Have you considered the amount of power you hold to choose your path during life's major transitions like giving birth, grieving, or dying? And do you exercise your right to tailor your experience to what feels right for you? Or do you go along with the prescribed conditioning without questioning what's available to you during these life-altering choice points?

Join Amanda and her guest Sundari Malcolm, Birth, Grief, and Death Doula, for a straightforward, candid conversation about the incredible power you have to choose what feels right for your soul while on your journey to living a full, authentic life free of other people's opinions and society's judgments and expectations.

They also discuss:

🔥"New age" is actually ancient and "woo woo" is how your ancestors lived for thousands of years

🔥The alchemy of grief: transmuting pain into power due to increased awareness of your limited bandwidth to stand for what no longer serves you and how to reach this place of peace

🔥Ancient practices hold the key to aligning with our highest self and an explanation of some of these modalities such as plant medicine, ritual, sound and song, movement and dance, among others

🔥Your cells hold the memory of ancient wisdom and are beckoning to be witnessed and activated as the path to healing body, mind, and spirit

🔥Your power to listen to your body's inner wisdom for which conditioned programs to listen to and which ones to ignore

🔥The empirical collapse that is happening all over the world (felt as collective grief) is not a collapse but a return to the simple solutions that have always worked and how this disintegration requires a deep surrender

🔥Sundari's fascinating story of being raised between in an ashram in Yogaville, VA and NYC how she translates her yoga practice as a connection point to grief

About Sundari

Sundari Malcolm is a Birth, Grief and Death Doula specializing in yoga, breathwork and meditation. She’s a teacher on a mission to equip people with the tools they need to manage life’s greatest transitions. In 2007, at 27 years old, and after seven years of being her caregiver, Sundari lost her mother to breast cancer. Four years later, her father died from the complications of brain cancer. Those experiences redirected her life and led her to the beautiful path she travels today. A contributor to Help Texts and a grief expert with the For Grief Speakers Bureau, she is the author of the book Grief Gems and the founder of A Healing Doula Academy, a virtual self-paced training academy for the spiritually led grief & death doula with a focus on ancient indigenous holistic wellness.

Follow Sundari on Instagram

Read Sundari's book Grief Gems

Work with Sundari at A Healing Doula

Join A Healing Doula Academy

*Email your thoughts about this show or if you have an idea for another show to solrisingpodcast@gmail.com.

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Music credit: "Surfer James" by Tom Deis. Source: Premiumbeats.com.

Are you a super busy go-getter who should probably slow down but doesn’t always take the time to do so? Do you allow yourself to stop and smell the roses before burning out with physical illness or emotional stress? And does a planned rest at a transformational, healing retreat in the majestic Rocky Mountains sound like a good idea?

Join Amanda and her Sol Rising Retreats co-host and friend Amber LaRusso, an RYT-500 yoga instructor specializing in energy flow, restorative, and yoga nidra, and certified Vibrational Sound Therapy practitioner for an honest conversation about what happens when they ignore their bodies inner wisdom and forego intentional periods of rest in pursuit of "gettin' it done." Listen till the end for what their upcoming retreat this June will look like in a space of empowered cocreation and community support.

They also dive into:

🔥The need for healers to seek their own healers!

🔥Both women’s stories of overworking and ignoring their body’s dysregulated nervous systems and the resulting physical suffering they've each endured

🔥Amber’s suggestions for dropping into the body with sensory practices, grounding, and connecting with self as well as how to create moments of ritual and embodiment

🔥What an immersive and intuitive sound healing experience with Amber feels like and how no two sessions are exactly the same

🔥Why Amanda & Amber are the perfect pair to do the healing work they do together at retreats (Hint: Think yin & yang!)

🔥An upcoming weekend retreat that encourages guests to bring and share their own gifts and experiences to cultivate a space of collective emotional, spiritual, and physical health

Amber LaRusso is a dedicated wellness practitioner with a deep passion for guiding others into states of relaxation, inner connection, and personal transformation. As the founder of Zenna Healing Arts, she integrates Vibrational Sound Therapy, Yoga, Meditation, and Reiki to create immersive healing experiences that help people reconnect with their inner wisdom to cultivate healing and a state of flow in their lives.

Follow Amber on Instagram and Facebook and visit her website to book an appointment and learn about events.

*Email your thoughts about this show or if you have an idea for another show to solrisingpodcast@gmail.com.

*If you like this show, please follow, share, and leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review.

Sol Rising is now also on YouTube. Check it out!

Follow Sol Rising on Instagram

Follow Amanda on Instagram

Get Amanda's book, Trust Yourself to Be All In on Amazon or amandamckoyflanagan.com.

Sign up for Amanda's monthly newsletter to receive your free guide, 5 Pillars for an Empowered Life After Loss on her website.

Music credit: "Surfer James" by Tom Deis. Source: Premiumbeats.com.

Struggling with addiction? Or know someone who is? Have you hit a rough patch in your own sobriety and are looking for hope and motivation to continue on?

Join Amanda and her guest Tim Lodgen, Former Gold Glove and Jr. Olympic Boxer, Former U.S Marine and Professional MMA Fighter, for an incredible story of addiction, recovery, and the power of mindset to transform pain into purpose. After suffering with alcohol and drug addiction for 27 years, Tim celebrated 4 years sober on the day this was recorded! His message of strength, courage, and resilience is a powerful example of the journey from darkness into light, from a painful life of addiction to one of joy and purpose.

Tim spends the first 45 minutes of this episode sharing his story then the two have a great conversation, bringing home many points Tim brings up in his story of sobriety in 12 step recovery.

Listen for these key points:

🔥 Hard times are not happing TO you, they are happening FOR you

🔥 Nothing will change in your life unless you change it

🔥 The essential keys to sobriety: humility & willingness

🔥 How hope (Hold On Pain Ends) is the most powerful belief when seeking to get sober

🔥 No matter how lonely you feel, you are never alone

🔥 The value of being in the darkness

🔥 Every difficult moment is an opportunity for growth

🔥 Happiness comes from within, and you (along with your Higher Power) have the power to create joy in your life no matter your circumstance

Born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, Tim graciously spends his time spreading the message of strength, courage, and hope to as many people as possible. Rising on the motivational speaker circuit as an advocate for first responders and veterans who may suffer from mental illness, addiction, and suicidal ideations, and appearing in two Amazon Prime movies and over 130 podcasts, Tim believes if he can help save one life with his message, and his example of sobriety, he will be able to give back what was so generously and freely given to him. Tim is grateful to work with 2 non-profits: The Overwatch Collective & The Light It Up Project.

Follow Tim on Instagram

You can also find Tim on Spotify and YouTube, and watch his movies, Repurposed and The Night of Recovery on Amazon Prime.

*Email your thoughts about this show or if you have an idea for another show to solrisingpodcast@gmail.com.

*If you like this show, please follow, share, and leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review.

Sol Rising is now also on YouTube. Check it out!

Follow Sol Rising on Instagram

Follow Amanda on Instagram

Get Amanda's book, Trust Yourself to Be All In on Amazon or amandamckoyflanagan.com.

Sign up for Amanda's monthly newsletter to receive your free guide, 5 Pillars for an Empowered Life After Loss on her website.

Music credit: "Surfer James" by Tom Deis. Source: Premiumbeats.com.