EmPowered Couples with The Freemans Aaron & Jocelyn Freeman

The success of your life and marriage isn’t as much about the things that happen to you, but how well you can course-correct. This goes for bigger life decisions about where to live, send your kids to school, and where to spend money. As well as the amount of time to pass before initiating repair after a conflict, the attitude you wake up with, and even the thoughts you let your mind focus on. 
So then what does “course-correcting” actually look like in regard to these decisions? That is exactly what you will hear in the episode. You are going to hear 4 questions to ask yourselves that will help you to determine whether you are on path or off path, which greatly impacts your satisfaction in your life and marriage together. (So yes it’s pretty important!)
 
Relationship Resources Mentioned
 
The Level 1 “Prioritizing Us” 30-Day Couples Challenge (you get the popular Family Meeting guide as a bonus gift with this)

The Level 2 “Rebuilding Us” 30-Day Couples Challenge (repairing and rebuilding after a harder season of marriage)
 
Additional Guides - https://www.meetthefreemans.com/links

Whether you’ve been in a funk as a couple, or things have just felt pretty routine with your “adulting” responsibilities, this episode will help you SPARK more fun together!
The truth is, life is short. And we don’t believe we’re meant to just let the weeks pass by and survive our busy schedule. Of course there are challenging days (and you hear us talk about that), but let’s enter into a season of more fulfillment, connection, and play together.
You will hear 5 very tangible and actionable ways to spark more fun together, so dive on in!
We often hear couples say, “we get inspired and motivated to create these changes for a few days, and then we forget or get off track.” And that’s exactly why we created the 30-Day Couples Challenge!
 
Relationship Resources (pick between): 
Level 1: “Prioritizing Us” is focused on strengthening your connection, communication, and fun Love Deposit ideas. LINKED HERE - https://mycoupleschallenge.com/

Level 2: “Rebuilding Us” is focused on repairing and rebuilding after a harder season of marriage. LINKED HERE -  https://mycoupleschallenge.com/rebuilding

Talk about things before they become a bigger issue. On our vacation with family, I brought up the topic of intimacy (physical specifically) and it sparked a great conversation between us. Now for many this could be a conversation that isn’t brought up and turns into a bigger issue later. This is when it can turn into a “weed” that impacts your marriage. Or it could be a conversation that causes defensiveness and conflict. Neither of these are positive options. 
You see, we want to talk about how we’re feeling and what we want BEFORE it starts to affect  you and the connection, trust, or openness you have with your partner. 
In this episode you will hear us discuss:
What’s a “seed” in the relationship vs a “weed”
What happens when we don’t discuss things soon enough
How to think about bringing these things up and making it a productive conversation
 
Relationship Resources:
The Level 1 “Prioritizing Us” 30-Day Couples Challenge (you get the popular Family Meeting guide as a bonus gift with this)

The Level 2 “Rebuilding Us” 30-Day Couples Challenge (repairing and rebuilding after a harder season of marriage)

You’ve likely heard of the now popular Attachment Theory about having a secure, safe, trusting, and connected relationship. If you have, likely what you’ve seen is quite conceptual and you are not sure how to use the information. If you have not heard of this theory it simply describes how you connect and bond with a partner and how that was influenced by your parents (or primary caregiver) as well as other romantic relationships you have been in (primary attachment figures).
For us Attachment Theory has become so popular online, rightfully so, but without the right experts describing how to use this theory to make a difference in your own relationship, or how to actually change your style. In this episode you will hear from Attachment Theory expert, counselor, PhD, author, and founder of Personal Development School, Thais Gibson! You will hear her cover:
The 4 Attachment Styles (quickly)
The 5 Pillars and traits of each style
How to reprogram your conscious mind (where attachment needs and behaviors come from) with tools like autosuggestion to change your style
 
Relationship Resources
Take the FREE Quiz to determine your Attachment Style: https://attachment.personaldevelopmentschool.com/quiz
Learn more from the Personal Development School: 
https://university.personaldevelopmentschool.com/ 
Join our 30-Day Couples Challenges (level 1 or 2) starting July 1st, 2024
https://www.meetthefreemans.com/challenges

Many communications between couples can cause misunderstandings. This leads to more expectations and further frustrations and upsets. Then these upsets can turn into conflicts. Though it seems simple to just “listen better”, listening is not the same as hearing. 
Listening is the requirement for understanding, but even then, it does not guarantee complete and accurate understanding of what was actually meant by your partner. 
Though much of this has to do with the listener's role, there is also much to say about the speaker and how they deliver the message so as to not create mistranslations. 
 
In this episode you will hear:
Mistakes the speaker makes
Mistakes the listener makes
5 tips for more productive conversations 
Plus the psychology principles that can prevent communications from being misunderstood or turning into conflicts.
 
Relationship Resources:
1) Join the upcoming 30-Day Couples Challenge “Prioritizing Us”, proven to improve your interactions, help you understand each other more, strengthen your connection, and fill your Love Accounts. https://mycoupleschallenge.com/
2) For links to our top resources and guides: https://www.meetthefreemans.com/links

“I’m sorry” - 2 little words that can not only be challenging for some partners to say, but also can mean MANY different things. 
So in today’s episode we cover:
Several specific reasons apologizing can be harder for some (self-awareness)
Why couples can battle over whether the ‘I’m sorry’ is deemed “necessary”
The different meanings of “I’m sorry” and how to expand your language for more things to say in these moments
How to get better at apologizing, big or small
We encourage BOTH of you to listen to this episode and talk about how you can both be better. Because these little moments truly can strengthen your bond or erode your ability to respect each other. We know, strong statement, but respect is tied to this. 

As you listen, make sure you get our popular Making Up & Moving Forward guide. These repair steps prevent re-triggering a conflict, having to re-hash the details, and ensures you both feel resolved.