Love and Relationship Advice Blog

Spring is really here where we live in Ohio! This is a photo of some of the colors that surround our new home. And what's really ironic is that Susie thought she was leaving the beauty of flowering trees when we moved from our previous home.

She thought that because she was moving to a large city and leaving our wooded lot in our small town, she would have to give up seeing nature's beauty in the way she had enjoyed for over 30 years.

Not so!

What she had mourned leaving was actually even more beautiful in our new location--and she learned a valuable lesson about trust.

Continue reading "Relationship Advice for Trusting Change" »

Posted by Susie and Otto Collins at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today is Earth Day and there are activities worldwide that have been organized to bring awareness to our mother earth. We went to a garden center and bought several flowering bushes to be planted around the perimeter of our yard. We also set up an area for composting. Our daughter, her husband and our grandsons are going to participate in cleaning up a ravine in our town. The point is that this is a time for focusing on what what we can all do to add to the "greening" of where we live and start new habits that can help save our planet.

So what's all of this have to do with relationships?

Plenty.

When we do things to help make our area more green and a healthier environment for us to live, we can also make our world better by focusing on how we can communicate better with each other and how we can love more.

Here are some ways for you to practice communicating and loving more--whether it's Earth Day or not...

Continue reading "Celebrating Earth Day and your relationships" »

Posted by Susie and Otto Collins at 03:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Recently, we had another opportunity to "dog-sit" with our favorite yellow Labrador retriever, Nutmeg.

While we certainly don't want a dog full-time, we had a great time with her and re-learned some valuable relationship lessons as well.

Here are a few reminders of how to create great relationships and lives from Nutmeg that we thought we'd share with you...

Continue reading "Relationship Advice from a Yellow Lab" »

Posted by Susie and Otto Collins at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We just saw U2 3D film and we very impacted by this concert. Bono's message of peace pervaded the entire film and along with the dynamic music and talented musicians, this was quite an experience.

The message was clear in this film--Coexist even though we are all different.

We say that this is great relationship advice, no matter what kind of relationship it is!

Here's our take on loving through differences...

Continue reading "Relationship Advice from U2" »

Posted by Susie and Otto Collins at 09:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

While most of us have many teachers on our paths to spiritual growth and enlightenment, our ultimate "teacher" is that voice within that speaks from our highest truth. Whether you call this voice intuition, God, Spirit or another name, this is the voice of light and love.

Learning to discern this inner voice from all of the other voices that we come into contact with--and actually follow its advice could be our most challenging but also rewarding practice.

Recently, Susie's sister Nancy told us a wonderful story about how she listened to her inner voice, followed its advice and helped someone in need and we wanted to share it with you to illustrate what we mean.

Continue reading "Learning to Trust Your Intuition" »

Posted by Susie and Otto Collins at 04:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Did you know that one of the biggest ways that hold people back from connecting with others and creating great relationships is the stories they tell themselves.

This idea that the "stories" we consciously or unconsciously create and live by is one of the major keys to the success, (or unsuccess) happiness and fulfillment in both our relationships and our life.

The two of us talk about examining the stories we tell ourselves so much because this idea has helped us create better relationships in our lives, as well as the lives of so many others.

Recently, a friend of ours told us about a "story" that she had been telling herself about her dog that we thought was a very wise relationship and life lesson. We got her permission to tell her story and we wanted to pass it on to you.

So, here goes...

Continue reading "A Relationship Lesson from Sophie" »

Posted by Susie and Otto Collins at 11:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It's been said that there are only two things in life that are certain and those are death and taxes.

To that short list, we would definitely add "change" and along with changes there are always "transitions" that
we must navigate through as well.

It's how we handle these "changes" and "transitions" in our relationships and lives that are partially responsible
for our degree of happiness we feel in life.

So, why is this so important and how do we do this with as much skill and grace as possible?

Continue reading "Relationship Advice about How to Deal with Transitions" »

Posted by Susie and Otto Collins at 11:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We've all have had to deal with tragedy at some level at different times in our lives. It might have been personal injury or disease, the lose of a job, the death of a loved one, or the death of a relationship.

This week, just like you, we've watched as the story from Blacksburg, Virginia and Virginia Tech has unfolded about a very troubled student and how his rage ended in tragedy for many families.

Whether we know anyone at Virginia Tech or not, we all have been affected on some level by the massacre that happened there this week.

We've watched as the students and people from all over the world have come together for comfort and support,
calling themselves a family.

We've also watched as commentators have blamed the officials in one way or another. We all have different meanings and interpretations about what it all means to us.

So the question is--How do we deal with this tragedy or with any tragedy in our lives?

Continue reading "Dealing With Virginia Tech, Chaos and Tragedy" »

Posted by Susie and Otto Collins at 12:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The two of us absolutely love music and have had an especially good time watching concert dvds of our favorite artists. It's been a great way for us to connect with each other in the evenings and just enjoy ourselves!

Last week, Otto brought out the BeeGees collectors edition and we ended up spending the entire evening enjoying a 1997 concert and then a dvd of the group's history. We had a great time talking about what we learned about life and relationships from discovering things about the Brothers Gibb and we'd like to share some of our thoughts here...

Continue reading "What we Learned about Relationships and Life from the BeeGees" »

Posted by Susie and Otto Collins at 11:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Recently we received this question and felt that it was something that many people face at some time in their lives...

"After 5 years together my husband told me one day he hasn't been happy for 5 months. He watched me hit rock bottem (ptsd) and he's afraid to see it happen agian. he's says he's too edgy and worried about me all the time. I came home from a weekend with my mom, and he just dropped this on me like a bomb. I threw the langere I bought on the chair beside him, and said "this is what I've been thinking the whole time I was away. How to rekindle things" he just set it aside and called his best friend. appearently he had this planned. He's not been a jerk about it, even paid half my rent for a couple months, yet I find myself wishing ill on him sometimes...very ill. He won't even try counsiling. any advice on how to move on?"

There are several aspects that we'd like to comment on concerning this woman's situation...

Continue reading "After the Breakup--Then What?" »

Posted by Susie and Otto Collins at 11:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A few years ago, Otto had the opportunity to learn some powerful relationship advice and life lessons on a golf
course. We were having a mini-family reunion and Otto and a cousin Gary, a successful banking executive, played golf nearly all day on Saturday.

Whenever Otto is in the company of someone who is successful, he likes to play "20 Questions" to find out all he can about why and how that person is successful. That's what Otto did that day and what he learned from someone who isn't particularly "spiritual" or a "relationship expert" was remarkable.

Continue reading "Relationship Advice from a Round of Golf" »

Posted by Susie and Otto Collins at 12:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You never really know how your words and your actions affect other people. That's been our experience anyway.

Here's a practical example of something that happened recently to illustrate this point...

Susie's mother passed a couple of weeks ago and among the beautiful cards and sentiments that she received after her mother's death was a letter from a former neighbor who had lived next door to her childhood home.

Continue reading "How Your Words and Actions Affect Others" »

Posted by Susie and Otto Collins at 01:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If your life is crazy, you seem to never get it all done and you find yourself becoming "short" with the people you love, you may need to revitalize and rejuvenate yourself, spending some time investing in you. Susie has found that one of the best ways to do this (and be kinder and more loving to the people in her life) is to develop a regular meditation practice--a time when she can get in touch with "her" and revitalize.

We know that you might be thinking "I don't have time for that" or "Meditation is just too weird for me" but we invite you to read on for some really practical tips on how to get started to feeling better and being more loving.

Continue reading "Using Meditation to Help You to Be a More Loving Person" »

Posted by Susie and Otto Collins at 12:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One of our coaching clients just got back from a vacation to Ireland and had a few "ah-ha's" that we'd like to pass along to you which we think can help you create more love, passion and connection in your relationships and your life (if you read this with an open mind and heart.)

This coaching client discovered that he actually relaxed when he was on his trip--which was unusual for him because of his demanding job and his somewhat disconnected relationship with his family. He felt "free" when he was in Ireland and had an excitement for life that he hadn't had in a long time.

What he realized was that he wanted to keep those good feelings that he had during his vacation. He didn't want to climb back into his "armour," as he put it, when he went back to his job and continued his "normal" life.

In a nut shell, he didn't want to go back to the way things were before his vacation--his feelings of separateness, anxiety and feeling like he had to control everything in his life.

Continue reading "The Vacation Love Lesson" »

Posted by Susie and Otto Collins at 03:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Many people don't realize this yet but...

One of the most important things that we've learned by being together is that having love and connection can be "normal" in our lives and that this is possible for anyone if they choose.

We thought about this idea just the other day as we were reading in this month's issue of Oprah magazine an article with Oprah interviewing the soul singer Mary J. Blige.

In this interview, Mary talks about her transformation and how she went from blaming other people for her circumstances and feeling sorry for herself to taking responsibility for every part of her life.

"Normal" for her was carrying around an attitude that hadn't served her mother and certainly didn't serve her. According to the interview, she drank too much to cover her lack of self-confidence and went though life as a victim, holding onto a lot of anger and unforgiveness. All of this pain and rawness came out in the songs she sang.

Continue reading "What We Learned from Mary J. Blige..." »

Posted by Susie and Otto Collins at 12:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This week I saw Eve Ensler's extrodinary one-woman show "Good Body" and I wanted to share a nugget of what I took away from the experience and how it relates to our relationships. According to Eve, we need to stop the self-hatred that many of us feel, especially in America, so that we can focus on doing what we are here to do to make the world a better place.

I started thinking about how self-hatred can sabotage relationships and actually suck the life out of them. In fact, we're doing a teleseminar series that will give people ideas on how to put life back into their relationship--"Keeping the Spark Alive in your Relationship or Marriage and How to Get the Spark Back if it seems to have faded" starting February 2.

Continue reading "Love Yourself and Improve Your Relationships!" »

Posted by Susie and Otto Collins at 09:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)