Surviving Sarah

I am so happy to welcome Sarah Bessey to the table. I’ve wanted to chat with her for a very long time because she embodies a sense of generosity about her. Her presence welcomes you wherever you are on your faith journey. Sarah is the author of the popular and critically acclaimed books Jesus Feminist, Out of Sorts: Making Peace with an Evolving Faith, and Miracles and Other Reasonable Things. Her recent book A Rhythm of Prayer is a New York Times best seller.    Sarah joins me today to talk about faith and prayer. She shares a little bit of her faith journey and how her view of prayer was affected through it. As we open the episode, you get to sample what my Patreon supporters get to hear every week for just $3 a month. If you like what you hear and want that every week, go to Patreon.com/SurvivingSarah   Sign up for Sarah's monthly Survival Kit Newsletter   Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram    

I am happy to welcome Tiffany Bluhm back to the show. She is the author of the books Prey Tell, She Dreams, and Never Alone. She is cohost of the podcast Why Tho and speaks at conferences and events around the world. As a minority, immigrant woman with an interracial family, Bluhm is passionate about inviting all to the table of faith, equality, justice, and dignity.    We talk about why we silence women who speak up and how to speak up for others. Tiffany shares some great advice on how to raise our girls to not be silenced and to not stand for silence around them. She also shares what we can do to be women who stand up for other women.   Check out bonus content from today's episode over on Patreon.   Sign up for Sarah's monthly Survival Kit Newsletter   Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram  

I’m very happy to welcome Robyn Downs to the table. Robyn uses simple, science-backed strategies to help people cut through life’s clutter to uncover small shifts that create huge change. She holds a Master’s degree in education with an emphasis in behavior change, and 4 years of public policy & health change at the doctoral level. Her work taps into cutting edge science around psychology, neuroscience, mindfulness, and habits. Recently named one of the Most Influential Women in Wellness and she recently published a book titled: The Feel Good Effect: Reclaim Your Wellness By Creating Small Shifts That Create Big Change.    Let me just say that I loved this book. It is practical and helpful while making sense of why I sometimes find myself in ruts when it comes to my wellness. In this episode, we talk about why we struggle to think that we have to do it all. We talk about the unrealistic expectations we put on ourselves, and the guilt that follows. Robyn shares some tips on how to break that guilt cycle, w

I welcome Kelsey Chapman back to the show. Kelsey and I met years ago when she was a guest and we’ve have kept a friendship going ever since. Kelsey is an author, community builder, online educator and host of The Radiant Podcast. But to me, she is one of the greatest resources and cheerleaders I know. Her first book, What They Taught Me: Recognizing The Mentors Who Will Take You From Dream To Done captures her perfectly. Mentorship is truly at the heart of who she is and what she does.    In this episode, we talk about several different mentors in her life, how to go about finding a mentor whether its in your career or in your personal life and then lastly, she shares some advice on how to be a mentor to someone else.   Sign up for Sarah's monthly Survival Kit Newsletter Pre-order Sarah's book: A Mother's Guide to Raising Herself   Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram Check out bonus content from today's episode over on Patreon.  

I look back on this month and while I’m surprised that we are at the end, I also feel like we’ve lived a lot. But that doesn’t mean that I’m not excited for what this new year could hold. I’ve been on record saying that I love the start of the new year. There is something hopeful and fresh about it. I tend to find myself ending a year completely ready for a reboot. And this year is no different. Can I let you in on a secret? While I love the start of a new year, I’m not great at goals and resolutions. Maybe I just like the theoretical reset button that gets pushed in January. But I’m actually not one to really set goals and resolutions.  In this episode, I share what’s been helping me create the life I want to live in a way that doesn’t result in feeling judgmental towards myself. Sign up for Sarah's monthly Survival Kit Newsletter Pre-order Sarah's book: A Mother's Guide to Raising Herself   Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram Check out bonus content from today's episode over on Patreon.

I am so happy to welcome Laura Tremaine to the table today. Laura lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Jeff, and their two children. She is is a writer and podcaster. On her weekly podcast 10 Things To Tell You, she encourages listeners to take the episode prompts to a friend or to their journal, because meaningful connections come from good conversations. Her first book Share Your Stuff. I’ll Go First. will release in February.    Today’s conversation is all about connection. And as her book suggests, Laura goes first —she steps into vulnerability first. We talk about friendships, why it sometimes feels so lonely in this season of adulthood, what helps her find all different levels of connection and she shares such a great tip for all of us who are longing to build more connection in our lives. I always enjoy chatting with people who are authentic and show up as themselves. I enjoyed this conversation and I think you will too.   I want to make sure you know about my monthly survival kit newsletter. I send

Today, I am so happy to welcome Hannah Brencher back to the show. Hannah is an author, blogger, TED speaker and entrepreneur. She has authored three books and today we discuss her most recent one, Fighting Forward. We talk about how to go about making change in your life—how to find your way forward when you want to fight for more, when you want to find a better life or better version of yourself. With that, we talk about what gets in the way of moving forward and changing our lives and what helps you maintain that change you created. This is such a good episode and it was so timely for me again as I edited it. I felt so pumped up after listening. I think you will, too. Sign up for Sarah's monthly Survival Kit Newsletter Pre-order Sarah's book: A Mother's Guide to Raising Herself   Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram Check out bonus content from today's episode over on Patreon.

Today, is my annual year in review episode with my good friend Merica Stum. This is my absolute favorite episode of the year. You know how you get together with a friend you haven’t seen in a long time and you have one million things to talk about? That was this episode.   In this episode, we look back and compare what we thought 2020 would hold and what actually happened. We talk about some of the overarching themes of the year, what we learned, good habits we developed, thoughts and feelings on planners, our favorite books and shows and then we look at 2021 and what we hope for. This episode is full of laughter and goodness so pull up a chair and join the conversation.   Check out bonus content from today's episode over on Patreon.   Sign up for Sarah's monthly Survival Kit Newsletter   Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram

Sarah shares what this season of change and transition has been like for her and what has helped her when she feels sad and scared because of it. Sign up for Sarah's monthly Survival Kit Newsletter   Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram

I am so happy to welcome my good friend, Melanie Dale, back to the show. If you have been listening to the show for awhile, then you know that back in 2017-2018, Melanie and I did an episode together every month. It is always fun to have friends on the show. In case you don’t know Melanie, she is an author, speaker and podcaster who lives outside of Atlanta. She and her husband are raising 3 kids from 3 continents.    And today, she joins me to talk about her new book Calm the Heck Down: How to Let Go and Lighten Up About Parenting. In this episode, we talk about a few things in regards to parenting that we need to calm down about. I go first and share something that I need to calm down about. We could have easily talked about every single topic in Melanie’s book but instead we narrowed it down to a few things we need to calm down about: school, sex, work.   Check out bonus content from today's episode over on Patreon.   Sign up for Sarah's monthly Survival Kit Newsletter   Connect with Sarah: Website | Inst

I am so happy to welcome Jeff and André Shinabarger to the show today. Jeff is the Executive Director of Plywood People and André is a physician’s assistant at Grady Hospital here in Atlanta. Together they host the podcast Love or Work.    They recently completed the largest research study on working married couples in the U.S. and spent the last few years interviewing couples who want to stay in love, change the world and raise a healthy family. (They even started this journey traveling in an Airstream!)    They asked this question of 100 working couples across a multitude of industries, including professional athletes and artists, entrepreneurs and CEOs, fashion icons and church leaders, while simultaneously surveying 1600 working professionals in partnership with Barna Research: Is It Possible To Change The World, Stay In Love And Raise A Healthy Family?   They share not only the results of the survey but also stories from their own lives in their new book Love or Work. I have to say that I don’t tend to l

Today, I welcome Wendy Speake back to the table. This is her third time on the show. She is the co-author of the popular parenting book Triggers: Exchanging Parents Angry Reactions for Gentle Biblical Responses, and host of the annual 40 Day Sugar Fast. Her new book, The 40 Day Social Media Fast just came out earlier this month.   We sit down to have a conversation about social media. Now more than ever, we are required to be online more. And if you are anything like me, it is shocking if I step back and see how much I turn to social media as a way to cope with the state of my world. And even though there are many times where I would like to break up with social media, so much of life is online now. Which leaves me to sit in the tension of how do I handle social media when so much of my life is online?    In this conversation, we talk about how to tell if you need a break from social media, how to fast when you have to be online for everything right now, what surprised her after fasting from social media, and

I feel like 2020 keeps delivering. I imagine that you are feeling the weight of the world on your shoulders like I do which is why I’m so happy to welcome Dr. Chinwé Williams to the table today. She is a clinical mental health therapist who helps kids, teens, and adults navigate difficult life seasons and transitions. She specializes in anxiety management and relational trauma recovery.   We tend to be aware of the anxiety in our kids but we don’t notice it in ourselves. And at this point in 2020 after facing so many stress and anxiety inducing things within our country, I think its important for us to stop and do some self evaluation. Chinwé walks us through what it looks like when anxiety is no longer operating in the normal realm and has moved more into a disorder and needs to be addressed. She also shares what we can do to care for ourselves during these kinds of season.   Check out bonus content from David Thomas & Sissy Goff from Raising Boys & Girls along with deleted content from today's e

I am so excited to welcome Kelsey Murphy to the table. Kelsey is a Business & Life Coach who has worked with Fortune 500 companies, like Facebook & Twitter, industry thought leaders like Marie Forleo. Her coaching work has been featured in Forbes, Business Insider, and Huffington Post to name a few. She also hosts a fabulous podcast called Whiskey & Work where she shares advice on navigating the waters of business, life, and relationships.   I had so much fun chatting with Kelsey. I didn’t want the conversation to end. She has so much wisdom to offer. In this episode, Kelsey helps us figure out how to visualize the life we want to live whether that is in our work, in our relationships or with ourselves. This is one of those episodes full of practical advice that you can start implementing today.   Check out bonus content from David Thomas & Sissy Goff from Raising Boys & Girls along with deleted content from today's episode over on Patreon.   Sign up for Sarah's monthly Survival Kit Newsl

In today's episode, Sarah shares two big life updates and then talks honestly about how she has been feeling lately--overhwhelmed is an understatement. She shares a few things that are helping her in this season where she feels burnt out. Check out bonus content from David Thomas & Sissy Goff from Raising Boys & Girls along with deleted content from today's episode over on Patreon.   Sign up for Sarah's monthly Survival Kit Newsletter   Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram

I am happy to welcome Ruth and Patrick Schwenk to the show. You may remember Ruth, who is known online as The Better Mom, from when she joined me back on episode 176. Ruth and her husband, Patrick, are no strangers to the blogging and publishing world. They are the founders of ForTheFamily.org and TheBetterMom.com. They also started a brand new podcast in 2020 called Rootlike Faith.    Today, they join me to talk about their latest book, In a Boat in the Middle of a Lake: Trusting the God Who Meets Us in Our Storm. After surviving 5 miscarriages and Patrick’s cancer diagnosis at the age of 43, they share about what it looked like to feel like you are in the middle of a lake. They talk about walking through the cancer diagnosis with their kids, what the suffering felt like, the difference between discipline and correction, what helped them wait when they didn’t see an end and how this shaped their view of life now. No matter what kind of hardship you’ve walked through, it likely felt uncertain and chaotic. I h

I am so happy to welcome Kari Kampakis to the show. She is an author, speaker, podcaster, and blogger from Birmingham, Alabama. Her new book for moms, Love Her Well: 10 Ways to Find Joy and Connection with Your Teenage Daughter empowers mothers to help and guide their daughters through adolescence.   I have read the book and it is so helpful. As you will hear in this episode, I put into practice some of her advice the moment after reading it. In this episode, we talk about raising teenage girls. Kari has 4 daughters so she shares something that we need to know about teenage girls. She also talks about how to connect with your teenage daughter, how to elevate relationship over rules, how to love your daughter as she is, and how to choose your words and timing carefully. I’m telling you—so much good stuff in this episode.    I want to make sure that you know about my monthly survival kit newsletter. Each month, I send out an email that contains a short essay from me along with all the things that have helped me

Today, I am so happy to welcome Amy and Jeffrey Olrick to the show. Jeffrey is a clinical psychologist who 
has worked with children and families for over twenty years. Amy is an author whose work and writing has been featured in the Guardian and USA Today. Together, the Olricks are the authors of The 6 Needs of Every Child: Empowering Parents & Kids through the Science of Connection.   I can’t tell you how much I wish I had this book when I started parenting. Most of the books I read in those early years focused on behavior and getting to the motivation behind their behavior. But this book focuses on building connection. This book really gives you handlebars on how to pay attention to their behavior and yours and then how to see what you and they really need.   So that’s what we talk about in this converation—how to build connection with our kids by paying attention to the 6 needs that they are wired to have.    Let me say that recording the podcast has been just like everything else in 2020. I have expe

Have you ever struggled to admit an unpopular opinion? Or have you ever struggled with appearing to be uncool? Today, Sarah unpacks some of her own unpopular opinions and fears around being perceived as uncool, how that's related to vulnerability and why it's important to show up as yourself. Check out bonus content from David Thomas & Sissy Goff from Raising Boys & Girls along with deleted content from today's episode over on Patreon.   Sign up for Sarah's monthly Survival Kit Newsletter   Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram

I want to welcome Brooklyn-based educator, podcaster, + soon-to-be author, Kat Harris, to the show. She is Co-Founder of the online publication The Refined Woman, and host of The Refined Collective Podcast. She has also been a full-time photographer for the last decade with her work featured in: Vanity Fair, GQ, Forbes, People, Who What Wear, US Weekly, Glamour UK, and more.   Kat has been working from home, for herself, for the last 10 years and when I came across her, I knew she would be a great person to gain some advice from about working from home. For so many of us, our work environments have changed. Some of us used to work in offices but are now working from home. Some of us have been working from home but now our kids are doing digital learning from home. There are a lot of tensions around how to work well from home right now. Kat brings her experience and expertise to the table. She gives us some really practical tips that will help us work well from home.   Check out bonus content from David Thoma