The RISE Experience
It's not always about becoming someone different.
Sometimes it's about realizing you've been disconnected from yourself for longer than you thought.
The RISE Experience is a podcast for the woman who can handle a lot. She shows up, gets things done, keeps life moving… and still quietly wonders, Why don't I feel like myself anymore?
Shannon Denniston is the founder of RISE, with a deep background in behavior change and the human side of transformation. Through RISE, she explores what real transformation actually looks like — the patterns underneath what we do, the beliefs and roles we've carried, the relationships that shape us, the systems that support us, and the identity shifts that happen when our old ways of functioning stop carrying us.
A lot of what gets called "starting over" isn't starting over at all. It's learning to notice what's been running in the background, reconnect with your own voice, and move forward without erasing who you've become.
No reinvention. No pretending you need to become a whole new person. Just honest conversations about finding your way back to yourself, with faith as an anchor, and learning how to live from that place.
The RISE Experience
Loosening Your Grip and Learning Contentment When Life Feels Out of Control.
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What if the most settled version of you isn’t someone you have to become later, but someone you can choose to be today? This is an invitation to loosen your grip, stay present with God in the middle of real life, and find a quieter kind of contentment right where you are.
Episode Summary
When life feels like too much, control can start to feel like the only safe option. This teaching walks through what it’s like to gently loosen that grip without checking out, and to notice the version of you that shows up when you’re not constantly managing, bracing, and rehearsing every worst-case scenario. Instead of chasing a future “better self,” the focus is on the settled, present you that already exists underneath all the tension.
Using Philippians 4 as a grounding point, the message reframes contentment as something learned over time in every “whatsoever” kind of day—the good, the hard, and the uncertain. You’ll be invited into a simple practice: noticing brief moments of ease, letting them last a little longer, and seeing them as proof that a more peaceful way of living with God is actually possible now, not someday.
Key Takeaways
You’ll learn:
- Why the “settled” version of you is not a different future person, but who you are when you’re not constantly managing and monitoring everything.
- How loosening your grip, even a little, makes room for real joy in ordinary, everyday moments.
- The difference between actually living your life and standing outside it, evaluating and controlling from a distance.
- How those small “meh, it is what it is” moments can be read as evidence that a more settled life is already possible for you.
- A faith-rooted view of Philippians 4 and what it means to learn contentment in whatever state you find yourself in.
- Why contentment isn’t pretending things are fine, but a deeper settledness that holds when circumstances don’t.
- A simple practice: notice and linger in small pockets of ease instead of rushing past them.
- How choosing presence over protection, fear, or control—one moment at a time—is how you return to yourself.
- Why settledness works better as a direction you keep turning toward than as a finish line you’re trying to reach.
Episode Chapters
00:00 Welcome & July wrap
00:40 Why we reach for control
02:10 Imagining a settled life
04:40 The “settled you” beneath the grip
07:10 Managing life vs actually living it
09:30 Honest confession: still learning this
12:50 Philippians 4 and learned contentment
16:30 Noticing brief moments of settledness
18:50 Letting those moments last longer
20:20 Prayer for contentment and peace
21:44 Share with a friend & what’s next
Memorable Quotes
“You can’t fully enjoy something while you’re also trying to manage it. The two don’t fit in the same space.”
“The settled, present, centered version of you is not a different person. She’s who you are when you’re not spending all your energy managing and bracing for what comes next.”
“Those quiet moments where you feel at ease are not a fantasy. They’re evidence—proof—that this is possible for you today.”
“Contentment isn’t pretending things are fine when they’re not. It’s a settledness that doesn’t depend on your circumstances lining up perfectly.”
“She’s not coming to rescue you. You are the one doing the returning, every time you choose presence over protection, fear, or control.”
Resources Mentioned
Philippians 4 – “I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.”
About the Podcast
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 lead 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.
Follow The Rise Experience and share this with one friend who’s been beating herself up for the thing she reaches for when life gets loud.
Your next step: https://msha.ke/risewithshannon
Read the blog: https://www.risewithshannon.blog/
Come hang out:
FB: Shannon Bell Denniston
IG: @risewithshannon