Holidays promise rest and reconnection — but too often we bring our work with us, emotionally and digitally. This blog explores how to truly unplug, reconnect with your partner or family, and navigate the inevitable emotional bumps along the way. With practical tools like the Daily Temperature Reading and tips for managing intimacy, conflict, and expectations, it’s a guide to making holidays more meaningful — and maybe even a little holy.

Negativity and negative emotion can be a major cause of upheaval in relationships. This has certainly been true in my relationship. This article will discuss why it can be a problem and how we can manage it better. I will give some suggestions for you to implement right away, next time you hear a negative or angry comment.

Harmony, disruption, repair is a cycle found in all significant relationships. Repair is important, but the rupture has to happen first and is therefore crucial. It is the disruption that create the golden opportunities for repair. As repair happens, trust is built up and the relationship grows and strengthens.

What is passion? Passion is Eros, one of the Greek Creator Gods. According to legend Eros, along with Chaos and Gaia, created the Earth. Passion is life force. When we feel passionate we are full of energy and often longing for connection with someone or something. In this state we feel alive and in a state of flow, engaged and attuned to our process. Passion is energy that goes out and when we think of passion as desire, we mean it is the passion to have union in sexual love. It is the will to unite, to bring someone into you

‘Two wolves live within each of us’ said the old Cherokee grandmother to his grandson. ‘These wolves are fighting. They want different things. One wolf hungers for all that goes wrong and thrives on hatred and strife. The other has an appetite for the things that go right and flourishes on love and beauty’. The grandson asks, ‘which wolf wins the fight?’

Most conflicts are about a point of view. We argue about our differences in recalling the facts of an event. We say this happened like this and get upset when our partner disagrees. Or we have a conviction about something and want to persuade our partner that they should agree with us. When they don’t we get upset. We might be really into something and want our partner to appreciate it too. We feel dismissed if they don’t have the same kind of enthusiasm. Hoping our partner will love something as much as we do or pitting our point of view against theirs leads to stress and misery. So why do we do it? How come we so easily get into these kinds battles?

Relationship is not a simple interaction between one person and another. Because within each of us we have a family of different selves which developed in response to challenges we met when we grew up. Each self is there to protect us in some way. When we are with our partner, we are relating between one or another of these selves in us and them.