EP 62: The Relationship Series Part 1: Planting the Seeds of a Conscious Partnership Featuring Alyssa Benjamin and David Sleininger

Welcome to the wild ride that is the Relationship Series. In this conversation, my partner David and I embrace radical honesty to share our often challenging journeys with romantic relationships and how these experiences have shaped our relationships with ourselves and each other.

This week, my partner David and I are chatting about….drumroll, relationships! Specifically romantic relationships. This episode is very different from the type of content I usually have on this podcast, but when I started this show in 2019, my intention was to uncover how each of us could live in harmony with the natural world and thus be able to care for ourselves, our communities and ultimately, the earth.

The dynamics that surface in romantic relationships are often a mirror, and therefore, a catalyst for our personal growth and evolving consciousness. So in the spirit of believing that we can transform the world by first transforming ourselves, I thought it would be interesting and important to explore this topic.

“We were giving each other the real versions of ourselves and the other person was like ‘oh my god this is what I’ve been waiting for.’” - David
“Our relationship since we’ve met has in a lot of ways been far smoother and easier than any relationship I’ve ever been in. There are complexities that come up in any relationship, especially one where we choose to be deeply involved in each other’s life and we really expect a high degree of honesty and intimacy. But what’s more surprising than anything else is how smooth it’s felt… A lot of the reason why that’s true at least for us is because of how much work and time was spent on our individual ends before we met, and the fact that we each had that sense when we met of which voice inside to listen to.” - David
“It was edgy for me to meet someone like you and ask ‘can I be open to following our intuition and letting myself be surprised.’” - Alyssa

Resources

Show Notes

David reveals the patterns that shaped his past romantic relationships
Alyssa shares some of her [many] romantic relationship patterns that caused her to fear commitment
How chronic illness and relationships can co-create and perpetuate a cycle of stress and challenge
David’s period of celibacy - his intentions for this period of time and what he learned as result
Alyssa’s biggest heartbreak that became a breakthrough
The surprising relationship that transformed and healed Alyssa’s experience of romantic partnerships
The story of how David and I met, and how a loaf of bread brought us together
What we were able to recognize in each other when we met that helped us turn towards one another
In praise of the slow burn and how to recognize it for yourself
Why it’s ok to feel unsure at the beginning of a relationship
How I manifested David ;)

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