The RISE Experience

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If staying "easy to be around" has started to feel like disappearing, you're not imagining it. Let's name where that smallness started, what it's been costing you, and what changes when you stop shrinking to keep everyone else comfortable.

Episode Summary

I'm talking to the woman who can read a room before anyone says a word and instantly adjusts herself to keep the peace. The soft tone, the quick edit before you speak — it all worked once. It kept relationships steady, made home feel a little less volatile, and helped you feel just "easy enough" to love. But now that same pattern is costing you pieces of yourself.

In this conversation, I'm naming the quiet ways staying small shows up: the qualifiers, the over-explaining, the way you change your answer the second someone pushes back. I trace how that started, why it made sense at the time, and why it's not the truth of who you are. With Psalm 139 as a picture of being fully known without having to be made smaller or more convenient first, and a simple question to ask in real time, you'll start practicing what it means to take up the space that was already yours.

You'll Learn

• How "the edit" — reading a room and shrinking before anyone even speaks — can look like easygoing but actually be a strategy you learned
• The difference between a genuine personality trait (being quiet, gentle, an observer) and a learned belief that you have to disappear to stay connected
• Where this edit hides in ordinary moments: over-explaining, qualifiers ("I might be wrong, but..."), changing your answer the second someone pushes back
• The quiet message shrinking sends you over time: "my full self is too much"
• How Psalm 139 reframes being fully known — not a smaller, more convenient version of you, but all of you
• A simple practice for this week: notice the moment you edit yourself, and ask, "What was I about to say?"
• Why the woman you're finding your way back to doesn't have to choose between being loved and being herself

Episode Chapters

• 00:00 — Welcome & the pattern underneath
• 01:35 — Walking into a room and reading it first
• 03:25 — Introducing "the edit"
• 05:05 — Where this pattern started
• 07:25 — Personality vs. a response you learned
• 09:40 — What staying small costs you now
• 12:30 — The message: "my full self is too much"
• 15:20 — Psalm 139 and never being too much for God
• 17:05 — Where the edit hides in ordinary moments
• 18:30 — This week's invitation + prayer

Memorable Quotes

"That earlier version of you deserves your compassion for that. She was doing the best she could with whatever she understood at the time."

"Believing that you have to disappear to stay connected to someone is something else completely. That is the part you learned."

"Every time you shrink to keep someone else comfortable, you also send yourself a message. And that message is, 'My full self is too much. The real me has to be managed before she's safe enough to show up.'"

"There's no part of you that He needs softened or explained or made more convenient before He'll stay close. He isn't waiting for a smaller version of you to show up. He already knows the whole one."

"The woman that you're finding your way back to doesn't have to choose between being loved and being herself. Even if it felt like that was your choice for a long time."

Resources Mentioned

Psalm 139 — "You have searched me, Lord, and you know me."

About the Podcast

The RISE Experience is a weekly podcast for capable women who don't quite feel like themselves anymore. I talk about identity, faith, relationships, and the quiet patterns that shape how we live — so you can find your way back to yourself without erasing who you've become.

Follow & Connect

Follow The RISE Experience wherever you listen to podcasts, and share this episode with one friend who might need it.

Read the RISE blog
risewithshannon.blog

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Facebook: Shannon Bell Denniston
Instagram: @risewithshannon

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What would it look like to actually live your life instead of managing it from a distance?

After a month of looking at control (why we reach for it, how we escape, what it costs, and what it looks like to let go), this last July episode paints a picture of where all of it leads. A settled life. Present, without being numb or checked out. A life where the hard and unexpected things can simply be part of living.

The settled version of you isn't someone you have to become someday. She's who you are when you're not spending all your energy bracing for what comes next. I talk about making room for joy in ordinary moments, why I'm still walking toward this too, and what Paul meant when he said he learned contentment in whatever state he was in. Then I invite you to notice the small moments of settledness you already have, and let them last a little longer.

You'll Learn

• What a settled life can feel like: present, without being numb or checked out
• Why the settled version of you isn't someone you have to become later
• How loosening your grip makes room for joy in ordinary moments
• The difference between living your life and managing it from a distance
• What Philippians 4 says about contentment being learned, in whatever state you're in
• A simple practice: notice moments of settledness and let them last a little longer
• Why settledness works better as a direction you keep turning toward than a finish line

Episode Chapters

00:00 Welcome to The RISE Experience 
00:45 Looking back at July 
01:53 Imagine a settled life 
03:23 She's already you 
04:39 Making room for joy 
07:11 Learning contentment 
08:24 Noticing settled moments 
10:33 Finding your way back home 
11:21 Coming in August: the relationships that shape us 
11:46 Prayer 
12:24 Share and send-off

Memorable Quotes

"You can't fully enjoy something while you're also trying to manage it."

"She's the version of you that exists when you're not spending all your energy managing and monitoring and bracing yourself for whatever comes next."

"Every time you decide to be present, you're not hoping that she shows up, you are her right then again in that moment."

"I'm walking towards this too. I'm walking towards this with you."

"They start to feel less like exceptions and more like home."

"Every one of those moments is you finding your way back, not waiting to be found."

Resources Mentioned

• Philippians 4:11

About the Podcast

The RISE Experience is a podcast for the woman whose life looks good on paper but doesn't feel like hers anymore. Each week, I get honest about the patterns underneath what we do, the relationships that shape us, our faith, our identity, and all the very human stuff that happens along the way, so you can find your way back to yourself without erasing who you've become.

Follow & Connect

Follow The RISE Experience wherever you listen to podcasts, and share this episode with one friend who might need it.

Read the RISE blog risewithshannon.blog

Follow along 
Facebook: Shannon Bell Denniston 
Instagram: @risewithshannon

Send me a text

If you're tired of running on high alert, replaying conversations, and trying to manage every possible outcome, this one's for you.

After a month of looking honestly at control, this week is about what it actually looks like to loosen your grip. Letting go has a reputation for meaning giving up. It's something else entirely: recognizing that your grip on how things should go is costing you more than the uncertainty ever would, and choosing to trust what you can't see yet.

It rarely happens in one dramatic moment. It looks like the text you don't send, the plan you question, the few extra minutes you stay with a feeling, and the "I don't know what's going to happen" you let stand on its own. I talk about why stillness can feel wrong at first, what Psalm 46's "be still and know" invites you into, and one outcome you can practice setting down, just for today.

You'll Learn

• Why letting go is an active, intentional act of trust, and how it differs from giving up
• How your grip on an outcome can cost you more than the uncertainty you're trying to avoid
• The small, everyday ways letting go shows up: the unsent text, the questioned plan, the feeling you stay with
• Why every pause instead of reaching is an identity moment
• Why stillness can feel uncomfortable at first, even when it's the right thing
• What "be still and know" in Psalm 46 invites you into
• A simple practice: set one outcome down for a day and notice what happens

Episode Chapters

00:00 Welcome to The RISE Experience 
00:44 Where we've been this month 
01:31 What settling feels like 
02:55 Letting go, reframed 
04:05 Small acts of trust 
05:23 Why stillness feels wrong at first 
06:25 Be still and know 
07:44 This week's practice 09:17 Prayer and send-off

Memorable Quotes

"Letting go is actually one of the most active, intentional things that you can do because it requires you to trust something that you can't even see."

"Because every time you pause instead of immediately reaching, you're practicing being a woman who trusts herself enough to feel something without running from it."

"Be still and know that I am God. Not be still and figure it out. Not be still and then just make your plan. Just be still and know."

"The knowing comes in the stillness, not before it."

"It's the exhale after holding your breath for too long."

Resources Mentioned

• Psalm 46:10 

About the Podcast

The RISE Experience is a podcast for the woman whose life looks good on paper but doesn't feel like hers anymore. Each week, I get honest about the patterns underneath what we do, the relationships that shape us, our faith, our identity, and all the very human stuff that happens along the way, so you can find your way back to yourself without erasing who you've become.

Follow & Connect

Follow The RISE Experience wherever you listen to podcasts, and share this episode with one friend who might need it.

Read the RISE blog risewithshannon.blog

Follow along 
Facebook: Shannon Bell Denniston 
Instagram: @risewithshannon

Send me a text

Can you remember the last time you really laughed, or said exactly what you thought without running it through a filter first?

We're in the middle of a month about control, and this week I'm looking at what happens when control turns inward. When the coping strategy stops being something you do and starts being who you are. You start filtering every response before you let it out, until the monitoring feels like the way things work.

I talk about what that costs: your spontaneity, your connection, your everyday joy, and eventually your sense of who you are. I get into why constant self-monitoring is so depleting, and why the woman you were before all that managing is still there. Galatians 5 reminds us that freedom is something you can feel, and I leave you with one honest question: where have you been making yourself smaller to fit somewhere?

You'll Learn

• What happens when control stops being a coping strategy and starts shaping who you are
• How constant self-monitoring costs you spontaneity, connection, and everyday joy
• Why you can be surrounded by people and still feel alone
• Why low-level monitoring is so depleting, and how it starts to feel normal
• Why the woman you were before all the managing is still there
• What Galatians 5 says about freedom, and how you can feel it when it's missing
• One honest question: where have you been making yourself smaller to fit somewhere?

Episode Chapters

00:00 Welcome to The RISE Experience 
01:08 When control becomes who you are 
02:23 What control costs 
03:47 Losing yourself slowly 
04:55 Galatians 5 and freedom 
05:36 Where you've been making yourself smaller 
06:33 Prayer 
07:07 Share and send-off

Memorable Quotes

"When the coping strategy stops being something you do and starts being who you are."

"It costs us spontaneity because you can't be spontaneous when you're always monitoring."

"You can be surrounded by people and still feel completely alone."

"But it's the slow erosion of yourself, the drift away from the woman you actually are."

"She's just been buried under a lot of management, and she's still there."

"You were not made to fit a mold. None of us were. You were made to be you."

Resources Mentioned

• Galatians 5:1

About the Podcast

The RISE Experience is a podcast for the woman whose life looks good on paper but doesn't feel like hers anymore. Each week, I get honest about the patterns underneath what we do, the relationships that shape us, our faith, our identity, and all the very human stuff that happens along the way, so you can find your way back to yourself without erasing who you've become.

Follow & Connect

Follow The RISE Experience wherever you listen to podcasts, and share this episode with one friend who might need it.

Read the RISE blog risewithshannon.blog

Follow along 
Facebook: Shannon Bell Denniston 
Instagram: @risewithshannon

Send me a text

When life feels like too much, do you end up on the couch with Netflix, in the pantry, or lost in the scroll, and then beat yourself up for it?

Last week I talked about why we reach for control. This week I'm going a layer deeper, because control doesn't always look like gripping tighter. Sometimes it looks like checking out entirely. The white-knuckling and the escaping look like opposites, yet they're doing the same job: trying to make the overwhelm feel a little smaller.

I walk through what that looks like at 8 p.m. after a full day of everyone else's needs, why the thing you reach for is more like a messenger than an enemy, and why what you're facing is an exhaustion problem that more discipline won't fix. Elijah's story in 1 Kings shows God meeting depletion with rest and food before anything else. And I leave you with two questions to ask the next time you find yourself halfway through something you didn't really choose.

You'll Learn

• How gripping tighter and checking out can both be ways of making overwhelm feel smaller
• Why Netflix, the pantry, the scroll, or cleaning at 11 p.m. can feel like relief when life gets loud
• Why the thing you reach for works just enough to get you through, and what it leaves untouched
• Why this is an exhaustion problem instead of a discipline problem
• How Elijah's story in 1 Kings shows God meeting depletion with rest and nourishment first
• Two questions for the moment you notice yourself reaching: "What am I trying to get away from right now?" and "What do I actually need right now?"

Episode Chapters

00:00 Welcome to The RISE Experience 
01:03 When control looks like checking out 
01:32 The 8 p.m. couch 
03:19 Gripping and escaping 
04:52 The thing you reach for is a messenger 
06:52 Survival mode and the exhaustion problem 
07:31 Elijah under the tree 
08:34 Two questions to get curious 
09:33 What you actually need 
10:44 Prayer and send-off

Memorable Quotes

"And those two things, the white-knuckling and the escaping, they're actually doing the exact same job."

"The problem isn't that it works, the problem is that it works just enough to get you through without actually touching what's underneath."

"That's not a discipline problem. That's an exhaustion problem, and exhaustion doesn't get better with control in either direction."

"The thing you reach for when life is too much, it's not evidence that something's wrong with you, it's evidence that you're human."

"But you deserve more than just relief. You deserve to actually know what it is that you need."

Resources Mentioned

• 1 Kings 19 (Elijah)

About the Podcast

The RISE Experience is a podcast for the woman whose life looks good on paper but doesn't feel like hers anymore. Each week, I get honest about the patterns underneath what we do, the relationships that shape us, our faith, our identity, and all the very human stuff that happens along the way, so you can find your way back to yourself without erasing who you've become.

Follow & Connect

Follow The RISE Experience wherever you listen to podcasts, and share this episode with one friend who might need it.

Read the RISE blog risewithshannon.blog

Follow along 
Facebook: Shannon Bell Denniston 
Instagram: @risewithshannon

Send me a text

If you've been waiting for the perfect day, the perfect week, or a calmer season before you finally begin, this one's for you.

This month on The RISE Experience, I'm looking straight at control: what we reach for when life feels uncertain, and what it's actually doing for us when we do. I share my own perfect-day cycle and walk through the everyday ways control shows up: waiting for the right conditions, all-or-nothing thinking, over-planning, overthinking, and needing reassurance before you'll take a single step.

Here's the part we rarely say out loud: control works. It really does lower the overwhelm, at least for a while. That's exactly why we keep reaching for it, and why it gets costly when it becomes the only tool we have. I look at Matthew 6:34 and what it means to stop borrowing anxiety from tomorrow. Then I talk about the version of you who learned control in the first place, and why she deserves your thanks more than your criticism.

You'll Learn

• Why control feels so safe when life feels like too much
• The everyday ways control shows up, from perfect-day thinking to over-planning and overthinking
• Why control works in the short term, and when it starts creating more stress than it solves
• A steadier way to read "do not worry about tomorrow" in Matthew 6:34
• Why reaching for control is a coping strategy you learned, and what it looks like to let that version of you rest
• One thing to notice this week: where you're waiting for perfect conditions before you begin

Episode Chapters

00:00 Welcome to The RISE Experience 
00:41 July: why we reach for control 
02:03 My perfect-day cycle 
02:46 What control looks like in everyday life 
05:53 When control becomes the only tool 
06:36 Matthew 6:34: don't carry tomorrow today 
07:58 Where you're waiting for perfect conditions 
09:11 Control as a coping strategy 
10:25 Steadiness that doesn't need a perfect day 
11:01 Prayer and send-off

Memorable Quotes

"That's not problem-solving, though. That's just control wearing a different outfit."

"That's not living. That's managing the anxiety of living."

"Each day has enough, so you don't have to carry tomorrow today."

"Reaching for control isn't a character flaw, it's a coping strategy, and at some point in your life, it was probably the best one you had."

"She doesn't need your criticism. She needs you to see her clearly enough to thank her."

Resources Mentioned

• Matthew 6:34
• Stop Overthinking by Nick Trenton

About the Podcast

The RISE Experience is a podcast for the woman whose life looks good on paper but doesn't feel like hers anymore. Each week, I get honest about the patterns underneath what we do, the relationships that shape us, our faith, our identity, and all the very human stuff that happens along the way, so you can find your way back to yourself without erasing who you've become.

Follow & Connect

Follow The RISE Experience wherever you listen to podcasts, and share this episode with one friend who might need it.

Read the RISE blog risewithshannon.blog

Follow along 
Facebook: Shannon Bell Denniston 
Instagram: @risewithshannon

Send me a text

Fear isn’t proof you’re off track. Sometimes it is the clearest sign you are finally walking toward something real. If you feel caught between who you were and who you are becoming, this is where we get honest about that messy middle.

Welcome to The RISE Experience — a podcast for women who are finding their way back to themselves. This is a space to slow down when everything feels loud, to live from steadiness instead of urgency, and to finally hear yourself think again. Here we talk about identity, faith, and the quiet inner wisdom that gets buried under all the doing. A place to pause, reflect, and rise from clarity instead of pressure.

Episode Highlights

In today’s episode, I talk honestly about what it actually feels like to be on the other side of transition when it is not clean, polished, or certain, and how that shows up for both of us. I share my own doubt and fear after stepping into something new, the grief of leaving behind a version of myself that felt familiar, and the small, quiet confirmations that remind us we are on the right path. We look at why we keep waiting to “feel ready,” how fear and right can live in the same place, and how God meets us with gentle confirmation again and again while we learn to trust the direction instead of demanding certainty.

Episode Outline

• Recap of June's Themes and Introduction to Transition
• Personal Struggles and Validation from Listeners
• The Reality of Transition and Letting Go of the Familiar
• Confirmation and Small Moments of Success
• Embracing Doubt and Trusting the Process
• Looking Forward to July's Theme

Episode Chapters

00:00 Intro and June recap
00:35 Shifts, silence, and outgrowing old containers
02:05 Naming the fear and wanting to go back
03:40 Listener message that cuts through the doubt
05:10 What the “other side” of transition really feels like
07:00 Grieving the familiar version of yourself
08:40 Fear and right living in the same place
10:20 Small confirmations instead of big signs
12:20 Letting doubt speak and responding with truth
14:15 Noticing and writing down confirmations
16:10 You are right on time, not behind
17:10 Prayer and closing encouragement

Conclusion

The other side of transition rarely looks like arrival. It looks like fear and right sitting side by side, grief for what was familiar, and a deep, quiet sense that you are finally moving in a truer direction. You are allowed to need reassurance more than once. You are allowed to still feel scared and still be exactly where you are supposed to be. If you are in the middle, not fully out of the old and not fully settled into the new, you are not behind. You are right on time.

Action Taken

• Notice and name the small confirmations that have already shown up in your life instead of dismissing them.
• Look back on recent decisions, conversations, or moments of relief and recognize them as evidence you are moving in the right direction.
• Write down confirmations, even the small ones, so you have something real to return to when doubt gets loud.
• Acknowledge your doubt instead of pushing it away, then gently point yourself back to the evidence of God’s faithfulness and the direction He is giving you.
• Pray when fear rises and release control back to God, trusting that scary and right can exist together.

CTA

Share this with a friend who is standing in the messy middle of her own transition and needs to know that fear does not disqualify her from being on the right path.

Visit the links provided to stay connected.

• Your next step… https://msha.ke/risewithshannon
• Read the blog… https://www.risewithshannon.blog/
• FB: Shannon Bell Denniston
• IG: @risewithshannon

Thank you for listening and for being honest about where you really are. Keep noticing the small confirmations, keep holding space for both the fear and the rightness, and keep trusting that God has you on a path that fits who you truly are.

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You can be walking with God into something better and still feel like your heart is breaking over what you left. That tension does not mean you got it wrong. It means it mattered.

Welcome to The RISE Experience — a podcast for women who are finding their way back to themselves. This is a space to slow down when everything feels loud, to live from steadiness instead of urgency, and to finally hear yourself think again. Here we talk about identity, faith, and the quiet inner wisdom that gets buried under all the doing. A place to pause, reflect, and rise from clarity instead of pressure.

Episode Highlights

In today’s episode I talk about how hard it is to leave a job, a community, or a relationship you’ve outgrown, and why it can still hurt even when you know you did the right thing. We talk about the difference between missing the thing itself and missing what it gave you, like belonging, purpose, or feeling chosen, and why you keep reaching back for what feels familiar. I also share how letting go of control is not the same as losing control, what it looks like to trust God in the in between, and how naming what you are really grieving can help you look for that same feeling in a place that actually fits who you are now.

Episode Outline

• Leaving Behind the Familiar
• Understanding the Grief of Change
• Letting Go of Control
• Moving Forward with Grief
• Embracing the New and the Old

Episode Chapters

00:00 Welcome and why leaving still hurts

01:02 Missing what you left, not wanting to go back

03:40 Grieving the feelings, not the job or relationship

05:05 Comfort of the familiar and why we stay stuck

07:10 Nervous system, fear of the unknown, complacency

09:00 Letting go of control vs losing control

10:05 Isaiah 43 and noticing the new thing God is doing

11:40 Naming what you are actually grieving

13:25 Finding those same feelings in a new container

15:10 Prayer for the in between and final encouragement

Conclusion

You are allowed to grieve what you left and still trust that you were right to leave. The container can be over and the feelings it gave you can still matter. Those needs for belonging, identity, and purpose are not gone. They are being met in new ways that fit who you are becoming. Honor the version of you that stayed as long as she did, let yourself feel the grief without letting it keep you stuck, and stay open to the new thing God is already growing right in front of you.

Action Taken

• Name what you are actually grieving, not just the job, relationship, or community you left.
• Identify the feeling you miss: belonging, being chosen, purpose, clarity, identity, or comfort.
• Put it in front of you in a way that works for you: write it down, text it to yourself, or sit with it quietly.
• Ask, “How do I find this feeling again in a place that fits who I am now, not who I was?”
• Notice where God may already be doing a new thing, even while you are still in the middle of letting go.

CTA 

Share this with one woman who is in the middle of leaving something behind and needs to hear that hard does not mean wrong.

Visit the links provided to stay connected.

• Your next step… https://msha.ke/risewithshannon
• Read the blog… https://www.risewithshannon.blog/
• Come hang out…
  • FB: Shannon Bell Denniston
  • IG: @risewithshannon 

Thank you for listening and for being honest about the in between you are standing in. You are not weak for grieving what you left. You are brave for moving toward what God has next. Keep rising.

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What if that heavy, suffocating feeling isn’t proof that you’re failing… but a quiet sign that you’ve simply outgrown the life you worked so hard to fit yourself into?

Welcome to The RISE Experience — a podcast for women who are finding their way back to themselves. This is a space to slow down when everything feels loud, to live from steadiness instead of urgency, and to finally hear yourself think again. Here we talk about identity, faith, and the quiet inner wisdom that gets buried under all the doing. A place to pause, reflect, and rise from clarity instead of pressure.

Episode Highlights
In today’s episode, I’m taking you back to a moment on the floor of my closet when I finally realized I wasn’t the problem… the container was. I share what it’s like to feel yourself performing a version of you that doesn’t feel true anymore, how pride and familiarity keep us grinding away in seasons we’ve clearly outgrown, and why silence with God can feel like a fog slowly lifting. We’ll talk about how staying too long in the wrong place doesn’t disqualify you, how God can use every step to form you, and why the shift you’re scared of might not feel like loss at all, but like finally telling the truth about where you are.

Episode Chapters

00:00 – Welcome to The RISE Experience
00:24 – When your life starts to feel like the wrong fit
01:10 – The moment in the closet that changed everything
02:05 – Realizing you’ve outgrown the container
03:10 – Pride and staying in what no longer fits
04:25 – Trying harder instead of questioning the fit
05:40 – How we outgrow roles, relationships, and versions of ourselves
07:00 – Why we stay: safety, familiarity, and the nervous system
08:24 – Finding silence with God
09:30 – Letting go of your own understanding
10:20 – Surrender, clarity, and seeing the real path
11:30 – Staying too long doesn’t disqualify you
12:25 – Your growth was real, even in the wrong container
13:10 – An invitation to honest silence with God
14:00 – Closing prayer and blessing

Conclusion
If something in you has been whispering, “This doesn’t fit anymore,” you’re not broken and you’re not behind. You’re just becoming aware of what God’s been gently showing you for a while now. The years you spent trying to make it work, the effort, the late nights, the roles you kept performing even after they stopped fitting you, they were not wasted. They shaped you. When you slow down long enough to get quiet with God and let yourself hear what you already know, the next step may still feel unknown, but it won’t feel like you’re losing yourself. It will feel like finally coming home to the truth that was there all along.

Action Taken

• Set aside one honest, uninterrupted moment of silence with God. No noise, no “productive” quiet, just stillness.
• In that quiet, ask yourself:
  • “Is there something I already know that I’ve been too afraid or too proud to act on?”
• Let the truth surface without making a plan or fixing anything yet. Just tell the truth to yourself and to God.
• If this language gives words to what you’ve been feeling, share it with a friend who might be trying harder and harder inside something that no longer fits.

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If this landed for you, share it with a friend who has been pushing harder inside something that may no longer be right for her, and hit follow so you don’t miss what we’re building here together.

Visit the links provided to stay connected.

• Instagram: @risewithshannon 
• Facebook: Shannon Denniston
• LinkedIn: Shannon Denniston
• Business: https://msha.ke/shanden
• Coaching: https://msha.ke/risewithshannon
• Blog: https://www.risewithshannon.blog/

Thank you for spending this time here with me. Your willingness to be honest about where you’ve outgrown something is brave, and I believe God meets you right in that honesty with clarity, kindness, and a next step you don’t have to force.

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You know that quiet feeling when a part of your life stops fitting, and you finally can’t ignore it anymore? Friend, if the version of you that you know is in there keeps feeling just out of reach, you’re in the right place.

Welcome to The RISE Experience — a podcast for women who are finding their way back to themselves. This is a space to slow down when everything feels loud, to lead from steadiness instead of urgency, and to finally hear yourself think again. Here we talk about identity, faith, and the quiet inner wisdom that gets buried under all the doing. A place to pause, reflect, and rise from clarity instead of pressure.

Episode Highlights

In today’s episode we walk through what it feels like to close a chapter that shaped your whole identity, the strange mix of freedom and relief that comes with stepping out of a container that was never quite the right fit, and how The RISE Experience is opening up into a clear, unapologetic space for women who are finding their way back to the version of themselves that keeps feeling just out of reach with God.

Episode Outline

• Welcoming Listeners and Setting the Stage
• Reflecting on Personal Transition
• Future Direction of the Podcast
• Exploring Transition and Pride
• Stepping into the New and Embracing Imperfection
• Closing Thoughts and Prayer

Episode Chapters

00:00 Welcome to The RISE Experience
00:15 Who this space is for
01:10 Looking back at last month
02:05 Closing a major life chapter
03:00 Freedom in leaving the wrong container
04:00 A new direction for the show
05:05 Living in transition, pride, and grief
06:20 Going deeper into identity and relationships
07:30 Showing up before it feels perfect
08:30 Nothing wasted in the wrong container
09:10 The Prodigal Son and the return home
10:05 Where your life no longer fits and closing prayer

Conclusion

There is a real tension in loving a chapter that shaped you and still knowing it no longer fits, and that is where we spend our time together here. We sit with the quiet relief of finally stepping out of the wrong container and begin to see that none of those years were wasted; they were forming something in you that can now live in the space it was always meant for. Through the moment of return in the Prodigal Son story, we remember that you are not chasing a brand new version of yourself, you are coming back to who you have always been with God, and letting that be enough.

Action Taken

• Notice where you have been living in a container that no longer fits
• Sit with the question: Where have I been playing a role or living a version of myself that quietly stopped fitting?
• Let the question land without rushing to fix or explain it
• Let the picture of “the return” from the Prodigal Son story remind you that you do not have to have it all figured out before you come home to yourself

CTA

Share this with one woman who is outgrowing the life she is in and needs words for why it feels so off, and invite her to sit with the question of where her own container has stopped fitting.

Visit the links provided to stay connected.

• Instagram: @risewithshannon
• Facebook: Shannon Denniston
• LinkedIn: Shannon Denniston
• Business: https://msha.ke/shanden
• Coaching: https://msha.ke/risewithshannon

Thank you for being here, for your honesty, and for the courage it takes to admit when something in your life is no longer the right fit. Keep trusting that every small step toward the version of you God has always had in mind is seen, welcomed, and worth it.