Some of the most powerful acts of service begin not with a business plan, but with a broken heart. For Sara Jacobs, the loss of her mother became the foundation for a life built on compassion, community, and the belief that healing often happens not when we turn inward, but when we turn outward.

Sara is a mother, Kabbalah teacher, and founder and executive director of Maman, a grassroots nonprofit that provides humanitarian aid and community support to individuals and families facing illness, crisis, and hardship across the U.S. and Israel. What began as a natural instinct to show up for others in her community has grown into a movement that has mobilized thousands of volunteers and touched countless lives. In this conversation, Sara and I reflect on our shared history, the spiritual foundations that shaped her, and the quiet, powerful ways that giving back can become its own form of healing.

In this episode, Sara shares:

• How watching her mother fight for her life as a teenager shifted her entire perspective and planted the seeds of Maman
• The spiritual foundation she built early on, rooted in Kabbalah, and why she began hosting women’s spirituality gatherings long before Maman existed
• How postpartum depression after the birth of her third child, combined with a pivotal conversation with her rabbi, became the unexpected catalyst for launching Maman
• Why imposter syndrome was one of her earliest and hardest challenges as a founder, and how she learned to lead a volunteer-based organization
• How walking into the homes of families in crisis brought both healing and grief, and why she kept showing up anyway
• The surprising ways that serving others has filled her own cup, even when she felt empty
• Why she tells young women navigating loss that they don’t have to become their mother, and what she says instead
• How giving back has strengthened her resilience, and why she believes that paying it forward is the work

✨Follow me on Instagram @Journey.with.rita_

✨Tag me on Instagram and share what resonated with you! Use hashtag #JourneyWithRitaPodcast

The information shared on this podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical, psychological, financial, or legal advice

References:

• Learn more about Maman at www.mamanla.org
• Connect with Sara Jacobs on Instagram @mamannonprofit

• Connect with Rita @journey.with.rita_ and @ritanaffasdesign
• Visit www.journeywithrita.org for more episodes and resources

What if the secret to a better day isn't what you do during it, but how you begin it?

Before the emails, the responsibilities, the endless to-do lists, and the demands of everyone around you, there is an opportunity to set the tone for the day ahead. And sometimes, just a few intentional minutes can make all the difference.

In this episode, we're exploring the magic of mornings and how simple rituals can help you feel more grounded, focused, energized, and intentional in the way you move through life.

Drawing from practices I've developed over the last decade, many born out of necessity during some of life's most challenging seasons, I'll share how mindfulness, gratitude, visualization, and small daily habits can help us build resilience, find clarity, and approach each day with greater purpose.

Whether you're a morning person or someone who hits snooze five times, this episode isn't about creating the perfect morning routine or adding more to your already full plate. It's about discovering what works for you and learning how to begin your day on your own terms.

Because how we start our mornings doesn't just shape our days. Over time, it shapes the way we experience our lives.

In this episode, I share:

• Why how we wake up is the very first message we send to our nervous system, and how changing my alarm to birdsong changed my mornings entirely
• The simple act of making my bed and why starting the day with one completed task sets the tone for everything that follows
• How journaling became a lifeline during my cancer journey, and why some days, three sentences is enough
• My meditation practice, built over nearly a decade, including mindful breathing, prayer, gratitude, and visualization
• How visualization continues to shape how I show up as a mother, designer, and podcast host
• The research behind why vividly imagining an action activates the same neural pathways as physically doing it
• How I set daily intentions with specificity, and why defining how you want to show up makes you far more likely to live up to it
• Why I end every morning ritual with cuddles with my children, and why I never take that for granted

✨Follow me on Instagram @Journey.With.Rita_ and @RitaNaffasDesign

✨Tag me on Instagram and share what resonated with you! Use hashtag #JourneyWithRitaPodcast #RitaNaffasDesign

The information shared on this podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical, psychological, financial, or legal advice

References:

• Connect with Rita @journey.with.rita_ and @ritanaffasdesign
• Visit www.journeywithrita.org for more episodes and resources

Today’s episode is about something we all hope we never face—but so many women unfortunately do: breast cancer- Cancer is a word that can feel heavy, but my goal today is to arm you with the knowledge and information you need to have. Because the truth is the number one risk factor for breast cancer is simply being a woman. And whether you want to talk about it or not, this disease impacts 1 in 8 women. And as you will learn today, Jewish women are more likely to carry mutations that cause Breast cancer. So I invite you to listen to this episode all the way through. I promise—it won’t feel heavy or discouraging. Instead, it will leave you with the knowledge you want to have.

We are living in a time where knowledge is power. The more we understand about our bodies, our risks, and the resources available to us, the more empowered we become to take action, advocate for ourselves, and support the people around us.

Today’s episode is about leaning into that power—because with knowledge comes confidence, with community comes strength, and with both, comes hope.

A breast cancer diagnosis can feel like the ground has shifted beneath your feet — and navigating the medical world, the emotional weight, and the sheer volume of information can feel impossible to do alone. That is exactly why Sharsheret exists, and why this conversation with its CEO, Elana Silber, is one every woman needs to hear.

The information shared on this episode is for educational purposes only. Please consult a licensed medical professional for advice specific to your health.

In this episode, Elana shares:

• Why every woman — regardless of family history, age, or background — is at risk for breast cancer, and why awareness must start at 25
• The truth about self-exams: how to do them, why they matter, and why consistency is more important than technique
• What the BRCA gene mutation actually means, who carries it, and why Jewish women of all backgrounds — including Sephardic and Mizrahi — should pay attention
• Why ovarian cancer is called a silent cancer, what symptoms are often overlooked, and the latest medical advances in prevention
• The story of Sharsheret's founder, Rochelle Shoretz, who clerked for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, was diagnosed with breast cancer as a young mother, and built a movement from her own experience of isolation
• The full range of free Sharsheret services — peer support, genetic counseling, surgery preparation kits, fertility resources, financial assistance, and more
• Why Rita's own diagnosis at 34 — discovered while nursing a newborn — and her journey as a peer supporter for Sharsheret, reflect exactly the mission Sharsheret was built to fulfill
• Why you don't need to know what you need before you call — Sharsheret will meet you wherever you are

✨Follow me on Instagram @JourneyWitRitaOrg

✨Tag me on Instagram and share what resonated with you! Use hashtag #JourneyWithRitaPodcast

References:

• Visit www.sharsheret.org for more information and resources
• Connect with Sharsheret on Instagram and Facebook

• Connect with Rita @journeywithritaorg and @ritanaffasdesign
• Visit www.journeywithrita.org for more episodes and resources

How does a person endure the unimaginable — and still choose joy? That is the question at the heart of this profoundly moving episode, and Ella Mandel's answer will stay with you long after you finish listening.

Ella Mandel is a Holocaust survivor, educator, and living witness to one of the darkest chapters in human history. Born in Poland in 1926, Ella was thirteen years old when the Germans arrived. Over the years that followed, she lost her entire family — her youngest sister, her father, her mother, and ultimately her older sister — to the Holocaust. She survived the Lodz Ghetto, Auschwitz, a German labor camp, and Bergen-Belsen, where she was liberated in April 1945 at just eighteen years old, weighing barely sixty pounds. In 2025, nearly eighty years later, Ella was honored with the Award of Courage by Holocaust Museum LA alongside supermodel Cindy Crawford, with whom she collaborated on the Borrowed Spotlight campaign to raise awareness about antisemitism and keep these stories alive for future generations.

This episode is a rare and sacred gift. With Ella's permission, Rita has woven excerpts from her 1994 USC Shoah Foundation interview together with wisdom Ella shared in a personal conversation earlier this year — honoring both the depth of her story and the gift of her time.

In this episode, Ella shares:

• Growing up in Poland and the first devastating losses her family endured in the ghetto
• Being separated from her mother on the selection line at Auschwitz — and the pact she and her sister made to survive
• The brutal reality of forced labor in a German camp through a freezing winter, and how she protected her ailing sister
• Contracting typhus at Bergen-Belsen and surviving because a friend who was a nurse secretly brought her medicine
• The heartbreak of losing her older sister to tuberculosis just weeks after liberation — and the guilt she carried for years
• How she met her husband Stefan in Bergen-Belsen, rebuilt her life in Minneapolis, and created a chosen family with other young survivor couples
• Her lifelong belief — instilled by her mother — that people are basically good and that tomorrow will be better
• Why she has spent decades speaking to students, and the letters she treasures from young people whose lives her story has changed
• Her message to all of us: life is worth living, even on the hardest days

This episode is dedicated to the memory of the eleven million lives lost during the Holocaust, six million of them Jewish, and to the survivors who carry the responsibility of bearing witness so that history is never forgotten.

✨Follow me on Instagram @JourneyWitRitaOrg

✨Tag me on Instagram and share what resonated with you! Use hashtag #JourneyWithRitaPodcast

The information shared on this podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical, psychological, financial, or legal advice

References:

• Learn more about Holocaust Museum LA at www.holocaustmuseumla.org
• Learn more about the USC Shoah Foundation at www.sfi.usc.edu
• Visit www.journeywithrita.org for more episodes and resources

Some doors to freedom are forced open — through sheer will, quiet defiance, and an unshakeable belief that a better life is possible. For Somaya Etemad, that belief was planted by a father who showed her the world, and it carried her through some of the most harrowing chapters a person can endure.

Somaya is an Iranian-American artist and architect whose life story unfolds like a film — one in which she is the hero. Born and raised in Mashhad, Iran, she endured the systematic oppression of the Islamic regime, an abusive forced marriage, and arrest in the aftermath of the Green Movement. At just 25 years old, she fled Iran with her dog, her architecture degree, and an unwavering belief that she deserved a free life. She arrived in Los Angeles in 2011, enrolled at the Southern California Institute of Architecture, and has never looked back. Today, Somaya is a practicing architect and fine artist whose work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, most recently at the Contemporary Museum of Japan.

In this episode, Somaya shares:

• Growing up under the Islamic regime — dress codes, Ramadan compliance, and navigating a double life at home versus in public
• The profound loss of her father at age 14, and how his spirit of freedom and forward thinking became the foundation of her resilience
• Being forced into marriage at 22 and enduring physical abuse — and the quiet acts of courage that helped her survive
• Her arrest following the 2009 Green Movement elections, sparked by a political cartoon, and the trauma of imprisonment
• How visualization and dreaming of a free life — even with no roadmap to get there — became her most powerful survival tool
• Fleeing Iran for Los Angeles with her dog Nemat, navigating language barriers, financial hardship, and the unexpected challenge of learning to handle freedom
• Turning personal trauma into art, and her mission to be a voice for Iranian women still fighting for zan, zandegi, azadi — woman, life, freedom
• How her solo exhibition "SOLO" became a cathartic act of closure, allowing her to honor her scars while stepping fully into who she is today

✨Follow me on Instagram @JourneyWitRitaOrg

✨Tag me on Instagram and share what resonated with you! Use hashtag #JourneyWithRitaPodcast

The information shared on this podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical, psychological, financial, or legal advice

References:

• Connect with Somaya Etemad on Instagram

• Connect with Rita @journeywithritaorg and @ritanaffasdesign
• Visit www.journeywithrita.org for more episodes and resources

As we welcome spring, let's also welcome fresh energy into our homes through what we choose to surround ourselves with. I truly believe our homes have the power to inspire us to live better lives—they can either hinder us or empower us.

A well-designed space doesn't just look beautiful—it invites us to feel better and in turn, do better. Whether we realize it or not, the spaces we spend time in are constantly shaping our emotional experience. And for me, whether it's my own home or one I'm designing for a client, the goal is always the same: to create a sense of release, a breath of fresh air at the end of a long day.

In this episode, I share insights from my work as an interior designer and the lessons I've learned about how our surroundings impact our daily lives, our mental health, and our ability to show up fully.

In this episode, I share:

• Why our homes are not just about aesthetics—they're about feelings
• How hotel lobbies make stress melt away (and it's not an accident)
• The power of small, intentional shifts over massive renovations
• Why clutter isn't just physical—it's mental and emotional
• The family photo I removed from my fireplace and why it changed everything
• Elevating the everyday: stop saving things for "someday"
• The kitchen as the heart of the home—making it functional, not just beautiful
• Creating your bedroom as a sanctuary that sets the tone for your day
• The role of scent, texture, lighting, and color in shaping how we feel
• Four small shifts you can make today to transform your space

✨Follow me on Instagram @JourneyWitRitaOrg and @RitaNaffasDesign

✨Tag me on Instagram and share what resonated with you! Use hashtag #JourneyWithRitaPodcast #RitaNaffasDesign

The information shared on this podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical, psychological, financial, or legal advice

References:

• Connect with Rita @journeywithritaorg and @ritanaffasdesign
• Visit www.journeywithrita.org for more episodes and resources

Welcome to Episode 10—a milestone moment! Today I'm celebrating 10 episodes of Journey with Rita Podcast and reflecting on the incredible wisdom, courage, and resilience we've witnessed together.

Journey with Rita was established in 2020 as an online platform after I came across a quote by Brené Brown that truly resonated with me: "One day you will tell your story of how you overcame what you went through and it will become someone else's survival guide."

Having been a peer supporter to those fighting breast cancer, those words didn't just inspire me—they became my North Star. They gave me language to something I had been feeling but couldn't quite articulate: that our experiences, our struggles, our lessons can serve someone else. That our stories, when shared honestly, can become lifelines.

In this episode, I reflect on:

• The Brené Brown quote that became my Why
• How Journey with Rita evolved from online platform to organization to podcast
• The courage it took to create something completely foreign yet deeply familiar
• What we've learned across 10 powerful episodes
• The wisdom our guests have shared about faith, community, transformation, authenticity, mental health, mom guilt, gratitude, financial resilience, manifestation, integrity, and resilience
• Why resilience is contagious—and how witnessing others' journeys lights a path for our own
• Gratitude for the guests who said "yes" when this was just a vision
• The power of community built through alignment, not algorithms
• What's next for Journey with Rita

Lessons from Our First 10 Episodes:

Faith & Community: We explored how community holds us up when we can't hold ourselves, and how shared experiences help us grow through hardship, not just survive it.

Transformation & Authenticity: We learned that transformation begins with self-trust and the courage to release what no longer fits.

Mental Health Matters: Behind every polished success story is real work and real struggle—mental health can never take a backseat.

Rewriting Mom Guilt: We unpacked mom guilt and rewrote the narrative around it.

Gratitude as Discipline: We explored gratitude not as a cliché but as a daily practice that reshapes perspective.

Financial Resilience: We challenged the narrative that financial literacy belongs in someone else's hands and affirmed that women have the intelligence and vision to make confident financial decisions.

Designing an Intentional Life: We discussed manifesting dreams by aligning actions with values, not just checking boxes.

Integrity & Discipline: We heard how staying true to yourself—even when the industry rewards something else—creates meaningful success.

Resilience Isn't Magic: We were reminded that resilience isn't something we access when life falls apart—it's the ability to draw from strengths we've been building all along.

Key Message: Resilience is contagious. When we see someone else navigate hardship and come out stronger, it lights a path for our own resilience and growth. Our stories, when shared honestly, become lifelines for others.

What's Next: This is only the beginning. More conversations, more wisdom, more tools for building resilience together.

✨Follow me on Instagram @JourneyWitRitaOrg

✨Tag me on Instagram and share what resonated with you! Use hashtag #JourneyWithRitaPodcast

The information shared on this podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical, psychological, financial, or legal advice

References:

• Connect with Rita @journeywithritaorg and @ritanaffasdesign
• Visit www.journeywithrita.org for more episodes and resources

What happens when the very thing that defines you—your ability to move—is threatened by a disease you can't control? How do you keep performing ten dances a night on tour when your legs go numb? How do you keep showing up when your body won't cooperate?

Meet Courtney Platt: world-class dancer, actress, choreographer, and powerful voice for living fully with multiple sclerosis. Courtney started her dance career as a New York Knicks City dancer, was a top four finalist on So You Think You Can Dance, and has danced and choreographed for some of the biggest stages and screen productions of the last decade.

But at the height of her career, at only 23 years old while on tour with So You Think You Can Dance, Courtney's legs went completely numb from the waist down. Doctors found plaque on her spinal cord and lesions on her brain. The diagnosis: relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis.

Instead of letting MS define her, Courtney transformed it into her mission—using her platform to advocate, educate, and inspire others living with autoimmune diseases. Today, she's not only a celebrated performer but a mother of three, a dance teacher, and a powerful reminder that resilience isn't about never falling—it's about refusing to stay down.

In this episode, Courtney shares:

Going numb from the waist down while performing 10 dances a night on tour

How she knew something was MS before doctors confirmed it

Dancing with completely numb legs because she refused to be taken off tour

The moment of clarity when diagnosis finally came—and the relief of knowing

Being pissed off and disappointed in her body after diagnosis

The frustration of wanting to push her baby out but needing a C-section

Learning to appreciate her body's gifts instead of taking movement for granted

Why giving yourself grace and compassion is essential

The guilt of needing rest when you're "supposed to" be hustling

Her husband's unwavering support: "Tell me you're not being lazy"

Why napping like a small child is non-negotiable now

Traveling with MS: Planning around energy levels and recovery time

The wheelchair at the airport and dealing with judgment from strangers

Teaching her kids about MS: the conversation she dreaded but handled beautifully

Why surrounding yourself with the right people is everything

Having a third baby through surrogacy—and why it was the right choice

Her body producing breast milk even though she didn't give birth to Gianna

The advice that made her angry: "Find a less stressful job"

✨Follow me on Instagram @JourneyWitRitaOrg

✨Tag me on Instagram and share what resonated with you! Use hashtag #JourneyWithRitaPodcast

The information shared on this podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical, psychological, financial, or legal advice

References:

Follow Courtney Platt on Instagram

Connect with Rita @journeywithritaorg and @ritanaffasdesign

Visit www.journeywithrita.org for more episodes and resources