Sarah Malouf: Strengthen Your Mind & Live Intuitively To Be Your Healthiest Best

Sarah Malouf

[00:01:52] Krati: Sarah. Thank you so much for doing this.

[00:01:53] Sarah: Thank you so much for having me. It’s so fun to be on this side of the mic. I appreciate it. Yeah, absolutely.

[00:02:02] Krati: The show has changed now to be completely female focused. So we are trying to put together a whole series of topics that are, that would serve our female audience the best and in the best possible way and I think, health obviously is like a major, major thing with how stressed women are with how, you know, complicated life has become and burnout being a serious problem with so many people regardless of their age. So let’s dive in. I wanna start with a little understanding of what you believe is fundamental to healthy living.

[00:02:40] Sarah: Wow. That’s a great question. A loaded question to start. I, I think that what it boils down to is….it’s funny, ‘coz I think most people expect you to say putting yourself first and I do think that in some sense, you do need to take care of yourself in order to best show up for others but at the same time, I think healthy living actually goes outside of yourself. You know, what’s your why? Why do you get up every day and wanna be the best version of yourself? Why do you want to be strong and live well and you know, seek longevity in your life and for me, it’s the idea of that – I wanna show up for others, you know, that service mindset and not every day, I don’t feel like that all the time, but I mean, I love my husband and we wanna have a family one day and I wanna be able to be there and be my best self for others through all of that. So I think it, I think if you can take it outside yourself cuz as women, especially we tend to get really obsessed or I at least tend to get obsessed with weight and looks, but it’s really so much more than that.

[00:03:45] Krati: Yeah. Do you think that gets in the way of like, if you are obsessed with weight, like a lot of people say that that is a very toxic way to approach your health but, I do feel that in the long run that might not be the ideal thing to chase but if you are concerned about your weight, like recently I gained a lot of weight during the pandemic and when nothing would fit me, from my wardrobe. I wasn’t really all that concerned about how I was looking, but the fact that nothing would fit and the option was to either lose weight or like get a whole new wardrobe, losing weight seemed like the better bet and that really got me out of bed, that really got me exercising. I’m doing HIIT which I’ve never done before and I’m really enjoying it. So I have to ask you, do you really think, losing weight, because that is a goal that a lot of women and men follow, I think that’s true for everyone. So do you think it’s always such a toxic goal to have, or is it your approach that makes it toxic.

[00:04:44] Sarah: Great question and hot take, I do not think it’s always toxic. I think what it really boils down to again is when I approach health, wellness, weight loss, even something like, you know, aesthetic, if you want to get a makeover or have Botox done or whatever, I think you always need to approach it with the question of why, why am I doing this? Right? And a lot of times I will ask that and it is something so silly, so vain and it’s maybe like, you know, diet culture preach something in a magazine that I saw. And I think I need to look like this girl to be beautiful. And you know, when it gets to that, I do think it becomes toxic because I think you’ll never gonna find what you’re looking for. You’ll lose the 10 pounds and you’ll wanna lose 10 more or you’ll get some work done and you want more work done. You know, you have to always approach things at, I love myself, even though or Before when, so like for weight loss, if you go at weight loss, thinking you are ugly and you are unlovable and you think even subconsciously that losing weight is going to make you lovable but that’s not gonna fix your problem. Cuz like I said, you’re going to find a new problem. That’s just human nature. But I think if it’s something, you know, realistic, like you’re saying, Hey, I just want my clothes to fit or Hey, going back to what I said earlier, like I wanna show up best for my spouse, my kids, my friends, and with this extra weight I put on, I’m not feeling my best. I don’t have that energy. That’s just not the best for me. Or even if it is just looks, but you’re approaching it as like, Hey, even if I don’t lose that weight, I’m still okay with myself, but I want to be my best self. So I’m gonna do this for me. That is a different way to look at it. Yeah. I just think that a lot of times, generally speaking, if we really get down to the nitty gritty…any kind of appearance change. Sometimes our why behind it is not a, not a healthy foundation, but if you do have that good foundation, I think go for it as long as you approach things in a healthy manner.

[00:06:46] Krati: Yeah, I’m glad you said that because that is a goal that a lot of people have, and I wouldn’t want them to give that up because if that’s, what’s getting you out of bed, I’m all for it but yeah, you’re right. Our motivations really matter. In fact, I have made it a priority now like every time I onboard a new client, I always take up self acceptance as the very first thing, like, yeah, let’s hit X, Y, Z goal but let’s also maintain and cultivate and constantly nurture self acceptance within ourselves. Because when we work from this place of self hate, I think it’s just, the environment is rotten. Every step of the way just seems harder. And you feel so unpleasant in your own skin, I think. So I really appreciate you making that point, that approach all your goals, be it related to fitness, be it related to whatever, but do it with a lot of self acceptance. That’s very important.

[00:07:40] Sarah: Not to mention, there is a huge connection between the gut brain and skin and I believe that if you’re telling yourself mentally things like I’m ugly, I’m fat, whatever. Then you really will actually physically block yourself from achieving your goals. I, I truly believe it, you know, affirmations, I think work wonders and so if your affirmations are negative, I think you’ll have a negative result, but if your affirmations are positive, you’re more likely to approach and reach your goals because of the mindset you made for yourself along the way.

[00:08:10] Krati: By affirmations you mean how we dialogue with ourselves? The things that we repeat to ourselves throughout the day.

[00:08:17] Sarah: Yes. And, you know, I was actually, I’m glad this kind of just got brought up because I was talking with my sister on the subject of affirmations just this week and even the constant narrative we tell ourselves all day, I mean, that’s an affirmation. People think of the, affirmation’s just the things you write out in the morning, which I do this and I think it’s great to say things to yourself and write things out. Like I am healthy. I am happy, things like that, but we’re constantly talking to ourselves, hopefully not out loud all the time, but we are constantly in our minds having some sort of narrative, whether we realize it or not. And even things like, our example that she and I were talking about was saying kind of putting an always label on yourself. I have anxiety and I am socially awkward and I am like making it this always when in all reality, you can experience feelings of anxiety without labeling yourself as constantly anxious. And I know there’s very much like there’s different varying levels of mental health and anxiety, and I’m not saying there’s not, but that was just an example she and I were talking about in the social scenario of like putting yourself out there and I’m like, no, you can, you can feel things. You can feel uncomfortable at times, you can feel anxious at times without letting it be who you are. Without letting that define you. And so just catching yourself when you’re telling yourself these things, or even if you’re, you know, in a fight with someone in your life and you say, Ugh, you always do blank. Or you always say blank because no one always does something. We do things, but we’re able to reverse the narrative if we want to. So just catching yourself in that dialogue and changing it when you so choose.

[00:09:55] Krati: Yeah, I love that. I really love that because labeling yourself, that is such a huge topic with me. I bring that up all the time because man, that is such a huge problem. And I am reluctant to say this, but I do believe it in my heart, women do this to themselves more than men do it. Women are more quick to label themselves. There are labels that society slaps on you. Like if you are a woman who doesn’t wanna get married, if you want to have a job and you go hard at it. Then you are a certain kind of woman. You maybe lack sensitivity. Maybe you are too driven, too ambitious. Maybe you are, you know, not built for love and family. And they, they would carry that label. They would start designing that life around that label, which is crazy to me. Like you give away so much of your power and then people diagnose themselves with mental health issues. They decide they’re depressed without having. A qualified person do that diagnosis for them. They just decide they’re depressed. Maybe you’re not depressed. Maybe you just need to get out of bed and like give yourself something to work for. Maybe you just need to change things around yourselves, but because you’ve labeled yourself as this depressed person, you’re gonna constantly indulge in behaviour that validates that label which is so, I feel bad when people do that to themselves, because to me, cuz I did that to myself and every time I would find some contradictory information, like my environment would tell me something different. The people in my life would tell me something different from this idea that I’d built up about myself. I would dismiss, I would be very quick to dismiss that positive information because I was so desperate to cling to that label that somebody else had slapped onto me. So I, yeah, I love that you raised that issue and that is a topic, a whole topic in itself. And I would love to talk about, talk more about that, but let’s talk about the mind body connection that you brought up.

[00:11:49] Sarah: Sure. So I’m not a super scientific person, but I have read and heard and learned that, and I’m probably butchering how this should be said in the scientific world, but your gut brain and skin all did develop from the same tissue in utero. So literally, scientifically, physically, they are connected, always have been, always will be in some form or fashion. So. We see that, right? Think about it. Let’s take the skin, for example, when you get embarrassed, you tend to blush when you get scared, you might get pale, and that shows how your brain is connected to your skin. Same thing with your mind and your gut. I mean, think about when you’re anxious. Typically a lot of us feel that pit in our stomach where we get nauseous. So if we can see it so practically in emotions and experiences that we’ve all felt at some point in time, let’s take it a step further. Okay. We’ve proven that that’s true in some degree or another, even if you don’t wanna believe it as deeply as I do, there is a fact that is true. So let’s just think about it for a minute. If we are having…this happened to me personally, my own personal experience, I was having terrible stomach issues. I was having so much pain after I ate everything, even light food, healthy food. Um, did all the food testing for allergies and things like that. And I just could not pinpoint what was triggering these stomach problems and a year or so after I was feeling much better. In retrospect, I was like, Okay. Well, let’s think about it. This year, I was experiencing these problems. I was in a toxic work environment with a lot of chaos with not only my coworkers, but my boss, I was engaged in planning our wedding. I was moving to an apartment with my husband. I like the list went on and on of some good things, some bad things, but some sort of stressor and I was like, maybe, just maybe I didn’t have an allergy or a problem. I was just incredibly anxious. And once I was able to get past that hurdle, Yeah, things started getting a little bit better and I don’t react this strongly to food with the bloat and the pain. Like I used to. So I think that there’s just a lot there. And I think that that goes one way or the other, because I think you can reverse it. A lot of us, I say us people who are interested, not even working and are living in, but just interested in this world of health and wellness. A lot of times I get food anxious and I’m worried ahead of time that the food I’m eating is going to make my stomach hurt or make me feel sick or bloated and I bring it upon myself, you know, because I’m thinking about it so much ahead of time. So I think it’s just really critical to, before we get, we live in a world, obsessed with being diagnosed with something. And again, there’s a time and a place for that. I’m not against Western medicine, modern medicine, none of that, but I do think we love being labeled and sometimes it’s a little more holistic than that and we just need to take a step back. Think about how we’re feeling. Get in tune with our body. Think about how our day went. Are we stressed? How are we feeling? Can we do some breathwork, get outside and try again. And there’s nothing wrong with that. And, um, we don’t always have to jump to an allergy and a problem. Step one is just self-examination right. 

[00:15:00] Krati: Yeah. I love everything you said because I, I do believe that everything is connected. As you said, like how your emotional health, your mental health, your body, your, um, And again, then your relationships and your environment as well, everything is connected. Everything gets impacted by every other thing. So before you set out on this journey, like run an assessment on your life, check what is serving you. What is not serving you, maybe start from there that, and that’s such a simple step to do. Not simple in it’s execution, perhaps, but it’s, it’s definitely a simple place to start. Cause you work with what you’ve already got before you start building layers on it. So I love that you, you shared that you shared your own experience with it.

[00:15:46] Sarah: Thank you. Yeah. And if you’re listening to this and you wanna get a little bit more micro think, okay, where do I need to be doing this self examination? At the Institute for integrative nutrition, the program I went through, we talk a lot about what’s called primary health. So primary health is everything we’re talking about now, right? Everything that’s going on in your life before you put a bite of food in your mouth. So those, you can really look into these four categories and that would be relationships career. Spirituality and physical health, our physical activity, excuse me, because yeah, like if you are feeling really bad about yourself and you’re eating salads every day and you’re trying to be super healthy, but you haven’t moved your body or you’re in a toxic relationship or you hate your job. And, you know, again, we all have our days, but overall, if there’s like a really big problem there, and you’re not looking into that further, well, that’s a good place to start. Right.

[00:16:36] Krati: That makes a lot of sense. Um, How do you think this shows up for women? Like, do you think there is some specific points there for women because just your period held, say so much about your emotional life. Like when I’m feeling good about myself and I’m having like, there’s more flow to my life, my period isn’t as painful. It’s not as it doesn’t keep me in bed. I’m still able to go about my day, get things done without having to reduce my schedule to something, you know, very, very small or like cancel on people. And I, I really do wonder about that. Like, if all of this has more of an impact on women than it does on men.

[00:17:13] Sarah: That’s really interesting in the idea of hormones and everything like that. Yeah. I, I would, I would think so. I mean, if nothing else, I think women, generalizing here, but I can speak for myself as a woman. We try to be superwoman, every single day. Like I joke. And I’ve had a lot of, now that I’m in my early thirties, I have, you know, friends who are either struggling with infertility or miscarriage or friends who have just had babies. And then like, you brought up just even a monthly cycle. And every time this is brought up with my I’m, like men could never, men could never the amount…the way they would. I mean, the way they would not be able to handle it or complain and. I’m not a male hater, but it’s just, I think we are given naturally we’re given a lot a capability to do a lot. Physically, mentally, emotionally women are strong, really strong, but sometimes I think we do try to be too strong and, at least in my life. I’ve seen it. Not seemingly not show up, not show up, not show up burnout, crash, burn. I need a week away from everyone. I need to just lay in. Like, you know what I mean? I’m pushing my limit way too far. Yeah. And so getting in tune, it all comes back to getting really in tune with your body. And so. I don’t have the luxury of just taking a vacation every other week or anything drastic like that. But little moments of mindfulness when I feel that creeping in like, oh, I need to put my phone down. Even just something like that. Or I need to just walk outside, gimme a couple minutes. Me and the dog are gonna go stand in the sun. Just something like that, because I do think we physically. Hold it really intensely. And then, yeah, hormonally, I’m sure I’ve heard of multiple people either losing a cycle or having your regular cycles or any, something like that based on their diet, their health, their wellbeing, it impacts everything. And again, we’re just all, it’s all connected. I really don’t believe in a world where we can’t isolate a symptom and say it has yeah. Nothing to do or cannot be tied back in some way, shape or form to you as a whole.

[00:19:18] Krati: Yeah. And it’s not that hard to assess even you can just like check if you maintain a journal, a health journal, you can always tell when you are feeling good about yourself, your health does better. Your exercise, like that 40 minutes of exercise goes by really quickly when you’re feeling good. When you’re in the mood, your favorite music is playing. You have more stamina for things. So this is, at least I feel that this is not as complicated a concept and it is really easy to assess. I would really wish that the people listening to this episode do that like just for one week, do it just for one week. And I think if you can do that and establish that point and actually notice for yourself the change you feel in your body, in your sleep, in your, in how you feel after you’ve had a meal, plus, you know, put against your mental and emotional health, you will be so driven and so motivated to keep all those fronts clean and functioning well, and just having that motivation, like you said, your why, uh, that motivation, I think would really supercharge your effort. You will not always get it right. Life is unpredictable, so you will not always get it right. But you will at least try to get it right. As many times as you can. And that’s really going to ease things. Especially for women, because at least once a month, you are hit with this tsunami of emotions with this exhaustion, with just this, you know, how you feel when you’re having a period, you just have more relief during those days. So, yeah. Thank you so much for sharing. All of that is so helpful. And where in all of this, this intuitive eating come in, I would really like to understand that, cuz I don’t think that’s a concept that many people are familiar with.

[00:20:52] Sarah: So a lot of people will joke and say, well, intuitively I want to eat pizza every night. I want to eat cookies every night, which I’m like, okay, I get it. But obviously that’ll catch up with you probably sooner than you realize, and you’ll feel terrible. And then that’s not what your I will want anymore. Um, but I think when it comes down to it, it, again, all goes back to looking within and asking yourself these questions, the why, and What do I really want, right now? So when I’m coaching with individuals, one on one, I do give the pizza example. I say, okay, I love junk food. Like I love pizza. I love chips and I mean, I think I live in balance when I’m at home. I keep certain groceries and eat in a certain way, but I, I live life. I’m not completely anti everything. So I say, let’s take pizza. For example, you’re going to get, take 10 seconds. Literally. Do I really want this right now, ask yourself that question. Sometimes if you are having a movie night or if you are out with your girlfriends, like yeah. The answer in five seconds, 10 seconds is yes, I do really want this right now. And if that’s really what you want, go for it. I don’t care if it’s pizza. I don’t care if it’s a cookie, but the other probably I’d say, you know, I say it’s probably a 50 50 shot. The other parts. Other other times you might ask yourself this question, you might be, go and pick up the pizza and you say, do I really want this right now to yourself? And you’re like, no, I’m just bored or no, I’m just stressed. Or I’m literally not even hungry. I’m just following what everyone else around me is doing. And if you can answer that, honestly, that is the first step in intuitively eating. And I think it goes with a lot of things and not don’t get me wrong. There are gonna be times where a salad or something like that is not gonna sound like the same as pizza or a cake, but you still might actually want it for different reasons at that time. You know how you’ll feel after it might actually be what you are craving. Just take a few seconds to ask yourself, is this what I really wanna eat right now? And being in tune with yourself enough to know when the answer is, no.

[00:23:02] Krati: Okay. So as a practice, what would that look like? Like how do you practice it?

[00:23:09] Sarah: intuitive eating? So like what I was just saying about the pizza and stuff like that, like I do that and I’m able to acknowledge the space that I’m in, if I’m, and it goes both ways. Like I’ve been out to eat sometimes and all my friends might order burgers and I genuinely came here, like craving the salmon salad, you know, like there are times where cuz. The more, you eat a certain way, the more you actually enjoy and crave certain foods. And there have been times where it’s gone that way, where like, y’all, I don’t care what you say. This sounds so good to me right now. Um, and then there are other times where everyone else gets a salad or something, they feel like their quotes supposed to be eating. And I’m like, Okay, I’m dying to try this burger, you know, so I think that just being aware enough and being comfortable with yourself and knowing your body enough to know how you will feel after certain foods to know what they do for you. And sometimes your mental and emotional wellbeing will outweigh your physical. Like sometimes you might know, I’m probably not gonna feel great after this pizza, but I’m Having so much fun just in the fellowship of my friends and we’re having this night out and we’re just kind of letting loose, and this is really good for my soul. And so it’s not gonna kill me to eat a couple pieces of pizza and I keep going back to pizza. Can you tell, I like pizza but I just think it’s like being aware enough with how you feel and not just physically, but emotionally and mentally in the moment too.

[00:24:28] Krati: Right. So digging into your reason as to why you’re making that choice. I get it. Mm-hmm a lot of the time I, I would pick pizza because it’s convenient for me. Like I can just order pizza and just sit tight and wait for it to come. And I don’t have to do anything, but if I want salad, I would, I would probably end up making it myself. And that takes time, but I love salads. I really love salads so yeah, I get it. And how do you think that, uh, intuitive eating is one concept, but when it comes to intuitive living, how does that concept spill further into your life and enhances and enriches it?

[00:25:00] Sarah: That’s a great question. And it’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately, going back to the idea of service. I was listening to another podcast. Um, it was just called that sounds fun. Hosted by Andy downs. And she had a guest on and he was speaking about a book. He just wrote about the secret of success. And when you hear something like success, you think they’re gonna tell you how to make a lot of money or how to be great at your job and his whole takeaway. His name is Tim. She, I believe, and I’m probably pronouncing his last name wrong, but. He was like, no success is found in service. It really is. Success is found in service because when you’re able to step outside yourself long enough and not be so self critical or self obsessed or worry about recognition, you’re actually able to just do good work to do good work and show up for people to show up for people. And you’re not worrying about how it’s going to be best for you. And then in the long run, that’s gonna make you more successful. People are gonna have great things to say about you and you are gonna be doing a good job at whatever you’re doing. So in turn being more successful. And so I started thinking about that and I think with intuitive living a lot of us, or at least I tend to conceptualize that as something very selfish, you know, I’m gonna do what I wanna do when I wanna do it all the time. And there’s something to that. I mean, I’m not saying go force yourself into a social situation, because like, if you’re going to be absolutely miserable and those aren’t people you wanna surround yourself with.

Anyway, I’m not saying that, but what I am saying is, yeah, maybe there are times where it is a little inconvenient. to drive out to a friend’s wedding or baby shower, or maybe it is not like really how you wanna spend your Saturday, but you signed up to volunteer for X, Y, Z, like things like that. I think go a lot longer. So I think, again, as long as you intuitively are coming from a good place, be [00:25:00] that of maybe not exactly what you wanna do in the moment, but it’s how you’re gonna be able to be there and best support others. Um, that’s one side of it. And then the other side of intuitive living, I think has a lot to do with how we move, how we talk, how we live.

It says a lot about us. And again, going back inward. And usually if we’re triggered by something, it’s actually just a self-reflection on something that we need to work on within ourselves. So being intuitive enough to be aware of. Why did I do that? Why did I say that? Why did I act that way? Let’s look within, let’s see what I need to work on, or why am I going to this workout class that I hate every single day.

That’s not how I even like to move, being intuitive enough of finding, finding a new method of exercise that you actually enjoy. Just really, I mean, I sound like a broken record, but asking yourself why mm-hmm and living to help serve others and show up best for others really is at the root of intuitive everything, I think.

[00:27:55] Krati: Yeah, no, that, that makes perfect sense. When there is less resistance to how you’re choosing to live your life, you will experience more flow mm-hmm , which shows up, you know, in your health, it shows up in your interactions, your personal relationships. So I get what you’re saying. And of course service is such a huge thing.

That’s one of the reasons why, you know, being a coach can be so exhausting, but at the same time, so rewarding because when you see the change at people, because of something you did. That’s huge. I mean, this does nothing like it. And people who volunteer even though volunteer works is so can get so exhausting, but there are people who dedicate their entire lives to doing volunteer work and they, they manage to do it every single day.

They are, they volunteer themselves to other people’s pain. And instead of feeling burned out or exhausted or just disillusioned, they actually, they, they feel enriched by their experiences. They have more appreciation for life. I feel

[00:28:45] Sarah: …and you can even take it like on a really small. Small level. I mean, if someone’s name pops in your head and it’s a friend you haven’t talked to in six months, but all of a sudden you saw something that made you think of them, shoot, ’em a text. See if they’re having a good day, you know, like intuitively being aware enough to not write off everything, a circumstance and be like, Hey, maybe, maybe I should reach out to that person. You know, maybe I should just see how they’re doing little things like that. Instead of blowing things off or writing ’em off the circumstance, being aware and alert enough to process when you should reach out to someone or when you should. Show up for someone when you should do something. I think it is just again, being present and being aware as much as you can.

[00:29:25] Krati: Yeah. And that’s an argument against, I think overanalyzing things also, because we often overanalyze ourselves out of doing a lot of things that we actually want to do that we are instinctively drawn to, but they just don’t quite fit in with who we believe ourselves to be. So we end up not doing them,  and may I ask, uh, how do you practice that in your own life?

[00:29:50] Sarah: Yeah, I think it starts in the morning. If you don’t control your day, your day will [00:28:00] control you. so I think that just starting and I do not like waking up super early, but I have made, I think this was something I wanted to bring up again too.

Like going back a little bit, but also tying into what we’re talking about now. There’s a, you’re not always gonna feel motivated and that you can take that any way you want. I mean, Whether you’re talking about movement, whether you’re talking about a certain way of eating, whether you’re talking about morning routines, you will not always feel motivated, but thinking about who you wanna be and the person you wanna show up as will bring you back to your roots and your why.

So I start my mornings a particular way. I have an alarm because I don’t like to look at my phone first thing. So I have an alarm that starts with light, and then it goes into a little chirping noise. I wake. Relatively early between six, six thirty. And I keep my phone facing down since I’m not using it as an alarm.

And I make a note to myself that I’m not gonna look at it for at least the first hour I’m awake. So that makes a big difference my mornings. And then I’ll walk outside with [00:29:00] my dog. I have a two year old golden retriever. And so walking out, as long as weather permitting, I can get some sunlight, some fresh air.

I might even take my slippers off and step in the grass and just kind of take a deep breath outside. And then I’ve got some things that I go through it inside, like, um, you know, taking certain supplements or medicines and take making my coffee, grind, the coffee, do all that. Drink a lot of water. I drink like first thing, I pretty much drink like 30 ounces right away.

And then I, um, have what I call a quiet time. And so for me, that’s just sitting in stillness and my husband still sleep typically at this point. And, um, My religion is Christianity. So I’ll read like my Bible or some sort of devotion, right? I journal, I love the five minute journal, which that is not religious.

It just kind of outlines your day. Going back to talking about affirmations, you can write affirmations things you’re grateful for. Um, just take a few minutes of like grounding. Breathing reading silence, and then I’m able to get up, get dressed. And I take my [00:30:00] dog out, walk outside. We go on a two mile walk.

Typically every morning, not wearing sunglasses. That’s a newer thing I’ve implemented because the light from the sun naturally will energize you and kind of wake up your circadian. Circadian rhythm, um, and gets movement in right away. Get a little sweaty, get exercise, and I’m able to come back and shower and get my day going.

I‘ve started attempting cold showers. um, cuz I’ve heard and read a lot about, you know, cold plunging and all the benefits, but it is kind of torturous for me. I’m not going to lie, so we’ll see how long I keep it at, but that’s where I’m at. And I really, I can honestly say I look forward to my mornings now that I’ve implemented my routine.

[00:32:33] Krati: That’s that sounds wonderful. All of it. uh, and with all of the content that you create and all of this, all of the things that you’re doing to serve your audience, what are your hopes and your mission for your female audience? Like how would you, what sort of changes would you want them to make to their lives? How do you want them to grow?

[00:32:50] Sarah: Thank you for asking that. I think I want, most [00:31:00] importantly, I want people to feel like seen and understood, um, Most, I think it’s 95%, if not more, probably of my audience. And I say audience, my small, you know, little Instagram following in my podcast and just even my friends in my personal life, like I’m surrounded by females and I think it’s so important to know that.

We all go through a lot of things and Instagram might make it look like someone has step altogether or they don’t struggle. And that’s just so not true. And so my goal is to bring up topics that maybe a lot of my audience has felt, um, be it mentally, emotionally, spiritually, whatever, and make them feel a UN like seen and Hey, it’s not just me. and relatable. Like if they need to talk to someone and they didn’t know who they could talk to about that feeling like they can talk to me if they want or just listen in. Um, and then knowing that, like, we don’t need to take ourselves so seriously. It’s okay. [00:32:00] Like we, we don’t have to be perfect. Let’s just have these conversations.

Let’s be honest. We’re here once. This is our life, like, make the best of it, but Hey, sometimes we’re gonna have bad days and that’s okay too. So it just, I really wanna make people feel related. To and understood. And, um, if I can help suggest anything that might make their health in any sense, feel just a little bit better that day, and maybe they feel even just mentally a little bit better about themselves that day, because of something that resonated with them, then I feel accomplished.

[00:34:27] Krati: I would love for you to share with us a time when you felt really hopeless, really drained, but you were able to rally forward. What was that like? What helped you during that?

[00:34:40] Sarah: So I’ve been thinking about that question, knowing you were gonna ask me, and what I’m gonna say is going to sound probably really bad but, um, I’m a very independent person and I’m [00:33:00] very, um, I don’t know how to say it. Just kind of independent, I guess, is the best way to say it.

So when I got married, I married a wonderful person, but I was in my late twenties. I’ve been living on my own terms and getting married is like the most selfless thing you can do, really, because you have to learn how to completely make your life. Part of someone else’s right. Yeah. I really struggled. And my husband’s a great man, but I felt like this was really hard for me.

And I was like, I’ve always been good at things. Why is this so hard for me to like, know how to balance still staying true to myself and being independent? Cuz he doesn’t want me to lose my sense of self, but also just like. Find this balance of living with someone and working my life around them. And I struggled, but going back to kind of like a spiritual belief, I don’t think things happen just like at random.

I think me meeting him and us getting married, I really believe that was meant to be. And I know he’s a great person. Like I know he’s a wonderful human and I need to get out of my own head and my own way. [00:34:00] Right. So coming back to my core beliefs, Who we were when we met each other, how we fell in love, why we fell in love, um, knowing that it’s not always gonna be rainbows and butterflies, but finding ways to, again, serve each other and best make each other better, like show up for each other.

Um, and always keeping a sense of self while also simultaneously caring a lot about someone else’s wellbeing. So things like my morning routine as spiritual practice health, intuitive living, you know, I wanna show up for this person just as much as I wanna show up well for myself and knowing that and keeping my core beliefs grounded is kind of what made things get easier. I mean, marriage is still a challenge, but I love it at the same time. So every day I’m learning a little bit more about how to handle everything.