Intentional Living With Tanya Hale

There are things in life that happen to us that are not our fault.  For example, our spouse may have an affair and want a divorce.  To stay out of victim mentality, it's important that we step into responsibility for our situations in life.  But how do we take responsibility when it really isn't our fault?  When what we're going through is because of someone else's choices?  

Another blast from the past!  I love this episode so much, it's a replay of episode #195, What Are You Sorry For?  'I'm sorry' is probably one of the most used phrases by women in our society.  We have been conditioned to use this phrase not just when we have done something hurtful or wrong, but very often even when we are just taking up space as a human.  Today we're going to take a closer look at why it's important to stop apologizing for being a breathing human and how to acknowledge our space in the world with more gratitude and grace. 

Engaging in martyr behavior can be really easy for so many of us.  In this week's podcast we're digging deeper into specific behaviors that a martyr engages in, and also ways that you can start to work through your own martyr tendencies.

This week I'm playing for you another great podcast from the past.  Being a martyr is something that can come so easily for many of us, and being able to recognize how and when and where it is showing up in our lives can really help us to feel more powerful in our lives as we clean up our engagements with other people and show up more honestly and loving.  

The Law of the Lid is a concept taught by John C. Maxwell, a leadership expert.  When applied to the work we do here, we are talking about how our own self love puts a lid on our capacity to both give and receive love to and from others.  When applied to people in our lives with whom we struggle to connect emotionally, this concept can help you to understand them and show up with more compassion and grace.

You know that phrase 'growing old gracefully'?  It's time for a shift.  How about we all start thinking about Growing Old Boldly?  My friend, and fellow mid-life coach Kwavi, joins me today for a discussion about how we can start living more boldly as we age, and not less.  We have so much amazingness to contribute to the world as we age, so let's jump in with both feet!

What makes a person lovable?  Is it their charisma?  Their kindness?  Their willingness to serve?  Actually, it isn't any of those things.  Those things might make it easier to love someone, but whether we do love someone or not depends solely on our love ability.  If you're interested in increasing your ability to love others, listen up!

When we struggle to show up our best selves, it can be really frustrating, even disheartening.  And when we have a tendency to get on our case and even beat ourselves up for our mistakes and short-comings, we start digging a hole that makes it hard to start moving forward again.  But when we can extend grace to ourselves for when we fall short of our ideal, we create a place that is so much easier to get moving again in the direction we want.  Embracing the idea that sometimes we are just human and don't make decisions in alignment with what we want, is a powerful place to be, I call that the Sometimes Space.  It's a beautiful place of acceptance and love and compassion.

Communication can be the source of our greatest connections to other people, or it can be the source of some of our greatest disconnections to other people.  When communication is not happening or when things are misinterpreted, we create frustrations and relationship breakdowns.  But when understood and entered into with intention and curiosity, communication can be just the thing to bring emotional intimacy and connection to the people we love.  Good communication can change your relationship, and what we talk about today will get you started.

Have you ever said something like, 'I just wish I could take their agency away and make them do what I know is best for them!'?  I think probably most of us have at some point, especially if we have adult children!  And yet, agency is not only a gift from God for us to learn from our own choices, but it is also a gift from God to help us learn how to become more like Him in honoring and respecting others' agency.  When we can learn to really accept other people's agency, then we are learning how to show up in more Christlike and loving ways.  

Learning to advocate for ourselves is a skill that many of us haven't acquired yet, and until we do, we will struggle with self-respect and with having the equal relationships that we desire.  When we come to realize that our wants and needs are just as important and valid as anyone else's, we can advocate with more clarity and confidence.  Fellow life and divorce coach Samantha Nielsen joins me today in a discussion about what advocating means, why it's important, and how to do it.  

Gaslighting is a term that has really gained some traction in the past 12 years, and some of us may still be a little sketchy on what exactly it means.  In today's podcast, I reference two articles that give concrete examples and phrases that will help you understand with more what gaslighting is so that you can increase your awareness of where you may be showing up manipulating others with gaslighting techniques.  

All of us have felt resentment at one time or another.  Resentment is one of those emotions that we call 'indulgent emotions' because it may feel good and justified, and even feel like it's productive, when in reality, it keeps us stuck.  And it usually keeps us stuck in a place we don't want.  So, how do we work through resentment and into movement again?  That's what today's podcast is all about.

Do you ever struggle with motivation?  I think it's just part of the human condition to have to figure out how to get things done.  And although there are a lot of quick tricks and tips we can use to get us moving, in this podcast we're talking about how to change your thinking around the things you want to do so that your motivation comes from your brain and you become more intrinsically motivated to do the things you really want to.

All of us have fear in our lives, it's part of being a human.  If we let it, this fear will hold us back from experiencing life to its fullest and growing into the person we have the capacity to become.  So, how do we manage our fear?  How do we summon the courage to do the things we are scared to do?  How do we courage up?  Check out today's episode and let's talk about it!

What if we could learn how to keep out of contention more often and instead create greater connection? Contention really is a choice, and so is connection.  Learning to set aside our fear-based responses and choose to respond with love instead will help us to create greater emotional intimacy from those tricky situations.  

It can be so easy to allow ourselves to slip into victim thinking. Being able to recognize when we get there and understand how to move ourselves out of it is a powerful tool that puts us back in charge of where our life is going. When we can rid ourselves of the villain by no longer blaming but rather taking responsibility, we are no longer the victim, and then we can become the hero of our own story. 

In our lives that are often filled with so much stuff and stress and busyness, it can sometimes seem improbable that we will be able to find rest.  And yet, we are promised that if we will turn to Christ that we can find rest.  What does that have to do with life coaching?  From my personal experience, quite a bit.  Let's talk about how.

Sione and I just celebrated our first anniversary.  Second marriages have a 67% divorce rate, and because that's not a space either of us in interested in, we have made some pretty intentional moves to make sure we stay connected in the ways that are most important to us.  We both have a pretty good idea about why our first marriages failed, and in creating a completely different type of relationship this time around, today we're sharing some lessons we've learned that are changing our lives.

Recognizing the value and worth of all people, knowing that there is no spectrum of value, opens us up to feeling more compassion and empathy and acceptance of others.  When we can recognize and embrace our own value, we can move into a greater space of compassion and confidence for ourselves as well.  Separating out the difference between value and contribution is where we sometimes get hung up on both of these processes, and that is an understanding that is definitely worth stepping into  as it helps us to move forward in our own lives.