Hello and welcome to another episode of the Mark Groves podcast.

Excited to be in your ear.

Thank you for being here.

In this podcast, we explore so many different levels from the micro, like how I interact with you, our

specific relational skills, and then even going further out into the systems that influence

us, the things that affect us in relationship that we don't often think about.

You know, we think that our relational outcomes are due.

They're our fault because something's wrong with us, you know, we think that our relational outcomes are due, they're our fault because something's

wrong with us, you know, not realizing that the reason we do anything we do is because on some

level we think it's the best available behavior to us. And so much of our defenses, the things,

again, the way in conflict and in all types of relationships that shows up at work too

in teams and all the things they're all designed to protect us from being hurt to protect us from

feeling like we're not enough you know and in doing that though we often just perpetuate the story

and perpetuate the experience you know it's like having a reaction that pushes people away and you end up alone.

Because we're afraid of ending up alone, we create aloneness.

It's just so interesting to observe and be able to start to look at these things in a

non-judgmental way.

So be compassionate with yourself as you explore your story, as you explore the things that

you can do better in a relationship. We're all human. I have things I'm always working on too and

layers that I'm discovering. It's a beautiful thing about being here is being able to ask these

questions, being able to participate in a community that is about self-acceptance, about acceptance

of each other and giving each other the space to make mistakes. What a beautiful thing that is to

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