What if lasting weight loss begins with healing the thoughts and wounds beneath the eating?

In this powerful episode, Darlene sits down with Nina Spina, host of the Pivot to Positivity podcast, to talk about trauma, faith, emotional eating, and learning to feel safe in your own body.

Nina shares how childhood trauma, codependency, an unhealthy marriage, and years of living in survival mode affected her identity, health, and relationship with food. She also opens up about losing 110 pounds—including her decision to use bariatric surgery as one tool in a much deeper journey of physical, emotional, and spiritual healing.

Together, Darlene and Nina discuss:

• Why Nina once used weight as a form of protection
• How our brains repeat old patterns to keep us feeling safe
• The connection between trauma and emotional eating
• Learning to recognize thoughts without automatically believing them
• Using “bridge thoughts” to replace fear with truth
• Why bariatric surgery is not an easy way out
• Moving beyond all-or-nothing thinking and learning moderation
• The importance of counseling, coaching, recovery, and safe community
• How faith helped Nina reclaim her identity and freedom

Nina’s story is a beautiful reminder that your significance is not determined by your weight, your past, your accomplishments, or what you ate yesterday. You are significant because the Maker of heaven and earth created you, loves you, and says that you are.

Listen to Nina’s podcast, Pivot to Positivity, for trauma-informed, fact-based encouragement to help you become a little more positive than you were the day before.

Content note: This episode includes a non-graphic discussion of childhood sexual abuse, trafficking, addiction, and trauma. Please listen with care.

Connect With Neena:

Website : cjspina617.Wix site.com/coachneena

Podcast: Pivot2Positivity https://open.spotify.com/show/1agsTAwYo65FqIySAh7NFn?si=18670dd426fc4764

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/neena.j.spina

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What happens when pain goes unhealed and slowly turns into bitterness?

In this deeply honest episode of You Are Significant, Darlene talks with Christian speaker, retired educator, and author Lesley Carney about her book, From Bitter to Blessed: How God Transforms Pain into Purpose.

Lesley shares how the painful loss of a relationship with her granddaughter left her grieving a “living loss.” For seven and a half years, unresolved hurt, anger, and unforgiveness began stealing her joy and changing who she was.

Then God showed her that forgiveness wasn’t about allowing someone else to win—it was about releasing herself from the prison of bitterness.

Lesley shares how she learned to:

• Recognize when buried pain is still affecting her life
• Stop replaying the hurt and believing the enemy’s lies
• Name the wound and surrender it to God
• Choose forgiveness even without an apology
• Allow God to transform pain into healing, joy, and purpose

If you are carrying hurt from rejection, family conflict, loss, betrayal, or even a painful experience from childhood, this conversation will remind you that you are not alone—and it is never too late to begin healing.

God already knows what hurts. Your first step may simply be saying, “Lord, I’m ready to be ready.”

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📩 Email: HelloDarleneLee@gmail.com
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▶️ YouTube: You Are Significant Podcast
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Connect With Lesley Carney:

Email:lesleycarneyspeaks@gmail.com

Lesley's Book

From Bitter To Blessed:How God Transforms Pain Into Purpose

Purchase your copy here https://a.co/d/07ABheAX

Lesley Carney Speaks

https://www.facebook.com/LesleyCarneySpeaks

What if failure isn’t proof that you should quit?

What if failure is actually part of the way forward?

In this episode of You Are Significant, Darlene shares a very personal story about a goal she desperately wanted to reach—and the morning the scale kept saying failure.

She had to hit a specific number to qualify to walk in the KOPS parade at TOPS State Recognition Days. She had worked for it. She had prepared for it. But that morning, the number wasn’t there.

So she tried again.

And again.

And again.

Until she succeeded.

But this episode isn’t really about a number on a scale. It’s about what happens when you’re working toward something that matters and the results keep telling you it’s not working.

Whether you’re building a business, raising children, working on your health, pursuing a dream, or simply trying to become the woman God is calling you to be, failure does not have to be the end of the story.

Sometimes the greatest return comes from what failure teaches us.

And sometimes you have to keep failing until you succeed.

Connect With Darlene

Email: HelloDarleneLee@gmail.com
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Instagram: @thedarlenelee on Instagram
TikTok: @thedarlenelee on TikTok
YouTube: You Are Significant on YouTube
Linktree: Darlene Lee's Links

Where Hope Springs Up: An Adoption, Faith & Miracle Baby Story with Ashley Higgins

What happens when the life you imagined goes completely off script?

Ashley Higgins knows what it means to wait on God when the path ahead doesn’t make sense. Through military life, infertility, struggles in her marriage, foster care, adoption, heartbreak, and years of waiting, Ashley learned that even in the most painful seasons, God was still writing her story.

In this episode of You Are Significant, Ashley shares the beautiful journey that led her and her husband to their two sons through adoption—and then, after years of infertility, to an unexpected chapter they never saw coming: the conception and birth of their daughter, Claire Eleanor.

But this story is about so much more than becoming a mother.

Ashley shares how God used the waiting to deepen her faith, restore hope, strengthen her marriage, and teach her that her significance could never be found in motherhood, career, or circumstances. It had to be rooted in Him.

If you’re walking through a season of waiting, grieving what you thought life would look like, or wondering if God has forgotten you, this conversation is for you.

Your story isn’t finished.

God is still the Redeemer. He is still the Restorer. And sometimes hope springs up at the times and in the places we least expect it.

CONNECT WITH DARLENE:

Email: HelloDarleneLee@gmail.com

Facebook: Connect with Darlene on Facebook

Instagram: @thedarlenelee

TikTok: @thedarlenelee

YouTube: You Are Significant Podcast

Linktree: Darlene's Links

CONNECT WITH ASHLEY:

https://www.ashleymhiggins.com/blog

It hit me like a ton of bricks this summer as I spent time around so many people, listening and observing: what we allow into our minds matters.

It matters what we watch. It matters who we listen to. It matters who we spend the most time with.

Jim Rohn famously said that we are the average of the five people we spend the most time with. Proverbs 23:7 says, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” And the same is true for women!

In Episode 115, I challenge you to take inventory of three important areas:

What am I watching?

What am I reading?

Who am I spending the most time with?

I hope this episode enlightens and empowers you, giving you a newly sharpened edge to live your greatest life of significance with more ease, intention, and awareness.

Connect With Darlene:

Email: HelloDarleneLee@gmail.com

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Three things to remember that will help you keep your sanity as we all get back to school, even if you don't have school-agers at home. If this episode was a blessing please subscribe and share.

Connect With Darlene:

Email: HelloDarleneLee@gmail.com

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What are you afraid of?

What if the biggest thing standing between you and the life God has for you... is fear?

This Fourth of July weekend inspired me to think about a different kind of freedom—the freedom to stop living intimidated by people, circumstances, bad reports, or the "what ifs" that steal our peace.

In this episode, we'll explore what the Bible says about courage, why God calls us to walk by faith instead of fear, and how the story of Joseph proves that what others intended for harm, God can use for good. I'll also share a personal update about my husband's cancer journey and why we've chosen faith over fear.

If you've been worrying about your future, your health, your family, or a decision you need to make, this episode is a reminder that fear doesn't have to have the final word.

God has not called you to live as a prisoner of fear. He has called you to walk in faith, courage, and freedom.

Connect With Darlene:

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Does the thought of a family reunion, vacation, or summer gathering bring a mix of excitement... and anxiety because of someone you might see?

Summer has a way of bringing people back into our lives. In this episode, Darlene shares a biblical perspective on forgiveness and why it's more than a one-time decision—it's a practice that helps us release the past, walk in freedom, and make room for the fruit of the Spirit to grow.

If you want to experience more joy and peace this summer, I pray this conversation encourages your heart. Please subscribe, comment, and share.

Connect with me:

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/thedarlenelee
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedarlenelee

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedarlenelee

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@youaresignificant1

Email: HelloDarleneLee@gmail.com