How to strengthen your relationships

Author: Ian Mikutel, March Rogers, Darren Austin
Published: Mon 11 Dec 2017
Episode Link: https://www.bettershow.io/

In this episode Ian, Darren & March talk about how to strength your relationships with others in life. We reflect on why relationships matter, our own personal experiences with them, tips & tricks you can use, and experiments we’re going to try and report back on.

Show Notes

1:45 — Why relationships matter

4:39 — Impacts of isolation: from prisoners to monks

7:33 — Week long silent retreats

8:47 — How humans experience loneliness at a cellular level

9:54 — Aristotle's Golden Mean and relationships

10:54 — 3 keys to defining a good friend

14:48 — Ian's story of reconnecting with his best childhood friend after 10 years

19:50 — March's story of reconnecting with his first friend since moving to the US

22:51 — Ian's theory of why people hate high school reunions & love college reunions

25:04 — Uniqueness of experiences = strongest relationships

26:21 — How March burst into tears and confessed his undying love for his future wife

30:05 — They critical component to March's early relationship with his wife

31:32 — Ian explains the "group friend"

33:20 — How Ian founded The Brunch Bunch to strengthen his relationships

37:12 — How Darren met his wife at his birthday party & told work she was his fiancé before he asked her

44:34 — How the Gottman "The Art and Science of Love" workshop strengthened March's marriage

48:12 — March's tips from Gottman's "The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work"

54:51 — Darren & Ian's tips from "The Five Love Languages" by Gary Chapman

1:01:48 — Tips for dealing with the physiological responses of stress in relationships

1:04:06 — Darren's secret weapon for improving all his relationships

1:12:23 — Ian's tips for dating in the modern world

1:20:28 — How to use your smartphone to maintain relationships from afar…and invented Snapchat before Snapchat

1:26:20 — Ian's story of how pre-planning helps him maintain key relationships

1:26:20 — March will experiment with weekly thank you notes to express gratitude

1:26:20 — Darren will experiment with trying the Gottman seminar March mentioned

1:26:20 — Ian will experiment with eating alone less often, especially during the work week