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.

*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.

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.

Wrapping up season 3 with an amazing episode with Danielle Marggraf, a leader in the area of somatic and wealth embodiment for women who desire to build authentic and aligned businesses that are lucrative while making an impact. Danielle works with money combined with somatic, energetic, and mindset work to rewire your body for more freedom, fulfillment, and feminine financial well-being. And she tells us exactly how to do this in this episode!

Key points to listen for include:

🔥How Danielle's rock bottom inspired her to seek alternative modalities of manifestation above and beyond typical mindset work

🔥How to break through the scarcity mindset by identifying and unlearning unconscious thought and behavior patterns (conditioning) that are keeping you stuck

🔥How stepping into alignment with your true self may create challenges and anxiety and the tools to continue moving forward

🔥The fourth trauma response called fawn: adapting to your circumstance in a way to keep the peace, aka, codependency

🔥The technique of questioning what makes you stop doing something when challenge arises and tools to expand the capacity of your nervous system to hold success

🔥Re-pairing wealth and success with a new meaning

About Danielle

Danielle Marggraf is a pioneer is the feminine wealth creation movement. She is followed by women worldwide for her inspiring and no-nonsense teaching style. An activator for women to be wealthy and worthy, Danielle helps women to banish shame, unworthiness, and not enough from their body systems while growing lucrative soul enriching businesses, as well as understanding that their bank accounts and their lives are a reflection of their body patterns.

Danielle has been featured in BuzzFeed once alongside Brene Brown as one of the people to watch in 2024 and for her popular podcast, Embodied Millions, featured alongside Gabby Bernstein. Danielle is an executive writer for Best Holistic Life Magazine and has been featured as their cover girl twice in May of 2021 and November of 2024. Her book, Distilling Your Soul Medicine, will be published this September.

Follow Danielle on Instagram

Listen to her podcast, Embodied Millions

Check out the Embodied Millions Membership

*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.

Do you find it difficult to sit with someone who is grieving and just be there? Are you tempted to make things better for them, to cheer them up? Can you witness someone's pain in full presence and awareness? And how do you take care of yourself before and after to ensure you do not experience compassion fatigue?

Join Amanda and her guest, Dr. Heather Taylor, licensed psychologist specializing in grief, trauma, and reproductive psychology, and host of the Grief is the New Normal podcast for a heartfelt, nurturing conversation about showing up for a friend, family, or client in their deepest time of need. Great episode for those in the clinical setting as well as caretakers and those seeking to be of compassionate service to a friend or family member in need.

Key points to listen for include:

🔥Heather's experience of sitting vigil with people in hospice and how to enter this sacred space with the intention of being fully present

🔥The importance of getting "in tune" with whoever you are with and/or caring for

🔥How to "metabolize" the energy we carry after such an experience

🔥An intriguing cup metaphor about our ability to expand our capacity to hold space for someone

🔥The benefit of community for those doing this work as well as those who are grieving a loss

🔥Suggestions for reducing isolation and steps to activate the healing process

🔥Heather's journey of chronic pregnancy-induced heart failure and coping skills for grieving her limitations (a form of loss)

🔥The benefit of being curiosity of and having grace for your own healing journey

🔥Understanding that every feeling passes and how not to get too committed to one emotion

🔥Accepting the reality of grief ripples, the secondary losses that result from the primary loss

About Heather

Dr. Heather Taylor is a licensed psychologist based in Washington State, specializing in grief, trauma, and reproductive psychology. She is the host of the Grief is the New Normal podcast, where she explores the multifaceted nature of grief and offers insights and support to those navigating their own grief journeys. Dr. Taylor is also the founder of the Professional Grief Collective, a pioneering initiative designed to provide clinicians, therapists, and grief coaches with resources, consultation, and community to enhance their grief support practices. Her work is dedicated to normalizing grief and providing a platform for open discussions about loss and healing.

Follow Heather on Instagram

Get Heather's grief journal: Authentically Unapologetic: A Grief Journal

*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.

Are limiting beliefs holding you back from showing up in life the way you want to? Do the same tapes play over and over, and you feel powerless to stop them? Are you ready to flip your script into a narrative that serves you instead of hurts you?

Join Amanda and her special guest and friend Chris Janssen, a results coach in performance and mindset and award-winning author of the USA Today's #4 nonfiction book Grace Yourself, for tools and tips to show up for yourself no matter what life throws at you. A great show for people seeking to achieve success as a sober person, these two women in recovery shed some serious light on how to move through life's challenges without numbing out.

Key points they touch on include:

🔥The difference between a high-growth minded person and a perfectionist and the benefit of viewing yourself as the former.

🔥How to break the pattern of "serving the person you once were" to embrace the new you.

🔥Life is not happening to you, it's just happening and even though suffering is unavoidable, we don't have to stay in it.

🔥Tools like vision boards, mantras, affirmations, journaling, and community to lift you out of self-pity and into a healthier mindset.

🔥Service to others as a way to stop thinking about yourself and your problems.

🔥Grace, what it means, and how you don't have to do anything or be anything to receive it from God/Higher Power/Universe.

About Chris

Chris Janssen, MA, BCC is a results coach in performance and mindset and award-winning author of the USA TODAY Bestseller Grace Yourself: How to Show Up for the Sober Life You Want and Amazon Bestseller Living All In: How to Show Up for the Life You Want.

Chris has worked with hundreds of creatives, soldiers, entrepreneurs, and small businesses internationally to close the gap between where they are and where they want to be. Her training includes working with Tony Robbins on his top-tier coaching team. As a board-certified coach with a master's in counseling psychology and 20+ years' experience, Chris excels in helping high-achieving perfectionists navigate performance pressure, rewrite narratives, and overcome self-sabotage.

Chris' work has been featured in; Newsweek, USA TODAY, Thrive Global, Simplify Magazine, RAPT Interviews, Publishers Weekly, Brainz Magazine, and the Jesus Calling Podcast. A California native, Chris lives with her husband since 1995, Scott. They love to ski, golf, be with their horses, and adventure outside. Together they raised three children, now thriving young adults.

Follow Chris on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Get her latest book Grace Yourself here!

*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.