It's decision time! Should you stay or should you go?

We’re standing at a crossroads. Red light. Green Light.

We can stay, or we can go.

credit pixabay

No matter how many times we have turned this decision over in our mind, we remain stuck, fearful and confused.

One moment, every fiber in our body says ‘GET OUT’!!

The next moment, we never want to leave.

This one foot in, one foot out mindset and state of confusion, can cause the relationship to break down entirely. And the harm, the traffic buildup, can damage the entire city we live in.

And when we find ourselves stuck at that crossroads, staring desperately up at the traffic light, too paralyzed to move, it’s the obsessive questioning that is plaguing our will to love and love.

• How long can I live like this? 
• Does he/she love me anymore?
• What will happen if I leave? 
• Will I ever meet someone again?
• How did we get here?
• Can we get back to a better place? 
• Am I wasting the best years of my life? 
• What will my family say? 
• What will people think of me? 
• How will this affect the children?
• Why won’t he/she listen to me?
• Did I choose the wrong person?
• What’s wrong with me?
• How much crime TV does one have to watch to ensure no one finds the body? (just kidding, or am I?)

The above questions are valid, HOWEVER they’re the wrong questions.

They’re not making things any clearer because they’re driven by fear, helplessness, anger and resentment.

As long as we are paralyzed, unsure of which direction to go, we CAN NOT and WILL NOT invest, in either course.

credit; Unsplash/ Flo Karr

Often, at the very start of coaching people in relationships, I ask them to commit to something incredibly scary.  To suspend all their doubts and disbelief and decide wholeheartedly, TO STAY.

It’s a TEMPORARY ask.   

We set a specific timeline, usually 90 days, for them to absolutely commit to staying in their partnership. 

Why do I do this?

Well…

1. The merry go round of indecision is exhausting.  It can zap us of all our energy. We’re going to need A LOT of energy to focus on the work to repair and rejuvenate their relationship.

2. As long as you are standing at the traffic light, vacillating between green and red, stay and go, you will undermine ALL of the work that needs doing.  I want my couples to experience results. Often that result, is, a marriage or partnership SAVED!  Sometimes that result, is finally knowing beyond any doubt, it cannot be saved.  Staying in limbo is torture. Not just for the individuals in the relationship, but everyone within a 10 mile radius.  That traffic, gets WAY backed up! (and yes, that traffic… that city… it’s YOU, your partner, your family, friends and loved ones, my dear)

3. If our heads are swirling with the tornado of questions you have been asking yourself for months, even years… you won’t be able to hear the powerful life changing questions I have to offer. AND you need to hear them, dearest one.

WE HAVE TO GO ALL IN. 

TOP DOWN, PEDAL TO THE METAL. 

credit; Pixabay

Today, I want to offer up FOUR of these epic questions to you! 

My lovely, I cordially invite you to get into the drivers seat, take a deep breath and take your eyes off the traffic lights and put them on the road ahead of you, where they belong.

Ready?  Let’s go!

• So why, is being in this relationship AND making it work, important to YOU?
• If we were having this conversation 1 year from today, and you were looking back over that year, what has to have happened in your life for you to feel really happy with your progress. 
• What are THREE actions, YOU can do THIS WEEK, that would bring you one baby step closer to results you want to see in one year’s time?  
• What’s stopping you from doing them?  Resentment? Expectation? What conditions or doubts, spring to mind that are blocking YOU, from taking action?

Take these away with you, grab a pen and paper and dig deep.

Then, comment below or privately email me your answers! My door is wide open and I always love to hear back from my gorgeous tribe. 

Sending you all the love,  xx Jessica Elizabeth

#relationshipcoaching #marriagesaver #partnership #relationshipgoals #askyourself #keeplove

Your SURVIVAL guide to The 7 Stages of a Break Up...

Breakup's are a bitch.

And recovering from a breakup, is a process. It can take weeks, months, even years!  The overall timing of the break up process, is different for everyone. 

AND, it's filled with pitfalls, relapses, resentment and pain.  Notice I didn’t say suffering?

Pain is part of life.  Suffering is optional, babe.

The similarities to ‘the 7 stages of grieving’, a well defined and researched arena of loss, prove to be an invaluable guide to making it through a breakup.  I wanted to take a few minutes of your day, to let you in on my own spin for navigating the breakup process, AND getting to the other side of it, fast AND whole!

Warning; The stages don’t always come in this order, nor do they always come one at a time! YIKES!

The 7 stages of a breakup;

A fierce woman's MUST HAVE survival guide!

Stage 1. Shock & Awe: "What the hell just happened?"

credit; giphy.com

Shock is the body's natural protection against pain. We are foggy, disoriented at first. This is also not a natural state for the human body, so we reach out and begin to grasp onto what might steady us again.  

We become almost desperate for answers…  How did this happen? When did the relationship, turn?  Who the hell is this person? What else have they lied about? How could they do this? What did I do wrong? How can I fix it?

The overwhelming NEED TO KNOW can be all consuming. It can plague our thoughts at work, out with friends, and home alone. You fixate on things your ex said at various times that you see as contradicting the breakup, and you hold onto them now as if they are gospel. The desperation to make sense of something so jarring compels you to debate friends, family, co-workers, even strangers, about why the relationship ended, while you justify to them the reasons it shouldn’t have, as if convincing them it is equal to convincing your ex.

Yet somewhere within, you have moments of clarity, too. Which is good. We’re gonna need those moments of clarity to build our bridge to having a healed heart!

Ask yourself;

What if the NEED TO KNOW why this happened, is beyond anyone’s ability, even your ex’s ability, to explain?

What if they don’t even know what went wrong? 

Do’s & Don’ts:

• Do journal the heck out of it, and choose 1-2 trusted ‘ride or die’ friends to unpack at nausea, if needed.

• Do set a time limit on these thoughts. 5 minutes, 30 minutes. When the time is up, imagine an alarm dinging. Stop, and MOVE ON to thinking or doing something else. If your mind obsessively wanders back over, DING DING DING, Stop and move on.

• Don’t just talk to anybody willing to listen. Don’t take to social media to post your musings to your 1000 Facebook friends to answer.  Hostages won’t help you get out of this alive, my dear.

Stage 2. Denial: "This is so not happening."

credit; giphy.com

Denial is rejection of reality and a storage of feelings. The thinking is that, if you don't accept the heartbreak, then it didn't really happen, thus leaving hope for reunion. During this stage of a breakup it is common to call, email or even Instagram-stalk — anything that feels remotely "normal" about the relationship — in an effort to put dealing with the heartbreak on hold.

Denial can also take form of us running ram shod right over the pain. Acting as if we don’t care, that this doesn’t hurt. Going out on a flurry of dates the very next week, laying claim to the old battle cry “the best way to get over an EX is to get under the NEXT”. 

First off, Ewww. Second, your heart, your feelings, whilst painful and overwhelming, ARE VALID. Pay them the respect, the acknowledgement they deserve. They are infinitely patient, and will wait. Walk through them, own them, what does not kill us makes us stronger, dearest one!

Do’s & Don’ts;

• Do visualize the waves of pain and grief you feel as if you are sitting in the shallows by the sea. Allow them to wash over you, breathing them in deeply and exhaling them, as the wave recedes gently back into the ocean. The more we fight the waves, the more likely they will smash us to bits on the shoreline.

• Don’t minimize the situation or run from it. Pretending the breakup and the pain you feel is better off if not dealt with will create emotional numbness and leave you paralyzed and stuck.

Stage 3. Bargaining: Battling the IF only’s, WHEN’s, and WHAT if’s.

credit; Giphy.com

You are willing to do anything to avoid accepting it’s over. YOU can make this right!! We tell ourselves that being without our ex is so intolerable, that you can work harder, deal with it, even settle to win them back.  Can we get really REAL with each other?  It’s the fear of being alone, that’s kicking your ass.

The fear of that is so palatable, that we confuse the feeling of fear as a fact of life . Logic has no role in negotiations when fear is driving the bargaining. If you cave to this bargaining phase, not only will you find yourself back in a relationship that is broken (it’s called a break up for a reason!) you are placing the entire burden of repairing, maintaining, and sustaining a relationship onto yourself. It's as if the responsibility is yours and yours alone to make it work this time.

Ask yourself;

What if no matter what you did, it still didn’t work out?

If only you had gotten out of this relationship sooner, what harm and pain could you have saved yourself?

Do's & Don'ts;

• Do go out and enjoy some activities alone. Go out and see all the movies, he/she never wanted to see with you. The long country walks they always ruined by bitching it was too rainy. We both know there are quite a few things, you LOVE to do, that have been neglected lately in favour of spending time in your relationship. 

• Do catch up with friends you haven’t seen in a while. Take that weekend girls trip to the spa or to the coast!

• Don’t lose sight that there were TWO people in that relationship, and TWO people who contributed to it’s ending. One person alone CAN’T fix it. You can’t possibly take responsibility for everything. Somewhere inside, you know that.

Stage 4. ANGER: Rage, RAGE against the dying of the light!

credit; Giphy.com

Although all of us experience these phases in different order, anger usually comes further down the road for most of us. After fear is done pillaging our souls.  

HOWEVER oh boy, when it comes… Anger can be wildly empowering, harnessing it to fight off the temptation to call, text or Facebook stalk them. There is an element of self-righteousness to this anger, which isn’t such a bad thing. You suddenly wake up and say I MATTER TOO! I DESERVE SO MUCH MORE!  ROAR! 

As long as this anger doesn’t become drunk with rage, I say grab onto it with both hands lady!  Your anger, can absolutely empower you. Anger can be just the motivation we need to add the bite back our fierceness and wake us from the sadness that has been weighing us down.

Just don’t stay there. Feeling and accessing anger is a normal phase of the breakup AND a normal human emotional reaction.  Anger that lingers, that we store away somewhere and brandish too often, becomes bitter resentment.  “Resentment is like drinking poison expecting the other person to die.” Resentment will slow this whole grief process down to a crawl. Resentment will kill the opportunities of new love that awaits us.

Dos & Don'ts

• Do harness your anger for good. Use that anger to propel you in making a list of all the things you want in your next relationship. All the things, you won’t ever tolerate again! When the anger comes, write that new must have list!

• Don’t stay in anger too long. We all have the dark side of the force in us, my young Jedi, don’t let hate consume you. Even if you do look better in black!

Stage 5. Relapse AKA Nostalgia; Just one more time, this time will be different, remember all those good times?

credit; Giphy.com

RED ALERT! This is a BIG ONE! 

If I had a dollar/pound for every time I got a Facebook message, email or heard on a call or in a session with a client getting all ‘moth to the flame’ on a past love…

Just when we are almost through the worst of the break up, getting some real clarity and hope for the future. BAM! Nostalgia comes whispering it’s sweet nothings in our ear. 

Usually we are doing something that is predicating the relapse. We may have even been trying to sustain contact with our EX, right after the break up, in hopes we could one day be great friends one day. WE may have been going through old holiday photos or doing a sneaky 'harmless' snapchat. You may actually be able to convince your ex to try again (this may not be the first breakup with this partner) or convince yourself that meeting for coffee or one final bedroom romp is just the closure you need.  It will TEMPORARILY relieve the agony of withdrawal. However, despite your best efforts, you will not be able to carry the relationship solo. I'm sorry to say, it probably won’t end well this time, either.  

Unfortunately, you may need to go through this process of breaking up and reconciling more than once before you're absolutely convinced it's time to let go.  I too, often leave a whole lot of claw marks on the things I really should let go.

Do's & Dont's

• Do circle back to that must have and all the reasons you would never again list you made in the anger phase, fast!

• Do institute a zero contact rule for AT LEAST 60-90 days post breakup. I know this one is hard, however it is the absolute most sure-fire way to move on. I’m talking Tried. Tested. True. Proven. Bulletproof. A complete detox! no reaching out, no responding.

• Don’t contact them. I mean it. Trust me. Not even a tweet!  

• Don’t forget those 1-2 trusted friends you chose to hear all the tears. If you do opt for some more claw marks, don’t hide it from them, they love you and your going to need their support.

Stage 6. Acceptance; Sweet, sweet surrender.

credit; Giphy.com

Acceptance, when it happens early in the process, can feel more like surrender. You are holding up your end of the breakup because you have to, not because you want to. Either you or your ex has developed enough awareness, sense and control to recognize that you are not meant to be. Over time, this initial, often tenuous acceptance becomes more substantive, as both of you begin to recognize, independently, that there are boundaries that at least one of you must maintain in order for the breakup to stick, because it has to. When that acceptance deepens, it feels like the warmest kindest of embraces. It brings solace… and hope.

Do's & Don'ts;

• Do remember acceptance is a verb. It requires action to exist in our language. Follow up your acceptance with actions that match.

• Don’t believe for minute that surrender equals defeat. Laying down your arms, means not having to fight anymore. The war is over. Let peace into your heartland!

Stage 7. Hope; Walk towards the light Carrie Ann.

credit; Giphy

Breakups level us, in part because they also shatter our relationship with hope. As acceptance deepens, to truly move one, we must have hope. We must move from the belief that you can singlehandedly save a failing relationship, to the possibility that you just might be okay without your EX,  to you have all that you need within you to be happy, to YOU WILL LOVE AND BE LOVED AGAIN,  one day very soon.

Hope is a crucial life force. Hope still exists somewhere inside your heart, you will access it more and more as you continue to allow some meaningful distance between you and your ex. If you are not so sure if you will ever feel hope again… start by believing, that I believe.

Do's & Don'ts;

• Do talk about your hopes and dreams for the future with anyone who will listen. Hearing ourselves speak our hopes aloud can help us cement them into our thinking. Put it out into the universe.

• Don’t ever stop believing you are worthy of love. Or believe that you are alone. 99% of the human population has multiple stories of failed relationships. I do. There is nothing wrong with you! You’re just human. Welcome!

They say, FOLLOW YOUR HEART, but should you?

Just Follow your heart, they say...

One of the biggest challenges we face in getting this whole love thang right, is the sheer volume of mis-matched and mix message advice floating around!

Some of the advice, simply no longer applies in our modern age of dating and love.

Some of it is steeped so deeply in patriarchy tea, you just can’t even get it down.

Some of the advice is right for us, and some of it, simply isn’t.

I wanted to take a moment to unpack one of the the most common advice tidbits, that cuts really close to my own personal bone; and how right sizing it, for who I was and where I was at, when I was single and looking for love, was so vital. 

Hold on to your floppy hat and your so on trend rose tinted oversized sunglasses, lady because THIS was truly the pivotal moment my love life started to really change for the better!

‘FOLLOW YOUR HEART’

image; Aki Tolentino / unsplash

Aw, so lovely, right?  I mean, who doesn’t want to take up the wholehearted torch that women as fierce and amazing as Dr. Brene Brown is channeling?  Everywhere we turn, we see this template of leading with the heart working so well…  in entrepreneurship, career changes, travel, family and general life trans-formative exploits from some of the most influential thought leaders of your time!

It’s really imperative, we zoom out the lens a bit here. 

To live a wholehearted life, one must have, well… a whole heart!   A heart that, though scarred, is well healed.  A heart that has done the work of reconciling past mistakes, learning the tough lessons and risen stronger than ever.  

In short.  A heart, that can be trusted!

Back in 2006, one of the hardest things I had to rumble with, was surrendering the fact my heart could NOT be trusted.

My heart was a wild, wanton crazy lady.  She cared not for reason or risk, and oh my did she the track record to prove it! 

She consistently made some really horrendous choices in love, and was so confused herself, she was speaking in tongues.

(I can’t even begin to tell you, how bad it got on the occasions my heart and vagina synched up on their quests for love, #YIKES #TITANICLEVELDISASTER #ALTERNATIVEFACTS)

Um, yeah. AT THAT TIME IN MY LIFE. we made a pretty bad team, my heart and me. She was the conductor of the train wreck that was my love life, CHOO CHOO, and I felt like I was hanging on for dear life.  And I wasn’t happy. I wasn’t living a whole hearted life where love streamed in and back out, of my every move!  

image; Muhammad Faruque / Unsplash

On the side of the train tracks, battered into loads of tiny bits was my confidence, trust, self-worth, self-love and integrity. 

The moment, I stopped letting my heart be the solo star of the show and cast my brain, my body, my reason and my spirit as equal players on the stage.  Things started to shift.

I didn’t forbid my heart from participating!  I just tuned the volume knob down a bit on her, so some of the other crucial elements of my decision-making process, could be heard too.

That’s about the time, I asked for outside help.  A put my faith, trust and money into a coach who could help me navigate, heal and become whole hearted.

I started to get some real clarity on what I really wanted in a partner and what I was going to NEED to ‘make a relationship work’.  Slowly but surely, my confidence and self-worth were not only re-built but soared to new heights.

I also faced off with my fears. 

I had no idea until then, just how much my fear of...

being alone.

getting it wrong.

not being perfect

being rejected

being made to look a fool

making the wrong choice

and that there wasn’t enough love out there for me to get my share…

WAS RUNNING MY LOVE LIFE!  

Mama needed a new outlook, badly.

image; James Garcia / Unsplash

And I needed to take charge of love, with my WHOLE self, like I was doing in every other area of my life. 

Once the heart was tamed, healed, loved by me and no longer speaking in jibberish…  WOW, she was my biggest most trustworthy advocate

Is your heart, helping or hurting your search for love?

How she answered the call of happiness and her marriage...

Last September, l I received a call from a woman who was truly at her wits end in her relationship.

photo credit; pixaby

Something had changed, a shift had occurred earlier in the year and she no longer seemed to be able to make her partner happy. The tension in the partnership was escalating and she was beginning to question, if she even loved her husband anymore.

I asked her, if there were any major events that happened in the last year?  Births? Death? Marriage? Job loss or gain? 

She confided to me, her partner’s father had died in January and she suspected he was in depression however she couldn’t seem to break through to him and help.

She proceeded to list of TWENTY different very creative, furtive endeavors, ideas and failed attempts, to make her partner happy. To reach him through the fog of grief and depression that seemed to have consumed him, since his father’s passing. 

I asked her if she was a grief counsellor? 

NO, she replied.

I asked her if she was a therapist, trained to diagnosis and treat depression?

NO, she replied.

I asked if her husband had sought any professional help since his father’s death?

NO, he’s not willing to go, she said.

I asked her what she did on a weekly basis to that brought her, and her alone, happiness?

I got mostly silence and then she stuttered, teary eyed…  “I, I, I don’t know.”

I asked her why, without any qualifications or training was she taking on the responsibility to treat her partner’s possible depression?

She said “It’s my job to make him happy!!!”

 

No, it’s not.  AND, even if it was, it’s impossible role to fill.

We are not responsible to ‘make’ others happy.   I am not saying that, with our words and actions, we cannot bring more happiness to our relationships OR, the opposite, bring more UNhappiness to a relationship, but we are never EVER solely in control of someone else’s happiness. Nor or they EVER solely responsible for ours, either.

photo credit; Pixaby

Someone gave me a fridge magnet, many years ago, that said...

“When we think about how hard it is to change ourselves, we can see clearly how little chance we have of changing others”. 

For a bit of a control freak like me, that fridge magnet kicked me in the stomach every time I went for milk in the morning.

In the work that followed with this client.  We got to the core of some very co-dependent mind-sets she had been carrying around her entire life. Her own mother had been an alcoholic, and she had to take over as the carer in the family, for not just her siblings but her mother as well on most days.  Her upbringing had instilled the legacy that, it was her ‘job’ to make everyone else around her okay.

AND that IF she accomplished that, only then she could be happy.

It took a few sessions, however once she came to believe that if she let go of the reigns, her self appointed position as bringer of happiness to others, we could focus on her own self worth, confidence and ability to give and receive love in a healthy, balanced way. 

We started from a place of, if we are not filled with happiness ourselves, what could we possibly offer it to someone else?

photo credit; Pixaby

We changed how she communicated with her husband. The reality was, he did need help, but he didn’t want it and couldn’t hear it from her.  With every verbal push she gave to get closer, he receded back into the darkness that much more.  She was offering help, desperately attempting to make him happy again, which on the surface sounds like what a partner should do… however, it felt more like adding to his burden then relinquishing it. 

About 45 days into our work together, we succeeded in that shift. And the earth moved in her relationship.

Her husband, asked her what had changed? He also, decided he wanted to come to a session too!  That session turned into them completing the program together.  It also resulted in, HIM, taking the steps to seek grief counseling and therapy.  BOOM!

I am happy to report, that these two clients are happier individually and as a couple, then they have been in the last 10 YEARS!

photo credit; Pixaby

More often than not, its in the midst of doing what we believe is the right thing, that we are causing the most damage in the dynamic.

We just can’t see it, alone. We just can’t change it, alone.  And our partners, alone, are not always the best team mates in facilitating change, cause they are cemented into their own roles too!

Please know; YOU ARE NOT ALONE.

I've got you.

9 Things Couples' Therapists Want You To Know About Marriage & Kids

First it was a team of TWO... and then BOOM! A team of three, four, five...

Starting a family, and the incomprehensible joy children can bring to our lives is an epic pivot point in a couples life.  I mean, once you get past the absolute terror of those first days (or months) of each of you doing your very best to keep them alive... AND once you learn first hand just how little sleep a human needs to function, of course!  

The moment comes for us all, the welcomed exhale as they begin to endlessly entertain us with their antics and the awe inspiring 'firsts' as they experience the world.  It's magic!

HOWEVER, many MANY couples struggle to maintain the well being and health of the original'Team of TWO'. Both individually and as a couple.  Time becomes sand, that not just slips but spills furtively from our hands, and all too often, a couple becomes two separate islands with an ocean between them. 

Date night? Sex? Quiet conversation over a candle lit dinner?  AHAHAHAHA What's that?  

One of the greatest gifts we can offer for a child's development and future emotional maturity is a love filled home.  Love that flows freely, not just to them, but between the parents too. 

The very hip folks over @ Romper.com, get it!  Romper 'chronicles that crazy adventure — its highs and its lows — in a way that’s smart, honest, helpful, and above all, fun. Raising another human is no joke, but it’s often hilarious.'   

They did us all a great service by providing this fantastic article to help YOU out with everything I just spoke about!  HURRAH! 

romper.com

It was an honour to contribute as an relationship expert on this article, and hope you find my tips, along with some other experts, super helpful as you navigate partnership and parenting!

READ THE ARTICLEHERE https://www.romper.com/p/9-things-couples-therapists-want-you-to-know-about-marriage-kids-45082

 

What's not working for you?  Where is the STRUGGLE so very real as you try to be the best parent and partner?  xx

Commonly Misunderstood Dating Signs; hear it from the experts!

Recently I was lucky to be asked to weigh in, as a love and relationship expert, by one of the online dating giants ZOOSK. 

In this article, myself and other experts, hash out what can be the absolute shit show that can be deciphering dating signal hieroglyphics today!  

Check out the whole article here.  https://www.zoosk.com/date-mix/relationship-advice/commonly-misunderstood-dating-signs/

Have you ever found yourself mystified by the whole 'Does he/she like me?' question?  Have any good stories to tell?  Share with us in the comments below!  xx

So... who's your bad ass wing WOMan?

“Empowered women, empower women”

 
It’s my personal battle cry, in life.
 
AND, the time worn advice, of having a wing woman, a trusted fab girlfriend to hit the town with, still works.

However, it can be really easy to get it wrong.  And a night out with the girls can become the very last environment to meet someone new, let alone with the potential to become that elusive love of our lives.

Here are a few tips to negotiating the Sex In The Cityesque coup,  of having the perfect wingwoman.
 
 
Wait a minute… How about we actually use those timeless fabulous ladies of Sex In The City to break this one down!?!   Oooooh, yes please!
 

Here they are, at the beloved train wreck beginnings of finding love in NYC!

Four women, living in one of the greatest cities of the world, (who of course, cause this is make believe TV land could afford great apartments and a killer shoe collection well beyond their means, but I digress) who navigated all the ups and downs possible in their searches for love.
 
What made them a killer team?  Each one was uniquely ‘killing it’ in their own right, career wise and personality wise.
 
From uninhibited Samantha, who seized every day (and every sexual encounter) like it was her last…
 
To Charlotte, the girl next door who never ever stopped believing in the fairytale.. 
 
To Miranda the smart, cynical realist kicking ass in her career and unwilling to settle in love.. 
 
To our beloved Carrie, who couldn’t make heads nor tales of dating but wasn’t afraid to admit it every week in her column.
 
These women, took on the meanest, leanest concrete jungle of love together, and won!
 
They also, never stopped being incredibly real with each other, which always makes for the best kind of friend to have.
 
But which one makes the best wing woman for you?


 

Miranda;

image credit; GIPHY

Witty, take no shit, Miranda. If you’re acting a fool, Miranda will tell you, loud and clear. We love AND need that. However, Miranda’s don’t always make the best wing women for a night on the town where finding love is the on the menu. Miranda came to spend some really precious time from her busy demanding career to be with her girls. She will not appreciate you spending half the night talking to that cutie who is whispering all the right ‘smash the patriarchy’ sweet things in your ear. Miranda doesn’t necessarily live her life by the ‘see what happens, go with the flow’ rules.  

Miranda’s CAN make a great wing Woman, however, she needs to know the deal up front, crystal clear. Don’t tell her it’s a girls night out to spend quality time… tell her, you need her to go with you to this networking ‘do’ where some like-minded potential partners hang out, cause you want to meet new people and are feeling a bit too nervous to go it alone. If she knows the score, she will be epic support. Bait and switch her with a ‘girls night out’, and she will NOT be having it, and her energy will rain all over your parade that night

Samantha;

image creit; GIPHY.com

Sexy, swing from the rafters, fun Samantha. She appears to be the perfect, high energy, ‘let’s do this’ wingWOman… however, Samantha brings her own special brand of crazy to a night out. Samantha’s have the charisma milkshake to bring all the people to the yard AND she is down for whatever, wherever, which is a huge plus in going out on the town. Samantha’s also can get lost in their own wants and needs, she is a bit of a magpie for all the shiny bits.

If you want a solid night of sisterly support, Samantha has the potential to bail on you in the first five minutes when something sparkly catch’s her eye.  She can interrupt a really great convo you might be having with someone, asking to head out to the next party.  Samantha’s can overtake the conversation with her own heady radiance and if she finds something or someone she likes POOF, she’s gone.

Samantha just needs a firm reminder of the ground rules too and to be carefully selected for the event, itself. She operates best in the wilder party atmosphere OR something more regimented but quirky that requires her special inhibition to boost your own, like tango classes!

Charlotte;

photo credit; GIPHY

Sweet, always there for us, glitter eyed Charlotte. Feeling like giving up on love? Been ghosted for the one thousand and eight time? Call Charlotte. She’ll lift you up to the sky with her never-ending positivity and belief in love. We all need a Charlotte in our life.

Need a partner in crime for a gallery opening? A business minded networking event? A yoga retreat? Out and about, and the negative gremlins are saying, ‘don’t even bother to go over there and talk to him’? Charlotte! Charlotte! Charlotte! 

Want to hit a dance all night party? A burlesque show? An alternative underground scene event? Um, nope. NOT Charlotte! She will spend most the night, dying to leave and bringing you down a bit with her. 

The best thing about Charlotte's, is they're always in wingWOMan mode, tripping the love fantastic!

Carrie;

credit; GIPHY.com

Funny, sassy, fashionista Carrie!  You need the real talk? Carrie’s got it, too! 

You need someone with a flexible enough personality (and wardrobe) to transcend the warehouse party or a trendy restaurant opening? Carrie! 

You want to try a personal development seminar, a co-ed bootcamp in the park or suited and booted business function? Carrie? Not so much.  

But here's the deal. Carrie, knows exactly what a jungle it is out there and Carrie knows exactly why this is so important to you. She’s the friend who reminds you most of you. She get’s you like no one else.  Also, Carrie is that friend that provides the relationship savvy to not just keeps the girl crew together but she actually has real experience in and out of relationships.  

Carrie has the track record of success and some pretty spectacular failures in love, which is GOLD DUST!

Having the self esteem to power out on a night solo is great however, HAVING FUN WHILST LOOKING FOR LOVE (oh yes, that's right... this is supposed to be FUN!)  may require some serious grrl powered back up!  Choose your wingWOMen wisely, lovelies!