Today I get to speak with my dear friend Rukmini Poddar who shares her journey of overcoming the fear of being seen, which includes getting to know parts of her (and all of us) that sometimes think it's safe to play small. At the end of our talk we get to do a live IFS session together.

Oftentimes we have protective parts of ourselves that engage in behaviors that may seem socially unacceptable or dispicable or that create consequences which we don't like. It's easy to dismiss those parts and wish they would just go away or disappear. True healing requires us however to compassionately relate to those parts of us, with curiosity, to courageously hear their story and help them heal in order for them to be restored to their natural essence as a beautiful part of our system with innate gifts.

Today we get to speak with Priya Mehra, who speaks honestly and courageously about re-inventing herself as a single mother and pursuing her career as a coach. We discuss how to honestly reflect and emrace all the pieces of our own story in a way that allows us to hold space and create empowerment for those around us.

While it may be scary or intimidating to explore our inner world, IFS invites us to befriend the chaos inside by learning to listen to parts of us seeking attention. When we do this curiously and compassionately we can bring harmony to the chaos by learning about our parts and bringing them into a loving relationship with our Self, which our true essence.

There is a critical question that we don't often ask in relationships. Without addressing this question, we can try endless techniques and practices to nagivate our tensions and conflicts or try to improve the external circumstances without finding lasting, sustainable results. This question empowers us to craft the experience of life we want, without forcing everyone else around us to change.

Today we get to spend with my good friend Parastou, who talks about her journey through an early intimate relationship and the hopes and dreams that certain parts of her carried for life at that time. We discuss the ways in which our parts can take us away from our Self in the pursuit of what we think we need or want, and what it looks like to make that journey back to our Self whenever we feel lost of disconnected

IFS helps us understand intimacy in a way that isn't confined, restricted or often set up for failure by the modern concept of romance. When we expand our understanding of intimate relationhsips to go beyond the expectation that our partner is meant to make us feel a certain way all the time or make up for lost love in childhood, we enter into more mature, healthy and fulfilling connections.

Bob Falconer shares with us his personal journey of inner healing and authentic, sustained inner healing can't take place outside of a spiritual context. Bob shares his views on spirituality and what it means to connect with something bigger than ourselves in order to heal the wounded parts within ourselves. Please be advised that Bob himself has been on an intensive healing Journey throughout his life, and has come to experience joy and fulfillment throughout his life today. However it was not easy to get here and in the beginning parts of our discussion Bob will share some of the graphic and intense experiences of his own childhood trauma and abuse. If these topics are triggering for you, please make sure that you feel in a grounded and safe space while he shares his story. Bob's message serves as an extraordinarily empowering and inspiring reminder that regardless of what we may experience in life, there are spiritual resources available to us and there is healing that can lead to profound connection joy and purpose.