Bounce Back Stronger with Donna Ferris
by Donna Ferris
Latest episode
Disability and Belonging: How to Create a More Inclusive World with…
Disability and Belonging: How to Create a More Inclusive World with…
About this podcast
What if building a better life isn’t something you wait to do after a setback—but something you can begin right now?
Welcome to Bounce Back Stronger, where we explore how to create more joy, purpose, connection, and meaning in your life—no matter what happens.
I’m your host, Donna Ferris, an author, yoga therapist, and life coach. Through honest conversations with inspiring people, experts, and thought leaders, we explore what it takes to navigate change, make intentional choices, and create a life that feels more like your own.
Because life will inevitably bring loss, uncertainty, career changes, relationship challenges, grief, and unexpected turns. But those moments don’t have to define us. They can also become invitations to pause, rethink what matters, and discover strengths and possibilities we didn’t know we had.
On Bounce Back Stronger, we talk about resilience—but also about joy, purpose, relationships, work, money, wellbeing, personal growth, and the choices that help us build a life we don’t need to escape from.
Because bouncing back isn’t just about getting through the hard stuff.
It’s about creating a life you want to keep showing up for.
Subscribe to Bounce Back Stronger on your favorite podcast platform or YouTube, and join me as we explore how to live with more intention, possibility, and joy—no matter what happens.
Episodes
The newest 20 of 100 episodes
- Disability and Belonging: How to Create a More Inclusive World with Jenna Udenberg · 33 min · Episode 104“It's not a death sentence to be a wheelchair user.” What does it mean to build a joyful life when the world doesn't always make room for you? On this episode of Bounce Back…
- Taking the Leap: Overcoming Fear and Following Your Dreams with Brittany Ann Tranbaugh · 23 min · Episode 103“It’s not necessarily that I got over the fear, but that the desire to go for it just got to a point where it overrode the fear of failure.” What happens when you stop waiting…
- Financial Empowerment for Women: How to Build Confidence, Freedom & The Life You Want · 24 min · Episode 102“Nobody is born knowing how to manage money well. It has to be learned at some point. It is a learned skill.” What can give women security, freedom, and choice? Financial freedom…
- Sharon Salzberg on Equanimity: How to Hold Pain and Joy at the Same Time · 24 min · Episode 101“I don't know that we ever get over it so much as we learn to hold them both at once.” What can a children’s book teach us about handling difficult emotions, practicing kindness…
- 100 Episodes of Hope: Lessons on Resilience, Purpose, and Finding Joy · 6 min · Episode 100After 100 episodes of Bounce Back Stronger, we look back at some of the most meaningful wisdom guests have shared about resilience, hope, healing, purpose, and finding joy…
- Breaking Free from People Pleasing & Perfectionism with Monica Rodgers · 27 min · Episode 99“The body knows the way home even when we've lost our way.” Why do so many of us spend our lives trying to please others, chase perfection, and live up to expectations—only to…
- Keep Dipping the Paddle: Trusting Yourself When Life Feels Uncertain · 5 min · Episode 98“That doesn't mean we stop moving while we wait for clarity. It means we take the next intuitive step. Or, in a kayak... We dip the paddle. One stroke at a time.” What if…
- How to Find Belonging When You Feel Like an Outsider w/ Anila Quayyum Agha · 32 min · Episode 97“People are not composed of a single one-dimensional story…Everybody's complicated.” What does it mean to truly belong? Award-winning multimedia artist Anila Quayyum Agha has…
- If You're Awake Right Now: A Meditation for Sleep, Comfort & Calm · 28 min · Episode 96“This is a place where your body remembers how to be safe." If you're awake right now, you're not alone. This gentle sleep meditation is here for the middle-of-the-night moments…
- The Story I Couldn't Find: Pride, Belonging, & Memoir w/ Jennifer Leigh Selig · 25 min · Episode 95“I grew up in a very small town in the 70s. So when I had my first girlfriend in high school, we didn't have a name for ourselves. We didn't even know the word lesbian. We found…
- Laid Off? Here’s How to Heal, Rebuild, & Move Forward w/ Steve Jaffe · 21 min · Episode 94“So often conversations and coaching goes straight to, ‘Here’s how you update your resume. Here’s what you do with your LinkedIn profile.’ And there’s nothing that says, ‘Listen…
- Building a Life You Don’t Need to Escape From · 7 min · Episode 93“Maybe building a life we don’t need to escape from happens slowly — one mindful moment, one gentle choice at a time.” What would it look like to build a life you don’t…
- Grief, Loss & Healing: Surviving the Unthinkable w/ Betsy Thibaut Stephenson · 32 min · Episode 92“I can’t spend the next 30 years of my life like this—that’s not a life.” In recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, this powerful episode features Betsy Thibaud…
- Letting Go of Control: How to Find Peace When Life Feels Uncertain · 5 min · Episode 91What if the key to peace isn’t controlling life… but letting go? In this short reflection episode of Bounce Back Stronger, I’m sharing a personal story from a quiet morning walk…
- Financial Wellness 101: How to Take Control of Your Money & Your Life · 26 min · Episode 90“70% of the money stress that people experience comes from actually not knowing what's happening with your money.” If you’ve ever: Avoided looking at your bank account Felt…
- Midlife without Alcohol: Dry, Bold & Loving It with Lori Massicot · 28 min · Episode 89“I didn't have on my bucket list to be a sober person at all. My bingo card did not include this.” What if giving up alcohol didn’t take your life away—but gave you a whole new…
- Nature as Medicine: How Visiting 47 National Parks Healed Me with Cyndi Francois · 19 min · Episode 88“Grief sucks your energy up, but you have all of this love that you just don't have anywhere to put... the walking and the hiking and being outside — I felt so connected to the…
- The Ripple Effect: How One Person Can Make a Difference with Gee Gee Rosell · 33 min · Episode 87“It’s like a pebble in a pond. Ripples out from each of us...because we’ve chosen to get better instead of getting worse.” How do you build resilience while coping with grief…
- Why You Keep Waking Up at 3 AM (and what to do about it) with Julie Wright · 37 min · Episode 86“When you wake up at 3 AM, your brain isn’t trying to ruin your sleep — it’s trying to protect you. It thinks you’re in danger.” Have you ever found yourself wide awake staring…
- 2026 Astrology Forecast: The Year of Action with Colleen Dixon · 18 min · Episode 85“2026 is the year of fire. It’s the year of beginnings. It’s the year of passion. It’s the year of getting your sh*t in order.” After an emotionally intense 2025, the astrology…
