The Language Alchemy Podcast

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93. The Role of Equity in Intimate Relationships

“You are communicating equity with your partner when both of you respect and value each other's communication styles,” explains host Alejandra...

92. Be Sure Equality is Present in Your Partnership

“The values of equity and equality have to do with how we relate to power. And in every intimate relationship power can be held by one person, and it can also be shared,” explains host Alejandra...

91. How to Be Trustworthy

“When you communicate in alignment with your values, when you say what you call yourself, you will feel grounded, capable, because those words have taken residence within you and others will trust you,” shares host Alejandra...

90. A Must-have Communication Tool to Transform Your Life And Relationships

“If you're not having the meaningful, nourishing, kind and healthy relationships you deserve, it is because you are not communicating in alignment with your relational values,” explains host Alejandra, transformative...

89. 7 Communication Tools You Need to Use When You Talk to Women

“If you want to change this old, outdated, and inaccurate paradigm that women are inferior and men are superior, and you want to change this societal habit, then you need to take responsibility,” explains host...

88. Why We Talk About Women & Men the Way We Do

“When we human beings started using metal, not for technological purposes only like before, but to create weapons that were used by the males of those civilizations, that's when men had to become stronger and more ‘manly’ or ‘aggressive’ to survive...

87. Should I Drop the B-word? And More

“If you want to change this old, outdated, and inaccurate paradigm that women are inferior and men are superior, and you want to change this societal habit, then you need to take responsibility,” explains host...

86. She Felt Like an Outsider, Now People Trust Her

“If you want to change this old, outdated, and inaccurate paradigm that women are inferior and men are superior, and you want to change this societal habit, then you need to take responsibility,” explains host...

85. How Do You Talk About Women?

“When we are not aware of our use of language, we end up reinforcing beliefs that are in opposition to our very own values,” shares host Alejandra...

84. Q&A: Dating to Have a Meaningful Intimate Relationship as a Spiritual Practitioner

“After you are clear on what your terms of engagement are, which are based on your values, your communication needs to reflect those terms of engagement in a consistent way from the very beginning,” explains host Alejandra...

83. 3 Communication Habits that undermine Loving Long-term Relationships

“These three communication habits lead to a gradual dismissal or devaluation of your partner..."

82. How to Maintain a Loving and Thriving Long-term Relationship

“The greatest secret to maintaining a loving and thriving long term relationship is to commit to communicating lovingly every single day, regardless of whether things are easy or hard,” explains host...

81. Communicating Love to Yourself

“To be able to appreciate others and give positive feedback, to have the ability to forgive others for their mistakes and their limitations, to be able to hold space for others and listen to others, we need to be able to communicate lovingly...

80. 7 Ways to Connect to Your Inner Wisdom Voice

“If you want to connect to your inner wisdom voice and give it the space it needs to give you its powerful messages, you need consistency,” explains host Alejandra.

79. Which Voice in Your Head is Great to Listen to?

“The voices that belong to someone else are not our intuition, essential voice, or wisdom voice,” explains host Alejandra.

78. Your Inner Voice Knows

“If you want to experience something new or different in your life and relationships in this new year, you need to be willing to do things you have never done,” explains host Alejandra...

77. Tools to Transform Your Life and Relationships in the New Year

“Let this be the year you learn what you need to learn to have what you want in your relationships,” entreats host Alejandra...

76. Your Future Self Will Thank You

“I know you have been learning, developing, and transforming your life and relationships. So give yourself the space to acknowledge yourself,” explains host Alejandra...

75. When You Don't Like What You Hear

“We communicate in the way we learned to communicate, which means we can unlearn it,” explains host Alejandra...

74. How to Communicate Well with Animals

“Just as humans often need help figuring out how to live their best lives, humans often need help helping their animals figure out how to live their best lives,” explains guest Shannon Bolt...

73. Coming Out: A Journey of Bravery and Skillful Preparation

“Until you do something, sometimes you just don't know what the result will be,” explains guest Britt Bierly...

72. The Golden Rule

“Engage in the Golden Rule by giving others the grace you want to receive,” urges host Alejandra...

71. 3 Easy Steps to Express Gratitude and Mean It

“While gratitude is a beautiful feeling, it can be a challenge when it comes to communicating it,” explains host Alejandra...

70. 3 Communication Self-Reflection Practices

“When we reflect on ourselves, we see some aspects of ourselves with greater clarity,” explains host Alejandra Siroka...

69. Your Self Talk

“Once you know what you say to yourself, you get to decide whether you want to keep saying this to yourself,” explains host Alejandra.

68. Having a Voice That Counts

“I knew that if I became a US citizen, my voice would count more. And I could use my voice to help other voices count,” explains host Alejandra...

67. Conflict Can Be Scary

“Something scary for a lot of people when it comes to communication is conflict,” explains host Alejandra...

66. When Things Are Hard

“When things are hard, I learned to use observational language in my internal dialogue,” explains host Alejandra...

65. 4 Indicators You Have a True Sense of Connection in Your Relationships

“When there's a true sense of connection in your relationships, you can offer feedback with transparency,” explains host Alejandra...

64. 5 Signs It's time to Shift Your Relationship Dynamics

“Something scary for a lot of people when it comes to communication is conflict,” explains host Alejandra...

63. Want More Satisfying Relationships?

“When life and relationships are frustrating, usually, it’s because there's some kind of communication breakdown,” explains host Alejandra, a transformative communication coach...

62. The Gifts of Anger

“When you communicate any feeling skillfully, it is because you have been able to connect to its gifts,” explains host Alejandra...

61. Communicating Anger Skillfully

"It's possible to learn to communicate anger more skillfully,” explains host Alejandra. Anger, in particular, can be an intense feeling to experience and a challenging one to communicate...

60. Emotional Autonomy and Healthy Relationships. Communicating Feelings Part 6

“One of the fundamental Language Alchemy principles is that our words create our worlds,” explains host Alejandra. It’s part six of the “Communicating Feelings” series and the last episode about this topic...

59. Communicate Feelings Mindfully. Communicating Feelings Part 5

“Notice how you use the word “feel” when communicating because your words create your world. So what kind of world do you want to create?” explains host Alejandra...

58. How Are Your Relationships Impacted When You Don't Communicate Your Feelings? Communicating Feelings Part 4

“I find that the people who feel the most disconnected are the people who have the least access to their feelings,” explains host Alejandra. When you don’t communicate your feelings, it can negatively impact...

57. 4 Common Reactions to Uncomfortable Feelings. Communicating Feelings Part 3

“From the Language Alchemy perspective, all feelings have their usefulness,” explains host Alejandra. Alejandra understands why we have specific reactions to uncomfortable feelings...

56. Why Is It Hard to Communicate Feelings? Communicating Feelings Part 2

“It's easy to communicate what we have learned to communicate,” explains host Alejandra. Alejandra has seen how difficult it is to communicate feelings throughout her career as a transformative... 

55. Your Internal Communication System. Communicating Feelings Part 1

“If you find it hard to talk about your feelings and communicate, you're not alone,” says host Alejandra. As a transformative communication teacher and coach, Alejandra knows that discussing your feelings is challenging...

54. Building Your Communication Toolbox in 7 Steps

“You don’t have to be a therapist, a coach, or a leader, you can just be a caring human,” Alejandra says of anyone using the many tools in her communication toolbox...

53. What You Need to Pay Attention to if You Want to Have Meaningful Celebrations

“Language sets you up for something meaningful,” explains host Alejandra. As many of you know, the Language Alchemy Podcast recently celebrated its first anniversary...

52. Building a More Caring Work Experience - Part 2

“In this country, because English is my first language, that could be seen as a privilege,” explains Nancy Kahn, Consultant, Coach, Trainer, Mediator, and host Alejandra’s first Communication Teacher...

51. Building a More Caring Work Experience. An Interview with Nancy Kahn - Part 1

“I want to have my identity embraced. I also want to be authentic with people,” explains Nancy Kahn, Consultant, Coach, Trainer, Mediator, and host Alejandra’s first Communication Teacher...

50. 3 Mistakes to Avoid When Starting a Difficult Conversation

“When you know that feelings might be present in a conversation, then that conversation may be difficult for you,” explains host Alejandra. Although any topic of conversation can be hard to discuss...

49. He, She, They? The Importance of Personal Pronouns

“It's important to make a commitment to avoiding assumptions about people because of the way they look,” says host Alejandra...

48. How Dads Can Communicate with Emotional Awareness an Interview with Brian Wood

“Emotions, tantrums, or even lashing out at parents are okay and shouldn't be curtailed,” explains guest Brian Wood. Alejandra describes her friend Brian’s communication style with his son...

47. We’ve Been a Bystander for Way too Long. Time to Become an Upstander.

“The lessons of history can help educators and students stand up to bigotry and hate,” says Brian Fong, Program Director for the California Facing History and Ourselves chapter...

46. How to Respond to Microaggressions

“You and I both can bring about equality and equity by using an inclusive language that decreases the impact of microaggressions for all the members of our human family,” explains host Alejandra...

45. 3 Tools to Uncover Hidden Biases in Your Internal Dialogue

“Unless we work on the messages we inherited, we just perpetuate them,” explains host Alejandra. After the murder of George Floyd, many people have reflected on what their hidden biases are and...

44. How to Talk About Race and Racism

After the tragic murder of George Floyd, many people worldwide woke up to the importance of discussing race and equity. With a desire to respectfully navigate these critical conversations...

43. Intentional Language in Meaningful Music: An Interview with Gary Lapow

“I wanted to be part of that stream of music that could change people’s minds and hearts,” explains Gary Lapow, the composer for the Language Alchemy Podcast music...

42. Your Communication Gift on Mother’s Day

“When you redirect your reactivity, you choose to communicate in a peaceful way,” explains host Alejandra. With Mother’s Day on the horizon, Alejandra understands that communicating with your mother...

41. We’re All Going Through Stress

From the pandemic to world war, human beings deal with a good amount of stress. As a result, we behave in damaging ways, such as acting defensive to those around us...

40. 3 Myths About Healthy Relationships

“I don't know any truly healthy relationship that has not had its good share of difficulties,” explains host Alejandra. Alejandra realizes that it’s natural for people to seek healthy relationships and...

39. A Communication Skill You Don't Often Hear About

“Skillful listening is as important, or perhaps even more important, than skillful speaking,” says host Alejandra. Through her work as a communication coach, Alejandra discovered...

38. What Prevents Effective Communication?

Today, host Alejandra answers one of her listener's questions on how to communicate effectively. Although we may believe that we are transparent with our wants and needs...

37. Love That Lasts

“The way we communicate is just a tool to access our deeper being. And I think for us, learning how to communicate was just learning how to be in love and speak with love with each other,” says Matthew Siroka...

36. Want to Give Peace a Chance? Resist Your Reactivity

With the war in Ukraine still raging on, everyone in our human family feels troubled and tense. As a result, overall communication is suffering amongst loved ones and communities...

35. Choosing Peace in Your Communication

Not all wars result in physical combat, such as the current war between Russia and Ukraine. Many battles exist in familial conflicts that may lead to estrangement or harmful effects on the body...

34. Conscious Defending from Gaslighting

With the devastating war occurring in Ukraine, host Alejandra Siroka reflects on the power of language. Although language has the power to heal, it can also lead us to our destruction...

33. How to talk to women so they connect to their worth

With International Women’s Day on the horizon, host Alejandra Siroka recognizes the value of celebrating women. By supporting women, we remind them of their worth, improving society as a whole...

32. Nurturing intimacy in a busy world

Valentine’s Day has come and gone, but you can take the most important part of the holiday with you...

31. The 5 Love languages, and the one caveat you need to be aware of

Valentine’s Day is a celebration many people either love or hate. Others may feel indifferent – or prefer to observe “Single’s Awareness Day” instead...

30. The way through pain is compassion in your communication

I find that it’s easier to connect to a concept when I delve into the origin of the word...

29. Do you struggle with others not trusting you? You may not sound confident enough!

This is the second part in my 3-part series on the qualities of transformative communication. In episode 28 we discussed communicating with clarity...

28. Want less conflict in your relationships?

“Express yourself with clarity, confidence, and compassion." This is the tagline for Language Alchemy, and it’s also a recipe for communication success...

27. Turning Vulnerability Into Connection:  An Inspiring True Story

As Brené Brown once said, “Vulnerability is the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, courage, empathy, and creativity.” But vulnerability may not always...

26. What happens when you make and fulfill the intention to learn to communicate from the heart?

It’s easy to describe why and how communication can help you in general terms. But what really paints a picture is hearing firsthand...

25. The 6-step process that will help you stay true to your New Year’s intentions

Have you ever made a New Year’s resolution only to see your effort fade as the months pass? Maybe that little voice...

24. What are your communication intentions for the new year?

Having a New Year’s resolution is a popular ritual, especially one involving a new hobby, habit, or skill. This year, I’m inviting you to go deeper...

23. Communicating with children with grace during the stressful holiday season

How can we communicate to children during the holidays regarding their behavior, gifts they may be receiving, and family rituals...

22. How to talk about grief

Grief can impact us all during the holiday season. The collective grief we’ve been experiencing during this global pandemic has been unprecedented...

21. How to show up as the real you with your family

Who are you when you show up to spend time with your family? Are you comfortable sharing your authentic self? In today’s episode...

20. Your true power to handle family dynamics that need to change

During the holiday season, you may be spending more concentrated time with family, than you have in the past 2 years...

19. Going home for the holidays and feeling uneasy? Two ways to work with your feelings

For many people, and perhaps you as well, having a virtual holiday celebration with family members last year was a welcome break...

18. Could Non-violent Communication from Marshall Rosenberg, PhD be useful to you?

Many people ask me for book recommendations or want to know my opinion about popular books on communication...

17. Q&A: Anxious about being politically correct? Worried your language could offend others unintentionally?

Do you wonder what is“politically correct” or “right” language to refer to people or groups of people? Do you often worry...

16. Cancel culture online is hurting us all

Communication on social media has the potential to be frustrating or painful, which is why this is the third episode in a row devoted to the topic...

15. How much can social media impact your inner dialogue? A lot. 

As you scroll through social media, do you sometimes feel stress, frustration, and pain when you see certain posts...

14. Facebook is not the problem. We are

Are you using social media with awareness, or are you allowing it to foster divisiveness and pain? Facebook specifically has been in the news...

13. You get triggered... and then?

Despite what you may have heard before, getting triggered is not a bad thing and I’ll show you how in this episode...

12. Communication shutdowns: cause, effects, and an effective remedy

Are there times when you don’t know what to say? Maybe you stay quiet and end up feeling bad later...

11. What ‘I don’t want to talk about it’ actually communicates

Do you avoid conversations that, while important, may also be uncomfortable? When you do, you may use phrases such as...

10. Are you attacking others without even knowing it?

You know that using language to attack others creates disconnection, separation, and divisiveness...

9. How to quiet down your inner critic to live in true connection with yourself and others

Your inner critic is that voice you hear in your head that tells you that you’re not good enough, capable enough, smart, or brave. This inner critic will keep you stuck and disconnected - unless you transform...

8. Q&As: How to Speak your Truth, Bias & Judgement

Do you wonder how to uncover your own “true self” that is often spoken about? Are you unsure how to handle biases in your own thoughts or others attacking you with words? I will answer these two questions...

7. The impact of using labels in your communication

Labels are one of the most disconnecting language devices in our communication. It’s important to watch out for them if you want to build true connection in your interactions...

6. Why communication is the foundation of everything you want in life

You may have heard or even said that “communication is everything,” but what does that really mean? In this episode, I share with you the science that supports that communication is the foundation...

5. Ways to cultivate connection with children and stressed out parents

“The little beings in our lives are learning how to communicate from us adults. It’s very important that we learn how to use our language with the little ones around us.“ In this episode, I’ve invited Caroline Griswold...

4. Vaccine Conversations: Finding the language of connection

Have you gotten into an argument with someone because of your decision or doubt about what to do regarding the COVID-19 vaccine? If so, you are not alone. You might find...

3. Q&As: When to speak and how to achieve authentic communication

Have you ever wondered how to know when to speak up and when to be silent?  Or are you curious about how to make your communication more authentic? You are not alone...

2. Want to communicate with intentionality? Use the 3 stages of alchemy

Do you have unnecessary stress or tension in your relationships? Then this episode is for you! In this episode, I talk about the link between tension and stress in your life and relationships and..

1. Welcome to the Language Alchemy Podcast

Alejandra Siroka wants you to experience the transformative power of language in your life. Tracing her fascination with language through her life since she was a little girl...