
Stop Pushing Love Away: How to End Self-Sabotage and Let Love In
From The Art of Accomplishment by Joe Hudson and Brett Kistler
May 22, 2026 · 32 min · Episode 161
About this episode
Joe and Brett explore the reasons behind self-sabotage in love and provide practices to enhance the capacity to give and receive love.
Most of us say we want love. So why do we push it away the moment it arrives? In this episode, Joe and Brett explore the surprisingly complex reasons we sabotage the very thing we say we want most; and why love, more than almost any other emotion, requires a nervous system that can tolerate it. Together, they unpack five core patterns that get in the way of receiving love, and offer concrete practices for expanding your capacity to give and receive it. Together, they explore: - The stone-faced baby experiments and how attachment becomes attention-seeking - Why "love" in adulthood is often just the attention strategies that worked in childhood - Jealousy as the perfect example of pushing love away while demanding it - Wired together, fired together: how love gets fused with criticism, abuse, or engulfment - Why receiving adoration you don't feel worthy of makes you physically uncomfortable - The identity-level confirmation bias that keeps us seeing rejection over love - How love can dissolve the sense of self and why that's terrifying - Why positive emotions are often harder to feel than negative ones - "Love is a light shined into a dark ocean". Why everything unloved surfaces…
People in this episode
Hosts: Joe Hudson, Brett Kistler
Topics covered
- self-sabotage
- love
- attachment
- emotional inquiry
- self-compassion
- relationships
Keywords
- self-sabotage
- love
- attachment styles
- jealousy
- self-compassion
- emotional inquiry
- relationships
More episodes of The Art of Accomplishment
- Teaching Series: After 14 Years of Coaching, This Is What I See Hold Most People Back · June 12, 2026 · 29 min
- Should I Stay or Should I Go? How to Commit Without Losing Yourself · June 5, 2026 · 34 min
- The Fear of Being Seen: Overcoming Shame, Invisibility, and Social Anxiety · May 8, 2026 · 35 min
- How to Delegate Without Micromanaging · April 24, 2026 · 41 min
- How to Change Your Interpersonal Patterns · April 10, 2026 · 32 min
- How to Succeed in the Age of AI · March 27, 2026 · 39 min
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the The Art of Accomplishment podcast page.