Hello, and welcome back to AdviceSession, a series here on anything goes where you send in your current dilemmas or anything that you want adviceon, and I give you my unprofessionaladvice.
And let mereiterate, very unprofessionaladvice, and I recommend that you take all of it with a grain ofsalt.
With that beingsaid, today we are going to be covering trust issues and boundaries in romanticrelationships.
I've compiled a list of current dilemmas and current challenges thatyou, thelistener, are facing in your relationships rightnow.
And I'm going to give you myadvice, my unprofessionaladvice, veryunprofessional.
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So let'sbegin. Somebodysaid, I have trustissues, even though my partner gives me nothing to worryabout.
How do I fixthis? I understand this because I also have my own slew of trustissues.
I have never really officially been cheatedon.
I can't confirm that I've been liedto.
No, that's nottrue. I actually can't confirmthat.
I have been lied to quite a bit in mypast.
And over the last fewyears, I've developed quite a few trustissues, just from bad experiences indating.
I feel like what happens in relationships is that something goeswrong, like someone cheats or someone lies or someone loses feelings or whatever it maybe.
And the experience is soscarring, Ithink, because romantic relationships are so emotional and so deeply felt that anything that happens in them is tattooed in the brain of who experienced it permanently because it's so deeplyemotional.
And it'sso, I don't evenknow, gutterall, like the whole experience is just sovivid, youknow, that you just neverforget.
And so bad experiences in romantic relationships seem to feel permanent in the brain because of how severely emotional the experienceis.
So it makes sense that we tend to hold on to these bad past experiences and take them into our next ones because we don't want to make the same mistakeagain.
It's like when you're a kid and you touch the stove and you find out that it'shot, then you never want to touch the stoveagain.
But the difference between learning that the stove is hot by burning your hand on it and learning that potential future partners are bad because you had a bad experience with one of them is that stoves are alwayshot, whereas people are all verydifferent.
Now there is something to be said for patterns inhumans,right?
Like it's not like it's rare for humans to cheat on each other in monogamousrelationships.
It happens quite abit. So it's hard to rationalize the fact that the next person that you date won't be thatway.
It's safer and in some ways more obvious tosay, you knowwhat, this is my newdefault.
I just believe I'm always going to be cheatedon.
But the truth is is that every stove is hot and not every person isterrible.
And I think in some ways in order to manage trustissues, you have to go into new relationships with themindset, innocent until provenguilty.
Ah, I don't know if I meanthat.
That's a bit tooextreme.
I think it's more like innocent until your gut tells you otherwise or until provenguilty.
Because there's also something to be said for dating somebody and your trust issues sort of acting up for a genuinely validreason.
Forexample, let's say you and your ex had a very beautiful relationship up until your ex stopped responding to your texts during theday.
Like they just started ignoring you during the day when you both were atwork.
And then a few months after that sort ofbegan, you found out that your partner was cheating onyou.
Now when you don't get responded to during theday, that's going to remind you of when you were being cheatedon.
So anytime your new partner doesn't respond to your text during theday, you'relike,wait, what does thismean?
It's not completely irrational to belike,well, this happened lasttime.
This might mean that it's happeningagain.
Like my partner has stopped responding to me during theday.
The last time thishappens, I got cheatedon.
Could this be happeningagain?
Like tome, that'srational.
And in thatcase, you need to bring that up to your partner and have a conversation andsay, this is making me reallyuncomfortable.
The last time this happened tome, I was being cheatedon.
And so you can't completely ignore your trust issues because sometimes they're actually acting as a protection for you because you learned something the hard way lasttime.
I think when it becomes a problem iswhen, youknow, similar to the situation that we're discussing rightnow, trust issues come up and start to cause issues even when the new partner is not giving you anything to worryabout.
And I think the best way to combat this is to numberone, communicate your trust issues with yourpartner.
I've done this many times before where I've explained to my newpartner,hey, these are all the things that have happened to me in my past that have made it really hard for me to trust inrelationships.
Now because of all of thesethings, I need extra reassurance in theseareas.
Now it sounds so like borderline therapy speak to talk about these things in thisway, but I do it because I find it to be crucial that my new partner understands where I've been scarred so that we have an open dialogue about things so that when my trust issues do actup, I can belike,hey, my trust issues are acting up because you're doingthis.
I'm so I know it'sirrational.
I know nothing's probablywrong.
But I'm going to need a little bit more support in this way to make me feelbetter.
And you would be shocked at how that open dialogue helps soothe those trust issues in a very powerfulway.
But I also think another half the battle is on onezone.
Youknow, if you're struggling with trustissues, a lot of it is just negative thoughts repeating and swirling around your brain over and over again because you don't know how to stopthem.
And this applies also to other anxious thoughts that areirrational.
You have to learn how to controlthem.
And to behonest, I'm still working onthat.
If I had it all figuredout, I would not have as bad of anxiety as Ihave, but I think something that can be really helpful and it soundsdumb, but my mom taught this tome.
So it stopped calling it dumb because it was my mom's idea or it wasn't heridea.
She read it in an anxiety management booksomewhere.
But to close your eyes and imagine a stop sign when you're spiraling with these negativethoughts, give your brain a second tobreathe.
And then you need to figure out a way to let itout.
Okay. Write it down in ajournal.
Call a close family member orfriend.
And get it out of yourhead.
Discuss yourfears. Discuss the worst casescenario.
Get it all off yourchest.
And then now that it's all out there in the world to see they're on a piece of paper or it's come out of your mouth and been received by somebody else'sear.
Now you're able to work onit.
Now you're able to tangibly touchit.
It's not reallytangible, I guessstill, but it feels moretangible.
And fromthere, you can do a fewthings.
Numberone, you can figure out a plan on how to make yourself feelbetter, whether that's having a conversation with your partner or maybe distracting yourself with things like meditating or exercise or reading or working on something in these moments when you start tospiral, figuring out what you want your distraction to be in these moments when you'respiraling.
Or you can choose to accept the fact that the worst case scenario might come true and that you might have to deal withthat.
But until ithappens, you can't be worried aboutit.
You can do a few ofthose.
You can do all three ofthose.
I think ideally you do all three ofthose, but those are the best tactics that Iknow.
And I'm hesitant to say this because I don't know if it's my own personal experienceonly.
And so I don't know if it's greatadvice, but I do want to tell you a story of something that's happened tome.
I'm somebody who dates alot, not like alot, but I'm always in arelationship.
I feel like for the past fewyears, I've been in relationshipslike, youknow, and not even onpurpose.
Like I'm not even trying to dothat.
And I'vejust, the way that my life isunfolded, I'vejust, youknow, dated a lot over the last few years in like pretty seriousrelationships.
I've had quite afew. And I've noticed something over the course of my datingexperiences, which is if you're dating somebody who you know really loves you and you can feel that in every cell in your body that that person loves you and adoresyou.
The trust issues aregone.
Now this is something that I'veexperienced.
I don't want to say it's going to work foreveryone, but I know a lot of us like to bark up the wrongtree.
And Lord knows I've barked up the wrongtrees.
Okay,before, barked up some greattrees.
I barked up some trees that were prettygood, but not quite right forme.
I've barked up a lot of badtrees.
Okay. And I've noticed when I try to create a healthy relationship with somebody who doesn't truly care for me as much as I care forthem, which I've done alot, the trust issues are all over the place because I don't trustthem.
I don't feel like they're allin.
I constantly feel like I'm trying to win them over because they're like either playing hard to get withme, even though we're already dating or they're just genuinely not as into me as I am intothem.
And that makes the trust issues 50 timesworse.
And with a partner likethat, you can communicate with them andsay,hey, these are my trustissues.
I really am going to need extrareassurance.
And it canhelp, let'ssay,60%.
But that last40% comes down to the chemistry of therelationship, Ithink, at least in myexperience.
And if you don't feel like your partner is obsessed withyou, lovesyou, is all in foryou.
And you have trustissues.
You willcontinue, Ithink, to have trustissues.
That's my experience because I just like dating somebody who actually really likes you is not always hot topeople.
Like in thepast, I've sought out guys who honestly didn't really like me thatmuch.
Like I thought that that washot.
Like I used to be very attracted to guys that were hard to get guys that I was constantly having to winover.
And you want to know what that did tome?
It made me a miserablemess.
And what's interesting is inretrospect, I think some of thoserelationships, the guys actually did like me just as much as I likedthem.
If not even more attimes, but they were playing hard toget.
And that was hot tome. And I waslike,ooh, that'shot.
But guess what it led meto?
K-offs in mymind. Being in a relationship with somebody who can share the way that they feel about you are an open book withyou.
It's like almost like the golden ticket for people who have trust issues because it really just helps themdissolve.
I don'tknow. I think a lot of timestoo, we'relike,well, our partner is not giving us any obvious reason to have trustissues, butyeah, we still havethem.
Becritical. Be verycritical.
Askyourself, is this person giving me the amount of reassurance that I neednaturally?
Like are they showering me with the amount of love and reassurance and admiration that I need to feel comfortable in arelationship?
Ask yourselfthat. Don't ask yourself that they're giving you any obvious signs because the answer is no if there's no issues in therelationship,right?
If you still have trustissues, I would suggest that you look a bit deeper because in thepast, they've been in relationships that were verysimilar.
My trust issues wereactivated, but yet there were no obviousissues.
You know what I wasn'tdoing?
I wasn't askingmyself, is this person making me feel loved enough on a dailybasis?
The answer wasno. But that doesn't mean that they were doing anythingwrong.
It just means that they weren't doingenough.
I neededmore. With all that beingsaid, I think there's two main takeawayshere.
Numberone, if you're in a relationship with somebody and things are goinggreat, but you still have trustissues,really,really, really analyze this relationship and figure out if it's because your partner does not make you feel loved enough and you don't trust them because they're not open enough with you and you don't have this super vulnerable rawconnection.
Maybe there's some walls up making you feel a little bitdisconnected, which then is triggering the trustissues, really analyze even the healthiest of relationships to see if that's triggering your trustissues.
But then also have that conversation with yourpartner, explain to them where you'reat, and then do the work on yourown.
That's where I'm at withthat.
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Okay, movingon. Somebodysaid, my boyfriend holds resentment about relationships I had before I even methim.
How do I handleit? This to me is a conversationfirst.
Like nothing can be done before a conversation ishad.
No choices can be made before a conversation ishad.
I think you need to sit your boyfrienddown, and I think you need tosay, it's very upsetting to me that you are basically holding my life before you againstme.
And you say something likethis.
There's nothing I can do to change mypast.
The people that I've beenwith, the things that I've done are all in thepast.
I cannot changethem. So you either need to accept me for who I am and trust that I am the person that you knowtoday.
I'm not the person I was backthen.
Imean, Iam, but I'm alsonot.
Youknow, I've grown a lot sincethen, and I've evolved a lot sincethen, and I'm not with any of those peopleanymore.
I'm with younow. I'm a new person in a lot of waystoday.
You have to either choose to accept that as thetruth, or we can't betogether, because it is never going tochange.
What is already done will neverchange.
The only thing that we can control is what we strive for movingforward.
That'sit. So I don't know what to tellyou.
And this could go a number ofways.
Your partner couldsay,yeah, you knowwhat?
I completelyunderstand.
Like I'msorry, I'm justjealous, or I don't like the way that you behaved in thoserelationships, or you dated myfriend, and it's just so close tohome.
But at the sametime, I loveyou, and I want to be withyou.
And so I'm really going to work on moving pastit.
Okay,great. That might solveeverything.
It also mightnot. Your partner might respond thatway, and then a monthlater, get all but hurt again aboutit.
In whichcase, I actually would recommend breakingup.
If somebody cannot accept yourpast, you cannot be withthem.
Pointblank, because you cannot change thepast.
If somebody doesn't like some of your currentbehaviors, like forexample, they don't like the way that you do thedishes, or they don't like the way you're outgoing atparties, those are things happening in thepresent.
So those conversations can happennow.
And youknow, you can either come to a compromise or ultimately decidethat, youknow, your partner needs to accept those things aboutyou.
It's just different because it'scurrent,right?
Like there is some malleabilitythere.
Like you can make a compromise and change your behavior moving forward as long as you're not sacrificing the integrity of who youare.
There are sometimes moments when sacrifices need to be made and compromises need to bemade.
And I think that that'sfine, but there's no doing that with yourpast.
It is just simply yourpast.
And I've actually dated people in the past where I felt that they were so judgmental that I was afraid of them knowing about mypast, like who I'd hooked up withbefore.
Infact, I've even datedpeople.
Oh myGod. I've dated people where I had hooked up with people that theyhate.
And they never found out about that because I was too afraid to tell them because I waslike, they're going to judge me and they're not goingto.
They will break up with me if they find out that I hooked up with this person onetime.
Orwell, maybefour, maybe fourtimes.
Oh,good. And I guess the other response that your partner might give you in this conversation where you basicallysay, this is who Iam, you have to acceptit.
They also mightsay,okay, this is not going to workthen.
And then you might have to breakup.
And you knowwhat? You don't want to be with anyone in this life who does not accept you for who you trulyare, who you fullyare.
Anytime you have to keep secrets or tell halftruths,no, you can't live likethat.
And there are people out there that are going to accept you for exactly who youare.
Infact, I've also had relationships where I've been with people where I'mlike, this is everything that's ever happened in my entirelife.
This is every single piece of mypersonality.
This is everything that Iam.
Here itis. Take it or leaveit.
I've been welcomed with open arms aswell.
So I've had both experiences in my life and I can tell you that it is possible to find somebody that you can be fully open with who has the maturity tosay, you knowwhat?
I don't love that you did this in yourpast, but also you're a different personnow.
You've grownup. You wouldn't do thatagain.
Youknow, I don'tknow. Allright.
Moving onnext, somebodysaid, how do I express a need for personal space from my partner without hurting theirfeelings?
I think that there's a few ways to doit.
Imean, obviously communication is alwaysideal,right?
To just casually bring it up to them oneday.
Youknow, I feel like I'm always with you and I love spending time withyou, but at the sametime, I feel like I need to be alone sometimes or else I'm not going to have any independentthought.
Like I'm constantly around you and I love being aroundyou, but Ijust, I think I need more alone time to make sure that I can maintain my sense of self in away.
Like it has nothing to do withyou.
I'd hang out with you all the time if Icould, but I just think that I needthat.
That's one way of doing it where you're sort of letting the blow be soft on them and you're making it more about you and trying to maintain your sense of self and almost making it sort of about having discipline and balance in your life and less about them being smothering or whatever withyou,right?
Another thing you could do is just tell them that you're busy more often or if you live withthem, youknow, leave the house more often and say that you need to do certain thingsalone.
And it comes down to sort of making plans that don't involvethem.
So forexample, maybe you want to go to a pottery class byyourself.
Just don't invite them and go and do that on your own and you have full right to dothat.
When they text you and ask if you want to hangout, you justsay, you know whattonight, like I really need to get this done or I really need to do that or youknow, you can sort of just naturally create space by keeping yourself busy with things that don't involvethem.
Now, the only challenge with this is that they might start to feel you pulling back and it might be upsetting for them in which case they might start to act upsetor, youknow, they might start to createresentment, which usually you can feel and then you're going to have tosay,Hey, I can tell that you've been noticing that I've been distancing myself abit.
I can tell it's making you angry orupset.
Here's why I'm doingit.
It is nothing to do withyou.
I still loveyou. I still want to be withyou, but I just needthis.
I really do think the ideal thing is to have a conversation about it and just keep itlight.
Like it doesn't need to be that deep or thatserious.
But what you have to prepare yourself for is the fact that you might still hurt their feelings a littlebit.
Like I've dated very avoidant people in mypast, not all of them have beenavoidant, but I've dated a few avoidant people who really didn't want to hang out thatoften.
I've also dated the opposite of people who want to hang out all thetime.
And I threw my experience with dating people who are avoidant and don't want to hang out veryoften.
I've sort of grown a thick skin like I understand how to managethat.
And I don't really take it superpersonally, but your partner might not have thatexperience.
Youknow, they might be used to spending every single day with their partner or maybe you're the only partner they've ever had and they've only ever experienced being together all the time withyou.
And so it's really important to just reassure your partner as much as possible and reiterate to them that this is about the health of therelationship.
This is not you backing away from therelationship.
This is about making the relationshipstronger.
Youknow, you can even mentionthat.
I feel like we're around each other too much and it'sfine.
Like I loveit, but I think our relationship would benefit from some timeapart.
We'd have more to talkabout.
We would miss each othermore.
I think it would be reallyhealthy.
Yeah, I think that's what I woulddo.
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Somebodysaid, I'm borderline co-dependent with my boyfriend and I need help separating my life from myrelationship.
This is so challenging because it's so easy to just dive headfirst into a relationship and not look back until the relationship isover.
And then you'realone, that happens alot.
It's happened to me a fewtimes.
It's really hard to keep a balance and it's really good that you're noticing itnow.
It's way better to notice it now than to realize it after the fact and belike, I'm all alone because I've relied on my significant other for every ounce of support for the last however amount oftime.
And now we're broken up and I'm alone because I cut everyone elseoff.
And I think that can happen sometimes because the relationship is genuinelytoxic.
I also think it can happen because you just like each other somuch.
I think youknow, can go eitherway.
What I would recommend is numberone, find a group of friends that is your group offriends.
You could meet those friends from trying a pottery class or going to a Pilates class and meeting people like just start putting yourself out there in areas that your boyfriend wouldn't want to join youin.
Youknow, it could be anything but get yourself out there doing activities that he wouldn't maybe be interested in and then try to make friends thatway.
I think having a separate group of friends is very helpful and that can be really challenging to develop and can taketime.
Youknow, my example of like going to Pilates classes or youknow, taking a pottery class and meeting people thatway, that canwork.
It also might notwork. It's so challenging to make friends attimes, but it's something to strive forus.
That's numberone. Numbertwo, I sort of just mentionedthis, but doing activities byyourself, maybe make a goal foryourself.
Like I want to do five activities a week by myself without myboyfriend.
So maybe two of those days it's going to work out class and then two other of those days it's going grocery shopping alone and then one day it's going to potteryclass.
Okay, you see what I'msaying?
So start to create goals like I'm going to do this many things alone perweek.
And then fromthere, I think you can really begin to build this life that exists parallel to yourboyfriend, but not includinghim.
And that might mean that you don't spend as much time with your boyfriend as you usedto.
That might mean that sometimes you miss him and you wish you were together and you'renot, but it's so important to have a life outside of your relationship that isfulfilling.
That it's worth thosechallenges.
Somebody said thoughts on love bombing and how can you tell it'shappening?
I think love bombingis,well, I think it'scomplicated.
Like I'd like to believe that some people love bomb because they're just so excited about being in a new relationship that they just can't contain themselves and they just have so much love to share that they just want to expressit.
I would say for the mostpart, love bombing is used as a manipulation tactic to get somebody in the door and get somebody really emotionally invested and get people's wallsdown.
And the reason why I think it's more often used as a manipulation tactic is because I think that when yougenuinely, deeply are in love with somebody in the beginningphases, you're so afraid of making the other personuncomfortable, making them feelsmothered, forcing things that you tend to be tactful about the way that you express your affection for the otherperson.
Whereas when you don't really care and you're trying to date somebody for some sort of ulteriormotive, you don't really care asmuch.
You're not being astactful.
You're not being as careful and you're more likely to lovebomb.
So that's why I'm a bit skeptical about lovebombing.
Do I think that there are times that people love bomb on accident just because they're so excited and they're just confident bynature?
Yes, but in myexperience, anytime I've been lovebombed, I think Iwas, I fear I was being conned a bit and that they were just trying to lock me in so that they could maybe use me in someways.
So I don't love lovebombing.
I don't think it's great practice ingeneral.
Like even if youreally,really, really likesomebody, I don't think love bombing is ever theanswer.
I think love bombing should be avoided at allcosts.
I think you can tell it's happening when it feelsoff.
Like obviously at some point in the beginning ofrelationship, you have to express your feelings for oneanother.
I think love bombing tends to come about at an abnormaltime.
Like forexample, let's say you've been on one date and then all of asudden, they're like you're the most amazing person I've evermet, you'reunbelievable.
I want you to meet my family and it'slike,what, we've been on onedate.
Like what are you talkingabout?
Whereas if somebody's saying that six months into arelationship, like that is not love bombing tome.
It'slike,no, you know each other wellenough.
Like you've been dating for sixmonths.
If you are starting to feel you want to marry theperson, it'slike, that's kind ofvalid.
I feel like love bombing tends to be more chaotic and more like impulsivefeeling.
You can feel your partner's impulsivity when they're love bombingyou.
You'relike,wow, they just feel like they're like exploding with this and it feels sort ofextreme.
It's another way that you cantell.
But also if their words don't match theiractions, like if they'resaying,oh, you're mysoulmate, I want to marry youblah,blah,blah.
And then like you look at their phone and you'relike, is that anothergirl?
Andlike, I don'tknow. If their words don't match theiractions,like, oh mygod, you're mysoulmate.
I'm in love withyou. You'reperfect.
I'mlike, won't talk to you for like aweek.
It's like if I was your soulmate and you loved everything aboutme, you would be talking to me everyday.
A lot of it comes down toGod.
Like I've been love bombed before and I remember I was love bombed over text once and I rememberlike, I like thisperson.
So I wasexcited. But then they they were like confessing their love for me in a way that tome, I waslike, you don't even know me thatwell.
Like what do youmean? You like really are in love withme.
Like it just it felt a little weird and I but I remember like enjoyingit.
I waslike,wow, I'm happy to hearthis.
This is greatnews. But I was also kind of like this feels off in mygut.
And youknow, I proceeded to date thatperson.
It's not likeit, youknow, it didn't stopme.
And I'm glad it didn't in retrospect because I think with allrelationships, youknow, including all of the failedones, you always learnsomething.
So noregrets.However,yeah, like I think that that was a sign that they were maybe in it with me for the wrongreasons.
They were just trying to lock me in because I think that they saw meas, I don'tknow, maybe more of just a public figure in a way than aperson.
I think that that was intriguing tothem.
And I think they love bombed me not because they lovedme, but because they wanted a piece ofthat.
And that is darkenergy.
Anyway, so I really do say like rely on your gut when it comes to love bombing because you can feel it beingoff.
In addition tothat, youknow, use your logical mind aswell.
It doesn't make sense to be saying the type of things that are being said at this point in therelationship, etcetera, etcetera.
Allright. Last but notleast, somebodysaid, I feel really embarrassed because I feel like people never want to dateme.
They only want to hookup.
Is there something wrong withme?
What do Ido?Well, forone, I think it cannot be overlooked that societally andculturally, we live in hook up cultureera.
Like you're not the onlyone.
Okay. There are so many people struggling to find people to date because it's very popular to not commit to things and to sort of have amore, I don'tknow, just like a more flexible datinglife.
Andlisten, that works for some people rockon.
But if you are not likethat, I can understand your frustration because it's just harder to find thanever.
Infact, I can relate to that because I am also somebody who really likes todate.
I prefer to date than to be single and like hook up with peoplerandom.
I just doesn't work for me and I've tried it and I've hated it andwhatever.
So I've tended to datemore.
Even if it's like reallyshort, I'd rather try to see if dating would work and then throw it out after a short amount oftime, then just like hook up with people with no end gameplan, youknow, I like to sortof, I don'tknow, that's just who Iam.
So I understand the frustration because we don't necessarily live in a time where that is the standardanymore, youknow.
So I would say don't blame yourself because I think this is a broader societal thing that a lot of people are dealingwith.
But there are some other things that I think you cando.
Numberone, pay attention to who you're hanging outwith.
If you're hanging out in groups of people who are in the habit of hooking up with people on a consistent basis and not dating anyone and that's sort of the culture of the group that you'rein, the group that you're hanging aroundin, that might be a sign that you should explore other groups of people because a lot of times we tend to have these like micro cultures in the different groups that we hang outin.
And youknow, you might be hanging out in one where everybody just hooks up with each other and they don'tdate.
So pay attention tothat.
But also in someways, you could kind of go onstrike,okay, in a way and belike, I'm not going to hook up withanyone.
If you want to hook up withme, you have to dateme.
That'sit. And that can be a bummer and that might not work because Ithink, youknow, at times you'relike,well, I want to date somebody but in themeantime, I also want to hook up withpeople.
I get that desire aswell.
But I do think that if somebody really wants to hook up with you and you sayno, you'relike, I'm not doing that rightnow.
Like I'monly, I really just want to find somebody today and I'm just not playing around with this shitanymore.
But you'd be shocked at how many people come around and arelike,well, then do you want to go on a datethen?
And who knows what that could turninto.
So there's something to be said for going on strike a little bit andsaying, I'm not hooking up until I'm datingsomebody.
And that can be incrediblyeffective.
Take some time to see the turnover of like people who arelike, you knowwhat?
Allright. I won't hook up with youthen, but I'll take you on adate.
And youknow, that could be reallydelightful.
And I think that that'sit.
But just remember that it's not yourfault.
There's nothing wrong withyou.
I think it's a combination of society and culture today and also the micro sort of culture that you're existingin.
And there itis. Sookay, that was my advice session fortoday.
I hope that you enjoyed myadvice, my unprofessionaladvice.
And if youdid, feel free to submit your current dilemmas or things that you want to adviceon.
The Instagram is that anything goes and you can submit themthere.
All of anything goes social media is at anythinggoes.
So you can go check that out if you want new episodes of anything goes every Thursday and Sunday video episodes are exclusively on Spotify for those interviews that I do every once in a while and you can check me out on social media at EmmaChamberlain.
Check out my coffee company at Chamberlaincoffee orChamberlaincoffee.com.
And I will talk to you very soon and I love you and I appreciate you and thank you for hangingout.
Okay,bye. This episode is brought to you byHydroflask.
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