting point is 01:22:02 did you ever think in a million years this would have happened? I was texting my sister on the way here tonight saying, this is, she's like, it's hard for me to comprehend. I said, it's hard for me to comprehend. Never in a million years. And there's again, a very protected part of me that is still like, oh,
Starting point is 01:22:20 it's like, what I think of it, like, oh, don't look at me, all you people. Oh, yeah, it's, because it's like, it happened really quickly in a way. Like, I remember being like, when I think of it, like, oh, don't look at me, all you people. Oh, yeah. It's because it's like, it happened really quickly in a way. Like, I remember being like, when I think when I first met you, it was drinking COVID actually, wasn't it? You were like, maybe had a million and a half followers,
Starting point is 01:22:35 and I'm like, oh, she's doing great, good for her. Next thing you know, you're like, eight million, I'm like, the jump. I mean, that's like insane. It's, I think, a testament to humanity. Humanity, 100%. And now we're dying for these conversations, for this special loneliness, especially with COVID.
Starting point is 01:22:54 I mean, that was really, really difficult and traumatizing not only the financial insecurity that's come from it, the disconnection, the health and the loss. Oh my god. I think more than ever now we need. And I think it's the future. In a lot of ways, yes, individual help is absolutely part of many people's journeys.
Starting point is 01:23:15 Though I think we're all desiring and need that community space that plays to feel like we belong. So I think that's why the numbers are just like continuing to just. But you know what's interesting? Like you hit it on the like like even those videos like I feel like it's impossible like so many of these videos feel like it's my life like it's like I think you're my living room. Yeah. Like wait this happened to me like how are you able to like to get at the core like that? That's like a talent in itself. Like you're you're at the wealth of information to be, to get at the core like that. That's like a talent in itself. Like you're like a wealth of information
Starting point is 01:23:46 to be able to, and to be able to execute in a way that's so trans, like transferable and it can relate to everybody. Like me, the person in Saudi Arabia, this person in some random Arabic country, you had no idea. Like that's what's so incredible to me. I think it really speaks to how similar we all are, right?
Starting point is 01:24:09 And then, like, the fact that I can tell a story that and the community is a gift, right? Reading through the comments, reading and seeing other people's social media presence, right? You can pick out, like, the themes and the commonality, and I think it really does come down to. We are so much more similar than, you know, we are dissimilar.
Starting point is 01:24:30 It always makes you laugh too, and so on. It's like, well, you know, this happens only here, and I'm like, no, it's not, you know, like culture's a thing, and really when it comes down to it, we're the culture of humanity, and in my opinion, that is more similar than dissimilar. 100% I'm curious where do you go to find some type of I don't know therapy of some kind because you know every coach needs a coach right so you are that person to all these millions of people who's your who do you go to who
Starting point is 01:25:01 do you turn to? I mean I mean the like I said, is a big container for me, seeing a reflection of me and so many other people helps. Me is incredibly healing for me, having the gift of loving partners, which sometimes means hearing the hard stuff. Yeah. I think that's again part of what some of us have not learned to be the truth of love and relationships
Starting point is 01:25:27 which is sometimes it means sharing a difficult perspective. I'm hearing something or how someone is experiencing you that could be difficult and the three of us being on this journey are very much committed to having those hard conversations. So more than one occasion, both of them have held mirrors up to me in terms of having three people, you know, me say, you know, like you can observe the dynamic that's happening here. It's amazing.
Starting point is 01:25:54 It's amazing. But you know, I kind of like can see, and if I have two people that are telling me that they're experiencing me in the same way around something, even if I'm sure that's not what it is, like I've learned at least now to not just defer because they're saying it or anyone is saying anything, but to really like, as much as I don't want to,
Starting point is 01:26:14 try it on for size every now and again. I've had the gift of connecting with incredible humans that I look up to in terms of their work. And so I just, I find it, I think, in all of the different places. Right. I mean, it's, yeah. I just, it's, it's, I'm horrible and how much you've accomplished. It's amazing.
Starting point is 01:26:35 And did we, I have a much, much of questions. But did I like not, now is like, like I said, it's weird to even, I want to ask you about the parenting piece because you were staying in the book about prioritizing self-care for a parent is so important. And so many times I'm a parent and I feel, you feel selfish doing so because you feel like, oh, I should be doing that. But how you framed it is so accurate, right? Because you're, you want your kids to mimic and see the importance of how you're prioritizing you, especially if you're a little girl, I think, as well. Yes.
Starting point is 01:27:09 And I think even beyond that, bringing up the cliche that anyone who's flown on an airplane has heard, you know, putting your oxygen man mask off on first. And I think it's something that we hear. I've heard for many, many flights. And then it, like, one day I was like, oh, oh, I'm as simple as that is. Yeah. The reason why, right, is if I pass out from lack of oxygen, I can't help the person next
Starting point is 01:27:33 to me. That also applies to the conversation in terms of self-care and the nervous system. And if I'm not taking moments to be a person in a physical body that has needs and limits and needs to kind of take a moment to even calm themselves or do the daily things that will help them stay regularly. I'm going to go right back into not only those cycles and maybe the dynamics that I don't want to continue to recreate with my children, but me, more problematically, those explosive moments are like my mom. My mom didn't want to give any of us the silent treatment.
Starting point is 01:28:06 She just could not regulate through her own overwhelming emotions to return to connection any sooner. So again, that putting our oxygen mask on first really is modeling the behavior of careings that you can be a kind compassionate and loving. Right, parent. And I do agree with you. be a kind compassionate and loving. Right. Parent. And I do agree with you.
Starting point is 01:28:27 I think a lot of us have learned. And while I can't even imagine how it is to be, you know, in a parenting role, it is the, in my opinion, the most important role. And I think parents in general are, you know, again, conditioned on their past and all of these beliefs like it is, you know, selfish to do these things. And I think more so, they're greatly under-supported for many different reasons. And I think I'm hoping. And there's a lot of incredibly helpful, I think parenting advice out there now,
Starting point is 01:28:56 beyond that behavioristic, that can help give some free resources to parents. And again, I think parents now more than ever need community. And we have a parenting group in the circle. So we have little groups that we just set up that are like, you know, special interests where parents can post on their particular parenting board about parenting topics, specifically for that reason. And you know, trying to have parent presenters
Starting point is 01:29:20 or parent-focused presenters in is always priority. I actually just did Instagram Live with an incredible book of a parent, tiny humans, big emotions, I think it is, a list of Campbell. Just wrote it. Literally, it was last week, I and I did, so if you visit the holistic.psychologist. The holistic.psychologist at the Instagram.
Starting point is 01:29:41 There's a Instagram Live, and you can get more information. She already gave a ton of resources in our conversation, but even someone like her really great parenting stuff out there. Yeah, because it's obviously it starts from that. It starts at such a at that level at that point. It makes sense that that should be fundamental what we work on first, right? As a parent, if you're going to be a parent, make sure you are giving your kids the tools and the role modeling to go out there
Starting point is 01:30:09 and be as little traumatized as possible, I should say, right? Like, that's, I mean, there's so many things. I don't wanna like beat a dead horse after everything we just spoke about, but the book really is so good. And I recommend everybody picking one up at any type of relationship. It's not even so much even romantic relationships.
Starting point is 01:30:32 It's every type of relationship. It's about, and it really comes down to the relationship with yourself. And all your books are, again, based on the healing, the self-healing, the working out, what for yourself, what you need. I think you're just great as you can imagine. I tell you all the time.
Starting point is 01:30:49 But for people who don't know, or why you please tell everybody yet again. Absolutely. So again, however it is that you can see content at this point, there's a lot of presence of the holistic psychologist. So type that in the search bar. I think you'll find it.
Starting point is 01:31:03 Whether it's TikTok or what should I call it, X, Nail, Twitter, X, Rides, YouTube. We're going to actually, I'm on the docket next week. I'm going to start putting up some new YouTube content and revive that. We've been repurposing videos for a little bit on the YouTube channel, the Holistic Psychologist. So, come visit us on all the social media. The website is theholisticpsychologist.com. You on all the social media. The website is the Holistic Psychologist.com. You get more information on the circle and the books. I don't know
Starting point is 01:31:29 when this is going to air. Oh, you're bug. I was going to say whenever you want. There might still be some tickets. I have a little bit of a book tour. I'll be here and in New York. When are you here? And in Tempe, Arizona, the week after or the week of my publication. So it comes out on the 28th.
Starting point is 01:31:48 I think I'm here on say like the second, but don't quote me on that exact date, December 2nd. I have an event here. The Grove. So again, how many people are going to be there? Because if you had a thousand people at that one event, a day to call security, I think L.A LA might be close to sold out. I know we just release some new tickets. So I don't know if when this airs, it will still be. But then I
Starting point is 01:32:11 have an event in New York as well at a slightly bigger venue, the 90 second street. Why again, that's publication evening. So visit my website, all the information if there is still tour tickets. And obviously I'll continue to release any in-person opportunities on the website and all in the social media, which will continue to happen. Thank you. I make a line. I want to come to your thing, just to not like you're going to even see me anyway. I'll be like a little pebble in the back.
Starting point is 01:32:35 But, all right, thanks Nicole. Bye. This episode is brought to you by the YAP Media Podcast Network. I'm Holla Taha, CEO of the award-winning Digital Media Empire YAP Media, and host of YAP Young & Profiting Podcast, a number one entrepreneurship and self-improvement podcast where you can listen, learn, and profit. On Young & Profiting Podcast, I interview the brightest minds in the world and I turn their wisdom into actionable advice that you can use in your daily life. Each week we dive into a new topic like the Art of Side Hustles, how to level up your influence
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