My Mourning Routine

In this tearful episode, Lauren reflects on recent highs and lows of life that she experienced in a matter of hours: from meaningful connections to news of a friend's death, and dancing her way through it all.  This vast spectrum of emotion is Life-- will you let it inspire you to lean into living, just a little (or substantially) more?   ----- Get Lauren's 10-Min Meditation for Grief to support y...

Shawn Decker is a musician, author and internet pioneer and has commandeered a life driven by creativity and shaped by medical adversity.  Diagnosed with HIV at age 11, before the advent of the effective treatments, Shawn's parents were told that he had six months-to-two-years to live.  That was in 1987. At age 14, he skipped his exams to meet Depeche Mode through the Make-A-Wish Foundation.  He w...

Marsha Gray Hill was born and raised in Kinston, North Carolina, before marrying her husband, Gregg, and becoming Mrs. Marsha Hill in 1976.  Her adventurous life of raising five children alongside her eldest son's burgeoning professional tennis career included lots of love and way too many drives down I-95 in a massive Southwind camper. Fifteen grandchildren later, Marsha is still a southern girl,...

The world is war-ridden; scores of innocent people are dead and actively dying.  What can we do, when we feel powerless in the face of human suffering?  Mother Teresa said "Small things done with great love will change the world."  Here, Lauren invites you to three minutes of silence, to strengthen our collective heart-centered-consciousness and tap into the most loving stream of energy to send ou...

"Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives." Last week, in Episode 57, Re-envisioning by Releasing: How to Make Space for the New, by Courageously Letting Go of the Old ,   Lauren spoke about how many people use the New Year as a time to re-envision what they would like to bring into their lives.  But there's an often over-overlooked step needed to welcome all that is waiting:...

This is one you'll want to save and come back to, anytime you find yourself on the bittersweet cusp of change! It's now 2024, and many use the New Year as a time to re-envision what they would like to bring into their lives.  But an over-overlooked step to take, to make that space for the new, is to recognize what cannot stay.  W hat are you leaving behind— to open the door for all that is waiting...

On December 25, 2023, Lauren drove 300 miles to see family, and her first stop was her mother's grave.  She shares reflections of her experience of the visit, as well as her understanding of what it means to be alive.  N ever did Lauren realize that grief, especially through her mother's death, would shape her into a podcast host!  But here she is, 56 episodes in and fully embracing the commitment...

It's My Mourning Routine Podcast's first birthday!  In this celebratory episode: Lauren reflects on podcasting as a spiritual practice, her gratitude for YOU tuning in on this journey together, and a special collection of jokes from all of the guests that have graced the first year of MMR!  Enjoy! ----- Get Lauren's 10-Min Meditation for Grief to support you on your journey! You can connect with L...

Celebrate how far you've come.   C elebrate those tiny wins that make your moments that make your life.   Take delight in how much you do-- that you often don't give yourself credit for!  M ay celebrating your tiny wins fuel your heart, as you continue the very special, often very hard work of being a human being on this wild earth, in this precious lifetime. ----- Get Lauren's 10-Min Meditation f...

The holidays are upon us and can have us feeling dazed and confused, especially if we are navigating the complex seas of grief.  We face so many kinds of losses that are hard enough to process when we AREN'T in the thick of social and familial obligations and traditions or feel pressure to take part in festivities.  Lauren shares 12 tips to help you through your grief and the inevitable holiday bl...

Q: What do you have in common with trees?  A: The need to let go of that which no longer feeds you!  Try as you might to deny the signs, it is so important to take the cues from the rest of Nature-- Autumn in the Northern Hemisphere is setting the pace for slowing down, for letting go, for turning within.  Listen, as Lauren reminds you of the necessity of consciously shedding the weight of what's...

With the holidays approaching-- and every day new with the possibility and opportunity to experience a vast spectrum of emotions through life's blissful and scary surprises, Lauren reminds us: of the incredible amount of information available to ingest at any given moment; that we are what we eat; and that we have the choice to feed our body, mind, and soul with that which depletes or fuels us. --...

Ah, the unexpected.  Lauren explores the notion of what it means to be cared for, and how we often don't experience that which we prefer.  Listen in to hear how spilt tea, Rumi, and reflections on life's surprises inspired this episode, with an invitation to: cry out in your weakess.  Remember that you are human, perfect as you are, and are being cared for, in ways that you likely hadn't imagined....

Daylight savings, shifting seasons, busy schedules, holidays approaching... This episode is especially for YOU, dear one!  In it, Lauren gives you the encouragement, and permission, to REST and honor the peace and quiet that this time of year seeks to instill in your heart.   What's something that you can do today— right now — to nurture your rest, whether in body, mind, or spirit?  ----- Get Laur...

This is a quick episode to acknowledge the grief around making and keeping adult friendships and a simple proposed remedy to resuscitate connection, once common ages ago in the 1990s, before the dawn of AOL instant messaging: pick up the phone and call your people! ----- Get Lauren's 10-Min Meditation for Grief to support you on your journey! You can connect with Lauren on Instagram via @lauren.sa...

As a registered prenatal yoga teacher and birth doula, Kelly Cox has supported thousands of families through pregnancy, birth and parenthood.  In her yoga studio, families connected over the trials and tribulations of pre/postpartum bodies, sleep training, partner relationships and of course, infant feeding.  Taking note of her clients' emotional well being, Kelly realized that feeding newborns cr...

This is a short episode, but the gravity of its contents deserves space.  In a moment of humanity that is especially full of darkness, Lauren offers a favorite prayer for peace.   ----- 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 ...

Kate Adamson is a freelance interfaith minister, serving as a chaplain for the thresholds of birth and death, and everything in-between.  Her work as a wedding officiant, end-of-life-doula, and spiritual counselor centers on the transformative power of ritual, embodied presence, and collective experience.  She lives on a mountain in the Rockfish Valley of Virginia with 3 generations of family, a g...

Megan Bloom is a mother, embarking on the harrowing pursuit of growing humans in the age of all sorts of things beyond her ability to grasp.  She is a behavioral researcher turned birth doula and is currently immersed in all matters end of life.  She loves fresh veggies from the farmer's market, beautiful places, cozy spaces, moon cycles, astrology, and tarot, hot takes on the human psyche, cold p...

In a world where overextending ourselves is the norm, Lauren reminds you of the importance of tapping into the river of your vitality and how imperative it is to fill your own cup, first.  ----- 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...

In this episode, Lauren reflects on Summer, the evolutionary purpose of fruit, and invites you to contemplate with her: what has ripened in your life in the last three months and what seeds are you ready to disperse? ----- 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...

Marie Scott is the founder of Happy and Healthy After Widowhood, a best selling author, keynote speaker and functional medicine health coach. She is on a mission to help widows and widowers rediscover how to live well, laugh more, and perhaps even find love again. She shares: her story of widowhood; the 7 Steps to Healing After Loss, from her book: How I Found Meaning (And Humor) In Widowhood, Fir...

Lordy, Lordy!  Look Who's Forty!   Lauren celebrates and reflects on both the 40th episode of My Mourning Routine Podcast, as well as her 40th birthday (which was in June)-- and shares two of the most precious "objects" that she cherishes in this lifetime. ----- 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 ...

Mary McDaniel Cail  earned her PhD and two additional graduate degrees from the University of Virginia. Her op-eds, articles and essays have been published by the Los Angeles Times, the Miami Herald, the Chicago Tribune, Maria Shriver's Architects of Change series, and the University of Virginia alumni magazine, Virginia, among others.  Alzheimer's: A Crash Course for Friends and Relatives was cho...

Party Time!  Excellent!  It's August 23, 2023 and Mary Ellen's birthday!  Join Lauren, as she celebrates the 74th anniversary of her mother's birth; reflects on what is now the 8th year doing so since her mother died; how their relationship continues-- and a special time-sensitive offer that expires 8/30/2023 11:59pm EST. ----- Get Lauren's 10-Min Meditation for Grief to support you on your journe...