Insights & reflections

The Heart iQ Blog

Reflections from Christian on relationships, circle work and the practice of living from the heart.

113 articles to explore · Page 5 of 10

“Owning your shadows brings you into wholeness” Heart iQ article illustration. Video · 3:47
Teaching

The Key to Liberation is Embracing Your Shadows

Christian explains shadow work through the Shadow House Analogy, showing how disowned parts of ourselves get guarded by our STUART and why integrating rather than eliminating them brings wholeness.

Christian Pankhurst26 Jul 20233 min read
“Slow & deliberate, not still & frozen” Heart iQ article illustration. Video · 13:24
Teaching

How To Heal Trauma Through Divine Relaxation

A recorded exploration of presence, gentle movement and naming sensation, with notes on the distinction between a moment of release and a familiar pattern of tension.

Christian Pankhurst12 Jul 20231 min read
“This is primal life force we're talking about, so it lights up a man's being” Heart iQ article illustration. Video · 6:51
Teaching

Why Men Need to Access Their Inner Beast For Relationships to Work

One couple describe their experience of embodiment practice, alongside Christian’s distinction between feeling raw energy and expressing it with care.

Christian Pankhurst28 Jun 20232 min read
“Honor where they are and know in your heart that all healing has its time” Heart iQ article illustration. Video · 22:10
Teaching

Build a Strong Container To Go Deep

Christian explains sacred relationship agreements from a 2015 retreat, covering joy as shared purpose, presence over fixing, avoiding absolutes, accountability boundaries, and closing relationships consciously before beginning new ones.

Christian Pankhurst13 Jun 20234 min read
“It's called the dark side because it's in the dark.” Heart iQ article illustration. Video · 27:24
Podcast

Meet Maanee & Christian

Maanee Chrystal and Christian Pankhurst discuss how shadow work, somatic awareness and group witnessing combine to help people integrate hidden or exiled parts of themselves.

Christian Pankhurst9 Jun 20235 min read
“Joy is not the state of being when you're feeling good.” Heart iQ article illustration. Video · 19:02
Teaching

Make Your Relationships Thrive!

Christian outlines six relational habits, including redefining joy, building safety through self-acceptance, and speaking from the heart, as awareness practices for deepening connection.

Christian Pankhurst31 May 20233 min read
“Joy is the awakened moment where you relax into your own goodness” Heart iQ article illustration. Video · 21:22
Teaching

Heal Your Heart, Change Your Life

Christian explains why healing begins with loving what is, distinguishes joy from happiness, and shows how invasive and neglectful wounding both create the walls that block intimacy.

Christian Pankhurst17 May 20233 min read
“There is no traffic beyond the extra mile” Heart iQ article illustration. Video · 62:11
Podcast

What's Getting in the Way of Living Your Purpose?

Christian and Rick explore how leaning only on cathartic release or only on stoic endurance can block a person's purpose, and why real mentorship depends on becoming visible enough to be met.

Christian Pankhurst13 May 20234 min read
“The most sacred journey that we must take is of course our relationship to ourselves.” Heart iQ article illustration. Video · 23:34
Teaching

4 Essential Ingredients to a Healthy Relationship

Christian outlines four containers that shape relationship health: self-intimacy, the shared bubble with a partner, brotherhood or sisterhood, and belonging to a wider tribe or community.

Christian Pankhurst4 May 20233 min read
“Catharsis without direction is almost useless.” Heart iQ article illustration. Video · 11:32
Teaching

Is Catharsis Healthy?

Christian questions catharsis for its own sake, reflects on his own family history, and explains why choice, accurate attention and a slower pace matter in circle.

Christian Pankhurst30 Apr 20233 min read
“It doesn't get easier later. It just gets later later.” Heart iQ article illustration. Video · 95:00
Podcast

What I Would Do Differently If I Were 25 Again

Christian looks back at the choices that shaped his path from chiropractic student to messenger, entrepreneur and mentor, weighing what he'd repeat and what cost him too much.

Christian Pankhurst9 Nov 20224 min read
“Focus on what you need to open, and your stuff will find you.” Heart iQ article illustration. Video · 13:13
Teaching

How to Heal Trauma Without Digging Up Your Past

Christian reflects on support after a frightening experience, the difference between love and attunement, and beginning relational practice in the present.

Christian Pankhurst3 May 20222 min read

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