Emily Dickinson said, The soul selects her own Society. We have our biological family, and we have our logical family. We have our blood relations, and we have our Soul relations.

I think one of the reasons that the craving for more fulfilling relationships is so strong for us is because we are being rewarded by technology for valuing productivity over intimacy. We are less connected than we have ever been. We know this.

So I begin here: with Friends, Lovers, and Therapy.

Here’s some of what happens in my first (eeep!) episode of LIGHT WORK…

I. Some ideas for nourishing friendships (sourced from my circle of rad friends)

  • Small talk can keep us small. Ask bigger, sweeter questions like, How’s your heart? What are you excited about? So… how are you… really? My friend, Steph, is excellent at this.
  • At your next birthday gathering (yours or someone else’s) do a round of “Favourite Frames”. The idea is for each person to offer up their most cherished memories of the person being celebrated. We did this for my friend Kate Northrup. We went around as we were inspired, sharing about the time we met Kate, or the dancing we did, or that time Kate did that hilarious thing… Favourite Frames work anywhere, anytime. Deeper connection.
  • Start your own Goddess Group. Here’s a script: (You can text this, email, or just say it in person.) It goes like this: Let’s get off our phucking phones and hang out. Ask a few friends to invite a few friends and show up in a living room and see what happens. Bring hummus. Or not. I’ve been meeting once a month with the same group of five weird and incredible women for ELEVEN YEARS… all because one of us did exactly that.

II. Relationship research that makes you go whoa

  • Read “Attached” by Amir Levine and Rachel Heller. Take the test to find out your “attachment style”. You can be one of (or a mix of) three:
  • Anxious: preoccupied with your relationships, and tending to worry about your partner’s ability to love you back.
  • Avoidant: you may equate intimacy with a loss of independence and constantly try to minimize closeness. (Total drag being Avoidant… not that it’s any more fun being anxious…)
  • Secure: you’re comfortable with intimacy, and are usually warm and loving. You’re a f-cking unicorn, basically.

Here’s the beautiful thing: Attachment Principles can point us to our unmet needs. And once you realize that you have those needs, then you can go about getting those needs met in healthy ways. Ah, the beauty of clarity…

III. A gather ‘round the fire tale that illustrates (with scientific proof!) that we need each other to shine

The vast majority of stars are binary—they actually live in pairs. From our distance on Earth, it looks like single stars are hanging in the sky. But, through powerful telescopes, you’ll see that it’s very often a duo of stars that are huddled together. Stars require each other’s gravitational pull to coexist. And after hundreds of thousands of years, some stars will pull apart and die without each other. Proof that relationships are everything. #knewit

IV. Compelling reasons for resisting the (perfectly normal) urge to play therapist with your sweetheart

All the self help manuals, the years of therapy, the things I had taken home and put in my toolbox of Love—all the work I had done on myself to be a more conscious person… Why would I not hand that manual over to my partner, so that he could be a more conscious person too… to like, fulfill all of my neeeeeds?

When David Deida called me out in his workshop, I learned to work my feminine strengths in a way that made relating sexy again. How? Start trusting that your needs are legit. That you’re worthy of getting what you want. Start trusting the entity, i.e. the third being that is The Relationship. Trust that everything that you’ve already gone through, hard and good, will carry you through. And finally… You’ve got to trust that your person is going to meet your needs—without you drawing them a f-cking map to your clit and your heart and your pain.

V. Plus…

…Tears of gratitude for my woman tribe, sexy monks, vagina talk, poetry, and general real-realness.

Listen to LIGHT WORK Episode #1 on iTunes, Spotify, or Stitcher.

.  .  .  .  .

And now, a word from our sponsor… me!

I want to go deep into this conversation about creating Fulfilling Friendships. I’ve got lots to say about engaged listening, self respect, breaking up (when necessary), and celebrating our friend-loves. I’ve also got plenty of opinions and practices for self-compassion, deep spiritual devotion, healthier relationships with our d-mn phones, and better quality sleep. So…

LIGHTER, a year-long soul support program. This is 12 months of heart-mind nourishment. 12 months of intentionality. 12 months of connection and taking loving action––for yourself, your kin, humanity, and Mother Earth. Plus a few surprises.

At the core, LIGHTER is about drawing in more sacred, more sanity… and less of everything else. My fervent prayer is that by the end of the year we’ll have gotten the f-ck off our phones to:

… be in Deeper Devotion with Self and with Spirit;
… have more Fulfilling Friendships; and
… celebrate ourselves for practicing all the new load-lightening habits that we’ve wanted to cultivate for, like, everrr.

It starts in May 2018. Everything about it lives HERE, with more info being added as we get closer. My people, you are heartbreakingly beautiful. Go do right by Love. Do the Light Work.

All light,
Danielle

.  .  .  .  .

LINK LOVE
Light Workers mentioned in this episode…

  • Steph Corker is passionate about uncovering people’s true potential. She co-runs The Corker Co, a leading recruitment company, and is an 17-time Ironman finisher.

  • Kate Northrup is the creator of the Do Less Experiment, and author of Money: A Love Story.

  • Anne Davin is a licensed psychotherapist and coach who helps women turn the knowledge they already have into embodied wisdom.

  • Michelle Pante is the cofounder of Willow: Inspired End of Life Planning to help “light up your life and connect you with who and what matter most.”

  • Dolly Hopkins is a Vancouver-BC-based event planner + Creative Architect who “changes the landscape through celebration”.

  • Lee-Anne Ragan is the founder of Rock Paper Scissors specializing in cross-cultural, communications, team building, evaluation, and conflict resolution training.

  • Hiro Boga is a mentor and guide for visionary entrepreneurs and author of To Be Soul, Do Soul.

  • Carrie-Anne Moss is founder of Annapurna Living and an actress, seeker, and storyteller.

  • Terri Cole is a licensed psychotherapist and transformation coach and founder of the Real Love Revolution and Boundary Bootcamp.

  • Christina Platt is founder of Bamboletta dolls: impeccably natural, locally handcrafted, ethically sourced kid companions.

  • Dr. Deb Kern is a nurse, health educator, physical trainer and Ph.D health scientist focused on women’s divinity and empowerment.

  • Chela Davison is one of the most sought after Integral Coaches in the business.

RELEVANT BOOKS

MUSIC

  • DJ Drez + Marti Nikko from Drez’s latest album, Alpine Swift, featuring the song, Light Me Up

    Danielle LaPorte is an invited member of Oprah’s SuperSoul 100, a group who, in Oprah Winfrey’s words, “is uniquely connecting the world together with a spiritual energy that matters.” She is author of White Hot Truth: Clarity for keeping it real on your spiritual path—from one seeker to another. The Fire Starter Sessions, and The Desire Map: A Guide To Creating Goals With Soul—the book that has been translated into 8 languages, evolved into a yearly day planner system, a top 10 iTunes app, and an international workshop program with licensed facilitators in 15 countries.

    Named one of the “Top 100 Websites for Women” by Forbes, millions of visitors go to DanielleLaPorte.com every month for her daily #Truthbombs and what’s been called “the best place online for kickass spirituality.” A speaker, a poet, a painter, and a former business strategist and Washington-DC think tank exec, Entrepreneur Magazine calls Danielle, “equal parts poet and entrepreneurial badass…edgy, contrarian…loving and inspired.” Her charities of choice are Eve Ensler’s VDay: a global movement to end violence against women and girls, and charity: water, setting out to bring safe drinking water to everyone in the world. She lives in Vancouver, BC with her favourite philosopher, her son. You can find her @daniellelaporte and just about everywhere on social media.


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