Anna Whiston-Donaldson is a popular author and speaker whose New York Times bestselling book, Rare Bird: A Memoir of Loss and Love chronicles the raw, early grief of losing her 12 year old son in a freak accident. Selected one of Publishers Weekly’s Best Books of 2014, Rare Bird resonates with readers looking for hope in impossible circumstances. 

She also has a children’s book, A Hug from Heaven, that speaks to grieving children from the point of view of a loved one who died. Anna has been featured in The Washington Post, Ladies Home Journal, Woman’s Day, Time Magazine, and other publications both print and online. She lives with her family in the Virginia suburbs, has a blog titled “An Inch of Gray,” and is launching a podcast late 2021.

In this episode, we talked about:

• The crazy parallels between her life and mine, in 17 year intervals (aka cicada time), our kids traversed the same experiences.
• How she channeled her grief about losing...

In today's episode I share the 9 things I love most about Fall and why it's my favorite time of year. I don't know about you but during the Fall season, abundance comes so much more easily to me!!! 

And excuse the side stories but some of my favorite things about Fall come from childhood memories and traditions. You'll definitely learn more about me in this episode!

Listen in and send me a message on social media (links below) to let me know which of the 9 makes you feel most abundant.

If you like this podcast but haven't yet given us a 5-star rating or a review, please do! It will help increase the visibility of this podcast so that others will see it!!! #activatingabundance #notyouraveragelivespodcast

If you'd like to connect or reach out to ME, you can find me at:

Website: www.notyouraveragegrandma.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/LaurieColvinWright
Instagram: www.instagram.com/not_your_average_grandma
Youtube: www.youtube.com/c/NotYourAverageGrandma

...

Listen in to my conversation with Sandy Weiner, the founder of Last First Date and The Woman of Value. Sandy is an internationally known TEDx speaker, dating and relationship coach, women's empowerment coach, author, and podcast host who has had a varied career from artist to comedy writer/manager and now relationship coach.

Sandy is a perfect dating coach because she is still in the thick of the dating world herself. lIn fact, she openly shares a couple of recent experiences and I appreciated her honesty, coming from a very real place.

In this interview, we talked about:

• her challenging pregnancy and all the difficult decisions she had to make
• abortion and the stigma that comes with it
• gaining personal freedom after her divorce, which led to her taking action to accomplish her own dreams
• her biggest dating tips

Sandy was such a great guest and after listening to this episode, I’m sure you’ll be  inspired in some way whether or not you are in search of a...

Today's episode was inspired by the October 9th excerpt from the "Simple Abundance" book called "Coping with Stress" because it caused me to be aware that I've been feeling a bit stressed lately. And going back through the list today really helped me.

The 47 de-stressing suggestions I share are listed below, with the ones that personally resonated to me marked with an asterisk. I suggest you pull out the ones that resonate with you to help you de-stress in times of need.

1. Cultivate gratitude.
2. Turn your phone off.
3. Carve out an hour a day for solitude.*
4. Begin and end the day with prayer, reflection, or silence.
5. Keep it simple.
6. Keep your house picked up.
7. Don't over schedule.*
8. Strive for realistic deadlines.
9. Never make a promise you can't keep.
10. Allow an extra half-hour for everything you do.*
11. Create quiet surroundings at home and at work.
12. Go to bed at nine o’clock twice a week.*
13. Always carry something interesting to read.
14. Breathe - deeply and often.
15. Move - walk, dance, run, find...

Today my guest is Elena Hartz who describes herself as a 48 year old mother who is twice divorced, Russian-born (raised in Ukraine) and who immigrated to the US in 1993.

I was compelled to interview when I heard her story on her daughter's podcast. To hear the incredible story of her young life in Russia, her early marriage to a man who turned out to be a liar and an abuser, and her family's escape from Communist Russia, check out Episode 217 of the Manifestation Babe podcast. It's a long one but so worth it! (In this episode, we don't go into those details.)

We talked about so many things including:

• her perspective on the American dream and comparison to her way of life as a person who grew up in a communist society
• her difficult adjustment to her daughter's version of the American dream which is not the traditional one she had dreamt for her
• her big aha moment about manifestation and how it can backfire on us.
• her amazing take on "mistakes."
• her Rythmia experience...

Today I share the importance of human connection and a couple of examples of how it has brought abundance into my life this year.

This topic was inspired by a Disney movie I watched with my 3 year old grandson, who resisted watching it but then sat through it mesmerized the whole time! If you haven't seen "Soul," I highly recommend it.

I think the message of the movie is even more impactful after having gone through the pandemic as human connection was pulled from us suddenly and for a long period of time.

What humans have you lost touch with who you would like to reconnect with?

My hope is that this episode will inspire you to take action and CONNECT! If you receive this episode as a nudge from the universe and take inspired action to make a human connection, please reach out and let me know how it felt because I know it will bring more abundance into your life!

If you'd like to connect or reach out to ME, you can find me at:

Website: www.notyouraveragegrandma.com
Facebook:...

My guest this week is Hilary Rank, a former corporate leader turned Women's Health & Wellness coach. At age 40, she decided life was too short not to fulfill her life purpose, which is to help other women transform into their fit & fabulous selves. 

In this episode, we covered a lot of topics including:

• what drove her to setting a personal goal to enter a bikini competition and finally have the body she always dreamed of after her 2nd son was born,
• the insidious and often misunderstood symptoms she experienced that can result from systemic stress,
• what to look out for if you hear the common response from your primary doctor, when it relates to hormonal issues, of: “You are fine.” but you know otherwise, and
• the little-known, but all-too-common root cause of all chronic disease issues.

Hilary talks about how she, at age 40, got into the best shape of her life while simultaneously becoming the sickest. She thought she had done everything right, by losing...

I recorded this episode on my back deck and I felt like my vibe was unusually high because of that... You see, I LOVE Fall. It's my absolute most favorite season and it is BEAUTIFUL in Virginia right now.

What I've learned over the past couple of years from doing such deep soul sparking work on myself and helping others is that when you align with what you love, it raises your vibrational frequency and hence your mood. 

In this episode, I talk about how we need to keep challenging our mind and body because the more we do that, the happier (and more abundant) we feel. I think it's one of the most important things we must do as we age to keep our brains and bodies vital.

I also share a few of the things I've recently done over the past few weeks to challenge MY mind and body so you have some examples. It doesn't have to be too complicated. Simply expose yourself to new things!

Stop doing the same boring things over and over and over that a) don't challenge you and b)...

Today’s episode is my interview with Meghan Krause, an award-winning, forward-thinking employee wellbeing authority turned coach, entrepreneur, and speaker who has worked with thousands of people to enhance their professional and personal lives. Her work has been featured on Thrive Global and TEDx and she also hosts the Bullshift podcast. 

When Meghan was describing herself prior to her midlife transformation, she said to picture Diane Keaton in Baby Boom, feeling “can't get no satisfaction” despite a surface appearance of success - very similar to the old me except she was about 10 years younger when she experienced her “midlife nadir.” 

She finally listened to her gut instinct and pursued a Masters in Public Health in health promotion and integrative healing therapies. Then she landed her choice gig as the college director of wellbeing. But in this role she found herself increasingly… unwell. Feeling like an imposter and feeling that...

In this episode, I talk about a couple of fun surprises... the relaunch of my Abundance quiz where you can find out the level of abundance you are operating from AND a new course I just developed, "How to Live The Abundant Life You Desire," that teaches the 6 principles of simple abundance.

The only way to get access to the course is if you take the quiz because the course is meant as a next step, if you find you are lower on the abundance scale.

Through the lessons provided in the course and the exercises provided with each lesson, you'll learn how to level up and operate from a deeper state of abundance and in so doing, truly have a better life as a result.

I forgot to mention on this episode that the course also comes with a Facebook Group where you can connect with other like-minded humans and get support as you go through the course. That way you are not alone as you embark on this amazing abundaventure!

If you like this podcast but haven't yet given us a 5-star...