Kristina Rich danced constantly as a kid, but movement slowly faded from her life as adulthood became more serious. Years later, she intentionally returned to dance and discovered a way to express emotions she couldn't always put into words. Kristina joins Paige and Jenna for a conversation about dance as a healing practice, intuition, play, music, tarot, and learning to trust her own inner experience.

IN THIS EPISODE:
☀️ How returning to something she loved as a child changed Kristina's relationship with dance
☀️ Why movement became a way for Kristina to express emotions she couldn't always put into words
☀️ How silliness and play help people move past the fear of looking weird
☀️ The 22-month Archetypal Dance Adventure Kristina created around tarot's Major Arcana
☀️ How music can open access to different emotions and ways of moving
☀️ Why Kristina keeps thinking about intuition, outside influence, and recognizing which beliefs are truly her own

CONNECT WITH KRISTINA

Instagram @‌asha__kristina

Tarot in Space | Instagram @‌tarot.in.space

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Judy Smith spent nearly half her life with Jeremiah before losing him to suicide. Two and a half years later, she still loves him deeply. She is also dating again. Judy joins Paige and Jenna for an honest conversation about grief, memory, support, and making room for love after loss.

⚠️ This episode includes a discussion about suicide, suicide attempts, chronic pain, and the loss of a spouse. Please take care while reading or listening.

IN THIS EPISODE:

☀️ How Judy met Jeremiah at 19 and accidentally had their first date at Steak 'n Shake

☀️ The generosity and love Judy most wants people to remember about Jeremiah

☀️ Judy's experience losing her husband to suicide after years of attempts and chronic pain

☀️ What support actually felt meaningful during the earliest days of her grief

☀️ Turning 39 and becoming older than Jeremiah ever got to be

☀️ Dating again while continuing to love and talk about her late husband

CONNECT WITH JUDY

Bringing Simplicity | Instagram @‌thejudysmith

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We tried to record a completely different episode and couldn't do it. We were exhausted and creatively tapped out, yet our instinct was still to push through. That failed recording led us into a conversation about overfunctioning, what drives each of us to keep doing, and what we lose when a full life becomes too full.

IN THIS EPISODE:

☀️ Why we can become overwhelmed even when we're saying yes to things we genuinely want

☀️ The signs that tell each of us we've gone past our capacity

☀️ How productivity and being useful connect to our identities in different ways

☀️ What asking for help has looked like for each of us

☀️ Why we've managed to turn even rest and meditation into things to optimize

☀️ How we're thinking differently about balance during busy seasons

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Join our email list for weekly sunshine mail: wakeupsunshine.co

Instagram: @‌wakeupsunshinepodcast

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Vanessa Royle didn’t stop drinking after a dramatic rock bottom. During COVID, panic attacks led her to experiment with cutting out alcohol, and she began noticing how much changed without it. Six years later, Vanessa shares how becoming sober curious reshaped her experience of anxiety, relationships, socializing, motherhood, and ultimately her trust in herself, while also inspiring the idea that became Tilden.

IN THIS EPISODE:

☀️ Why panic attacks during COVID led Vanessa to experiment with not drinking

☀️ Questioning alcohol without experiencing a dramatic rock bottom

☀️ Starting business school as someone who didn’t drink and finding new ways to socialize

☀️ Realizing that alcohol had sometimes helped Vanessa fill boredom and “speed up time”

☀️ How Vanessa’s search for a more thoughtful non-alcoholic option eventually became Tilden

☀️ What six years without alcohol has meant for Vanessa’s motherhood, confidence, and trust in herself

CONNECT WITH VANESSA

Tilden | Vanessa’s LinkedIn

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Lena Walker's path from ER and hospice nurse to breathwork facilitator and ketamine integration coach began during one of the hardest periods of her life. She joins Paige and Jenna to talk about ayahuasca, discovering the power of breathwork, finding an unexpected bridge between hospice and healing work, ketamine therapy, and why the experience itself is only part of transformation.

IN THIS EPISODE:

☀️ The crisis that led Lena to begin looking more deeply at her own healing

☀️ Lena's first ayahuasca experience and why she describes it as “coming back to life”

☀️ Discovering breathwork at a Wim Hof workshop she originally attended for the cold plunge

☀️ How hospice nursing taught Lena to hold space for fear, uncertainty, and vulnerable moments

☀️ Lena's transition into ketamine therapy and psychedelic integration coaching

☀️ Why integration became so important after Lena experienced a profound awakening without support for what came next

CONNECT WITH LENA:

Embodied Integration Coaching | Instagram @‌heyitslenarae

OTHER REFERENCES/LINKS:

inLIGHTen Wellness

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Join our email list for weekly sunshine mail: wakeupsunshine.co

Instagram: @‌wakeupsunshinepodcast

What happens when the practices that once grounded you get buried underneath work, stress, and everyday life? Melissa Seil-Butler joins Paige and Jenna for a conversation about her personal path into energy healing and meditation, why she returned to those practices after becoming seriously ill, and what all three have experienced as they've learned to get quieter, notice more, and reconnect with themselves.

IN THIS EPISODE:

☀️ Melissa's path from nutrition and yoga into Reiki, Rapid Eye Technology, hypnotherapy, and Tibetan singing bowls

☀️ How she lost the practices that grounded her during a season of overwork and found her way back

☀️ Paige on becoming Reiki attuned and the shift in how she reads other people's energy

☀️ The everyday ways mindfulness finally clicked for all three of them: walking, mala beads, even washing dishes

☀️ Learning the difference between caring deeply for people and carrying what isn't yours to hold

CONNECT WITH MELISSA:
ZenLife Center for Healing | Instagram | YouTube

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What happens when the faith that shaped your childhood no longer fits in quite the same way? Paige and Jenna look back at growing up in the Church of Christ, from church camp, hymns, friendship, and community to the rules, judgment, “good girl” expectations, and black-and-white beliefs they’ve had to examine as adults. Their spiritual lives look different today, but neither story is as simple as staying or leaving.

IN THIS EPISODE:

☀️ The parts of growing up in the Church of Christ that Paige and Jenna still genuinely love, including church camp, friendships, service, and community

☀️ A cappella worship, no dancing, women in leadership, modesty, and the rules that felt normal when they were children

☀️ The pressure to be a “good Christian girl” and how goodness, belonging, sexuality, and judgment became intertwined

☀️ Why neither Paige nor Jenna describes her experience as religious trauma, while both recognize beliefs they’ve had to reconsider or unlearn

☀️ How their paths diverged, with Paige returning to a non-denominational Christian church and Jenna finding spirituality through meditation, yoga, therapy, and other traditions

☀️ The unexpectedly perfect journey from Church of Christ to 55 houseplants

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Paige and Jenna never thought divorce would be something they had in common. In this deeply personal conversation, they look back at getting married young, the doubts they couldn't yet understand, the ways they slowly lost pieces of themselves, and the moments they finally knew their marriages were over. They also talk about what happened afterward: grief, independence, rebuilding, and learning who they were outside of a relationship.

IN THIS EPISODE:

☀️ How Paige and Jenna's Christian upbringing and ideas about adulthood shaped the way they thought about marriage

☀️The doubts they each remember having before getting married

☀️ The subtle ways both began making themselves smaller inside their relationships

☀️ The moment Jenna's father's death brought unexpected clarity about her marriage

☀️ Paige's experience leaving her marriage, counting down to her divorce becoming final, and how distant that chapter feels now

☀️ Why Jenna sees the real work as what came after divorce: grieving, rebuilding independence, and reconnecting with herself

CONNECT WITH US

Join our email list for weekly sunshine mail: wakeupsunshine.co

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Wake Up, Sunshine started with two cousins, a vision board, and a feeling that it was finally time to stop waiting until everything was “ready.” In our first episode, we’re sharing who we are, how this podcast came to life, and why we wanted to create a space for honest conversations about growth, healing, transformation, and becoming more of ourselves.

IN THIS EPISODE:

☀️ How Jenna’s idea for a podcast about women’s stories of growth and transformation started at a retreat, then sat with her for a few years before finally becoming real

☀️The moment Paige saw a microphone on Jenna’s vision board and had the immediate feeling that they were supposed to host the podcast together

☀️ Our history as cousins, from childhood summers and our homemade Mickey Mouse Club to reconnecting more deeply as adults

☀️ The very different paths our lives have taken and why those different perspectives are part of what we want to bring to the show

☀️ Why “Wake Up, Sunshine” felt like the perfect name for conversations about waking up to ourselves while remembering that the sunshine is still there, even during the storms

☀️What we’re each “waking up” to right now, including perfectionism, surrender, trusting the unknown, and finally starting before everything feels perfectly ready

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Join our email list for weekly sunshine mail: wakeupsunshine.co

Instagram: @wakeupsunshinepodcast

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Share this episode with a friend who might connect with the conversation, and follow, subscribe, rate, or leave us a review wherever you listen.

Wake Up, Sunshine is the friend who shows up, throws open the curtains, and reminds you that you're allowed to want more. Hosted by cousins Paige Major and Jenna Williams, it's real conversations for women in the middle of becoming — through growth, healing, spirituality, identity, and the big life transitions nobody hands you a map for. Every week we sit down with women who've moved through something and come out more themselves on the other side. Come for the story, stay because you feel a little less alone. 🌤️🩵