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Surviving Sarah

The Surviving Sarah Podcast is hosted by Sarah Bragg, and each week she brings a different guest on the show to talk about what it looks like to survive--survive life, yourself, your kids, your job, your relationships. Each guest brings their unique story to the table in a real and casual way. The conversation is curated for you much like listening to your favorite playlist to inform, inspire, encourage and entertain women.
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Now displaying: 2021
Nov 30, 2021
Hey friends, quick note about today’s episode. While I’m not a break from the show and social media to creatively rest and write book 2, I’m running reruns of some past Surviving Sarah episodes.
 
If you need to get in touch with me, head over to my website. You can click the contact button and your email will be sent to me. I will still be writing my monthly Survival Kit newsletter which is a great way to stay connected to you while I’m on hiatus from the show and social media. You can sign up for that through my website as well. And of course, you can purchase my book, A Mother’s Guide to Raising Herself, from your favorite retailer. If you are planning to read the book as a part of a book club, let me know because I’d love to join you virtually.
 

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this rerun episode. 

Christmas isn’t always a merry season. We can have disappointment or pain from loss. Maybe its a grieving season. Maybe life doesn’t look like what you hoped. And Christmas can accentuate our pain, grief and disappointment. How do we step into our real circumstances and try to enjoy Christmas in the midst of the pain? With that in mind, Alex conducted a Christmas experiment. An experiment on what it would look like to find hope, joy, love and peace during the Christmas season in the midst of her real life circumstances. 

Nov 23, 2021
Hey friends, quick note about today’s episode. While I’m not a break from the show and social media to creatively rest and write book 2, I’m running reruns of some past Surviving Sarah episodes.
 
If you need to get in touch with me, head over to my website. You can click the contact button and your email will be sent to me. I will still be writing my monthly Survival Kit newsletter which is a great way to stay connected to you while I’m on hiatus from the show and social media. You can sign up for that through my website as well. And of course, you can purchase my book, A Mother’s Guide to Raising Herself, from your favorite retailer. If you are planning to read the book as a part of a book club, let me know because I’d love to join you virtually.
 

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this rerun episode. 

We talk about the connection between science and faith, how you have the power to turn on your brain in order to get rid of toxins, the science behind captivating your thoughts, how to change your mind and how to help our kids learn to change their thought patterns.

Nov 16, 2021
Hey friends, quick note about today’s episode. While I’m not a break from the show and social media to creatively rest and write book 2, I’m running reruns of some past Surviving Sarah episodes.
 
If you need to get in touch with me, head over to my website. You can click the contact button and your email will be sent to me. I will still be writing my monthly Survival Kit newsletter which is a great way to stay connected to you while I’m on hiatus from the show and social media. You can sign up for that through my website as well. And of course, you can purchase my book, A Mother’s Guide to Raising Herself, from your favorite retailer. If you are planning to read the book as a part of a book club, let me know because I’d love to join you virtually.
 

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this rerun episode. 

Clay wrote a book last year called How To Lead When You’re Not In Charge. And let’s be honest, so many of us are leading somewhere—in our home, in our work, in our church, in our schools. Each one of us has the ability to leverage influence yet many of us are stuck waiting to be given the authority to lead rather than tapping into the influence that we have. So we talk about the difference between authority and influence, the challenges that keep us from tapping into our influence, how to survive working for someone you don’t respect, what to do when you crave more influence, and how understanding our identity is crucial in cultivating influence. 

 

Nov 9, 2021
Hey friends, quick note about today’s episode. While I’m not a break from the show and social media to creatively rest and write book 2, I’m running reruns of some past Surviving Sarah episodes.
 
If you need to get in touch with me, head over to my website. You can click the contact button and your email will be sent to me. I will still be writing my monthly Survival Kit newsletter which is a great way to stay connected to you while I’m on hiatus from the show and social media. You can sign up for that through my website as well. And of course, you can purchase my book, A Mother’s Guide to Raising Herself, from your favorite retailer. If you are planning to read the book as a part of a book club, let me know because I’d love to join you virtually.
 

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this rerun episode. 

I am so excited to welcome Heather MacFadyen to the show today. You likely know her from the Don't Mom Alone podcast. If you don’t know her already, she’s a mom to 4 boys. We talk about fears that we have and how fear is the root problem to other emotions we have like anger; we talk about guilt and shame in motherhood and what to do when shame is driving your identity. 

Nov 2, 2021

In this episode, Sarah talks honestly about how she has been feeling over the last year and a half, how to handle the daily stress and what to do about the things causing the stress. 

Order Sarah's book, A Mother's Guide to Raising Herself: What Parenting Taught Me About Life, Faith and Myself
 
Check out bonus content from today's episode over on Patreon.
 
Sign up for Sarah's monthly Survival Kit Newsletter
 
Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram
Oct 26, 2021
I am happy to welcome Alexandra Kuykendall back to the show. She has been on Surviving Sarah a couple of times over the years. She is a co-host to the popular podcast The Open Door Sisterhood and is a writer and speaker. Today, she joins me to talk about her new book “Seeking Out Goodness: Finding the True and Beautiful All around You.”
 
Seeking out the goodness around you. That is so easy for us, right? I mean, we aren’t bombarded with what is hard and conflicting at all. Alex’s book is perfectly timed for where we are not only in culture but also as the holidays approach. 
 
We talk about how even though life can be hard it can also be beautiful. And we dive into some practical ways to find the good in the people we disagree with. So pull up a chair and join the conversation.
 
 
Check out bonus content from today's episode over on Patreon.
 
 
Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram
Oct 19, 2021
I am happy to welcome Jessica Hottle to the show. She is a faith-based fitness coach, podcast host, best-selling author, and speaker. She is the author of the upcoming book "Face Off with Your Feelings: Break Up with the Lies from Your Past and Embrace the Truth for Your Future”
 
Today, Jessica shares 5 steps to help manage emotions when they arise. We talk about how to help our body move through those emotions. This is something that you can start to put into place today so pull up a chair and join the conversation. 
 
 
Check out bonus content from today's episode over on Patreon.
 
 
Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram
Oct 12, 2021
I am happy to welcome Allison Baggerly to the show today. She is a blogger, podcast host, and founder of Inspired Budget. As a teacher and small business owner, Allison combined her passion for teaching and finances to help others learn how to start budgeting. She has built a community of over 120,000 Instagram followers that turn to her for budgeting advice and inspiration to save more money.
 
Allison shares about how she and her husband paid off over $111K of debt on 2 teacher salaries while growing their family. And we tackle the emotions we feel surrounding debt and how to move past the shame we feel about it. I was definitely inspired and motivated by Allison.
 
 
Check out bonus content from today's episode over on Patreon.
 
 
Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram
Sep 28, 2021

Let me just say that you are blessed because you hit play on today’s episode. This is time for another installment of the quarterly review with our good friend, Merica Stum. I love these episodes so much. We look at the last quarter—July, August and Sept—and talk about how we felt about the last few month. Then, we talk about what we read, watched, listened to and loved along with updates on planners. And lastly, we talk about what we are looking forward to in this next quarter.

Order Sarah's book, A Mother's Guide to Raising Herself: What Parenting Taught Me About Life, Faith and Myself
 
Check out bonus content from today's episode over on Patreon.
 
Sign up for Sarah's monthly Survival Kit Newsletter
 
Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram
Sep 21, 2021
I am happy to welcome Anne Bogel to the show. I have known of Anne and followed along with her for years now. And I have to say that I really enjoyed chatting with her. For as long as I can remember, I have loved books. In fact, my favorite thing to do back in college was go to Barnes and Noble to just look at books and journals and sip coffee. It was a dream.
 
Anne is an author, blogger and podcaster. She has a popular blog called Modern Mrs Darcy and two podcasts, What Should I Read Next? and One Great Book. Her latest book is a reading journal titled My Reading Life: A Book Journal. Today, we have a conversation about how to create a reading life that you enjoy.
 
 
Check out bonus content from today's episode over on Patreon.
 
 
Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram
Sep 14, 2021
I am happy to welcome Christy Wright back to the show. Christy is a #1 national best-selling author, personal development expert, and host of The Christy Wright Show. Since 2009, she has served at Ramsey Solutions, where she teaches on personal development, business, and faith. Christy was a guest on Surviving Sarah a couple of years ago and I thoroughly enjoyed chatting with her so I was so happy when she reached out to come back on the show.
 
Christy has a new book titled: Take Back Your Time: The Guilt Free Guide to Life Balance. She is addressing a tension that we all feel about our time. We talk about the idea that we can do it all and the fall out that comes from that belief. Then, Christy shares wisdom around what balance actually feels like, how to give yourself grace when seasons are full and stressful and how to watch out for the time traps that distract us from what is right for us right now.
 
 
Check out bonus content from today's episode over on Patreon.
 
 
Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram
Sep 7, 2021
I am happy to welcome authors, Tricia Goyer and Amy Parker, to the show. These two best selling authors team up to create a beautiful, helpful children’s book titled The Grumbles. The Grumbles is a picture book perfect for your favorite 4-8 year old that helps teach kids how to approach life with a gracious mindset. 
 
This conversation feels like an author spotlight. Between the two of them, they have published an incredible amount of books. So they talk about what they’ve learned about life through their years in the publishing industry. And then we dive into the topic of grumbling—what that looks like in our homes and what helps us create a mindset of gratitude.
 
 
Check out bonus content from today's episode over on Patreon.
 
 
Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram
Aug 31, 2021

I am so happy to welcome my friend, Ashely Abercrombie, back to the show. She is a speaker and writer whose authored the books Rise of the Truth Teller and Love is the Resistance. This latest book, Love is the Resistance, is all about learning to disagree and resolve the conflicts you’ve been avoiding. Sounds totally irrelevant, right? Note the sarcasm. I think Ashley’s book, which comes out today, is so timely for the world in which we are living in. And for some of us, conflict is the word we would use to describe our homes and relationships. It doesn’t matter who you are, conflict is something that we all face. Ashely shares so many helpful things about handing conflict that I know its going to be helpful to you. In fact, listen up because she shares a phase to use that will help you enter into a conversation about a conflict. I literally took so many notes. You will definitely want to deep dive her book.

Order Sarah's book, A Mother's Guide to Raising Herself: What Parenting Taught Me About Life, Faith and Myself
 
Check out bonus content from today's episode over on Patreon.
 
Sign up for Sarah's monthly Survival Kit Newsletter
 
Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram
Aug 24, 2021
Today, I wanted to round out book launch week with an episode just from me. I also wanted to include one more chapter from the audiobook as a way of celebrating.
 
This has been a good week. If you subscribe to the newsletter or follow on Instagram then you probably know that our family got hit with Covid about two weeks ago. Scott and I were vaccinated but Sinclair hadn’t received hers yet. And after 3 days of school, she tested positive. So we spent book launch in isolation at home. Going into it, I was quite disappointed. I had fun things planned for the whole day which all had to be cancelled.
 
But once the day came, I have to say that while the day at home was very quiet and normal—the girls did digital learning, Scott worked—the day online felt very extraordinary. The day was filled with you guys showing up and celebrating with me online. You shared the book over and over. That simple action of sharing the book (or even the show) may seem so little but I promise you that it feels so big to me. It was so fun to see the book top the amazon new release in motherhood charts. It also hit the best seller list for the motherhood category. I was just overjoyed.
 
I just wanted to say thank you for showing up. Thank you for buying the book. Thank you for cheering for me. 
 
 
Check out bonus content from today's episode over on Patreon.
 
 
Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram
Aug 17, 2021
I am so happy to welcome Korie Robertson to the show. She is a New York Times best-selling author and star of A&E’s Duck Dynasty. She works in the family business Duck Commander, is co-owner in Tread Lively Productions. Korie loves doing life with her husband, Willie and their six kids and four grandbabies in their hometown of West Monroe, Louisiana. 
 
In honor of my book launching, we talk about what raising kids taught her. We also talk about what its like being a grandparent, advice she’s giving her kids as they step into marriage, what to do to foster a future relationship with your kids, and some really good advice about raising teenagers.
 
 
Check out bonus content from today's episode over on Patreon.
 
 
Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram
Aug 16, 2021

My book A Mother's Guide to Raising Herself launches out into the world tomorrow on August 17! I wanted to give you a little bonus treat today in anticipation of tomorrow. Today, you get to hear the audiobook version of the Introduction. You will get to hear what the book is about, why I wrote it and what I hope you gain from it.

If you want to access the pre-order bonuses, this is your last day! Purchase the book from your favorite retailer and then take your order number to my site. From there, we'll walk you through how to access the secret podcast feed and download the free printables.

Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram

 

 

Aug 10, 2021
I am so happy to welcome Sandra Stanley back to the show. This is her third appearance on the show and every time, I walk away with so much. If you don’t know Sandra, she is the author of The Comparison Trap and Breathing Room. She is married to Andy Stanley and they have grown children.
 
I wanted to have Sandra back leading up to my book launch for A Mother’s Guide to Raising Herself because I feel like she has a lot of wisdom to share. This episode is all about parenting. We talk about how parenting produced growth in her. We talk about lessons like connection over efficiency and relationship over rules and honor over obedience. I also ask her to share what helped them build a future relationship with their kids and between the siblings and lastly, how to help our teens make wise choices. I’m telling you, so much good stuff packed into this one episode. You’re going to love it!
 
 
Check out bonus content from today's episode over on Patreon.
 
 
Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram
Aug 3, 2021
I am happy to welcome my friend, Erin Moon, to the show today. She is the host of the Faith Adjacent podcast, as well as the resident Bible scholar on The Bible Binge podcast. She is an author and the Senior Creative at the Popcast Media Group. She is an absolute delight to follow and curates one of my favorite newsletters called The Swipe Up. Erin and her family live in Birmingham, Alabama.
 
I asked Erin to join me as part of a series of podcasts to help launch my book. I have benefited from following along with Erin’s parenting and faith journeys. So I asked her to come on the show to talk about how raising kids has been a catalyst to her own faith journey. We talk about what that journey has been for her, why it’s good to wrestle with our faith and resources for those on their own journey. And of course, I had to talk a little pop culture and motherhood as well.
 
 
Check out bonus content from today's episode over on Patreon.
 
 
Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram
Jul 27, 2021
Today, I have something special for you! I have one of the chapters from the audio version of my book, A Mother’s Guide to Raising Herself
 
I’ve learned over the last 13+ years of parenting, that parenting is less about raising kids and more about raising ourselves. Raising kids pushed me to come face to face with my own uncertainties, fears, tendencies towards perfectionism, and inauthenticity. And as I wrestled with those things, certain phrases started to rise to the surface. I began saying these phrases to myself in order to grow up, to become, to be raised. 
 
This book highlights over 20 phrases that helped raise me. Instead of being given a list of steps or a specific formula, you will receive a list of phrases that will guide you to becoming your truest self. 
 
The more freedom you find for yourself to be yourself, the more accepting and loving you become. And the best gift we can give to our children is a mom who is true to herself, who shows up and is brave enough to do the work.
 
The phrase I’m going to share with you today comes from chapter 22 titled You Can Do Hard Things. I have been hearing such good things from early readers of the book. And I had so much fun recording the audiobook because it felt like what I do with you every single week on the show. I absolutely loved getting to tell you about this as if we were sitting across from each other.
 
So, here is the first listen of A Mother’s Guide to Raising Herself 
 
Order Sarah's book, A Mother's Guide to Raising Herself: What Parenting Taught Me About Life, Faith and Myself and then access your pre-order bonuses here.
 
Check out bonus content from today's episode over on Patreon.
 
 
Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram
Jul 20, 2021
I am happy to welcome Will Hutcherson to the show. He is a pastor, speaker, and founder of Curate Hope, non-profit that partners with parents and educators to heal despair in kids and teens. He is also the co-author of the new book, SEEN: Healing Despair and Anxiety in Kids and Teens Through the Power of Connection. 
 
This is such a practical and helpful conversation. He unpacks in such a clear, understandable way what is happening in the brain when we our kids feel despair or anxiety. Then, we talk about what we can do as parents to help our kids when they are in a state of despair, how we as parents are such a valuable tool in helping our kid when they feel despair, and what empathy looks and sounds like.
 
 
Check out bonus content from today's episode over on Patreon.
 
 
Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram
Jul 13, 2021
I am so very happy to welcome Lesley Graham to the show today. She is one of my closest friends and may remember hearing from her on the Dopesquad episode which was episode 79.
 
Lesley is such an inspiration person who has such a heart to see women succeed in life and work. She lives on a farm in Georgia with her leather making husband Sam and their two girls. She is currently serving as a mentor and coach to her wellness community, as well as sharing their journey to fix up 35 acres on her blog at www.lesleywgraham.com
 
We talk about what raising kids has taught her, advice about work & motherhood, what helps us get out of a scarcity mindset and what she would go back and tell herself as a young mom.
 
Plus, you get to sneak in on what my Patreon supporters hear every week. I almost always ask to hear what they find meaningful. I decided to keep Lesley’s answer to that question in the main part of the episode. I did this because she’s in the middle of a transition—not just her but her family, too. And so she’s walking through this transition with her kids and I thought that maybe some of you could relate to what she had to say. 
 
 
Check out bonus content from today's episode over on Patreon.
 
 
Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram
Jul 6, 2021
I am happy to welcome Ginger Curtis to the show today. She is the founder of Urbanology Designs in the Dallas/Fort Worth area of Texas. She has been recognized and received so many awards from the Interior Design world from Interior Design Society to HGTV to Houzz.com. She has created a design book called "Beauty By Design” which I’ve read and found very helpful. It is highly resourceful along with being full of inspiration.
 
We talk about how the struggles that she has faced in life informed her now career in design. We talk about how to create a safe, cozy haven in your home, where to go to find your style and we get practical on designing a home on a budget.
 
 
Check out bonus content from today's episode over on Patreon.
 
 
Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram
Jun 29, 2021

I am so happy to welcome my friend and yours, Merica Stum, back to the show. It is time for another quarter catch up with her. But this time we do something different. We start the episode catching up about what happened in this past quarter, but this is episode is really dedicated to my upcoming book. Merica asked me months ago if I would be up for her interviewing me about my book and the writing process. And I have to say that this conversation was so fun for me. I loved peeling back the curtain on the process of writing and on the content itself. We talk about the in’s and out’s the writing process, the catalyst for writing this book, what I feel like went well and what I wish I did better. She also reads a couple of excerpts from the book and I shed from insight behind those quotes.

Order Sarah's book, A Mother's Guide to Raising Herself: What Parenting Taught Me About Life, Faith and Myself
 
Check out bonus content from today's episode over on Patreon.
 
Sign up for Sarah's monthly Survival Kit Newsletter
 
Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram
Jun 22, 2021
I am so happy to welcome Shelly Robinson to the show today. She is a certified holistic family wellness coach, cycle-breaker, conscious parenting educator, and founder of the Raising Yourself movement.
 
Her passion in life is to empower moms to turn their midlife crisis into midlife magic by teaching them how to reparent themselves, disrupt generational patterns, and take radically good care of their needs.
 
I found her on Instagram and have absolutely loved following her. She offers so much wisdom and advice around the idea of raising yourself—which you know that I am all about given the topic of my book. In this conversation, we talk about what it looks like to raise yourself, how to be more curious about yourself and others and we debunk the idea of what a “good mom” should look like.
 
 
Check out bonus content from today's episode over on Patreon.
 
 
Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram
Jun 15, 2021
Kathleen is a temperament communication expert helping people become their best, authentic self and speak kindly to each other. She is the author of I Said This, You Heard That and her latest book is called A Grown-ups Guide to Kids’ Wiring
 
We have such a good conversation around the temperaments and specifically parenting. You know, we are all looking for connection with our kids and Kathleen just really opens our eyes about how to do that and I think that what she says can be a game changer for our parenting.
 
 
Check out bonus content from today's episode over on Patreon.
 
 
Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram
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