On this series we’ve talked about loss, diagnosis, and life changing overnight. Today we’re talking about what happens when the thing that changes… is your body.

In this episode of We Didn’t Plan For This, Mia shares her experience being diagnosed with Graves disease and what it felt like to live in a body that suddenly didn’t feel like her own.

Her heart rate was constantly elevated, she felt anxious and exhausted, and movement — something that had always brought her joy — suddenly became difficult and uncomfortable. For a long time, she didn’t know what was wrong. She thought it was stress, overwork, or just life.

Eventually, she was diagnosed with Graves disease, and everything started to make sense.

This episode is about what happens when your body changes, when you can’t move the way you used to, and how hard it is to step away from the practices that once made you feel like yourself.

It’s about patience, identity, health, and learning to listen when your body forces you to slow down.

Because sometimes we don’t plan for this either.

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How Yoga Changed My Life a Podcast

Send Us Your Stories!

If you have a story about how yoga, meditation, breath work, journaling, or movement changed your life, we want to hear from you! 

These podcasts are really about the same thing — how people move through the seasons of life they didn’t plan for, and what helps them along the way.

If you’d like to be on the show or share your story:  Fill out our guest form or email us at [email protected] 

Follow us on TikTok:
https://www.tiktok.com/@yogachanged

Follow us on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/yogachanged/

More info, go to https://howyogachangedmylife.com

For those who have reached out asking how to support Adrienne and her family during this time, click here to donate. There is absolutely no expectation—just sincere gratitude.

The theme music for this episode, “Cenote Angelita”, was written and produced by Mar Abajo Rio AKA MAR Yoga Music. Dive deeper into this and other orig...

In this week’s episode of the We Didn’t Plan For This series, Nora and Adrienne explore how sometimes life doesn’t slowly change — sometimes it changes in an instant.

Nora has done everything right. She took care of her health, exercised, ate well, and paid attention to her body — and she still got breast cancer.

She shares the reality of diagnosis, biopsies, MRIs, and preparing for a double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery, along with the uncomfortable and often humiliating parts of female healthcare, and how breath work became the one thing she could control when everything else felt uncertain.

From her time in the Air Force and deployment during Iraqi Freedom to the impact of burn pits, Nora reflects on how strength changes over time and what resilience actually means. She shares how breath, mindset, and her community are helping her get through one of the hardest seasons of her life.

This episode is about awareness, about using hard things as fuel to help others, and about learning to control the things you can control — especially your breath.

If you’re listening to this in your car, take a moment before you get out, pause, and take one breath.

Send us Fan Mail

How Yoga Changed My Life a Podcast

Send Us Your Stories!

If you have a story about how yoga, meditation, breath work, journaling, or movement changed your life, we want to hear from you! 

These podcasts are really about the same thing — how people move through the seasons of life they didn’t plan for, and what helps them along the way.

If you’d like to be on the show or share your story:  Fill out our guest form or email us at [email protected] 

Follow us on TikTok:
https://www.tiktok.com/@yogachanged

Follow us on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/yogachanged/

More info, go to https://howyogachangedmylife.com

For those who have reached out asking how to support Adrienne and her family during this time, click here to donate. There is absolutely no expectation—just sincere gratitude.

The theme music for this episode, “Cenote Angelita”, was written and produced by Mar Abajo Rio AKA MAR Yoga Music. Dive deeper into this and other orig...

What helps when life suddenly becomes something you never planned for?

In today's episode of We Didn’t Plan For This, Adrienne shares where she is now after the sudden loss of her husband, Brian.

If you listened to Episodes 164 and 166 of How Yoga Changed My Life a Podcast, you already know the story of what happened. But this episode isn’t about retelling that story.

It’s about what comes next.

Grief rearranges your priorities whether you’re ready or not.

Adrienne reflects honestly on the reality of grief — navigating loss while raising her daughters, facing unexpected financial challenges, and stepping into a life she never imagined.

She shares the practices that are helping her move through this season, including meditation, breath work, community support, lowered expectations, and gentle movement.

These practices aren’t fixing grief. But they are helping her continue showing up, one breath at a time.

In each episode, we wrap up with a short guided “pause before you get out of the car” practice — a moment to breathe, reset, and gather yourself before stepping back into your day.

If you’re navigating grief, loss, or a season you didn’t plan for, this conversation is for you.

Support the Smith Family

Several people have asked how to support our family during this time. For those who wish, a link is included below. Please know there is no expectation — your care and presence already mean so much.

https://givesendgo.com/Smithfamilysatx

Send us Fan Mail

How Yoga Changed My Life a Podcast

Send Us Your Stories!

If you have a story about how yoga, meditation, breath work, journaling, or movement changed your life, we want to hear from you! 

These podcasts are really about the same thing — how people move through the seasons of life they didn’t plan for, and what helps them along the way.

If you’d like to be on the show or share your story:  Fill out our guest form or email us at [email protected] 

Follow us on TikTok:
https://www.tiktok.com/@yogachanged

Follow us on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/yogachanged/

More info, go to https://howyogachangedmylife.com

For those who have reached out asking how to support Adrienne and her family during this time, click here to donate. There is absolutely no expectation—just sincere gratitude.

The theme music for this episode, “Cenote Angelita”, was written and produced by Mar Abajo Rio AKA MAR Yoga Music. Dive deeper into this and other orig...

We Didn’t Plan For This… is a new special series from the hosts of How Yoga Changed My Life about navigating life transitions, and unexpected change in real time.

After Adrienne's sudden loss of her husband, so many of you reached out with the same words: “I didn’t plan for this either.” A diagnosis. A body that changed. A marriage that shifted. A child who is struggling. A dream that fell apart.

This first episode sets the tone for the series. We’re not rehashing the details of what happened. We’re talking about where we are now — and how yoga, breath, and small daily practices can help us keep showing up through grief, parenting, identity shifts, and hard seasons.

This is not trauma-informed certification language. It’s not five steps to resilience. It’s honest conversation about strength, energy, work, friendship, our bodies, and ordinary days that don’t look the way we expected.

We’re not trying to fix anything.

We’re living it — as it’s happening.

And at the end of each episode, we’ll pause together before stepping back into our day.

We didn’t plan for this.

But we’re here.

Support the Smith Family

Several people have asked how to support our family during this time. For those who wish, a link is included below. Please know there is no expectation — your care and presence already mean so much.

https://givesendgo.com/Smithfamilysatx

Send us Fan Mail

How Yoga Changed My Life a Podcast

Send Us Your Stories!

If you have a story about how yoga, meditation, breath work, journaling, or movement changed your life, we want to hear from you! 

These podcasts are really about the same thing — how people move through the seasons of life they didn’t plan for, and what helps them along the way.

If you’d like to be on the show or share your story:  Fill out our guest form or email us at [email protected] 

Follow us on TikTok:
https://www.tiktok.com/@yogachanged

Follow us on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/yogachanged/

More info, go to https://howyogachangedmylife.com

For those who have reached out asking how to support Adrienne and her family during this time, click here to donate. There is absolutely no expectation—just sincere gratitude.

The theme music for this episode, “Cenote Angelita”, was written and produced by Mar Abajo Rio AKA MAR Yoga Music. Dive deeper into this and other orig...

In this week's episode, Liz Albanis, from Episode 168, guides you through a weighted pranayama practice designed to strengthen and awaken your diaphragm.

Using a sandbag — or any comfortably weighted object — across your diaphragm, this technique becomes a form of resistance training for your breath. A blanket or even a bag of rice can work. The heavier the weight, the more intense the pranayama practice becomes. It’s good to start with a lighter weight so the nothing feels forced. The goal isn’t perfection — it’s gentle, steady feedback.

By adding weight to the breath, you create subtle resistance that helps “weight train” the diaphragm, building awareness, capacity, and resilience in the primary muscle of respiration. Over time, this can support deeper, more efficient breathing patterns and a stronger connection between breath and core.

This episode is perfect for:

• Reconnecting to your breath

• Expanding lung capacity

• Supporting nervous system regulation

• Rebuilding core awareness from the inside out

Expect a slow, intentional, embodied practice that invites strength and softness at the same time.

So lie down, place something weighted across your diaphragm, and breathe.

Check out more from Liz at lizalbaniswellness.com.au 

Instagram @lizalbaniswellnessau 

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@lizalbaniswellnessau

Send us Fan Mail

How Yoga Changed My Life a Podcast

Send Us Your Stories!

If you have a story about how yoga, meditation, breath work, journaling, or movement changed your life, we want to hear from you! 

These podcasts are really about the same thing — how people move through the seasons of life they didn’t plan for, and what helps them along the way.

If you’d like to be on the show or share your story:  Fill out our guest form or email us at [email protected] 

Follow us on TikTok:
https://www.tiktok.com/@yogachanged

Follow us on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/yogachanged/

More info, go to https://howyogachangedmylife.com

For those who have reached out asking how to support Adrienne and her family during this time, click here to donate. There is absolutely no expectation—just sincere gratitude.

The theme music for this episode, “Cenote Angelita”, was written and produced by Mar Abajo Rio AKA MAR Yoga Music. Dive deeper into this and other orig...

In this week's episode Adrienne and cohosts interview Liz Albanis. She shares how she found yoga despite disconnection with her own body, found the right teacher training at the right time, and is deepening her yoga teaching through yoga therapy - which has a unique definition in Australia in comparison to the United States!

Send us Fan Mail

How Yoga Changed My Life a Podcast

Send Us Your Stories!

If you have a story about how yoga, meditation, breath work, journaling, or movement changed your life, we want to hear from you! 

These podcasts are really about the same thing — how people move through the seasons of life they didn’t plan for, and what helps them along the way.

If you’d like to be on the show or share your story:  Fill out our guest form or email us at [email protected] 

Follow us on TikTok:
https://www.tiktok.com/@yogachanged

Follow us on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/yogachanged/

More info, go to https://howyogachangedmylife.com

For those who have reached out asking how to support Adrienne and her family during this time, click here to donate. There is absolutely no expectation—just sincere gratitude.

The theme music for this episode, “Cenote Angelita”, was written and produced by Mar Abajo Rio AKA MAR Yoga Music. Dive deeper into this and other orig...

The Lunar New Year marks a turning — a gentle invitation to begin again.

In this week's episode, Natalie explores a quiet, powerful truth: hope is the ability to take one more step. Not a leap. Not a perfect plan. Just one small, steady movement forward.

Through calming breath work and full-body relaxation, you’ll be guided to soften the body, settle the mind, and reconnect to your inner steadiness. This practice isn’t about forcing optimism. It’s about finding enough space inside yourself to keep going — even tenderly, even slowly.

If this year has felt heavy, uncertain, or overwhelming, let this be your pause. Your reset. Your reminder that hope doesn’t have to be loud to be real.

Sometimes hope is simply choosing to take one more breath.

One more step.

And beginning again.

Support the Smith Family

Several people have asked how to support our family during this time. For those who wish, a link is included below. Please know there is no expectation — your care and presence already mean so much.

https://givesendgo.com/Smithfamilysatx

Send us Fan Mail

How Yoga Changed My Life a Podcast

Send Us Your Stories!

If you have a story about how yoga, meditation, breath work, journaling, or movement changed your life, we want to hear from you! 

These podcasts are really about the same thing — how people move through the seasons of life they didn’t plan for, and what helps them along the way.

If you’d like to be on the show or share your story:  Fill out our guest form or email us at [email protected] 

Follow us on TikTok:
https://www.tiktok.com/@yogachanged

Follow us on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/yogachanged/

More info, go to https://howyogachangedmylife.com

For those who have reached out asking how to support Adrienne and her family during this time, click here to donate. There is absolutely no expectation—just sincere gratitude.

The theme music for this episode, “Cenote Angelita”, was written and produced by Mar Abajo Rio AKA MAR Yoga Music. Dive deeper into this and other orig...

This episode contains candid discussion of grief, loss, widowhood, and emotional overwhelm. Please listen in a way that feels supportive to you, and pause or skip if needed.

In today's episode, Adrienne shares the quiet parts of her grief no one prepares you for. She reflects on losing her husband, her sense of identity, and the invisible losses that come with being "down a man".

She speaks honestly about how grief shows up in the body and taking small steps back into familiar spaces now as a widow.  There is also gratitude here - not the kind that fixes anything, but the kind that holds - for the notes, messages and gestures that have mattered more than people realize. 

No answers. Just where she is today.

Support the Smith Family

Several people have asked how to support our family during this time. For those who wish, a link is included below. Please know there is no expectation — your care and presence already mean so much.

https://givesendgo.com/Smithfamilysatx

Send us Fan Mail

How Yoga Changed My Life a Podcast

Send Us Your Stories!

If you have a story about how yoga, meditation, breath work, journaling, or movement changed your life, we want to hear from you! 

These podcasts are really about the same thing — how people move through the seasons of life they didn’t plan for, and what helps them along the way.

If you’d like to be on the show or share your story:  Fill out our guest form or email us at [email protected] 

Follow us on TikTok:
https://www.tiktok.com/@yogachanged

Follow us on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/yogachanged/

More info, go to https://howyogachangedmylife.com

For those who have reached out asking how to support Adrienne and her family during this time, click here to donate. There is absolutely no expectation—just sincere gratitude.

The theme music for this episode, “Cenote Angelita”, was written and produced by Mar Abajo Rio AKA MAR Yoga Music. Dive deeper into this and other orig...

It's over 10 months since Mia has been on the podcast! Time to catch up with everything that has been going on in her life and how yoga has played a role in her life.

Send us Fan Mail

How Yoga Changed My Life a Podcast

Send Us Your Stories!

If you have a story about how yoga, meditation, breath work, journaling, or movement changed your life, we want to hear from you! 

These podcasts are really about the same thing — how people move through the seasons of life they didn’t plan for, and what helps them along the way.

If you’d like to be on the show or share your story:  Fill out our guest form or email us at [email protected] 

Follow us on TikTok:
https://www.tiktok.com/@yogachanged

Follow us on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/yogachanged/

More info, go to https://howyogachangedmylife.com

For those who have reached out asking how to support Adrienne and her family during this time, click here to donate. There is absolutely no expectation—just sincere gratitude.

The theme music for this episode, “Cenote Angelita”, was written and produced by Mar Abajo Rio AKA MAR Yoga Music. Dive deeper into this and other orig...

This is an honest check-in after the sudden death of Adrienne’s husband, Brian.

In this solo episode, Adrienne shares where she is right now — the shock of loss, the moments from the hospital and funeral that stayed with her, how family and friends stepped in to carry the logistics of life, and what it looks like to navigate uncertainty with her daughters. She talks about being on short-term disability, managing one breath at a time, and living inside a life that no longer looks the way she thought it would.

This episode isn’t a lesson or a guide. It’s simply a return — naming where she is, without fixing or explaining.

Support the Smith Family

Several people have asked how to support our family during this time. For those who wish, a link is included below. Please know there is no expectation — your care and presence already mean so much.

https://givesendgo.com/Smithfamilysatx

Send us Fan Mail

How Yoga Changed My Life a Podcast

Send Us Your Stories!

If you have a story about how yoga, meditation, breath work, journaling, or movement changed your life, we want to hear from you! 

These podcasts are really about the same thing — how people move through the seasons of life they didn’t plan for, and what helps them along the way.

If you’d like to be on the show or share your story:  Fill out our guest form or email us at [email protected] 

Follow us on TikTok:
https://www.tiktok.com/@yogachanged

Follow us on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/yogachanged/

More info, go to https://howyogachangedmylife.com

For those who have reached out asking how to support Adrienne and her family during this time, click here to donate. There is absolutely no expectation—just sincere gratitude.

The theme music for this episode, “Cenote Angelita”, was written and produced by Mar Abajo Rio AKA MAR Yoga Music. Dive deeper into this and other orig...