019: Designing Your Dream Relationship With Yourself & Others Using Mindfulness with Melanie Tsesler

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How can we incorporate mindfulness in our lives and nurture our relationships through it? Mindfulness expert and couples counselor, Melanie Tsesler, is here to talk about all things mindfulness. Known for her down-to-earth, engaging and kind-hearted demeanor, Melanie helps people heal their relationship with themselves, so they can be happier in their relationship with others, as well as their relationship with food and technology. She works with clients to dig deep and uncover the blocks that prevent them from realizing their fullest potential and gives them the necessary tools to achieve their goals.

In this episode we discuss:

  • The role mindfulness plays in our daily life, in our relationships with friends & family, romantic relationships, food and technology

  • Finding peace with past relationships through mindfulness

  • “Why is this happening TO me?” vs. “Why is this happening FOR me?”

  • Where to start in your relationship with yourself

  • How mindfulness works in romantic relationships

  • Love languages: how to figure out yours and your partners

  • How understanding love languages can help facilitate positive communication in relationships

  • How to give yourself your own love language

  • The biggest issue in relationships that causes friction

  • Mindfulness as a tool for navigating a breakup

  • Boundaries and how can we go about setting them

  • Mindful driving and why it matters

  • Fostering a positive relationship with technology without doing a whole digital detox

Key Takeaways:

  • Mindfulness is being more aware in this present moment. Without thinking about it, most of the time, our thoughts are either in the past or in the future. We’re either ruminating about something that has already happened or thinking about something that hasn’t even happened yet. Mindfulness is that awareness of being in the here and now.

  • We miss our life completely if we’re constantly thinking of other moments other than the one that we are in right now. Mindfulness is just bringing us back to the present moment.

  • Mindfulness ultimately leads to happiness.

  • Filling your cup is not necessarily about doing things. Sometimes, it can be about undoing some things and removing things from your day, removing people and removing toxicity.

  • Self-love is incredibly important. You give it to yourself first and then that spills over and other people are able to give it to you, too. You can’t really only look for love from an outside source because then you’re allowing someone else to be responsible for your happiness.

Action Steps:

  • Start working on your relationship with yourself and see how you are actually treating yourself.

  • Set boundaries when it comes to your relationships with friends and family.

  • Be aware of your partner’s love language and don’t be afraid to ask for yours when you need it.

  • When you’re going through a breakup, don’t gloss over it but allow yourself to feel.

  • Allow yourself to be mindful when you’re eating and when you’re driving.

  • Join Melanie’s Mindset and Relationship Academy! It’s a 6-week online program that’s completely tailored to every individual to help remove the blocks that are preventing them from moving forward in their lives.

Melanie said:

“[Being in the now] ultimately leads to happiness because if we sort of allow ourselves to wander into the what if and into that kind of realm into the future or we ruminate into something that happened in the past, that’s when the anxiety and the depression and all that stress lives.”

“With mindfulness, you’re not going to do it perfectly. You’re not going to just wake up tomorrow and be this perfect human being that’s completely mindful… That’s not reality. We want to just try it on every single day and see how I can be a little bit more mindful today.”

Show Sponsor:

Thanks to our show sponsor, Made With Local! Use "RACHEL20" over on madewithlocal.com to save 20% off of your next Made With Local order of Real Food Bars, Real Food Bar Mix and/or Loaded Oats.

Links to things we talk about in the show:

Episode 7: We Went to Couples Therapy

The 5 Love Languages

More from Melanie Tsesler:

Mindful Beginnings

Melanie’s Instagram (@mindful_beginnings)

Melanie’s Facebook

The Connection Between Happiness and Mindfulness

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