205 Why does unhappiness and irritation so often sneak into even the most loving marriages? Usually, it’s through the silent killer of connection: non-acceptance.

In this episode, we’re diving deep into the "Acceptance Switch"—that internal shift that moves us from judging our partner’s flaws to making peace with their full, messy, human selves.

I share the raw truth about my two marriages: how a lack of acceptance created a cycle of shame and distance in my first, and how consciously choosing to perceive my second husband’s "shortcomings" through the lens of acceptance has unlocked a level of joy and playfulness I never thought possible.

We also explore:

• The Cultural Root of Intolerance: Why society has conditioned us to reject our partners full selves, including moods and behaviors.
• The "Human Inheritance": Understanding that your partner’s frustrating patterns aren't personal—they are often a genetic and cultural "ball and chain" they didn't choose.
• The Growth Paradox: Why true growth and change in a relationship only happen after you’ve established a foundation of radical safety through acceptance.
• Acceptance vs. Tolerance: Why accepting someone’s humanity is the opposite of being a "pushover."

To help you kick off the year with a heart-centered reset, I’m walking you through a New Year Acceptance Process. We’ll unpack the "stories" we tell ourselves about our partners and learn how to see through the fog of expectations to find the sweetness that’s been there all along.

Stop fighting your partner’s humanness and start reaping the gifts of making peace with who your partner really is.

SHOW NOTES:

• Join Hannah for private 1:1 Marriage Coaching, and get her deep, super individualized support to make your marriage more full of security, connection, love, and mutual support than ever. Get started here.
• See her on-demand relationship courses for HSPs here.
• FREE QUIZ: How Much is High Sensitivity Impacting Your Relationship (and are you even highly sensitive)? You want to know. Because, high sensitivity has a major impact on intimate relationships – for better or worse. Take this 3 minute quiz to discover if you're highly sensitive and how deeply it’s affecting you, and your happiness in your relationship. You will also get your next steps to making sure sensitivity works for your relationship, instead of against it.

204 Developing your sensitivity, instead of overcoming it, may be one of the best things you can do for your marriage. We HSPs often think of ourselves as “too sensitive”, but actually, our sensitivity is the very thing that can make our marriages richer and better than any others on earth!

I often talk about how ”working with” your sensitivity is quite key to your happiness in love– and your whole life, and it is true there are many ways we can learn to do that to thrive. And, we can also DEVELOP some of what is already there – deepen it, sharpen it, fine tune what we naturally bring that already is an asset for our relationships.

Today I want to specifically talk about one easy way you can develop your sensitivity for a richer, more deeply intimate, relationship. You’ll learn what that is, how you are already probably pretty good at it, how to refine this gift, and what gets in the way of it all too often.

You’ll also learn about a couple (of many more) other aspects of sensitivity you also want to develop. My hope is you will come away from this episode reminded of the natural gifts you already possess, and some simple easy to implement ideas about how to deepen those gifts for more harmony and a sense of being lovingly in-sync in your marriage. Listen in.

SHOW NOTES:

• Join Hannah in her special end-of-year 3 session program, A BETTER MARRIAGE IN 1 MONTH: A Mini 1:1 Marriage Coaching Program For HS Women To Start to FEEL the power you have to change the whole emotional culture of your marriage into one of more safety and warmth, without dragging your partner into therapy. Click here to learn more.
• Take The 2 Minute Free Quiz: What's Your Best Next Step To Improve Your Marriage? Find out the most important place for you to focus on to make your unique marriage more loving and connected a sensitive woman.

ENJOYING THE SHOW?

• Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. Leave a review in Apple Podcasts--we are SO grateful!
• Get the Podcast Map by becoming a Podcast Supporter, so you can quickly identify the episodes most helpful for your unique relationship, by supporting the podcast (for as little as $3)

203 "That couple is just so in love…so much more than we are!" "How come we can’t communicate like that?" "What's wrong with our relationship that my husband doesn't look at me like that?"

Ever sounded like that in your head? Ever compared your relationship, or your spouse, to other couples or spouses…and then felt even more unhappy about your relationship? Clients ask me about this often.

It's so common that there is a term for it: Compare and despair. Today, we are calling it Relationship Compare and Despair, since we will focus in how it affects our love lives. It’s a wired-in thing our brains just do as humans, especially if we aren't totally happy in our relationships. But it hurts and disempowers us, and makes our relationships worse.

So how do you stop? In this episode I will tell you, and help you turn this habit into something that, instead of making things harder, can help your marriage get better.

You will also learn what is driving the despair that often accompanies comparing, as well as the most important shift to make to put an end to most of the pain or upset you feel in your relationship, so you can effectively shape your relationship into one that feels lighter, more loving, and connected and all the things you want…

You can stop letting comparison undermine your love and connection. You can use it instead as an opportunity to make your marriage into the very best one it can be. Listen in to learn how.

SHOW NOTES:

• Join Hannah in her special end-of-year 3 session program, A BETTER MARRIAGE IN 1 MONTH: A Mini 1:1 Marriage Coaching Program For HS Women To Start to FEEL the power you have to change the whole emotional culture of your marriage into one of more safety and warmth, without dragging your partner into therapy. Click here to learn more.
• Take The 2 Minute Free Quiz: What's Your Best Next Step To Improve Your Marriage? Find out the most important place for you to focus on to make your unique marriage more loving and connected a sensitive woman.

ENJOYING THE SHOW?

• Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. Leave a review in Apple Podcasts--we are SO grateful!
• Get the Podcast Map by becoming a Podcast Supporter, so you can quickly identify the episodes most helpful for your unique relationship, by supporting the podcast (for as little as $3)

202 Want to make sure you aren't settling for unfair treatment, letting your partner's hurtful behavior fly, passively just “taking” your partners rudeness, or being a doormat? Want to stand up for yourself and proactively make sure you get the BEST treatment from your spouse, not just the scraps? Ever wondered if what I share on this podcast lets your spouse get away with too much? This episode is for YOU!!!

You’ll learn how, for the best marriage possible with your spouse, you need to develop both a soft belly, and a strong back. In other words, you need an emotional skillset that allows for true open-heartedness (instead of reactivity and defensiveness) AND you need to take specific strategic "strong" actions that prevent any poor treatment and GET the loving treatment you deserve in your marriage.

I generally teach more about the soft belly piece, because you can’t do the strong back piece well without it–and this part does NOT get enough attention in the relationship advice/self-help world… BUT the strong back pieces (i.e. specific actions and strategies) are 100% essential, too, to have a great marriage.

So listen in today to hear what those “strong back” strategies are, and how you can learn more about implementing them, and what you must also be able to do in order for them to create a truly loving connected marriage (instead of a roommate or business-partner type relationship of cold functionality).

The magic lies in the combination of both a strong back and a soft belly, not one by itself. Come hear exactly what I mean.

SHOW NOTES

• Join Hannah for private 1:1 Marriage Coaching, and get her deep, super individualized support to make your marriage way more full of security, connection, love, and mutual support than ever. Get started by filling out this form.
• Take The 2 Minute Free Quiz: What's Your Best Next Step To Improve Your Marriage? Find out the most important place for you to focus on to make your unique marriage more loving and connected a sensitive woman.
  
  

One of the common behavior patterns we HSPs can be prone to is people pleasing – or partner pleasing! Interestingly, on the surface people pleasing seems lovely, it can wreak real emotional havoc and really hurt our intimate relationship over time.

Today my special guest, Todd Smith, a highly sensitive person and host of the podcast, Stress Management for Highly Sensitive People, and I are going to talk about all about people and partner pleasing: what it looks like, what it leads to (ahem, talk about resentment! And overwhelm!), why we do it, and how it affects us and our marriages.

You’ll hear examples of how we both have "people pleased” in our own lives and relationships, and client stories, as well.

Then we will offer several ways to break this habit or pattern, and ultimately be TRUE to yourself, more authentic and honest in your marriage, less stressed and overwhelmed, and feel more loved for who you really are.

Whether you think you may sometimes fall in to people pleasing, or not, you may be surprised at what you’ll learn about yourself and other people in your life as you listen to this fun, important, laughter-filled conversation. You’ll come away intrigued by how much opportunity for real loving change can come from leaving this pattern in the past, and clear on how to get started.

SHOW NOTES:

TODD SMITH:

• Find Todd's website and free Stress Test HERE
• Listen to his podcast, Stress Management for Highly Sensitive People here.

HANNAH BROOKS

• FREE QUIZ: How Much is High Sensitivity Impacting Your Relationship (and are you even highly sensitive)? You want to know. Because, high sensitivity has a major impact on intimate relationships – for better or worse. Take this 3 minute quiz to discover if you're highly sensitive and how deeply it’s affecting you, and your happiness in your relationship. You will also get your next steps to making sure sensitivity works for your relationship, instead of against it.
• Join Hannah for private 1:1 Marriage Coaching, and get her deep, super individualized support to make your marriage way more full of security, connection, love, and mutual support than ever--WITHOUT PEOPLE PLEASING. Get started by filling out this form.
• See her on-demand relationship courses for HSPs here.

200 I have developed a habit of forgiveness over the years in my marriage. And today I want to tell you about it and why it has saved my marriage–and my own heart– over and over.

Forgiveness is so easily misunderstood. I share about how I was confused about it, too, and how, in the past, this led to stopping myself from forgiving things my husband has done that felt hurtful to me. But, luckily, I figured out how to move past that, and I learned how to really forgive.

(And to be clear, this did NOT mean I let him walk all over me or keep doing hurtful things. In fact, it is because I have learned to forgive so well that he is NOT doing hurtful things nearly as much!)

I want you to hear my story, because I think you may be inspired and also surprised by how much developing this habit of forgiveness has done for me, for my husband, and for our marriage.

It has even allowed my husband to become a better, and better, husband over time.

So listen in to learn what it took me, why it's made such a tremendous difference in our lives together, and how you can also develop this healing, connecting habit of forgiveness, for the sake of your own heart, and your own marriage.

SHOW NOTES

Join the Master Class: FREE YOUR HEART FOR MORE LOVE; GETTING PAST BLAME, RESENTMENT, AND GRIEVANCE. It's just $37. Registration closes Oct. 23rd, 2025 at midnight. Learn more here.

ENJOYING THE SHOW?

• Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. Leave a review in Apple Podcasts--we are SO grateful!
• Get the Podcast Map by becoming a Podcast Supporter, so you can quickly identify the episodes most helpful for your unique relationship, by supporting the podcast (for as little as $3)

199 Resentment, grievance, and blame: these are not easy things to move past in our intimate relationships, especially, when it feels like your partner has piled on many little – or big – hurts, transgressions, and wrongdoings over the course of your relationship.

Resent and blame come very naturally to us as humans, so if you feel them, you are oh-so-normal. AND, they are keeping you locked out of your heart. THey are keeping you from the love you could otherwise be feeling, and the love you could otherwise be receiving.

So in this episode, I give you a formula to begin to let go of resentment you may be feeling towards your spouse.

I also dive into:

• what resentment is,
• how it is different from anger,
• why it may not be what you have always thought it was,
• why it is so important to move past it,
• what situation this resentment resolution formula works best in,
• several stories about my clients and myself that will help you understand how to use this formula to get free of the resentment that is dragging you and your relationship down,
• and how to go deeper to truly set your heart FREE to love and be loved again.

When we harbor resentment towards our spouse, whether it is just a small amount or a large amount, it eats us up from the inside out, like a poison. Luckily, YOU have the power to heal it. Dive into this episode now and begin.

SHOW NOTES

Join the Master Class: FREE YOUR HEART FOR MORE LOVE; GETTING PAST BLAME, RESENTMENT, AND GRIEVANCE. It's just $37. Learn more here.

ENJOYING THE SHOW?

• Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. Leave a review in Apple Podcasts--we are SO grateful!
• Get the Podcast Map by becoming a Podcast Supporter, so you can quickly identify the episodes most helpful for your unique relationship, by supporting the podcast (for as little as $3)

198 To make your relationship better, it's absolutely essential to BELIEVE it is possible to do so. That's why I love sharing about the changes my clients see when they work with me: it helps you believe you can also make your relationship better, too!

But it's even more helpful and inspiring to hear directly from these women themselves. So here's Caroline! Get ready to feel so much hope and inspiration.

When Caroline came to me for 1:1 coaching, she was struggling with feeling small and insecure in her relationship, unsure it could work, afraid to fully be herself, and frustrated at her own behavior. She kept having doubts that this relationship could last. But she really wanted it to work.

And it has. The relationship is so strong now, and she feels really free to be her full self in it. She is so much happier, feels really secure, connected, and in love and loved. She feels how much power she has to continue to make things great, and has seen her partner grow a lot, too, as she has focused on her own inner work and how she shows up in the relationship.

What did it take for her to get here? Listen in as she shares many gold nuggets of wisdom, pieces from her coaching journey that made all the difference for her, and tips for other HSP women to make their marriages more secure, loving, and mutually supportive.

You will also hear:

• What things were like for her before working with me (many of which are oh-so-common for HS women)
• More about what has changed for her and her partner since working with me
• Specific details about the nervous system work and thought work that made so much difference for her.
• Why is it normal to fear that this work may not “work”
• How she started believing coaching with me would work–and why that made all the difference in the world
• What made it possible for her to be so good at implementing the coaching I gave her and applying the tools.
• Why “leading love” works, and how much power you have as a highly sensitive woman to change your relationship for the much better
• How her partner shifted himself as she did this work, and how much sway her inner work had in how wonderful the relationship is now
• What has been the difference for her between listening to the podcast, and direct coaching support and how therapy and coaching have been different for her
• Why the structure and process of coaching with me works and makes it easy to really DO what it takes to make your relationship great
• Why she wants to have a non-sensitive brain and why “equipping” it matters for love.
• And lots more!

You'll come away from this episode with deep insight into what so much of what I’ve shared on this podcast looks like applied in the real life and relationships of an HSP woman, more confidence that you really have so much power to improve things in your marriage, and a deeper sense of hope and motivation that you, too, can have a much brighter future as you do this work yourself.

SHOW NOTES:

• Learn more about Jungle Cacao Peru HERE, or follow on instagram @junglecacaoperu
• Hop on Hannah's Email list here
• Come coach with Hannah in her private 1:1 Marriage Coaching program, and get her deep, super individualized support to make your marriage more full of security, connection, love, and mutual support than ever. Get started by filling out this form.