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Scripture: Isaiah 40:31 - "But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles"

Summary: It's my birthday episode, and I'm celebrating with a bold declaration: Old is the goal! In a culture that worships youth and fears aging, I'm claiming the privilege of growing older with my whole chest. This episode is about what my 40th year taught me, what I'm praying for in my 41st, and why the ease we pray for is often found in our willingness to let life's changes actually change us.

I'm sharing the power of surrender - not giving up, but letting go of old standards of energy, tolerance, and productivity that belonged to previous versions of me. I'm talking about why my prayer for 41 is less about transformation and more about renewal - being revitalized in the woman I've become rather than becoming someone else entirely.

Plus, I'm answering a beautiful listener question about self-forgiveness that connects perfectly to everything I've been learning about surrender and grace.

Exercise: The Renewal Practice - (1) Name what you're ready to release (old standards, fixed stories, resistance to change), (2) Practice the gratitude shift (people who sustained you, moments that carried you, simple blessings), (3) Write your prayer for renewal.

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Want to go deeper? Visit www.revneichelle.com to explore my work, my ministry, and how we can grow together.

Let’s stay connected! Follow me on Instagram and Substack for more inspiration and continued conversation.

Ready to transform? Apply for coaching - I work with ambitious Black women who are ready to partner with God to create lives they love.

Questions? Feedback? Just want to say hello? Drop me a line - I’d love to hear how this podcast is landing in your life!

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In this New Year episode, I'm sharing something I'm living in real time - a different way of approaching 2026. I'm off to a slow start this year, and I'm completely okay with it. Actually, I'm more than okay - I'm intentional about it. Going slow is allowing me to ground for the year in ways that rushing never could.

Drawing from Deborah's story in Judges 4, we return to one of my favorite examples of seasonal leadership. Deborah wasn't always on the battlefield - most of the time, she was under her palm tree. This was her primary posture of leadership, and it's exactly where we need to be in January.

This episode is an invitation to plan differently this year - planning backwards from your values and vision instead of forward from obligation and hustle. Instead of setting goals you'll abandon by February, I'm teaching you how to think in quarters, how to create rhythms that honor different seasons, and how to be strategic about the support you need before you start building.

I'm sharing three mindsets that are shaping how I'm approaching 2026, and a grounded planning practice to help you think and discern with intentionality and strategy. 

Exercise: The Grounded Planning Practice - A five-step process to start 2026 from groundedness instead of franticness: 

(1) Name your gains from 2024

(2) Clarify your 3-5 core values for this year

(3) Plan your Q1 vision (just January-March, not the whole year), 

(4)  Identify your support needs to make that vision sustainable,

(5) Create your winter ritual - one grounding practice you'll commit to this quarter.

Connect With Me

Want to go deeper? Visit www.revneichelle.com to explore my work, my ministry, and how we can grow together.

Let’s stay connected! Follow me on Instagram and Substack for more inspiration and continued conversation.

Ready to transform? Apply for coaching - I work with ambitious Black women who are ready to partner with God to create lives they love.

Questions? Feedback? Just want to say hello? Drop me a line - I’d love to hear how this podcast is landing in your life!

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Scripture: Psalm 77:11-13

As we close out 2025 and prepare to step into 2026, this episode is about something essential: reflection, release, and learning to flow instead of force. This is my end-of-year offering - stories, wisdom, highlights, and what I'm choosing to let go.

Drawing from Psalm 77:11-13, where the psalmist reflects on God's deeds and wonders, we explore what it means to look back on our year with both honesty and grace. Because here's what I believe: the year wasn't just hardship and lessons. There was also joy! And I'm refusing to let the hard moments eclipse the beautiful ones.

I'm sharing three key lessons that shaped my 2025:

Flow, Not Force - When you've crossed over into trying to control the uncontrollable, you've moved from flowing in the will and power of God to forcing things in your own power. I'm talking about the exhaustion that comes from trying to make things happen instead of partnering with what God is already doing on your behalf.

Align Your Efforts - Don't exert effort in one area of your life only to negate it with decisions you're making in other areas. This lesson showed up for me in unexpected ways, and I'm sharing how misalignment was costing me peace and progress.

Love Your Body As It Is - Even as you work to transform it into the body you want to live in. This one is tender and necessary, especially for Black women who've been taught that our bodies are never quite right, just as they are.

But I'm not just talking about lessons - I'm also talking about moments of grace and goodness. A lot of my joy this year happened because others held doors open for me to be in new and exciting spaces. I call this practice "adorning my crown," or, recognizing that I didn't just survive 2025, I also thrived. There were moments of genuine delight, breakthrough, and blessing that deserve to be named and celebrated.

And finally, I'm naming what I'm releasing as I step into 2026.

This episode is an invitation for you to do the same sacred work of year-end reflection. To sit with your lessons even if it means revisiting hard stories. To adorn your crown by finding the joy even among the ashes. And to release what's not yours to carry into the new year so you can step into 2026 with more space, more love, and more flow.

Exercise: The Year-End Reflection Practice

1. Reflect on the lessons - What did 2025 teach you? Sit with the hard stories long enough to extract the wisdom.
2. Adorn your crown - Name the moments of joy. Where did you thrive? Who held doors open for you? What jewels belong in your crown?
3. Release what's not yours to carry - What are you choosing to let go? Name it specifically so you can step into 2026 lighter and freer.

Connect With Me

Want to go deeper? Visit www.revneichelle.com to explore my work, my ministry, and how we can grow together.

Let’s stay connected! Follow me on Instagram and Substack for more inspiration and continued conversation.

Ready to transform? Apply for coaching - I work with ambitious Black women who are ready to partner with God to create lives they love.

Questions? Feedback? Just want to say hello? Drop me a line - I’d love to hear how this podcast is landing in your life!

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Scripture: Luke 1:46-55 (Mary's Magnificat)

Summary: Mary's song teaches us that joy isn't dependent on perfect circumstances. I share how to practice intentional delight during the holidays, moving you towards enjoying this season, instead of just surviving it.

Exercise: The Delight Practice - Create your delight list and schedule some sacred time to fulfill it. 

Advent Devotional: A Journey With Mary

Connect With Me

Want to go deeper? Visit www.revneichelle.com to explore my work, my ministry, and how we can grow together.

Let’s stay connected! Follow me on Instagram and Substack for more inspiration and continued conversation.

Ready to transform? Apply for coaching - I work with ambitious Black women who are ready to partner with God to create lives they love.

Questions? Feedback? Just want to say hello? Drop me a line - I’d love to hear how this podcast is landing in your life!

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Scripture: Habakkuk 2:2

Summary: God's instruction to write the vision reveals that sacred self-management requires clarity and structure. I share how writing vision during motherhood created my roadmap for returning to this new chapter in my ministry.

Exercise: The Vision-Writing Practice - Create your 90-day vision, make three promises, build structures, and find accountability.

Connect With Me

Want to go deeper? Visit www.revneichelle.com to explore my work, my ministry, and how we can grow together.

Let’s stay connected! Follow me on Instagram and Substack for more inspiration and continued conversation.

Ready to transform? Apply for coaching - I work with ambitious Black women who are ready to partner with God to create lives they love.

Questions? Feedback? Just want to say hello? Drop me a line - I’d love to hear how this podcast is landing in your life!

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Scripture: Luke 8:47

Summary: The only way to begin writing a new chapter is to own the one you're in. In this episode, we explore the powerful moment in Luke 8:47 when a bleeding woman does something radical: she declares her story publicly, even though she could have slipped away quietly after being healed.

When we don't own our stories, we replay them endlessly, placing blame on ourselves and others for events that happened long ago. We can't make meaning of our stories as long as we continue to be oppressed by them. But when we claim authorship of our stories, we transform from victim to author.

I share my journey of recovering after two difficult vocational traumas - experiences that were somewhat public and that people suggested would make it hard for me to get another job. I talk about the constant remembering, the replaying of hard stories, and the moment I realized this wasn't pushing me forward. I had to own my story, so I could focus on what was in front of me, not what was behind me.

Drawing from Susan L. Taylor's wisdom that "our stories are our gifts to the world," we explore how owning your story is critical to accessing your personal power. 

Exercise: The episode concludes with the Story Audit exercise - a powerful practice for writing one challenging experience from three perspectives (victim, survivor, and author) to help you move from being defined by what happened to you to being empowered by how you grew through it.

Connect With Me

Want to go deeper? Visit www.revneichelle.com to explore my work, my ministry, and how we can grow together.

Let’s stay connected! Follow me on Instagram and Substack for more inspiration and continued conversation.

Ready to transform? Apply for coaching - I work with ambitious Black women who are ready to partner with God to create lives they love.

Questions? Feedback? Just want to say hello? Drop me a line - I’d love to hear how this podcast is landing in your life!

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Scripture: John 5:6

Summary: Before you can partner with God to create the life you desire, you have to get radically honest about what you actually want. In this episode, we explore Jesus's surprising question to the man at the pool of Bethesda in John 5:6: "Do you want to be healed?"

After years of waiting, why would Jesus ask such an obvious question? Because naming our desires isn't for God's information - it's for our transformation.

Drawing from Susan L. Taylor's wisdom about being co-creators with God, I share one of the most vulnerable parts of my story - the moment I had to admit what I really wanted, even when it meant leaving what looked good on paper to make space for what was actually good for my soul.

We'll explore how to distinguish between what you think you should want and what you actually want, why your deepest desires might actually be God speaking through you, and how to move beyond spiritual bypassing into authentic partnership with the Divine.

Your desires matter to God because you matter to God. Let's begin the sacred work of naming them.

Exercise: The Desire Inventory - Complete this practice of naming your actual desires and asking God how you can partner together to create them. Because you can't manifest what you won't admit you want.

Connect With Me

Want to go deeper? Visit www.revneichelle.com to explore my work, my ministry, and how we can grow together.

Let’s stay connected! Follow me on Instagram and Substack for more inspiration and continued conversation.

Ready to transform? Apply for coaching - I work with ambitious Black women who are ready to partner with God to create lives they love.

Questions? Feedback? Just want to say hello? Drop me a line - I’d love to hear how this podcast is landing in your life!

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Scripture: Psalm 18:19

Summary: Welcome to A Wide Open Space! In this inaugural episode, I invite you into a new season of my life and ministry - and into a sacred space I'm creating for Black women who are committed to their faith and their flourishing.

I share my journey over the past five years, from the loss of my grandmother and the exhaustion of pandemic pivoting, to the profound transformation that came through intentional life-making. I talk about discovering what I really wanted through stillness and solitude, and doing the deep work of healing, mindset shifts, and heart clearing that made space for those desires to become reality.

Drawing from Psalm 18:19, which reads, "God has brought me out into a wide open space. God delivered me because I am the Lord's beloved," I explore what it means to be called out of the confined and constricted into expansion and flourishing.

You'll learn what to expect from this podcast: a decidedly Womanist, progressive space at the intersection of faith and personal development. Each episode will include a devotional, conversation, storytelling or reflection, and an exercise or practice to help you make your way into your own wide open space -- and stay there. This is for aligned Black women who want to grow, connect, and remember that the work, works - and God is good.

If you're ready to create community in this intersection of faith and personal growth, this show is for you. Welcome home, sister.

Exercise: Name your narrow space. Whether it’s a mindset, a belief or value system, a habits a relationship, be honest about those areas of your life where you need some focused healing, growth and expansion. 

Connect With Me

Want to go deeper? Visit www.revneichelle.com to explore my work, my ministry, and how we can grow together.

Let’s stay connected! Follow me on Instagram and Substack for more inspiration and continued conversation.

Ready to transform? Apply for coaching - I work with ambitious Black women who are ready to partner with God to create lives they love.

Questions? Feedback? Just want to say hello? Drop me a line - I’d love to hear how this podcast is landing in your life!