In this poetic episode, Alicia Henry shares: how grief is part of her every cell, in the most beautiful way; how choosing to live seasonally with Nature can provide deep comfort; why Winter is the lightest time of year; and tender words of encouragment for those facing grief.

Alicia is a mother, meditation teacher, writer, actor, and ceremonialist. Having spent her childhood in awe of nature's beauty and grace, Alicia continues to explore mindfulness through meditation, poetry, Reiki, and tea ceremony. She facilitates moon circles, intentional gatherings, and wellness retreats for fellow soul travelers on the path of personal exploration. Her offerings are inspired by the ever-unfurling magic of Nature that connects us to Source, giving her the heart space to share these practices with others.

With a passion for storytelling, Alicia's acting journey has brought her on stage from New York City to Virginia, as well as numerous television appearances. As a writer, Alicia has supported well-being brands in bringing their vision to the world, and some of her work has graced billboards across the country. Always with a glass-half-full perspective on life, she is aptly part of the team that helped achieve the International Day of Happiness, which became a United Nations resolution.

You can connect with Alicia on Instagram @alicia__henry or through www.aliciahenry.com

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Get Lauren's 10-Min Meditation for Grief to support you on your journey!

This meditation is for you if you're looking to: Lower Stress, Increase your Peace, Connect to your Heart, and Give your energy back to Joy

You can connect with Lauren on Instagram via @lauren.samay and @mymourningroutinepodcast, on Facebook @lauren.samay.coaching or through www.laurensamay.com

If you are tuning in and finding value in these episodes, please take a moment to rate and review My Mourning Routine on Apple Podcasts-- it means so much and helps make a bigger, connecting splash in the podcasting pond!

"Taking the eye-rolls out of astrology", Lauren O'Connell shares: how this celestial framework helps with the emotional & spiritual side of health; how it can be used as a self-care tool to support you through grief; and the ways that it is your blueprint to your highest potential, in every apect of life.

Lauren, known as The Modern Astrologer, is an astrologer based in Santa Monica, California, with over a decade of experience helping clients around the world understand their purpose, trust their timing, and navigate life with greater self-awareness.

Deeply connected to the Moon and its cycles, Lauren teaches astrology as a lived practice — one that, after the loss of her mother, naturally evolved into a deeper focus on emotional patterns, intuition, and the inner rhythms that shape how we experience life. Through her readings, writings, and gatherings, including The Moon Method™, the Moon Ritual Workbook, and her live Moon events, she helps others move through transition with depth and honesty, while still remembering that life is meant to be lived (ideally with laughter and a well-timed martini)!

You can connect with Lauren on Instagram @themoderastrologer or through www.themodernastrologer.com

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Get Lauren's 10-Min Meditation for Grief to support you on your journey!

This meditation is for you if you're looking to: Lower Stress, Increase your Peace, Connect to your Heart, and Give your energy back to Joy

You can connect with Lauren on Instagram via @lauren.samay and @mymourningroutinepodcast, on Facebook @lauren.samay.coaching or through www.laurensamay.com

If you are tuning in and finding value in these episodes, please take a moment to rate and review My Mourning Routine on Apple Podcasts-- it means so much and helps make a bigger, connecting splash in the podcasting pond!

This is a short episode to celebrate 3 years of My Mourning Routine Podcast, launched on Winter Solstice 2022, as well as honor the recent 10th Anniversary of Lauren's mother's death. Here, she shares a letter that she wrote to her mother, Mary Ellen, on December 17, 2025 during a reflective morning of remembrance.

*TIME SENSITIVE: Lauren opened the doors today 12/21/25 to work with her 1:1 in the New Year. She is only accepting FIVE new clients to go on a 3-month journey into the heart with, beginning the week of January 5, 2026. DEADLINE to sign up: December 28, 2025! Contact Lauren @lauren.samay or through www.laurensamay.com for an application & more information.

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Get Lauren's 10-Min Meditation for Grief to support you on your journey!

This meditation is for you if you're looking to: Lower Stress, Increase your Peace, Connect to your Heart, and Give your energy back to Joy

You can connect with Lauren on Instagram via @lauren.samay and @mymourningroutinepodcast, on Facebook @lauren.samay.coaching or through www.laurensamay.com

If you are tuning in and finding value in these episodes, please take a moment to rate and review My Mourning Routine on Apple Podcasts-- it means so much and helps make a bigger, connecting splash in the podcasting pond!

Here, author Anna Beecher tenderly shares what brought her to write both her debut novel and recently published memoir, and speaks to: the fragile miraculousness of everything; grief, as a tear in the fabric of the universe; the privilege of aging; and how accepting mortality, as a part of life, is to be more fully alive.

Anna is a writer and theatre-maker from the United Kingdom. She is the author of the novel Here Comes the Miracle, which was shortlisted for The Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. Here Comes the Miracle follows siblings in their twenties, Joe and Emily, during the final year of Joe's life, interweaving their story with that of their Grandparents Eleanor and Edward. Anna's second book, the memoir We All Come Home Alive, was published in 2025. A memoir in essays, We All Come Home Alive, tells the story of Anna's life through the moments which remade her, from car crashes to bereavement to motherhood. Anna's theater work has been presented by venues including Lincoln Center, Young Vic, Southbank Center, and Barbican London. She is Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Virginia. Her work is about love.

You can connect with Anna through Substack at from Anna Beecher, on Instagram @annabeecher_writer or through www.annabeecher.com

You may purchase Here Comes the Miracle wherever books are sold, and We All Come Home Alive exclusively at New Dominon Bookshop in Charlottesville, VA, until it's official US release in September '26.

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Get Lauren's 10-Min Meditation for Grief to support you on your journey!

This meditation is for you if you're looking to: Lower Stress, Increase your Peace, Connect to your Heart, and Give your energy back to Joy

You can connect with Lauren on Instagram via @lauren.samay and @mymourningroutinepodcast, on Facebook @lauren.samay.coaching or through www.laurensamay.com

If you are tuning in and finding value in these episodes, please take a moment to rate and review My Mourning Routine on Apple Podcasts-- it means so much and helps make a bigger, connecting splash in the podcasting pond!

In this intimate conversation, MaKshya Tolbert shares the "why" behind writing Shade is a place; explores loss, as a structure to see grief; the (devastating) consequences of wanting shade; and being invited into yourself.

MaKshya practices poetry and placemaking in Virginia, where her grandmother raised her.
She was the 2025 Art in Library Spaces Artist-in-Residence at the University of Virginia, 2024 New City Arts Fellowship Guest Curator, and serves on the Charlottesville Tree Commission (2022-present), including as 2024 Chair.

Her debut book of poems, Shade is a place (winner of the 2024 National Poetry Series), meanders east-west along the City's Downtown Mall, seeking a sense of place amid the flux of the Mall's turning trees, landscape design, and one's inner life.

She has received recent fellowship and residency support from Cave Canem, New City Arts, Lead to Life, the Patricia Valian Reser Center for the Creative Arts' Long-Term Ecological Reflections program (2024-26 Fireline Fellow), Community of Writers, Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects, the University of Virginia, and the U.S.-Italy Fulbright Commission. Her recent poetry and prose can be found at Poem-a-Day, Emergence Magazine, Nightboat Books, and more. She is the 2025-2030 Associate Editor in Poetry for Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment (ISLE), published quarterly by Oxford University Press.

In her free time, she is elsewhere—a place Eddie S. Glaude Jr. calls, "that physical or metaphorical place that affords the space to breathe."

You can connect with MaKshya at @processdaily on Instagram.

You may purchase Shade is a place, Penguin 2025, wherever books are sold.

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Get Lauren's 10-Min Meditation for Grief to support you on your journey!

This meditation is for you if you're looking to: Lower Stress, Increase your Peace, Connect to your Heart, and Give your energy back to Joy

You can connect with Lauren on Instagram via @lauren.samay and @mymourningroutinepodcast, on Facebook @lauren.samay.coaching or through www.laurensamay.com

If you are tuning in and finding value in these episodes, please take a moment to rate and review My Mourning Routine on Apple Podcasts-- it means so much and helps make a bigger, connecting splash in the podcasting pond!

In this episode, Anya Faruque speaks to a different level of grief that many of us experience in our lives: Romantic grief. While living losses can hurt deeply, there is tremendous potential for them to transform us for the better, inviting us to create and maintain nurturing relationships with self, first and foresmost, as she believes that "what we go through, we grow through". She shares what wisdom and lessons she has gained going through her own romantic losses and ways for you to support yourself, as time heals a lot-- but it's dependent on your actions!

With over five years of experience as a matchmaker, dating coach, and love consultant, Anya has helped countless individuals unlock the secrets to fulfilling, lasting relationships. Drawing on a deep understanding of both the feminine and masculine mind, she brings a unique perspective to the world of love and romance, blending intuition with well-researched strategies.

Anya's approach is rooted in her own personal journey through love and relationships, giving her a genuine insight into the complexities of human connection. She intuitively guides her clients while offering fresh and innovative ways of thinking about love, challenging conventional wisdom and empowering others to embrace new possibilities in their romantic lives.

Originally from Virginia, Anya led a nomadic lifestyle before settling in the breathtaking mountains of North Carolina. Her journey through different places and experiences has only strengthened her belief in the power of love and the transformative impact it can have on one's life. Whether you're seeking guidance in your own romantic life or looking for that perfect match, Anya is committed to helping you find and cultivate the love you deserve.

You can connect with Anya at consultwithanya.com and on tiktok @aphrodite_alchemy, Instagram @anya_faruque & Facebook @anya.faruque

Mention "Lauren" for 20% off any session with Anya, no expiration!

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Get Lauren's 10-Min Meditation for Grief to support you on your journey!

You can connect with Lauren on Instagram via @lauren.samay and @mymourningroutinepodcast, on Facebook @lauren.samay.coaching or through www.laurensamay.com

If you are tuning in and finding value in these episodes, please take a moment to rate and review My Mourning Routine on Apple Podcasts-- it means so much and helps make a bigger, connecting splash in the podcasting pond!

Matt Jacobson, born and raised in Temecula, CA, created LifeBooks to help families capture and cherish the stories of their loved ones. After taking over his family's mattress store, he was inspired by the loss of his father to ensure that his family—and others—would always have a way to preserve memories for generations. His goal with LifeBooks is to make storytelling easy, meaningful, and collaborative, so that every loved one's legacy lives on.

Tune in to hear how Matt found purpose after grief, became a more empathetic, grounded individual, created a therapeutic process of remembrance, and came to understand that every day is a blessing.

You can connect with Matt and learn more about LifeBooks at https://lifebooks.io/ and via Instagram @lifebooks.io

LifeBooks is such a beautiful, collaborative way to honor your loved ones! Use code LAUREN50 for $50 off your order, as a Project Lead.

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Get Lauren's 10-Min Meditation for Grief to support you on your journey!

You can connect with Lauren on Instagram via @lauren.samay and @mymourningroutinepodcast, on Facebook @lauren.samay.coaching or through www.laurensamay.com

How delicious would it be for your soul to share the parts of loss that greater society doesn't acknowledge? What if you had a safe space to gather with others, to lighten the load of your grief, and let your heart be heard? ... Now you do! Join Lauren for a special, supportive monthly check-in. One hour, over Zoom, from the comfort of home, in sweatpants. Newsletter subscribers receive a special session discount code to use for 22% off Monthly Grief Circles-- forever, so sign up first here!

If you are tuning in and finding value in these episodes, please take a moment to rate and review My Mourning Routine on Apple Podcasts-- it means so much and helps make a bigger, connecting splash in the podcasting pond!

Adam Zuckerman is the Founder of Buried in Work, a leading eCommerce platform specializing in estate planning/organization, end-of-life tasks, and estate transitions.

With a deeply personal motivation stemming from his experience managing his father's estate, Adam is dedicated to simplifying these complex processes for individuals and families nationwide. As an Eisenhower Fellow, attorney, and MBA, Adam brings a wealth of expertise to his role, combining legal knowledge with entrepreneurial vision to drive innovation in the field of estate planning.

Adam's mission is to empower individuals of all ages to navigate the intricacies of estate planning with confidence and ease. Through Buried in Work, he seeks to revolutionize the way people approach end-of-life preparations, ensuring that everyone has access to the resources they need to secure their legacy and protect their loved ones.

In this episode, Adam shares a bit of his story, why financial organization is crucial at any age, some top tips for how to simplify estate planning and end-of-life tasks, and the importance of starting NOW.

You can connect with Adam and learn more about Buried In Work and the incredible resources available to support you at www.buriedinwork.com and via Instagram @buriedinwork

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Get Lauren's 10-Min Meditation for Grief to support you on your journey!

You can connect with Lauren on Instagram via @lauren.samay and @mymourningroutinepodcast, on Facebook @lauren.samay.coaching or through www.laurensamay.com

How delicious would it be for your soul to share the parts of loss that greater society doesn't acknowledge? What if you had a safe space to gather with others, to lighten the load of your grief, and let your heart be heard? ... Now you do! Join Lauren for a special, supportive monthly check-in. One hour, over Zoom, from the comfort of home, in sweatpants. Newsletter subscribers receive a special session discount code to use for 22% off Monthly Grief Circles-- forever, so sign up first here!

If you are tuning in and finding value in these episodes, please take a moment to rate and review My Mourning Routine on Apple Podcasts-- it means so much and helps make a bigger, connecting splash in the podcasting pond!