Blog | Relationship Resources for Couples & Individuals

How to Write Wedding Vows That Set Your Marriage Up For Success

Vows that set a marriage up for success trade promises to do it all for intentions to do our best—especially in the hard times. Anyone who’s been married can tell you that, for all of the joy and love, there’s just as many fights and betrayals. The question is: how will we repair and grow stronger each time? Vows are an opportunity to address this very question. And, when done well, vows can be a compass to return to every time we lose our way. Read more on how to trade promises for intentions and a beautiful writing exercise for wedding vow drafts or as an ongoing activity do to throughout your marriage.

Letters From Esther #33: Making and Breaking Wedding Traditions

My monthly newsletter and workshop is meant to inspire you to reflect, act, and develop greater confidence and relational intelligence in all of your relationships. This month's theme is: Making and Breaking Wedding Traditions.

The Myth of Unconditional Love in Romantic Relationships

“Relational Ambivalence” is the experience of contradictory thoughts and feelings—of love and hate, attraction and disgust, excitement and fear, contempt and envy—toward someone with whom we are in a relationship. It exists in every relational configuration, but we put a lot of pressure on romantic love, in particular, to rise above it. Read more on how ambivalence shows up in your romantic relationships and the common responses to it.

Letters from Esther #32: Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Our Comfort with Intimacy Has A Lot to do with These 7 Verbs

Love is an active verb. It’s imbued with intention and meaning and contains an implicit call to action. In the language of intimacy, basic fluency comes down to just seven verbs. The experiences that revolve around these shape our beliefs about ourselves and our expectations of others. Read more on the seven verbs of intimacy and how they help us to understand not just how we learned to love and be loved—but how we want to now.

Letters from Esther #31: Inviting Vulnerability

My monthly newsletter and workshop are meant to inspire you to reflect, act, and develop greater confidence and relational intelligence in all of your relationships. This month's theme is: Inviting Vulnerability.

In Long-Term Relationships, When Do You Find Yourself Most Drawn to Your Partner?

Reconciling the domestic and the erotic is a delicate balancing act in long-term relationships. It requires knowing your partner while recognizing their persistent mystery. Read more on the one simple question that reminds us to appreciate our partner’s otherness and what the four most common responses tell us.

Letters From Esther #30: Appreciating Otherness in Relationships

Letters From Esther #17 - Eroticism Suffered in 2020; Fantasy Thrived

My monthly newsletter is meant to inspire you to reflect, act, and develop greater confidence and relational intelligence in all of your relationships. This month's theme is: Eroticism Suffered in 2020; Fantasy Thrived.

Letters from Esther #16: Who Was There For You?

My monthly newsletter and workshop series meant to inspire you to reflect, act, and develop greater confidence and relational intelligence in all of your relationships. This month's theme is: Who Was There For You?

Letters From Esther #15: The Only Certainty Is Change

My monthly newsletter meant to inspire you to reflect, act, and develop greater confidence and relational intelligence in all of your relationships. This month's theme is: The Only Certainty is Change

Letters from Esther #14: What Death Can Teach Us About Life

My monthly newsletter meant to inspire you to reflect, act, and develop greater confidence and relational intelligence in all of your relationships. This month's theme is: What Death Can Teach Us About Life.

Letters from Esther #13: Are Taboos Holding Your Relationship Back?

My monthly newsletter and free workshop are meant to inspire you to reflect, act, and develop greater confidence and relational intelligence in all of your relationships. This month's theme is: Are Taboos Holding Your Relationship Back?

Letters from Esther #12: How Your Relationships Will Change

My monthly newsletter and free workshop series is meant to inspire you to reflect, act, and develop greater confidence and relational intelligence in all of your relationships. This month's theme is: How Your Relationships Will Change.

Letters from Esther #11 - Change is in the Details

Letters from Esther is my monthly newsletter and livestream to inspire reflection and action in areas that are important for your relational intelligence. This month's theme is: Change is in the Details.

Letters From Esther #10 - The Joy of Complaining

My monthly newsletter to stay in touch and inspire reflection and action in areas that are important for your relational intelligence. This month's theme is: The Joy of Complaining.

What Is This Feeling? Anticipatory Grief and Other New Pandemic-Related Emotions

The unprecedented crisis caused by the novel coronavirus has left us with a set of unfamiliar emotions. Read more to learn about these new emotions you may be experiencing and what to do about them.

Why Modern Love is So Damn Hard

This week, I write to you about the expectations that can derail our relationships. Starting with the wedding vow.

How to be Assertive Without Being Aggressive

Power dynamics and what it means to be in control has changed over time. In today's social context, how can we navigate the line between dialogue and debate?

Relationship Accountability

Rejection has always been a part of the relationship landscape. But are the new trends of ghosting, icing and simmering increasing our acceptance of ambiguous ends?

Unsent Love Letters - Love Across the Decades

In this Unsent Love Letter, a woman writes about a relationship that was unlikely to succeed, but after three decades it is still strong. We discuss the nuances of love across the decades and how breaking routine can bring energy back to a relationship. Read more to hear what the letter holds.

How to Deal with Online Dating Fatigue

When every interaction is curated in advance, how can we find new opportunities for curiosity, playfulness, and real life interaction?

Opportunity from Tragedy: Realign, Reprioritize, and Rebuild Emotional Connections

The New Normal is here and it requires a new mindset—a curiosity about what we want for ourselves, with our partners and families, with our dates and friends, and with our work lives. Read more about how you can begin to rethink your emotional connections in this new landscape.

Valentineusall: Three Suggestions to Elevate Your Valentine’s Day

This Valentine's Day, why not start a new tradition?

Articles

Letters from Esther #65: Is love worth it?

Letters from Esther