There is something powerful about watching a woman come home to herself.
I’ve known Ann Imig for what feels like lifetimes. We met in the blogging days, raised entire humans in parallel, and now find ourselves in this rich, layered midlife season where purpose feels sharper than ever.
Ann is the founder of Listen to Your Mother, the storytelling series that has given motherhood a microphone for 15 years. Now, as a coach with a background in social work, she helps women retrain their brains — literally — to quiet stress and access creativity, calm, and clarity.
In this episode, we talk about:
*The neuroscience behind hope
*Why we don’t have to feel hopeful to act hopeful
*Burnout and achievement addiction
*The lie of “I’ll be happy when…”
*Sobriety, staying a learner, and why we never “graduate”
*10-second practices that shift your nervous system
One of the most powerful moments in this conversation was this:
Hope is simply making room for possibility.
If you’ve been overwhelmed by the state of the world, by personal stress, by midlife transitions — this episode will steady you. This conversation is practical, grounding, and incredibly timely. Especially if you’ve been feeling overwhelmed, stuck, or unsure of what comes next.
Ann explains that hope doesn’t require you to feel hopeful first.
You can take hopeful action — and the feeling will follow.
✨ Connect with Ann at listenlifecoaching.com
✨ Take the saboteur assessment at positiveintelligence.com
If this episode resonates, please share it with someone you love and leave a review. It helps more than you know.
Thank you for listening to Hope Comes to Visit. If this conversation helps, follow the show, share it with someone who needs hope today, and leave a review – it helps others find their way to these conversations.
New episodes drop every Monday, so you can begin your week with a little light and a lot of hope.
For more stories, reflections, and ways to connect, visit www.DanielleElliottSmith.com or follow along on Instagram @daniellesmithtv and @HopeComestoVisit. As always, I’m so damn glad you are here.
xo, Danielle
