Break Free and Trust with Jacqueline and Chris: A Redesign for Living

One of the first teachings Jacqueline ever shared with me was that the most important decision you will ever make is your answer to a single question: is the Universe benevolent? Because however you answer it, quietly, underneath everything, that answer becomes the lens you see your whole life through. Jacqueline and I have come to believe almost nothing shapes a person’s perspective more than thi...

“There is nothing more important to true growth than realizing that you are not the voice of the mind — you are the one who hears it.” — Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul   Jacqueline and I have, and continue to have, powerful experiences with intuition. It has brought up the question - how do you differentiate between the voice of your own intuition from the thousand other voices competing for...

Many listeners have asked for examples of what we mean by the mirror, the projection, our limiting beliefs, our conditioning and our programming. And all of this came alive for us last night. As we were preparing our podcast,  life hit us with a real and personal example of much of the work we talk about on this show.   So, we thought this would make a fantastic discussion for our listeners and we...

On this episode, Jacqueline and I are going to explore what we call the paradox of second marriages.  This is both of our second marriages and lost in our own joyful experience we were deeply surprised to learn that the divorce rate for second marriages is 20% higher than first marriages. Now that probably shouldn’t have surprised us given that a second marriage is two people that both catastrophi...

On this episode, Jacqueline and I are going to explore the action of “Just sitting with, or being with, your feelings”.  This idea of just being with your feelings or fully feeling your feelings is something many of us have heard from therapists, coaches or spiritual mentors. “Just sitting with” is a concept that is also preached by all the sages over the ages. What does “just sitting with your fe...

Chris and Jacqueline explore the spiritual implications of forgiveness in this episode. Buddhist Proverb: A senior monk and a junior monk were traveling together. At one point, they came to a river with a strong current. As the monks were preparing to cross the river, they saw a very young and beautiful woman also attempting to cross. The young woman asked if they could help her cross to the other...

I was recently listening to a lecture series by Richard Rohr, who both Jacqueline and I regard as an impactful spiritual teacher, and I was struck by one of his statements:  “Jesus wasn’t killed by evil people.  Jesus was killed by conventional wisdom”  This statement stuck a cord with both of us, for a variety of reasons, and we thought we would explore it more deeply on the show today. What is t...

“There is a peculiar suffering that comes with awareness. A kind of exile that happens not when you leave the world, but when you truly see it. You sit down to watch a movie everyone loves and within minutes you are analysing the manipulation tactics, the propaganda, the tired formulas. You’re at a party and instead of enjoying the moment you are observing the social performance, the masks, the de...

Over the past several months we have had numerous conversations with clients, friends and family that have had a common theme; an expression of the horrid state of the world we live in, and in many cases, a loss of hope for a better future. Everywhere they look, and in everything they read, they see anger, hate, fear, division, and apathy. I understand their outlook, but we don’t share it. In fact...

This show is going to be fun and unpredictable! I promise. I have asked Jacqueline to come up with a list of the top five things that a woman can do to unconsciously sabotage a relationship and I am going to come up with a list for men. We will unveil them for the first time on the show. We are drawing from both our own years of lived experience of being deeply flawed romantic partners as well as...

It seems that somewhere in the recent past, using the word “God” has become provocative, and perhaps even triggering in modern discourse.  Jacqueline and I have amusingly noticed our own verbal gymnastics at times, as we have done our own clunky linguistic dance by substituting Universe, The Divine, The Beloved, Source, Spirit, Creator, etc. in a conditioned avoidance to saying the word “God” to o...

In today’s show, Jacqueline and I explore the almost predictable inward shift that occurs on the journey from the material to the spiritual. Based on our own journeys as well as our experience with hundreds of clients we examine What does it mean to move inwards? What are the range of catalysts for this shift or spiritual experience?  How being in service to others is both completely consistent wi...

In this episode, Jacqueline and Chris celebrate Chris's six year milestone of continuous clean time in recovery by diving deep into the topic of recovery an how it is relevant to transformation in general. How has the recovery process impacted Chris and Jacqueline's life in a short amount of time? How are the lessons and tools from recovery relevant to your transformation? How does the alchemy of...

In this episode Jacqueline and I, motivated by our own personal trips abroad, explore the benefits of taking personal time in the context of a healthy relationship. T here is you, and there is me and there is the relationship.  This is the 1+1=3 dynamic. Each part needs respect, boundaries, love and energy.   How to we ensure our own energy tanks are full so we can show up for the relationship?  A...

In this episode Jacqueline and Chris explore how our unconscious definitions of love or mood of unlove, that permeates our culture, gets in the way of our capacity to be loving with ourselves and each other. They explore how the masks we wear to gain love, as a matter of survival as children, get in the way of our relationships, and how parenting can become a powerful way to observe them, let them...

In today’s show, Jacqueline and I explore a topic that is relevant to all our listeners, working with anger. Not just our own anger but the anger of others, which we encounter, in some form or another, on almost a daily basis.  Where is this anger arising from and can it be avoided? How can you respond, and not react in the face of anger? What is the gift and the opportunity that arises from anger...

Jaqueline and I have come to understand that what we have ultimately been yearning for, our entire lives, is Peace with ourselves and Peace our fellows. However, without conscious awareness of this understanding, I admit I have spent much of my life, unwittingly moving myself away from Peace and not towards it, at least until more recently. In this episode we discuss how our fear-based conditionin...

Why do you find it so hard to receive help when it is offered? Why do you have this compulsion to try and do it on your own? Struggling to receive help and being uncomfortable asking for help are often the visible manifestations of deep seeded, and unconscious limiting beliefs, that are in the driver’s seat of your life. In this episode Jacqueline and Chris discuss their own unique journeys with t...

In this episode Jacqueline and Chris take on a listener question from the last episode. “If people are generally operating from their unconscious conditioning and early childhood programming, are they responsible for their actions?”   The concepts of accountability, responsibility and culpability are explored in the context of our conditioned behaviour that naturally evolve us to a deeper sense of...

In this episode Jacqueline and I continue with a theme we developed in our last episode. That we are constantly seeking or stiving for something that exists in the future, or in the next moment of life. We never seem to be fully engaged in the present moment.  Today we explore why this is a collective phenonium and that our society is geared towards keeping us out of the present moment  In what wa...

Chris and I have done a tremendous amount of travelling in the past year, and reflecting on it, has served as a catalyst for this episode. We spend our lives seeking, the next best thing, always pursuing something other than what is in this moment.  It’s as if we are programmed to look to the future, to a new job, to our next vacation, to the new car, to summer break, to a different relationship. ...

Inspired by the work they have done with their own clients, Jacqueline and Chris explore why we are constantly looking outside of ourselves for what we can only give to ourselves. Why do we have a tendency to abdicate responsibility for our needs to others? Needs like how we are loved, how we want to be treated and even our validation and self-worth. Are we seeking something that no one but oursel...

In this episode Jacqueline and I explore the concept of reframing our experiences and outlook as a way to living a happier and more fulfilling life. We all live a different subjective reality based on our own personal experiences.  Because our reality is subjective, it can be reframed to better serve us. What does reframing entail and how does is work? When is it appropriate versus when is it just...

In this episode Jacqueline and I explore relationship dynamics. In our professional capacity as counsellors, coaches and mentors we are exposed to a wide variety of challenges our clients bring  to us with respect to their relationships with partners, children, employers and everyone for that matter. What are some of the common factors underlying these challenges? How do these challenges play out...

In this episode Jacqueline and Chris will explore the paradox of identity. That is, we need an identity to navigate in the world yet attachment to this identity is the cause of so much of our suffering. Where does our identity come from, how does it evolve over time, when and how does it transition from survival to suffering and what can we do about it are questions explored in the show. There is...