When Nanette Murphy starts her day, there’s no rushing to inboxes or appointments. She pads softly to the coffee maker, curls back into bed, and for the next hour, she lets the world arrive at her pace. With the news turned low, and gratitude as her focus, she warms up her mind with word games and quiet reflection. “I’m a slow starter,” she says with a smile. “I wake up early, but I don’t function early.”
Using that gentle self-permission to follow her own rhythm, Nanette writes books, hosts Power Word workshops, and leads an ever-growing community of women in transition. She helps people reconnect to something modern life often steals: inner rhythm, courage, and the joy of beginning again.
Nanette’s own reinvention began in the stillness of the 2020 shutdown. “After two weeks of Netflix and banana bread, I knew that wasn’t going to cut it,” she recalls. She began taking online classes, one of which—Yale’s Science of Well-Being—lit a spark. Soon she found herself immersed in MindValley’s courses, studying the psychology of happiness and the science behind habit change. Curiosity grew into certification, and eventually a calling: to help others rediscover purpose when life’s chapters shift.
“The moment I started helping other women, I realized I was healing too,” she says. “Healing isn’t magic. There’s no fairy dust. It’s active. Every day, you do something for yourself.”
Her approach blends mindfulness, movement (she walks daily), and service. Nanette believes caring for others through volunteering is an overlooked path to wellness. “When you give to your community, you remind yourself you’re part of something bigger,” she says. “I volunteered at a daycare for children from a homeless shelter, and it changed my life. It shifted my focus from what I’d lost to what I could give.”
That philosophy blossomed into Nanette’s certification to facilitate Power Word workshops: mini vision-board experiences rooted in neuroscience and the law of attraction. “You don’t choose your word; you discover it,” she explains. Through a guided series of questions and a diamond-shaped exercise, participants unearth the word that calls them forward. “Maybe it’s joy, maybe peace or courage. Whatever it is, you make it visible: on your desk, in your car, wherever you need a reset.”
She can share the process from corporate retreats to classrooms, adapting it for children, couples, and teams. “I’m especially excited to bring it into schools,” she says. “Kids dream big—they don’t limit themselves. That kind of openness is wellness in its purest form.”
That same openness to possibility also shows up in how Nanette handles life’s curveballs. She laughs as she recounts the unraveling of her podcast production company last summer: twenty-four planned episodes, gone overnight. “The old me would’ve fallen apart,” she says. “Now, I just spin again and try something new. I figured out a way to make my second season happen.”
That willingness to begin again, to let change invite growth instead of fear, has become her personal mantra. “I used to be cautious,” she admits. “Now I throw caution to the wind. If it doesn’t work out, I pick myself up and try something else.”
Her favorite symbol of transformation is the lotus flower. It’s the image in her business logo, and the tattoo she shares with her daughter. “The lotus blooms in muddy water,” she notes. “That’s how I see all of this. You go through the dark, and then one day, you rise.”
At sixty, Nanette shows no sign of slowing down. She’s building her podcast, preparing for a TEDx talk, and planning to host wellness retreats around the world. “I’m still evolving,” she says. “We all are.”
I ask for a phrase she hopes readers carry with them. Nanette's response is sublimely fitting for someone who's an expert on beginning again.
“Don’t fear the future,” she says. “Let it excite you.”
You can schedule a call with Nanette at livelifenowwithpurpose.com
“Healing isn’t magic. There’s no fairy dust. It’s active. Every day, you do something for yourself.”