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If you’ve been waiting for the perfect day, the perfect week, or the perfect version of you before you finally begin, I want you to hear this: that day isn’t coming. Today we’re talking about control, why it feels so safe, and how it might actually be keeping you from the life you’re trying so hard to manage.

Episode Summary

In this episode of The Rise Experience, we’re starting a new month-long conversation about control. Not just the big, obvious control, but the quiet kind that shows up in your planning, your overthinking, and the way you keep telling yourself, “I’ll do it when things slow down.”

I talk about why our nervous systems reach for control when life feels like too much, how that spills into coaching, accountability, and structure, and how it slowly turns into this identity of being “the one who has it together.” We also sit with Matthew 6:34 and talk about what it really means to stop dragging tomorrow into today, without pretending you don’t have real things to take care of.

If you’re tired of waiting for the perfect moment and feel like you’re always managing your life instead of living it, this episode will help you notice where control is running the show and give you one simple place to begin shifting that.

Key Takeaways

• What control really is and why your body keeps reaching for it
• How control shows up in everyday ways: perfect-day thinking, overplanning, overthinking, all-or-nothing
• Why overthinking is often just anxiety trying to keep you safe
• How “being the woman who has it together” can quietly become your whole identity
• How support and accountability can start to feel like being watched instead of being helped
• A steadier way to hear “do not worry about tomorrow” from Matthew 6:34
• One simple practice for this week: notice where you’re waiting for perfect conditions before you even begin

Episode Chapters

00:00 – Why July is all about control
04:39 – When support starts to feel like someone is checking up on you
09:25 – The quiet ways control shows up all day long
14:02 – What constant control is really costing you
16:10 – Matthew 6:34 and a small step for this week

Memorable Quotes

Follow The Rise Experience and share this episode with one friend who is exhausted from trying to keep everything perfectly in place.

Connect with Shannon:

Your next step… https://msha.ke/risewithshannon

Read the blog… https://www.risewithshannon.blog/

FB: Shannon Bell Denniston

IG: @risewithshannon

About the Podcast

The Rise Experience is a podcast for women of faith who are done starting over and done pretending everything is fine. Each week, I show up with real talk, scripture, and simple reflection to help you move through transition, shift old patterns, and live with more steadiness, purpose, and presence right where you are.

SEO Tags

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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.