By Aska Kolton “Never lose yourself in a relationship. Love your partner fiercely, but always follow your unique dreams and desires. Be true to yourself.” ~Unknown All my previous relationships drained me. Not only because I was with the wrong men and kept trying to make things work where there was no way, but also because…

By Tiffaney Kennedy “I used to be afraid of the pain letting go of the past would cause, until I realized how much pain holding on has caused.” ~Steve Maraboli Getting over the pain of a bad relationship is never easy. Even when I finally felt more in control of my feelings, the pain from my past would…

By Marissa Walter “When the wrong people leave your life, the right things start to happen.” ~Zig Ziglar The end of a relationship triggers many grief emotions, but when a couple breaks up because one person decides that it’s over, there is a very distinct pain: the sting of rejection. It doesn’t matter whether things had…

By Keri Olson “Anything you can’t control in life is teaching you how to let go.” ~Unknown I was growing impatient. I wanted an answer about something and it just wasn’t coming, no matter how hard I tried to prod it into happening. I was growing frustrated. And I was growing frustrated with my frustrations about…

By John Franco “We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men.”  ~Herman Melville I grew up with a faith that encouraged personal sacrifice for others. Putting myself before others or desiring what they lacked was sinful. So there I was, during my teenage years, trying to be a saint, completely unselfish…

By Sara Fabian “Raise your words, not your voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.” ~Rumi One of the most common sources of conflict among people is in the way we communicate. Often times, conflicts arise because of the variety of our opinions and beliefs, and also from the way we express our thoughts…

Many of us feel we’re not getting the support we want or deserve in relationships. Maybe we’ve never felt supported by our friends or family. Maybe we don’t feel supported by our peers or co-workers. Maybe we don’t even feel supported by our partner. This can leave us feeling drained, tired, and unhappy, like we’re moving through…

By Jen Picicci “Stop thinking in terms of limitations and start thinking in terms of possibilities.” ~Terry Josephson When I was in my early twenties I was lucky enough to spend about a year living just a few blocks from the beach in Virginia Beach, Virginia, but you know what I remember most distinctly from that time?…

By Annette Roberts “Change is the end result of all true learning.” ~Leo Buscaglia I cringe writing this. I have eaten so much humble pie that my pants don’t fit. This was a really hard lesson to learn. I had a forgiveness problem. When I was a kid, I learned to say sorry when I messed…

By Melissa Pennel “Tis better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all.” ~Lord Alfred Tennyson I’ve always loved relationships—the euphoria of early romance, the comfort of built intimacy, and the experience of adventuring through life with someone else. While there are some pretty snazzy parts of being single, I was a…

By: Advisor Adeena Stage One- Desire To Find Each Other  This is the first stage. You may have experienced bad relationship after bad relationship, struggling to understand why you have not found happiness with “The One” that doesn’t yet exist in your life. You wonder if there is better out there you wonder when you…

By Aska Kolton “Don’t rush into any kind of relationship. Work on yourself. Feel yourself, experience yourself and love yourself. Do this first and you will soon attract that special loving other.” ~Russ Von Hoelscher Being in love is awesome. Sharing your life with someone special who gets you, adores you, and loves you for who…

By Aska Kolton “Single is no longer a lack of options, but a choice. A choice to refuse to let your life be defined by your relationship status but to live every day Happily and let your Ever After work itself out.” ~Mandy Hale In our society, being single is still heavily stigmatized. Being single is…

By Renée Suzanne “Love is not what you say. Love is what you do.” ~Unknown I used to think that true love should be passionate and intense. When someone broke up with me or treated me poorly, I’d imagine that he really didn’t mean it. Surely he was really a good person and truly loved me, but was…

By Chetna Mehta “There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophies.” ~Friedrich Nietzche Parked in a dimly lit garage in the middle of the city at around 7pm, I sat in the driver’s seat, seatbelt still on, texting two different male acquaintances who had expressed sexual interest in me. “What are you…

By Will Aylward “When you love someone, the best thing you can offer is your presence. How can you love if you are not there?” ~Thich Nhat Hanh The only thing worse than not listening to someone is pretending to listen. Giving the vague murmur of agreement, or a quick nod to communicate “Yes, I’m listening, totally,” when…

By Johanna Schram “You’re imperfect, and you’re wired for struggle, but you are worthy of love and belonging.” ~Brené Brown I can’t remember exactly what it was she was trying to convince me I could do, but I had an argument to counter every bit of encouragement. There was no shortage to the ways I believed…

By Holly L. Pender “Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” ~Robert Brault Valentine’s Day has never been a big deal to me. It always felt commercialized, so forced. I’ve never felt I needed Hallmark to remind me to do something special for my husband,…

By Angela Lois “Some people come into your life for a reason, some a season, and some a lifetime. However long it was, be thankful for the gifts you received from them.” ~Unknown When I first met him, we instantly clicked. We became fast friends aided by the fact that I was dealing with my father’s death and he was by my side…

By Laura Tong “Be there. Be open. Be honest. Be kind. Be willing to listen, understand, accept, support, and forgive. This is what it means to love.” ~Lori Deschene They say your heart pounds when you’re in love. But the very idea of opening up and letting love in can bring on the wrong kind of…