Relational Skills in Real Life

In this eye-opening episode, Chris Coursey and Kristy Harrang explore the surprising blessing of unpleasant emotions. From anger to hopeless despair, they look at how our most difficult feelings can become unexpected gifts. Through stories from their own lives, they reveal how embracing emotional discomfort can guide us toward growth, healing, and deeper connection. 🔗 Join our upcoming online eve...

What are high energy emotions? When do our brains go to these high energy responses and why? Chris answers these questions and more as he looks at how God designed our brains and bodies to work and how we can develop life-giving response patterns to the stresses of life.  🔗 Check out our Return to Joy (skill 11) courses: https://thrivetoday.thinkific.com/collections/skill-11 🔗 Our Premier Traini...

In this episode Chris discusses the topic of low energy emotions, which emotions fit into this category, and signs that we are experiencing them. You will also hear from Amy, as she shares a story of a time she was feeling the low-energy emotion of sadness.  🔗 Check out our Return to Joy (skill 11) courses: https://thrivetoday.thinkific.com/collections/skill-11 🔗 Learn more about Premier Trainin...

In this episode, Chris makes the connection between awareness and conscientiousness, which is a more important character trait than we may have thought.  Our ability to distinguish finely between our emotions results in increased flexibility when regulating emotions and a decreased likelihood that we'll turn to alcohol when stressed or retaliate against people who hurt us? Listen in and learn...

There can be some grief that accompanies growing in maturity. When we begin to grow, we start to notice how our growth has been stunted by missing maturity needs and tasks. That can bring up sorrowful feelings, both for ourselves and for our lack of ability to pass on good things to our children. Listen in to hear what is it like us, as mature people, to do when these feelings come up, and how to...

What creates the lens for how you understand God? In this episode Chris will look at how our past relationships with people can affect how we understand, view, and interact with God - a skill we call "Godsight". 🔗 Learn more about Skill 13 - Godsight: https://thrivetoday.org/skill13 🔗 Check out the Skill 13 Habit Builder Course: https://thrivetoday.thinkific.com/courses/skill-13-godsig...

Are there patterns in your life that you get stuck in? Are there situations and emotions that knock you out? Everyone struggles with different things and there are good reasons for that. Being able to see some of what God sees when we are having a hard time can be a game changer, and this is the brain skill of 'Godsight' that we can practice and learn. Come on the journey with us to disc...

In this episode, Chris shares the fascinating science about how our relationships affect our bodies and emotions. He also shares examples of ways that we can practice staying relational and keeping the relationship bigger than the problem when dealing with tough situations. 🔗 Learn more about Skill 0 - The Relational Circuits 🔗 Learn more about Skill 11 - Return to Joy 🔗 Watch our latest webina...

In this episode Chris reflects on why the church needs relational skills and how we can spread relational skills in our congregations and communities. You'll also hear perspective from Karen, a pastor and graduate of the 3 Premier Training Tracks, as she has actively sought to spread these skills in the church and through her outreach.  🔗 Do you have a small group looking for the next resour...

Quieting is an often under-rated skill that some regard as a waste of time. Chris explains the fascinating science behind quieting, and why it is a critical skill that is a life-long predictor of mental health, as well as many other life-changing benefits. We also hear a story from our friend Gina about how her knowledge of Quieting impacted a time she was at work.  🔗 Learn more about Skill 2 (Si...

We all go through season and transitions in life. These can be hard to navigate because our brains use our memories of the past to predict what the unknown future might be like. The resulting anxiety and stress can keep us from being our best, relational selves. This episode shares how practicing relational skills can help us grow, thrive and connect with Jesus even when we are outside our comfort...

Today we hear from Eric & Jiayan who saw a tangible difference in their marriage when they started learning and practicing relational skills together. As they enter parenthood they are so thankful for a stronger bond. Chris weighs in on what a blessing it is when you are relational in your most important relationships. 🔗 Read The 4 Habits of Joy-Filled Marriages . Perfect to read as a couple...

One of the exercises we do when practicing relational skills is to notice what is happening in our bodies and minds and what is happening in the people around us. Chris shared how training our brains to be aware is crucial to knowing what we need and how to interact in a life-giving way with the people in our lives. 🔗 Learn more about the Foundational 5 Intro Course: https://thrivetoday.thinkific...

In this extended episode, Kristy and Jen interview each other to wrap up the mini series of interviews with our team. They share some fun relational skill history and share with us their stories of ways relational skills have changed their lives in a transformational way! 🔗 Listen to Episode 59: Return to Joy 🔗 Listen to Episode 89: Emotions Myth Busters 🔗 Learn more about the Foundational 5 In...

Our guest in this episode, Michel Hendricks, is a Thrive relational skills trainer, a consultant who helps churches and mission organizations incorporate relational practices in their ministries, and also the author of "The Other Half of Church". He shares some of the difficulties he ran into as a discipleship pastor and a parent, and how learning more about how God designed our brains a...

In today's interview, Thrive Premier Training grad and Thrive volunteer, Andy, tells us about how relational skills helped when facing some challenges in his marriage. He takes us through his journey of learning relational skills and how he and his wife incorporated skills into their marriage to improve their connection and build capacity together. 🔗 Listen to Episode 94: How do Thrive and R...

In this episode, Kāmi shares how she was introduced to THRIVEtoday and the blessing it brought to her life. She talks about the benefits of learning to share joy (Skill 1) and the impact this has had on her family relationships. She describes learning ‘to be glad to be with people’ like sharing "a little piece of Heaven" with them! 🔗 Listen to Episode 12: Joy vs. Happiness 🔗 Learn more...

Thrive trainer Pam Bryan joins us today to talk about Relational Skill #6: Identifying Heart Values through suffering. She shares personal stories about developing this skill and how it is helping her live from the heart Jesus gave her. 🔗 See our upcoming events: https://thrivetoday.org/upcomingevents 🔗 Listen to Episode 40: What Your Pain Says About You 🔗 Learn more about Premier Training: htt...

In this episode, Rebecca, who is also the Thrive Premier Training (TPT) Coordinator, talks about how going to training herself has helped her "level up" her relational skills, especially for parenting. You'll also hear ways to start preparing for training now - even if you aren't able to go this year - and other resources to begin building your skills. 🔗 Learn more about Premi...

In this episode, Thrive Premier Training trainer Dana Bryan shares stories about Relational Skill 12: 'Act Like Myself', and how he was able to connect with Jesus and practice this skill, sometimes in difficult situations.  🔗 Learn more about Skill 12 🔗 Listen to Episode 61 from Chris Coursey 🔗 Transforming Fellowship book: https://bit.ly/transformingfellowship 🔗 Learn more about Ski...

Claudia Hendricks, one of our THRIVEtoday trainers, shares stories from her life about the importance of Godsight (Skill 13) and practical ways she has been practicing this skill. She also shares some inspiring stories about what God has been doing as she looks at people and situations through His eyes. 🔗 Learn more about Godsight and our learning pathway for this relational skill: https://thrive...

Today we take a break from our current podcast interview series to have Chris and Jen join us for the 100th episode of our Relational Skills in Real Life Podcast! In this special episode the Courseys share how they feel called by God "to live what we teach and train and tell the story of it." Doing this is vulnerable because they still make mistakes along the way, but so many have been e...

Jason tells about his family's journey to find hope that led to relational skills. He and Kristy discuss what Relational Circuits are and how keeping them on is a game changer in life. Jason shares that he enjoys being his best, relational self and that this skill helps him to be that for the people he loves in very practical ways. 🔗 Learn more about Skill 0 🔗 Listen to Episode 9 Understand...

Our guest this week, Barbara Moon, is a veteran in the Life Model and Relational Skills community. She has inspired us with the way she intentionally lives out her life sharing skills, maturity and healing everywhere she goes. In this episode, she shares some encouraging stories and tells about different ways she shares these life-giving skills with others. 🔗 Listen to Episode 94 from Chris Cours...

THRIVEtoday team and board member, Lizabet Nix, shares how practicing Relational Skill 13: Godsight, has transformed her life and interactions with others. Listen to her story and get some tips on how to learn this skill for yourself. 🔗 Learn more about Skill 13 🔗 Go through our Foundational 5 Intro course and get an overview introduction to the 5 most foundational skills. 🔗 Watch our History o...