Every man carries some version of the fear of disappointing a woman,
Speaker:the fear of saying the wrong thing, the fear of being too much or not
Speaker:enough, the fear of being abandoned.
Speaker:And out of this many men engage in people pleasing tendencies.
Speaker:And of course this goes vice versa as well.
Speaker:But speaking specifically about men today, as they engage in people pleasing
Speaker:out of the fear of disappointing her out, of the fear of being rejected, if
Speaker:they don't please her all the time, any action is rooted in fear, and creates
Speaker:actually more tension and destroys and erodes intimacy, safety, and trust.
Speaker:Because it's not about what a man does.
Speaker:It's all about the energy behind it.
Speaker:Women, especially women, connected to their intuition, feel this instantly
Speaker:when a man is acting or showing up from a fear of disappointing her or being
Speaker:rejected by her, or he's showing up from his true, authentic masculine core.
Speaker:This episode is for both men and women.
Speaker:For men, you will finally understand why this fear shows up in your
Speaker:nervous system, how it sabotages your intimate life with the feminine, and
Speaker:how you can break free from it with practical steps to step into your
Speaker:grounded, authentic masculine presence.
Speaker:And for women, you will understand at the deepest level why men struggle
Speaker:with people pleasing patterns, why they lose themselves in relationship
Speaker:and in this specific pattern.
Speaker:This episode will speak to your heart.
Speaker:Many of you listening and watching aren't subscribed.
Speaker:Subscribe now so you never miss the next episode.
Speaker:Welcome to the Masculine and Feminine Dynamics podcast.
Speaker:My name is Lorin Krenn, and I'm an author, coach, and hypnotherapist.
Speaker:I help you to understand masculine and feminine dynamics at the deepest level.
Speaker:Let's begin very practical.
Speaker:What is the fear of disappointing a woman?
Speaker:At its core, it's a survival fear, actually.
Speaker:Most men learned in early childhood that if I disappoint her, I will lose
Speaker:love, meaning her, the mother, the first encounter with feminine energy,
Speaker:if I upset her, I lose connection.
Speaker:If she's unhappy, it means I have failed.
Speaker:They started to take responsibility for their mother's or feminine
Speaker:caretaker's emotional state, which wasn't actually their responsibility.
Speaker:And out of that, displays out then in their adult intimate life.
Speaker:This then turns a man's nervous system into a machine of performance.
Speaker:And when one performs, there is the absence of truth, of leadership,
Speaker:of authentic and true presence.
Speaker:Performance is designed to avoid rejection.
Speaker:I am performing for you, so you are not unhappy.
Speaker:I'm performing for you, but deep down it's not for the other person.
Speaker:That's the big mistake.
Speaker:People pleasers don't do it for the other person, they do it to protect
Speaker:themselves from the pain they felt when they were shamed in the past, when
Speaker:they seem to have failed at protecting their mother or feminine caretaker.
Speaker:It is to avoid that shame.
Speaker:It never works.
Speaker:It only leads to more pain and erode safety and intimacy.
Speaker:The important thing to understand is a man cannot show up powerfully
Speaker:in his life, specifically in his intimate life, while simultaneously
Speaker:trying to avoid disappointment.
Speaker:This constant need to avoid disappointment is gonna make him tiptoe around, be more
Speaker:passive, be less clear, be less direct, be less certain, assertive, you name it.
Speaker:He becomes passive.
Speaker:He becomes hesitant all the time, and he becomes a mirror of what the woman
Speaker:wants instead of the man he truly is.
Speaker:On another note, often this relates to the mother, but it can also be a man seeing
Speaker:his father, engage in deep people pleasing patterns, being passive, being hesitant.
Speaker:There are many, infinite reasons why a man would display it.
Speaker:The key thing is if it happens, then it needs to be worked
Speaker:through in here and now.
Speaker:So let's talk about how this fear of disappointment affects the feminine in
Speaker:relationship at the most practical level.
Speaker:Number one is a woman cannot feel his truth.
Speaker:I worked with a client recently, a men's coaching client, and his wife
Speaker:said to him, I can't feel your truth.
Speaker:Not every woman will say these exact words, but she literally
Speaker:said those exact words.
Speaker:I cannot feel your truth.
Speaker:What is going on?
Speaker:The feminine nervous system has this ability or feminine intuition.
Speaker:Her body has this ability to really feel whether a man's actions presence,
Speaker:behavior, words, stem from his core, his authentic core, his true presence
Speaker:or they come from some form of fear of disappointment, disappointing her,
Speaker:fear of rejection, and ultimately some form of inner insecurity.
Speaker:Number two is she cannot trust his yes or his no.
Speaker:And this is really important because she starts to understand or feel
Speaker:at a deeper subconscious level, not necessarily consciously aware of it, he's
Speaker:saying what avoids conflict, not what is real to him, not what is important
Speaker:to him, not what he actually means.
Speaker:So if he says I want this, I want that, it's unclear to her.
Speaker:She can't trust his yes or his no.
Speaker:And that is very, very important.
Speaker:A woman, specifically an awakened woman or a conscious woman, she needs
Speaker:to be able to trust what a man says.
Speaker:If he says I really want this, but then later on complains or says he didn't
Speaker:actually want it and it was a sacrifice, which is kind of the people pleaser
Speaker:resentment pattern, say something to avoid conflict and later on express resentment,
Speaker:a total intimacy, safety and trust killer.
Speaker:And this really doesn't feel safe for the feminine because she's like, well
Speaker:ha, how on earth would I know I need to be able to trust your yes and no,
Speaker:but even more importantly, not have resentment if you say yes to something,
Speaker:but then actually don't want to do it.
Speaker:Another way how this affects the feminine is that she's more on guard.
Speaker:More on guard meaning is that she's constantly going to test, not test in a
Speaker:manipulative, conscious, deliberate way, but she's going to feel, is this safe?
Speaker:Can I lean onto this?
Speaker:Can I really relax into this container?
Speaker:This is gonna be kind of omnipresent in the background rather than wow, I
Speaker:can just relax into this container.
Speaker:It's a constant checking.
Speaker:Is this actually say for scanning, which puts her on edge in the
Speaker:relationship rather than allows her to really relax deeply and to receive
Speaker:and to pour all her love that she wants to pour into the relationship.
Speaker:And number four, really important is she loses respect.
Speaker:It is very hard to have deep respect or deep trust in a man if what he says in
Speaker:that moment is not his highest truth.
Speaker:Even though people pleasers aren't inherently lying, it still is felt as
Speaker:a lie and somewhat even as a betrayal at a subtle level, depending on
Speaker:the context for the feminine heart, because it's just not the truth.
Speaker:So if you say, yes, I like to do it, and later express resentment
Speaker:towards her, then you as a woman are going to feel he didn't tell me the
Speaker:truth, which is similar to a lie.
Speaker:Now, there's a difference between someone deliberately lying, but at the same time,
Speaker:withholding what someone truly wants.
Speaker:And resentment is a form of lying.
Speaker:It's just people pleasing tendencies can be so deeply rooted.
Speaker:This was learned in childhood.
Speaker:No excuse, but certainly an explanation.
Speaker:Some people deliberately lie or manipulate.
Speaker:With these people you can't be in a relationship.
Speaker:It's not possible.
Speaker:But in this case, the people pleasing patterns can be so deep and so
Speaker:inherent that a man is not even aware that he's lying to avoid conflict.
Speaker:Fact of the matter is wherever it comes from, it is signaled and
Speaker:received as a lie, and that totally destroys trust and respect and safety.
Speaker:The key thing to understand for every single man listening to this, and as a
Speaker:woman, you will feel this in your heart.
Speaker:The feminine is more disappointed by a man who hides his truth than
Speaker:by a man who stands fully in it.
Speaker:Yes, it is true.
Speaker:A man who fully stands in his truth might rock the boat.
Speaker:There might be a moment of discomfort in that moment as he's fully
Speaker:standing in his power and truth.
Speaker:But even if there is a slight moment of discomfort, and of course it depends
Speaker:on the woman's level of awakening and level of consciousness, but we're talking
Speaker:about an awakening or conscious woman, she's able to receive a man's boundaries.
Speaker:I'm not talking about a woman who cannot receive a man's boundaries.
Speaker:They will make for a very dysfunctional relationship, or
Speaker:something has to shift, right, because that's very painful for both.
Speaker:Now, that small moment of discomfort in setting a boundary actually
Speaker:creates deeper respect and trust.
Speaker:But a man who hides his truth, that can never create respect and trust.
Speaker:Just very briefly, why do men develop this fear?
Speaker:We already talked about the motto of father, where it could come from.
Speaker:I'm not gonna go more into that, but one element to mention here as well
Speaker:is that men learn from very young that harmony is safer than truth.
Speaker:Quietness is safer than conflict.
Speaker:Compliance gets love and connection.
Speaker:Of course, not real love and connection, but back then it felt like the only
Speaker:form of love which was real back then.
Speaker:It's familiar even though it is not real love at the highest level.
Speaker:And honesty gets punishment.
Speaker:Some men have even experienced, or many, when they truly spoke their
Speaker:truth, really shared their desires, he got them punished by a withdrawal of
Speaker:love, and that is incredibly painful.
Speaker:And a man carries this then in his nervous system, unless he discharges
Speaker:or starts the process of discharging that energy out of his body.
Speaker:And he carries that energy still inside him and then
Speaker:brings that into relationship.
Speaker:You can feel the shift here as I feel deep compassion for that,
Speaker:as this is incredibly painful.
Speaker:And that's where the performance pattern is born from.
Speaker:Now let's go a little bit deeper into speaking to men specifically here.
Speaker:How does this show up in relationship with the feminine in your internal
Speaker:world, during people pleasing what is happening actually in specific
Speaker:moments that create tension?
Speaker:And safety and as the feminine, you will feel this deeply.
Speaker:So we already talked about saying yes when you mean no,
Speaker:that's kind of obvious, right?
Speaker:But also over explaining to try to keep the harmony.
Speaker:There is no clear I want this, but there be, it becomes a word salad.
Speaker:You start over explaining, which is completely diluting what you actually
Speaker:want, because you don't want to feel the discomfort of just saying,
Speaker:this is what I want, this is what I think, this is how I think it is
Speaker:best to do, should be, whatever.
Speaker:It doesn't mean you enforce it and dominate, but it means you
Speaker:can say with full decisiveness and assertiveness what you want, who
Speaker:you are and where you want to go.
Speaker:And if you're then overexplaining or it becomes a big word salad, then
Speaker:ultimately what happens is that she hasn't got a clue and neither do you,
Speaker:what you truly want in that moment.
Speaker:And that level of lack of clarity is then what she's responding to.
Speaker:Another one is changing your opinion.
Speaker:The moment she disagrees, this is a big one, she says, no, I don't agree.
Speaker:You say, yes, you're right, yes, you're right, yes, you're right.
Speaker:It's okay to realize that you were wrong.
Speaker:It's okay to realize that maybe her approach or her thoughts or
Speaker:her belief might be more conscious.
Speaker:That's fine, but it has to be a real and authentic realization you have in that
Speaker:moment, and not some bullshit you make up in that moment to keep the peace.
Speaker:If you change your opinion based on her reacting differently, then you
Speaker:are like a leaf blowing in the wind.
Speaker:But you are not meant to be a fucking leaf blowing in the wind.
Speaker:You are meant to be the mountain.
Speaker:You are meant to be.
Speaker:The tree that is deeply fucking rooted into the earth.
Speaker:Stop acting like a leaf, because that is what you do when you change
Speaker:your opinion, you change your values, you change your traits.
Speaker:You become a chameleon, so to speak.
Speaker:And chameleons are powerful, they can change and they can
Speaker:adapt, and it's powerful.
Speaker:But in this case, it's not.
Speaker:It's really not powerful.
Speaker:Another one is apologizing excessively.
Speaker:I'm sorry, I'm sorry, i'm sorry.
Speaker:And yes, we have to differentiate here.
Speaker:In British culture, for instance, people say sorry much more.
Speaker:It's part of the culture.
Speaker:It doesn't necessarily mean it's, it's necessarily that.
Speaker:So I need to make that distinction specifically for British culture here.
Speaker:Now, unless you are British and that's part of your culture and you both engage
Speaker:in more stories, and there's no wrong or right, it's just how culture is.
Speaker:I've got respect for that deeply, for every culture and
Speaker:every form of communication and why these things are important.
Speaker:But specifically hearing moments in communication, this is different.
Speaker:It's constantly apologizing for what?
Speaker:For having a truth, for having desires, for wanting things
Speaker:to be different perhaps.
Speaker:It's thinking you have to apologize and over explain your
Speaker:decisions, what you want, what you like, and what you don't like.
Speaker:And what happens when you do that is it just doesn't feel very powerful to you.
Speaker:There's a lot of insecurity in your body, and she's going to react and respond to
Speaker:that insecurity, mirroring your state of consciousness and the true energetic
Speaker:current that is alive in that moment.
Speaker:Another one is asking for permission instead of making decisions, it's
Speaker:beautiful to talk with her and ask her whether she's in alignment or agreement.
Speaker:We're not doing some dominant, I decide my way or the highway bullshit.
Speaker:That's not masculine leadership at all.
Speaker:But at the same time, if you're kind of tiptoeing around asking for permission.
Speaker:And asking her about every single thing in your life, she
Speaker:becomes your spiritual coach.
Speaker:It's not a role she wants, and if she steps into that role, it's gonna
Speaker:totally erode intimacy because you're no longer partners, you're just tiptoeing.
Speaker:Hey baby, should I do this?
Speaker:Should I do that?
Speaker:What do you think about this?
Speaker:What do you think about that?
Speaker:You become like a child who needs to ask like his mother every single thing.
Speaker:It's not a powerful energy.
Speaker:There's a big difference between baby I'd love your opinion on X, Y,
Speaker:Z, because I'm thinking of, boom.
Speaker:You already make clear where you're thinking, where you are heading,
Speaker:what's your thought pattern?
Speaker:You just want to quickly, quickly check in with her because you really appreciate her
Speaker:intuition, you appreciate her opinion, you appreciate what she thinks of whatever,
Speaker:but if you are outsourcing the decision to her, that's the people pleasing.
Speaker:You have to be already rooted in decisiveness and assertiveness,
Speaker:ideally, if you want the highest polarity and intimacy and
Speaker:magnetism and depth of attraction.
Speaker:But if it's like, baby, should I wear this or should I wear this?
Speaker:Baby, should we go there or should we do this?
Speaker:What do you think I should be doing?
Speaker:Ah, that is shit.
Speaker:Because what you are doing here is outsourcing your energy.
Speaker:You don't feel powerful, and you feel like a boy in the relationship.
Speaker:And funnily enough, you start to resent her.
Speaker:You start to resent her, even though you are outsourcing
Speaker:your decision making to her.
Speaker:Let's say no to that bullshit.
Speaker:So it's not about never asking her and going the other way, and
Speaker:being someone my way, the highway.
Speaker:That also exists, men who think, well, I don't even consider her.
Speaker:Consider her.
Speaker:You can ask her, but be rooted in what you want.
Speaker:Be rooted in the decision or in the decision you think is best, and come from
Speaker:that place of, assertiveness rather than using her to choose about what is right
Speaker:and what is your truth in your life.
Speaker:Because the thing is, if she then decides for you, it might not be your highest
Speaker:truth and you will only have a resent her in that and feel disconnected.
Speaker:Another one is avoiding serious conversations
Speaker:because you fear hurting her.
Speaker:You are afraid of her reaction.
Speaker:You're afraid that she will abandon you.
Speaker:But you have to have conversations when something is really important to you,
Speaker:when something happened that you don't feel completely clear with, you need
Speaker:to be able to address these topics.
Speaker:It's never about being intense or why did you say this?
Speaker:That can only lead to more disconnect.
Speaker:It's really about coming from your truth and saying, baby, I just want
Speaker:to quickly talk about what happened yesterday that didn't feel right to me.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:I want to talk about this with you.
Speaker:And a woman who's conscious will be able to receive that or listen to you and
Speaker:then offer her deepest truth of what she felt was happening in that moment.
Speaker:These patterns might feel small in the moment, but in the long run, they destroy
Speaker:trust, intimacy, and safety entirely.
Speaker:She loses respect for you because deep down you don't respect yourself.
Speaker:Now let's get to the heart of the episode.
Speaker:What steps can you take as a man?
Speaker:And as the feminine when you hear this, I believe your nervous
Speaker:system and heart will be able to exhale with a deep sigh and relief.
Speaker:Men tell the truth in one clean sentence.
Speaker:Don't decorate the truth.
Speaker:Stop softening it.
Speaker:Stop sugarcoating, apologizing, or apologizing for it existing.
Speaker:Say what is real.
Speaker:One clean sentence.
Speaker:Remember that mantra?
Speaker:One sentence to speak the truth.
Speaker:Not 20, not a hundred.
Speaker:One clear sentence.
Speaker:When it's about what you want about a decision, about your values, or about
Speaker:your virtues, remember the mantra one clean sentence, because that is
Speaker:able to land in her nervous system.
Speaker:She's able to hear that.
Speaker:Oh, yes, makes sense.
Speaker:And then it needs a little bit of silence.
Speaker:It's not about some fucking performing acting here and then 30
Speaker:seconds of silence, but it's like, here's my truth, boom, and a short
Speaker:moment of stillness and silence.
Speaker:What this creates is that you are able to actually feel discomfort of
Speaker:her potentially not agreeing with it, and that's really important.
Speaker:So you say your truth, and then you just allow anything to be in that moment.
Speaker:Many times she might have a really good reaction, but you can't make
Speaker:your truth depend on how she responds.
Speaker:You need to be able to hold space for whatever arises after you speak truth.
Speaker:And when you can say the truth in one clean sentence and you can be with
Speaker:any potential discomfort momentarily that might arise, then by definition,
Speaker:you are no longer a people pleaser.
Speaker:You are not responsible for her feeling disappointed or responding perhaps
Speaker:not in the way you intended her to respond to your truth or to expressing
Speaker:something important to your heart, but you are responsible for your own
Speaker:integrity, your own practice of speaking the truth, and then holding the space.
Speaker:Another really important is make the decision and stand behind it.
Speaker:But don't start with big and massive decisions.
Speaker:Start with extremely small things.
Speaker:If you are constantly outsourcing decision making to her, and maybe she
Speaker:took on unconsciously the role of doing this for you, start small and build your
Speaker:masculine nervous system around owning and stepping fully into decision making.
Speaker:This could be very simple, about something you want to do in your
Speaker:life about where you want to go.
Speaker:And even if she doesn't agree, that doesn't matter.
Speaker:It's your decisiveness.
Speaker:It's, it's the difference between you saying, Hey baby, what do you
Speaker:want to do at the weekend to baby.
Speaker:I want to take you out for a date night.
Speaker:I'm thinking of this restaurant at this time, or.
Speaker:In the evening, and I'd love for you and me to have a really nice date, night,
Speaker:to connect, to not have our phones on, and to really have time for us.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:Feed into that difference.
Speaker:Then you can still ask, I'm thinking of this restaurant,
Speaker:I'm thinking of this place.
Speaker:How does that align with you?
Speaker:And she might say, well, I don't like this place, but I'd love a date night.
Speaker:Or many cases you most likely know which place she might
Speaker:like or will like or likes.
Speaker:She will respond so positively to that.
Speaker:And that's how you start.
Speaker:Build that.
Speaker:Build that, build that one clear sentence.
Speaker:Make the decision.
Speaker:If she disagrees, fine, you are in partnership.
Speaker:You honor that.
Speaker:You listen to her, but you don't outsource your decision making.
Speaker:Breathe through discomfort.
Speaker:This is extremely important in those moments where you say
Speaker:something and she might disagree, rove or your worst nightmare.
Speaker:Of that specific wounding comes into play where you feel, oh, she might just
Speaker:be abandoning me, which in most cases won't be what's actually happening,
Speaker:but in some cases it genuinely might, but then it's a blessing, vice versa,
Speaker:it's a blessing if someone abandons you, when you speak your highest truth,
Speaker:rooted and grounded in your heart.
Speaker:Now breathing through discomfort is really important because in those
Speaker:moments where there might be tension,
Speaker:deep breathing, full expansion of the lower belly, not short chest
Speaker:breathing, but really allowing the breath to go all the way into the
Speaker:lower body, into the lower belly.
Speaker:If you can breathe into the discomfort, it means you can hold space for the
Speaker:discomfort, and it means you are basically teaching your body and
Speaker:nervous system it is safe to speak my truth, it is safe to set a boundary,
Speaker:and no matter what the response is, I can hold the emotional field.
Speaker:And the last one really important, celebrate the moments where
Speaker:you did not abandon yourself.
Speaker:Celebrate the moments where you chose truth over approval seeking.
Speaker:Write them down, keep a little journal at the end of each day.
Speaker:This is enormously powerful because by celebrating them and feeling gratitude for
Speaker:these moments, you are strengthening the kind of energetic state of you standing
Speaker:securely in your fucking highest truth.
Speaker:Now, as you know, as you can sense, I'm very passionate about this topic
Speaker:and, uh, when I'm very passionate about a topic, specifically as passionate
Speaker:about this year, it's because I've seen shifts that are really beyond
Speaker:what I thought are possible, shifts from total lack of safety, a lot of
Speaker:pain, to incredible transformations in relationships where a man stepped out of
Speaker:that people pleasing and really started to rewire himself step by step and step.
Speaker:And for the feminine to start to fully, fully open to him to trust
Speaker:him again, it is entirely possible.
Speaker:Because the difference is people pleasing, is conditioned behavior.
Speaker:People pleasing.
Speaker:If we're merely talking about people pleasing is never deliberate manipulation.
Speaker:So as a woman, if a man is open to this, he's working through this, then
Speaker:you can find compassion to as to where it comes from, because this is very
Speaker:different than a man lying to you.
Speaker:But it's still, it needs to shift.
Speaker:Also, what I've noticed important to mention is that many times when
Speaker:men have people pleasing patterns, they often are in relationship with
Speaker:a woman who struggles also with strong boundaries or with boundaries,
Speaker:masculine boundaries in general.
Speaker:Maybe there's a father wound and it feels like no, boundaries feel unsafe to her.
Speaker:This can kind of aggravate each other's challenges.
Speaker:specifically the people pleasing patterns on the man's end.
Speaker:So this is very, very important to understand.
Speaker:The journey of working for people pleasing patterns doesn't always just mean the
Speaker:man works through it, and that's it.
Speaker:There might also be a big learning curve and, and, and, and growth opportunity
Speaker:for the feminine to actually be able to receive a man's truth fully.
Speaker:Thank you for listening or watching this episode.
Speaker:It's an honor to have you here.
Speaker:Many of you listening or watching aren't subscribed.
Speaker:Subscribe now to the show so you never miss the next episode.