Choose Love Anyway

Relationships and Sexual Intimacy | Season Finale

Today’s episode is our season finale. We feel so grateful that so many of our friends and family have been tuning in every week, and listening to us and the episodes we thoughtfully prepared and recorded. It feels pretty surreal that we finally got to follow through with a dream that we’ve had for years…<3 Our hearts are full of love and gratitude for each of you!!! This is a really fun episode where we very openly talk about the intimate relationships in our lives. Dalia shares and answers vulnerable questions about her marriage and her experience and thoughts on waiting till marriage to be sexually intimate. She also shares tools that have really helped nurture a healthy and loving marriage the last 10 years. Dina opens up about dating, and how she is implementing and practicing what she has learned along her journey having been married and divorced in her 20’s. We hope you enjoy listening to this one as much as we did recording it. We got a little carried away so its a longer episode but since it’s our last one of the season we felt like it was needed. (; We tried to be honest and respectful with this conversation and hope that you feel that in our words. Here are a few of the other things that we shared in this episode:     •    Dalia references this podcast episode from Faith Matters called The God Who Waits. (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/faith-matters/id1307757928?i=1000757998475 [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/faith-matters/id1307757928?i=1000757998475]) - “To love is to be inherently vulnerable.”     •    Here are some links to the books shared in this episode That We Might Have Joy (https://a.co/d/0iKEgWWk [https://a.co/d/0iKEgWWk]) by Jennifer Finlayson-Fife (JFF), Gift From the Sea (https://a.co/d/02Ta8SRp [https://a.co/d/02Ta8SRp]) by Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 8 Rules of Love (https://a.co/d/04e1zytU [https://a.co/d/04e1zytU]) by Jay Shetty.     •    Here is a link to our episode on Spotify about how we nurture and navigate female friendships in our lives: https://open.spotify.com/episode/48tthhsvkbKEy6j858yP0T?si=UAWyh748SZeTXR3ezggzHA [https://open.spotify.com/episode/48tthhsvkbKEy6j858yP0T?si=UAWyh748SZeTXR3ezggzHA]     •    The note Dalia read at the end of the episode to summarize the episode inspired by the work of JFF: “When two people are willing to grow, tell the truth, and stay present with each other, marriage/relationships become one of the most powerful places for joy, intimacy, and spiritual growth.”     •    The quote shared from a video (https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8gLyvax/ [https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8gLyvax/]) Dalia saw by Maddi Castellano: “Remember to marry a man who wants to be a husband and a father, not have someone who wants a wife and kids.” We hope you have a gorgeous day and we will see you next season!! <3 Sending love always, Dalia and Dina <3

Faith, Surrender and Big Changes

In this week's episode, we talk about faith, surrender and learning to trust ourselves and God during seasons of change. We share some personal news like Dalia’s upcoming move, and the beginning of a new chapter, and reflect on how transitions can bring both excitement and vulnerability. Along the way, we explore the psychology of faith and hope, the power of trusting your life has meaning and how believing that things can work out can actually support resilience in our minds and nervous systems. We also reflect on a passage from Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet about living the questions, and what it means to allow life to unfold without needing to know every answer. “Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given to you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.” As we talked, we found ourselves getting a little emotional about this big change. <3 But we also noticed something wonderful as we reflected on how our faith has evolved. Instead of fear being our knee-jerk reaction, we felt a deeper sense of peace, trust, and hope for the future. That realization felt incredibly comforting, and it’s something we’re genuinely proud of. A takeaway from our conversation in Episode 9 that Dalia prepared. We felt like it really captured the theme of this episode: “Fear tries to convince us that the unknown is dangerous. But every meaningful chapter of our lives began in the unknown. Maybe surrender isn’t about giving up control, maybe it’s about trusting that the unfolding of our lives may be wiser than our fear.” Sending our love to you always, Dalia and Dina (:

Repair, Accountability, and Apology Languages

We have a short but powerful episode in store for you today. We dive into a conversation about Repair - what Dalia calls her super power in especially parenting her daughters. Then we naturally move into accountability and the different apology languages. In the spirit of full transparency and honesty, this was probably the hardest episode to record. We had some technical difficulties starting out and that’s why Dalia’s video looks a little different than usual. By the time we started recording it was already 10pm for Dina…also Derek is out of town this week and so we had to edit out some moments where Dalia’s sweet girls would come in when they needed help with something because there were no other adults around…So with all of that being said we are actually proud of this episode, and so grateful Dina prepared and planned this one for us. She had some great questions to ask Dalia and we hope you find this tool empowering and transformative as you utilize it in your relationships. All throughout the episode we reference this apology languages quiz (https://5lovelanguages.com/quizzes/apology-language [https://5lovelanguages.com/quizzes/apology-language]) that Dalia first learned about a couple of years ago when she heard it in this wonderful Faith Matters podcast episode. (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/faith-matters/id1307757928?i=1000672841882 [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/faith-matters/id1307757928?i=1000672841882]) Also in the spirit of the Spring officially starting (YAY) - Dalia attended her last Women’s Spring Equinox Day Retreat on Sunday with the gorgeous women of the yoga community that she has gotten to know and love deeply the last 4 years here in Orange County. We wanted to share this beautiful poem that was read during Savasana that felt like such a gentle reminder of the energy that is available to us all this time of year…maybe what wants to be born in you is: to repair with the people you love most? <3 What Wants to be Born In You Beloved? I have become grateful for the moments when I remember to stop In order to listen to what the earth has to tell me. This morning it was a flower who took me by surprise and shared her secrets with me. She told me of her journey. How it began in darkness, in the quiet, cool embrace of the quiet, generous earth. She told me how the light called to her, and how, slowly but solidly, She began to unfold towards the simple inevitability of her calling. She told me of the exquisite cracking-open of all she knew herself to be; The opening that felt like death until she realized it was her birth. And then, with her open petals, She asked me in the way Only a full-bloomed flower can ask, ‘What wants to be born in you, beloved?’ What does the light want to call into being From the quiet, generous earth That waits patiently In the cave of your heart? -Hollie Holden

Co-Regulation, Willpower & Dina’s Birthday

Today is a very happy Thursday because it’s Dina’s birthday!!! Dina is such a magnetic, determined and gorgeous woman and I feel sooo grateful to be her older sister, best friend and co-host. (; We are delighted to share this episode with you! This is a really special conversation full of wisdom that has been transformative for us. We are sharing knowledge that has been so impactful on our healing journey and in Dalia’s parenting journey. We will be sharing about co-regulation, touching on willpower and how it helps us to choose love anyway, and the end of the episode is dedicated to Dina and her birthday! <3 This turned out to be a longer episode so we hope you will stick around! Co-regulation: “Is the process through which a calm adult helps a child’s nervous system return to balance during moments of big emotion. Young children’s brains are still developing. Especially the prefrontal cortex, the part responsible for impulse control, reasoning, and emotional regulation. When a child becomes overwhelmed, that thinking part of the brain temporarily goes offline and their nervous system shifts into a survival state. In those moments, children cannot access logic or lessons. What they need first is a calm, regulated adult presence. Through tone of voice, body language, and connection, the adult’s nervous system helps signal safety to the child’s nervous system. Once the child feels safe and their body settles, the brain can come back online and learning can happen. Over time, children internalize this process. What begins as co-regulation with a caregiver gradually becomes the foundation for self-regulation.” Some resources that we mentioned in the episode that have helped us: Good Inside with Dr. Becky (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/good-inside-with-dr-becky/id1561689671 [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/good-inside-with-dr-becky/id1561689671]) Big Little Feelings (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/after-bedtime-with-big-little-feelings/id1705286339 [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/after-bedtime-with-big-little-feelings/id1705286339]) To Be Magnetic (TBM) (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/expanded-podcast-by-to-be-magnetic/id1419732648 [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/expanded-podcast-by-to-be-magnetic/id1419732648]) There are sooo many more out there, these are just ones that we have personally used! Sending love to you all, Dalia and Dina <3 #chooseloveanyway #coregulation #birthday #willpower #growthjourney

A Love Letter to All the Women in Our Lives

We are so happy to share this episode with you today! We felt called to dedicate this one to all the incredible women in our life. We wish we could of named and talked about each of you in detail…but you know who you are and this one is for you…<3 Growing up in a Russian family, March 8th was always one of the most special holidays in our home. It was a day when women were celebrated with flowers, gratitude, and love. As we’ve grown older, we’ve learned that the history behind International Women’s Day is actually rooted in women standing up for their rights, their dignity, and their voices. Today we wanted to reflect not only on the history of this day, but on the women who have shaped us, challenged us, and taught us what it means to choose love anyway. #chooseloveanyway #internationalwomensday #empowerment #friendships #selftrust