Jonathan Penner | The Live Love Weekly

Oliver Buchannon

Jonathan Penner

Founder of LifeApp | Relationship Coach | Exploring: What is love—and how do we live it well?

Filtered Truths: When Politeness Breaks Trust

Jan 8, 2026

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8 min read

Filtered Truths: When Politeness Breaks Trust

We tend to think of bold, outright lies as the great enemy of love. And yes, they can do enormous damage. But we often overlook the quieter culprit—the filtered truths: the polished words, the swallowed frustrations, the “no worries” smile when your insides are twisting. These half-truths erode connection just as efficiently, only more subtly.

Jonathan Penner

Imagine, Here and Now

Jan 1, 2026

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8 min read

Imagine, Here and Now

Love doesn’t become real through wishing or waiting. It becomes real when we take responsibility to engage in proactively growing our ability, our willingness, and our capacity to live love well.

Jonathan Penner

Christmas Day 2025

Dec 25, 2025

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7 min read

Christmas Day 2025

This Christmas Day, some are waking up to a warm, easy day: laughter, food, safety, love, togetherness. And some are waking up to a complicated day: grief, tension, loneliness, exhaustion, anxiety, the ache of an empty chair. If there’s one thing I want to offer today, it’s this: don’t make your goal that everything will be “good.”

Jonathan Penner

With Gratitude: 2025

Dec 18, 2025

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5 min read

With Gratitude: 2025

If there is one theme from this year, it is this: love multiplies. It heals, strengthens, clarifies, and calls people back to themselves—and then it keeps going, touching everyone around them. Thank you for helping us build a world grounded in the art, science, and spirit of love.

Jonathan Penner

The Thing Behind The Thing

Dec 11, 2025

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11 min read

The Thing Behind The Thing

There are so many things we say, repeat, and reenact simply because they’re familiar. We rarely stop to wonder what’s actually behind them. We inherit habits, traditions, and rituals, and we perform them without ever examining the meaning they were meant to carry.

Jonathan Penner

The Spirit You Bring

Dec 4, 2025

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12 min read

The Spirit You Bring

If we’re paying attention, every holiday gathering offers a small but significant fork in the road: Will I show up hoping others meet my needs, my preferences, my sensitivities—or will I orient myself toward love, choosing a posture that seeks the good of others in the room?

Jonathan Penner

Are You Showing Up in Pieces?

Nov 27, 2025

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13 min read

Are You Showing Up in Pieces?

If we want to lock-in—at work, at home, with our partners, our kids, our friends—we need to learn how to “lock-through” with intention. How to let things settle. How to clear residue. How to arrive whole. Not in pieces.

Jonathan Penner

When Growth Feels Threatening

Nov 20, 2025

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12 min read

When Growth Feels Threatening

Growth: it never stays politely in its own lane. It barges into places you counted on, rearranging routines you’d grown fond of. Sometimes it feels like an amazing gift. Sometimes it feels like you're being robbed.

Jonathan Penner

They Got Engaged — With a Little Help From Their Friends

Nov 6, 2025

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12 min read

They Got Engaged — With a Little Help From Their Friends

We were never meant to do life alone. A relationship might start with two people, but it grows because of a healthy village around us.

Jonathan Penner

Learn to Discern

Oct 30, 2025

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12 min read

Learn to Discern

Psychologists have long studied why we so often misread people—not because we’re naive, but because our minds are wired for trust, belonging, and meaning. Those same instincts that make connection possible can also make deception hard to see.

Jonathan Penner

When Being Right Gets in the Way of Love

Oct 23, 2025

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8 min read

When Being Right Gets in the Way of Love

There are three mindsets we tend to slip into when our beliefs or identities feel threatened. And when we default to certainty instead of curiosity, we're disconnecting from the part of us that’s still learning.

Jonathan Penner

The Discomfort Advantage

Oct 16, 2025

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11 min read

The Discomfort Advantage

Life begins outside the comfort zone. Here’s why that’s not just a cliché—it’s neuroscience.

Jonathan Penner

Don't Fight To Win, Fight To Understand

Oct 9, 2025

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10 min read

Don't Fight To Win, Fight To Understand

Every argument is a choice: chase victory, or cultivate understanding. One divides, the other connects.

Jonathan Penner

It Goes Both Ways

Oct 2, 2025

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8 min read

It Goes Both Ways

It would take me years to realize that “it goes both ways” wasn’t fairness. It was defensiveness. And defensiveness, I’ve since learned, is like bubble wrap for your ego.

Jonathan Penner

The Hidden Heckler in Your Head

Sep 25, 2025

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13 min read

The Hidden Heckler in Your Head

Our inner critic doesn’t stay inside. As decades of research have shown, it not only attacks our sense of self; it also ripples outward, quietly sabotaging our most important relationships.

Jonathan Penner

The Economy of Outrage

Sep 18, 2025

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14 min read

The Economy of Outrage

From clicks to chaos: how outrage is monetized and what it's costing us

Jonathan Penner

Love: Humanity’s Core Intelligence

Sep 11, 2025

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8 min read

Love: Humanity’s Core Intelligence

As we move forward in a world where AI could help solve global hunger or climate change—or just as easily drive mass manipulation, political chaos, and economic exploitation—we must remember this: AI itself is not the opportunity or the threat. We are.

Jonathan Penner

Ask For What You Want

Sep 4, 2025

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10 min read

Ask For What You Want

Because closed mouths don’t open doors—and sometimes the doors that open change everything.

Jonathan Penner

Turmeric, Lavender, and a Lesson in Self-Care

Aug 28, 2025

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8 min read

Turmeric, Lavender, and a Lesson in Self-Care

Why slowing down is neither laziness nor luxury—it’s preparation for living love well.

Jonathan Penner

The Problem With ‘Never Be Perfect’

Aug 21, 2025

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10 min read

The Problem With ‘Never Be Perfect’

Here’s the real problem: “not perfect” isn’t just a tough game—it’s the wrong game. We’ve been taught to chase it as if it were the prize, when in reality it’s a rigged game. No one wins. No one even gets close. And while we’re busy playing it, we miss the real game entirely: becoming healthy.

Jonathan Penner

The Art of Receiving Affirmation

Aug 14, 2025

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9 min read

The Art of Receiving Affirmation

Why it feels so hard—and how to let it in.

Jonathan Penner

Live & Let Live: The Art of Loving Without Control

Aug 7, 2025

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10 min read

Live & Let Live: The Art of Loving Without Control

My mom taught me something most of us spend our whole lives trying to learn: how to love without controlling, how to release people from our expectations.

Jonathan Penner

Let Love Rule: The Muscle Memory of a Better World

Jul 31, 2025

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10 min read

Let Love Rule: The Muscle Memory of a Better World

Letting love rule isn’t soft—it’s disruptive. It calls us to reorder our lives, surrender ego, and risk kindness even when it costs us. It’s not the easiest path, but it just might be the most reliable path to a better world.

Jonathan Penner

The Gift Inside Regret

Jul 24, 2025

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13 min read

The Gift Inside Regret

How emotionally intelligent people use regret not as a punishment—but as a path to love, learning, and repair.

Jonathan Penner

What the World’s Happiest People Know That We Often Forget

Jul 16, 2025

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12 min read

What the World’s Happiest People Know That We Often Forget

Insights from the Global Flourishing Study—and one quiet moment on my couch.

Jonathan Penner