Sara Webb - Meditation is Medicine

Engage your listening senses with this conversation I had the pleasure of having with Sara Webb. Sara Webb is an author, inspirational speaker, and meditation healer empowering seekers to go from stress to success. Her life mission is to inspire people to access the power within themselves by teaching pocket-sized meditation techniques to improve daily happiness so people can bring the best versions of themselves to their own lives.

During this conversation we discussed:

• the importance of daily meditation
• her passion for public speaking in the corporate environment
• how to build trust after being harmed
• how Sara has been able to recover from little "t" and BIG "T" trauma in her life
• the role recovery has played in her healing journey
• her books and her writing process
• the importance of yoga practice in her life

And so MUCH more!

 Visit Sara's website at www.sarawebbsays.com
Check out Sara's new book here: Amazon - Balboa Press - Barnes & Noble

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Transcript

Todd McLaughlin: 0:33

Welcome to Native yoga, Todd qcast. So happy you are here. My goal with this channel is to bring inspirational speakers to the mic in the field of yoga, massage bodywork and beyond. Follow us native yoga, and check us out at Native yoga center.com. All right, let's begin. Well, I'm so happy to have the opportunity to speak with Sarah Webb. And Sarah, where are you joining us from today?

Sara Webb: 1:15

I'm in St. Petersburg, Florida. Beautiful and hot here.

Todd McLaughlin: 1:19

We're not too far away. I'm over on the on the East Coast side.

Unknown: 1:23

Yeah, I thought I noticed that. I love it in Florida.

Todd McLaughlin: 1:27

It's beautiful. It's nice and warm right now. So we're definitely getting a good sweat for sure. On a regular basis?

Unknown: 1:32

Absolutely. You don't need hot yoga, you just go right into yoga.

Todd McLaughlin: 1:38

Good point. Good point is walk from your car to the grocery market, and you're getting a good sweat. And I'm excited to have you here because i You are a speaker and an author? And does that cover the title that you would give yourself? Do you have other titles or title that you'd like to use to describe your profession?

Unknown: 2:03

I guess most people would call me yes, a speaker and author, of course, but a coach. And I really think that's a bit of a pigeon holy term. I consider myself a Spiritual Activist. Because I advocate for my audiences, for my clients. And really, my vision for the world is that everyone will meditate. And so I am on a mission as a Spiritual Activist, to help people at the intersection of science and spirituality, to understand that meditation is medicine, and that we can use it to heal ourselves, because that's what I've done.

Todd McLaughlin: 2:48

Nice. And can you tell me a little bit about the books you have written?

Unknown: 2:56

I have several books that are not yet published. However, my first book, in publication with Balboa press is entitled, look locks. It is an art piece of 55 poems. The first part of the book is entitled look, and it's 21 poems that deals directly, but in a very healing sort of way about some big T trauma. You know, we all have big T trauma and little T trauma. I experienced some major sexual trauma about 14 years ago. And I use meditation, as well as had a facilitator who was a transpersonal and interpersonal hypnotherapist here in St. Petersburg, that helped me to heal from that entirely. And then the second part of the book is entitled Lush. And that's 34 poems. And that deals with my coming out of the closet, as well as getting sober off of alcohol. I used alcohol profusely and habitually and in an addictive fashion, because I was really pushing down that actual trauma that I did not want to deal with, I wanted to numb. I didn't want to face it. And isn't that what we sometimes do it sometimes it's not alcohol, but it's shopping or food, or playing Candy Crush on our phone, you know, there's all kinds of ways to distract and dissociate and some ways are legal in some ways or not. And I am so grateful and blessed that all of these events have transpired. Because when you look at that word healing, intrinsically in that it means that we have to be injured in order to heal. And if you think about the way that we build muscles, we literally rip our muscles open in order for them to grow and it hurt But we're stronger as a result. And that's how I see this big T trauma that has occurred in my life.

Todd McLaughlin: 5:07

Nice. How long ago did you write that book?

Unknown: 5:11

I wrote it in well, I compiled it in the month of May. Some of the poems I did write during the month of May others I had written over the past several years, I have always been a writer, I have dozens of journals, and I have a degree in writing. But I can tend to be quite verbose. I guess that's why I became a public speaker, so I could get paid to speak and, and coach people. And so when I became a mom, for the first time, my biological child is nearly six. And when I first became a mom, it was very difficult for me to journal like I used to, and write short stories, and I've won awards for poems and short stories in the past. So I challenged myself to both stick to the habit of writing and be sparse. And to write a haiku poem every day. And a haiku is just five syllables in the first line, seven syllables in the second line, and five syllables in the third. And it's not that there are many haikus that actually appear in the book, but that's what challenged me to begin honing my craft and to convey a lot of meaning in a very short period of time. Very few words. And poetry, a lot of people think it's dead. But I think it's the best time in the world for poetry, the best time in human history because of Hello, they're called memes. And people love sharing quotes, I mean, these little sound bites and fragments of wisdom. That's poetry. So I'm really blessed to have this book look lash, available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. It's available in print paperback, for nine bucks. It'll download for $4. And I have many more to come.

Todd McLaughlin: 7:01

And that can be found on your website, which is Sarah Webb, says.com. Correct.

Unknown: 7:07

Yeah, I have lots of information there. And I'm also very active on Instagram. And, yeah, so I just love helping people, I always help people. It doesn't matter if I was a high school teacher, or whatever I've done throughout my career. I've been speaking actually since high school. And this opportunity as a result of the pandemic is just something that I've been a Toastmaster for seven years, and I absolutely love sharing how I've grown and changed and, and just basically, I'm a big nerd. So I love to just read books from people, and synthesize the information and package it up with little tidbits and stories from my life.

Todd McLaughlin: 7:54

Nice. What is an example of a public speaking event that you've done recently.

Unknown: 8:02

I've done all manner of things, I do a lot of corporate events, working directly with business owners and managers in order to help their staff deal with stress. I mean, a lot of times, we don't realize the great power that we have with our breath. And if we can realize that when we're in that fight or flight mode, we're not breathing properly, we're not breathing from the belly. And that's a physiological, ancient physiology that we have carried over from when we were hunters and gatherers. You know, this auto nomic nervous system that we had breeds have breeds for us, and beats our hearts and controls our sweat glands and salivary glands and blinking. But when the sympathetic nervous system is activated, that's what we typically call that fight or flight. We begin chest breathing from the upper part of our chest, which is really great if we need to actually fight or flee. But when it's traffic and deadlines, and our bosses and our spouses and our kids, it can really build up and send cortisol, we've heard some about that, and people are now you know, some people in the mainstream are pushing pills to get rid of cortisol when really, if we could just get in touch with what's going on in our bodies, and learn how to belly breathe. This is such a easy, portable, free way to tap into what's going on in our bodies. And then people can learn how to process stress and actually ground themselves in where they are, especially in the workplace. We have to work around people who maybe aren't our favorite people. And so I do a lot of corporate trainings during the week, you know, before the My wife is a dentist and so I got started Doing that I do conferences, private conferences, I've done 16 parties. I mean, I've spoken at sober retreats, you name it, I've done it. And I really just enjoy interacting with people in that way where they, they always come away and they say, Gosh, I learned something new. Like, I think that there's a couple of simple facts that most people don't understand about meditation. Because as I mentioned, that's my real passion. I kind of trick people into learning about meditation by talking about stress, because meditation is that those wonderful way for us to get rid of our stress. And I am just such a seeker, I wanted to know, why is it that meditation works. And I'll give you a couple of facts all around us at every single moment, it doesn't matter if we're on top of the hill, or in a busy street. They, they, the scientists have calculated that we have access to about several billions of bits of data. And the human brain is pretty amazing and can process around 11 million bits per second. But we're only conscious of between 40 and 50 of the 11 million bits per second that our brains and our bodies are or have access to. So I did the math there, that means we're conscious of point zero 4% of everything that's actually being processed by our brains and our bodies. And 99.96% of everything that's available to us is being processed by what our subconscious. Now we have five senses. And we have 11 million sensory receptors, the 10 million or the lovingly and sensory receptors are dedicated to one cent, our site. So if you want to access to 99.96% of information that's already inside of you shut off access to 10 million of the 11 million sensory receptors, ie close your eyes go inside, because that's where the magic is, that's where the subconscious can begin to bubble up. Because we're literally getting into the brainwaves where our subconscious lives, if we only stay in beta and high beta is stressed, then we're not going to ever be able to have access to that. The only time during waking hours when we drop into that subconscious state, which is the theta wave in between alpha, which is where most meditation is. And delta, which is deep sleep is theta. And when we some people like when they're stressed, they like to drive, or they like to go and work on standing their boat down. And that's because when we drop into repetitive things that our subconscious is in control of because you don't have to think about it anymore. That allows the subconscious to bubble up, but our eyes are still open. And so think about how much more powerful it is to actually close the eyes, and then go inside.

Todd McLaughlin: 12:51

Yeah, good point. That's interesting. Can you give me an example or an idea of when you decided or felt that you wanted to heal the trauma that you had experienced? Was there some sort of catalyst that I mean, I'm guessing that there probably was something inside that said, Okay, I realized something has happened. But I'd prefer just not to look at it. What was the catalyst that helped you to turn that corner and feel like you wanted to be brave and and process and heal and go through the the therapy to to come out the other side?

Unknown: 13:37

Great question. I mean, I've always known about what happened, it's just that I repressed it, I told my sister I did not go to the police, I barely told anyone much less dealt with it myself. And when I began to get sober, which started in the end of 2018, I didn't actually succeed with continuous sobriety until the end of 2019. So it took me a little over a year, almost a year and a half to actually be sober, and then an event would happen and we have this in the, in the general collective that like, alcohol can be used to de stress, which is an absolute lie, it actually causes stress in the body. So it took me a little while, but once I started playing with sobriety and had bouts of sobriety, I realized most poignantly that I needed alcohol in order to be intimate with my now ex husband. And I knew what even though I was gay, through college and a little bit after college, I called myself bisexual, and I only dated women, but I repressed that because I wanted to have a baby and I knew that my very strict Southern Baptist parents would not accept me for who I am and to this day, they do not accept me for who I am. So in answer to your question, yeah, I do began, of course, when when we get sober a lot of people deal with anger that is kind of unexplained. They're just not really sure why, but it's because we have been repressing by drinking. And then we have no outlet to numb. And I didn't have that initially. But what I did have was when I got married, and we started blending households, because I have a biological child, she has to you know, that's, that's no joke. And I started noticing that my go to response with anger, which, and I put out a real on this recently, you know, usually anger is, is not actually a primary emotion, it's a secondary emotion. And it indicates that there's hurt underneath either sadness or fear usually. So I started seeing a transpersonal interpersonal hypnotherapist in order to deal with the anger. And that's when memory surfaced. And I was able to deal with them in a really beautiful way. It wasn't immediate, and it certainly wasn't easy. But healing requires injury and Healing Hurt, and the result is always worth it.

Todd McLaughlin: 16:16

Wow. Well, I appreciate you being so honest and sharing your story. That's incredible. I think it's empowering, because I know that there's obviously a lot of us probably have experienced trauma. Well, I guess, like you said, there's the big T and the little t So would you say that everybody has had some sort of little T trauma? Like, for example, someone made fun of us on the playground, or? Oh, yeah, it was, you know, a million to one different things that have happened could have happened. Oh, yeah. The big T trauma? i What do you think the percentages are? I mean, like half the world, a third of the world, one in 100? Because I I just wonder that sometimes it seems like I don't know that anybody could get through life without having some type of big T experience. But maybe that's because if I do have experience with that, then I think well, maybe probably everyone has, but maybe it's a smaller minority a smaller group of people have, do you have any insights into that? Or thoughts about that,

Unknown: 17:25

I wish I had the statistics, I'm definitely going to look it up. But even if we just look at, like, reports of sexual trauma with women, it's one in three. And I didn't report and I know a lot of other people who didn't. So if you just look at that, it's a high percentage. And and let's not diminish that little T trauma. Because it's all relative, and vibrationally, if we just look at. So everything that happens in our lives before the development of the prefrontal cortex would start around the age of 10. So everything from pretty much ages, like four to eight 910 is when our brains are in that meditative state, we haven't gone up into beta around the age of 10, is when we really fully start to inhabit beta. Everything before that our brains take in as beliefs, basic beliefs about how the world is so for somebody like me, I saw people drinking, I grew up outside of New Orleans. I mean, drinking is just what people do. And I'm sure that's for a lot of the world, you know, it's just it's very common. And so one of the beliefs that I had is that alcohol is safe. And if you have a little T trauma, big T trauma, some uncle that habitually made fun of you a person on the playground who did something that could be seen as traumatic when it's done, even once or twice, we can carry that vibration that belief with us into our adulthood and continue to attract those things into our lives. Because it's something that we need to heal. And so it doesn't matter if it's seemingly small, it might be perpetuating itself as to a lack of abundance in our lives or a thinking that no one likes us or you know, and then that can continue to play out in the workplace. And, you know, social groups, it doesn't matter where it is. Because we're we're basically here to heal.

Todd McLaughlin: 19:32

Good point. Have you sounds like then when you're giving talks and or speaking in front of groups that if you were to lay down that thumb, foundation, do them bring some type of meditation practice into the session, or you did say that you'd like to kind of trick people into it. What is your and I'm also getting the sense that you're Have you tried to keep that maybe with less Yogic and Sanskrit and like, you know, terminology that might give them a little bit of like where they might turn away from it because they hear a word that's foreign? Do you what what is a technique that you use to try to keep it really simple and down to earth?

Unknown: 20:25

Absolutely, I am trying to secularize yoga as much as possible, of course, having the nomenclature of the official terms help just for your own. You know, establishing yourself as an expert, but I love to teach basic breathwork when it's a smaller workshop, obviously, like the 1000s of people in the audience, it's not a great time to teach belly breath. But belly breathing is a really wonderful way, especially in like, you know, a few dozen people or a small office setting, to just teach people how to use their diaphragm and fill their entire lungs and, and people are like, wow, I just feel more alive, I can be better, like colors are, are better. Because really out of all the planning on the techniques, belly breathing is the safest one that everyone doesn't matter if you have hypertension, or if you're pregnant, you don't have to get personal ask people about their your medical history, everyone can barely breathe no matter what. And so that's the one that's my go to. Now, when I do private coaching, which I'm completely booked out, and on a waitlist for private coaching, we do a lot of intense personal work. And of course, I get to know the clients. It's a very custom coaching cycle of 13 weeks at a time. And I learned about everything that they're wanting to work on in their lives, and we do meditation practices. I'm certified with Dr. Su mortars energy codes, as an energy codes coach, and that informs my coaching as well. I don't know if you're familiar with her. She's phenomenal. She's a yogi and TM meditator. I practice TM,

Todd McLaughlin: 22:08

nice. I'm not I'm not familiar with her. I'm not familiar with her work, but I'm glad you're bringing it up. I always want to try to hear about everybody what they're up to is, so is that your primary introduction to meditation is through TM, or Transcendental Meditation? Or did you have a kind of build up to learning that particular technique? Or can you explain a little bit about your, your evolution of maybe first hearing about breathing and to where you are now?

Unknown: 22:42

Yeah, I am so blessed that I found yoga at a relatively young age, I can't believe in southern Louisiana, I found a yoga class had a shape. And that yoga teacher was steeped in all the yogic knowledge. And I had no idea how blessed I was, until a new way to Dallas. And I was like, Oh, I'm gonna go to yoga, and went to a gym yoga classes like this is not yoga. What is it? But that was my first experience with meditation was post yoga. And I love to tell my clients, if you're having trouble meditating, sit down sweaty, because when you get out all that energy and your physiology, meditation comes a lot easier. And so I'll never forget that first time that she was trying to activate the sixth energy chakra and talking directly about the pineal gland. And I saw that beautiful purple color that she was talking about, right there in my third eye. And I went up to her afterwards. And like, what was that? I've got to know more about that. And so I started reading Autobiography of Yogi Berra several times. Oh, yeah. And then I started trying to find a personal meditation practice that I could do on my own. And I went to other yoga studios, I, I did Buddhist temples. I, at one point did a Deepak Chopra online thing for a few weeks. And every technique that I learned, I would like, Okay, I'm gonna go home and I'm gonna do this, on this day at this time, and right after work, I'm gonna sit down and, and I just never really wanted to do it. And so it was not a practice. It was not something that I went to regularly. And then one day I heard about TM on a podcast. And they had a mindfulness expert and a TM expert. And what I loved about what the TM experts said, is that TM is not mindfulness. It's kind of mindlessness. And it's totally effortless, and you can still have thoughts. And that you get this mantra, that's a thought word sound. And it doesn't mean anything in any language. And I'm like, Oh my gosh, this is for me. And so I took a four day course it does cost a little bit of money here in the United States. And that was it like that changed my life. I have been regular for over six years. 20 minutes twice a day I've learned so Have it advanced. There's like four advanced techniques as well. One of them is like a nighttime technique. So I am like a meditation. I'm just so fanatical about it. I call myself a meditation mentor, because I really don't think that anybody needs a teacher. In order to meditate. There's Insight Timer, there's tons of stuff for free on YouTube. There's other apps like headspace. And it's really just about having that sounding board. Because I really think that there's a lot of fear around meditation even for Yogi's people feel like, they're not going to be doing it right. Or they need a guide, or they sit down and they expect there's all these shoulds there's all these expectations about what you're supposed to be levitating. And you're supposed to have these beautiful experiences. But a lot of times, it's a it's somewhat unpleasant experience, because our body is getting the gunk out. And so it's good to have some of these kind of intentional distractors, like visualization like body awareness, like pranayama, and other techniques like a mantra to help us to get over. It's what James clear calls that plateau of latent potential. It's like most people quit. At that point. Yeah. But if you can just push through, it looks like you've been doing it forever. And so yeah, I'm just, I love meditation. And I hope that everyone will at least try to find the kind that works for them. And to be consistent, because that's when it really starts changing your life.

Todd McLaughlin: 26:29

A wonderful, good answer. I'm, I'm curious, you mentioned that you'd like to bridge the gap between the spiritual and the scientific, in relation to meditation. Can you give me a little understanding about maybe your upbringing with spirituality and or religion? And how have you either brought that into your meditation practice? Or has meditation practice evolved, helped you evolve that into something that's really unique for you? What do you where do you stand on all this?

Unknown: 27:07

Well, I think that you know, it's interesting. I don't think I've ever said this before, but meditation is my religion. And I was raised in Southern Baptist. Oh, yeah. You did sculpture. Yeah.

Todd McLaughlin: 27:21

You mentioned I'm sorry.

Unknown: 27:21

And yet no worries. I was. I was in church on Sunday morning, I sang in the choir on Sunday night, and I was there on Monday night for red beans and rice. And on Wednesday night, I was there in the youth group. And then I went to school there Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, all at the same school. This first step just and I really, you know, they say that, you know, the Bible says Train up a child and the way he or she should go and, and when they are old, they will not depart from it. And I definitely have a lot I was in Bible drill. I went to Bible drill every single summer and most people probably don't even know what that is.

Todd McLaughlin: 28:04

Yeah, it almost sounds self explanatory. biologia like you got drilled with the Bible, but I'm

Unknown: 28:10

memorizing and so yeah, it's definitely still part of me. And, and I'm late because I'm now in my early 40s I am starting to really embrace some of the songs and because I don't think that we need to redact, which is what I did in my early 20s, I rejected and I used to, you know, try to establish my own, I was doing a lot of study on my own about Eastern religions and, and I just don't think that's really necessary. Everything is one as long as you know, we're using it for good because everything in moderation, right. But when we have that literally drilled into our heads, and I think that that's when people can become fanatical and start to try to proselytize too much because really like our practices should be our personal practices and we don't need to go shout it from a mountaintop and, and face people and I don't know maybe that's what I'm trying to do here. It is trying to save people in my own way, but I'm certainly not having a call to action that involves repenting and I

Todd McLaughlin: 29:25

guess combination of terms call to action with repenting, I like that blending of like the the business world with the just laying it out there. Yeah,

Unknown: 29:37

you're right. Exactly. Yeah. I mean, I think that it's all about where we find home. And I mean, a lot of people who experience big T trauma need very organized religion. Some people need a regular support group to go to and in order to process what they've gone through. And for me It's my personal meditation practice. And I meditate with other people too. That's one of the things that I love about TM, is they have follow up. And you're able to go in and ask questions and meditate with people because it's so simple and effortless. But I think that we complicated sometimes. And so, yeah,

Todd McLaughlin: 30:19

that's cool. Grateful. That's amazing. You mentioned reading Yogananda, his book Autobiography of a Yogi. And I remember that was one of the first when I started really wanting to learn about yoga. That was the book I picked up. And so then I decided to get the Self Realization fellowships and then is there, sorry, the Self Realization fellowship teachings that Yogananda had put together, where you get these things in the mail every two weeks, and the teachings kind of start talking about what you mentioned about bringing your attention to the brow and or the third eye area and looking for that blue dot. And then getting a little more information that, you know, I think, from what I understand from Yogananda is teaching is that that blue.is a way to access core conversations with something larger than us and or almost like a portal and or an opportunity to time travel or Yogananda in his book, he has so many fantastic things around Yoga, you know, like people floating on water and people living for hundreds of years and coming back and being seen in one area while the other person saw the same person. Yeah, 500 miles away. And, you know, so I'm gonna definitely if you're interested in yoga, it gets you super intrigued. Now that you've had, like you said, You've had like that rebellious phase in the 20s. And now this like grounding phase in your early 40s. Do when you revisit your encounter with connecting with the pineal gland. And say you meet someone who's more scientifically orientated and less geared toward believing that you can communicate with God through the third eye. How do you explain some of these yogic ideas where then is more secularized?

Unknown: 32:18

Well, if we just look at the chakra, every single one of our chakras, the seven main chakras are directly related with an aspect of our endocrine, every single one of them, and they regulate our moods, our hormones, and what's the difference between a human and a robot, but our emotions, right? Otherwise, we would just operate just like a robot without them. And so I think, you know, that's why I try to eliminate the Wu from the woowoo, and one of them, and really relate everything back to the body, and just how we stress and why meditation works and, and how, if you look at the pineal gland itself, which I don't get a whole, I don't go very deep. This is like my personal knowledge and understanding of it. The pineal gland is a light receptor. And I mean, everything is light, we're compressed light. Everything is, is energy, right? And, and if we look at quantum physics, which I don't get too deep into in my talks, but I love quantum physics, and have read extensively on it myself. I believe that when we have some of those transcendental transcendental or transcendent experiences, during meditation, that we are accessing the unified field of all possibilities. I mean, there's all creativity I have had poetry dropped into my head, I've had beautiful ideas just seemingly appear out of nowhere. And I have learned some meditation techniques, where I absolutely know that the experience that I had was real, even though I was essentially, you know, in my home, I was communicating with people and and having experiences not quite as profound as what you're going on to talk about, but very similar, where I just knew things and I was able to communicate with people that were 1000s of miles away and and I've also just had really simple synchronicities to where like, a couple of weeks ago, I was meditating in the morning with my wife and I thought about a friend of ours we hadn't seen in months. And so I reached out to her on Instagram. I should have texted her, but it was all perfect because we saw her that night at this conscious dance. Oh, like, oh my gosh, I thought about you this morning. She was like, thinking about you this morning. Like we were both meditating, perhaps at the same exact time and And we came up into one another's consciousness. And then the universe put us together at this conscious dance event. And I just know that if people can look into let's just look at the scientific studies have been done around meditation. Meditation helps people with their blood pressure with their stress levels, it decreases cortisol, cortisol, in the brain and blood, it improves sleep, it improves mood, people have been known to have terminal diseases and then start meditating. And their life improves drastically. And they get to understand their bodies, they, they tap into that power that they already have inside of them that 99.96% of information that already exists. And they're able to find resources for themselves, that are not traditional medicine, which we know that Western medicine is, of course, helpful. In some situations. However, it is only treating symptoms, it is not dealing with root causes. I think that meditation gets to the root of our lives, the root of our systems, in an energetic sense, and that we can use it as modern mainstream magic, or you call it medicine.

Todd McLaughlin: 36:22

Nice. Agreed. I'm curious if you have some advice for me, if I received information that I had faith in somebody, and then information comes my way where I lost faith in that person. And you know, you kind of get that, like, your earth gets the earth gets rocked a little bit, you know, I mean, like where you really, you really had strong, really trust, yeah, strong trust. And then you get that news that, yeah, that person is going to jail right now, you know, for something that was really horrible. Um, I believe in people, I trust people, all the people in my life that I get to see on a daily basis, like I trust them, like, I believe in them, I, I. And when these events happen, where my core gets rocked like this, I really, you know, you get that like, mid only takes me like a day or two or like three days where then I start getting that question in my mind of like, Well, jeez, if I put on if I really, I love that person and thought they were so great to find this information out. How do I keep trusting everybody? You know, and so I'm curious, if you have any advice for me. I think I'll be fine in like, two days. But last night, I got one of those messages where I was like, Oh, my God. You know, like, I just couldn't believe that. And I mean, I I know, I'll be fine. But I just, I'm having a hard time reconciling that right now. Do. How do you deal with that? How do you cope with that? Have you had obviously you've had some of that experience already? It sounds like

Unknown: 38:21

yeah, I'm such an honest person. honest to a fault, probably sometime. And I'm a big trustor and I have been burned a lot. I mean, I've done a lot of shadow work. And I have some resources that I'm happy to email over to you if you're

Todd McLaughlin: 38:42

interested. Because the second person vibrationally.

Unknown: 38:47

Yeah, I mean, I didn't really know about it. Surprisingly, even though I've been a yogi for so long, and I hadn't really done any of it. But there's a great book by Debbie Ford called the Dark Side of the light chasers for newbies. All right, that to the dark side of the light chasers, Debbie Ford. And got it there are other there's plenty of other books out there about embracing the shadow, but I think that the biggest question that all of them have in common, is, where am I this way? Yeah, vibrationally we are everything. You know, that's what embracing the shadow is about, is about admitting that we are all one. We are all you know, one human organism and just each individual individual cells. And I believe that we're here to heal the collective. I mean, I'm getting way off on personal views and these are things not things I typically put out there, but I feel like I'm in a tree here in the truck tree, right? Yeah, cuz I was dealing with, you know, people in my family who were incredibly homophobic and And I was raised to be to live in that hate space, you know, being raised in the south. And a lot of what Debbie for talks about some of the exercises that I did in the mirror is go to the mirror and call yourself that I am homophobic, I am homophobic, I over and over and over again until it loses its grip on you. Yeah. And so whatever it is atrocity or, or illegal thing that this person did. I mean, that's a simple way, you don't have to read any books, you can just go and just, you know, where am I this way? And how this is showing up for me in my life. vibrationally because it is somewhere that I need to heal. And so how can I embrace this in a unique way in order to accept this part of myself because we are all part of one big human family? And this person is part of my soul group, you know, and they're here to show me somewhere. And I don't know if you believe in past lives or reincarnation or anything like that. But it could be a vibrational pattern. That from not today. Yeah. Karmic.

Todd McLaughlin: 41:11

karmic debt. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, now that you say that, no. Good, good point. Good observation. Yeah. Amazing. Well,

Unknown: 41:27

for your vulnerable vulnerability there. That was a really big question to

Todd McLaughlin: 41:31

appreciate that. Yeah. I was like, I'd like to. I even talked to Sarah about this a while we're just meeting for the first time keep it chill, keep it chill. I forget. I won't. I won't go. I won't go into like the details. But yeah, I just figured that the base outline. So I appreciate that advice. That's, that's wonderful. It is beautiful. Thank you. So I'm curious. You had made mention that you have a book coming out? Can you talk about that one?

Unknown: 42:00

Sure. Yeah. The book look lush, is a collection of my original poetry 55 poems, and it's just 88 pages. And it will take you less than an hour to read. I do like to give a little bit of a trigger warning, because it does mention in a rather obtuse way about some of the healing that I've done from the traumas. I was raped 14 years ago by eight men. And I, this first 21 poems deals directly with that. And it really has to do with looking on the inside, at who we are, and that those shadows that we just spoke up in order to heal, because vibrationally we're attracting this to ourselves in order to heal and then lush, is aptly named, because something that is lush is perhaps it's prolific, perhaps it's green and beautiful. And also, lush is a slang term for somebody who drinks too much. And so

Todd McLaughlin: 43:14

I was thinking, yeah, the greenery part, like,

Unknown: 43:18

Yeah, well, the definitions are right there in the book. Merriam Webster. And so yeah, I that's 34 poems, and those are more centered around some of the more sultry moments, if you will, from when I came out of the closet, and also meeting my now wife, and it does follow somewhat of a chronology there as well as when I got sober. It was December 28 2019, was my first sober day that, obviously stocks they'd had others. And then when quarantine hit, I was 80 something days sober. So I spent a lot of time at the beach, and a lot of time disconnecting and a lot of time writing. And those those 34 poems are kind of toggle back and forth between coming out of the closet and being free with my newfound sexuality if you want to call it that. And also like healing in conjunction with meditation and nature because Deepak Chopra says that if you can't meditate, spend time in nature because God is there. Nice. So I did a lot of that being located very close to the beach. Thank goodness they didn't close our beaches here. Love your beaches got close.

Todd McLaughlin: 44:43

Good point. Good point. Yeah, we had our eyes closed for a little bit. And that was the point where people really started to go Batty, you know, because it was you know, wait a minute, the beach like that's the one place we can actually be outside and have a little space and I remember that was a tense moment. I'm curious then on that, no, it sounds to me, like, you can look at the pandemic and the experience that you've had is like, like a liberating experience, like, an opportunity to really just come into your own and, and grow out of it. What what is your, when you look back on it, what are your thoughts

Unknown: 45:27

I have not spent a whole lot of time thinking about a pandemic in general, because it doesn't matter what happens to us, it's about how we respond to it. So it's not like, you know, me getting frustrated or, or thinking about the fact that it occurred is going to help anything. But for me personally, yeah, a lot of change a lot of transformation, I am really grateful, actually. Because I had distanced myself from a lot of the events around the job, the office that I had at the time, right, when the pandemic started, you know, they would have happy hours. And so obviously, I didn't go to those, or if I did, I went very quickly showed up, you know, shook my face, shook a few hands, and left as soon as people started on their second drink. And so I am really kind of grateful that I that that opportunity to be out, was taken away from me, I think that that was a blessing. And, and I mean, it's not like plenty people who didn't even drink very much started drinking prolifically during quarantine, because it was like, the only thing to do, and they were just robbed of all of their habits. And so I mean, it was very common to see like, everybody talking on social media about all the drinking that they were doing, because it's difficult to change anything that habits rule our lives. And, and I talked about that, during my workshops, and with my clients and, you know, at least 40% of everyone's life, it doesn't matter how creative and spontaneous you are 40 person in your life, at least, is ruled by habits and people who are very intentional and really like to do things the same way. It's like 80, or 90%, is basically, it's like Dr. Joe Dispenza says, like, you can take your path and take a copy of it and lay it right on top of your future because we pretty much just repeat the same habits over and over again, the same thought patterns and the same emotions. And we're basically addicted to these emotions. And so it was a big disrupter in a lot of people's lives. I think that some people, it was a big boon, they got healthier, and I think some people they went down the toilet, but then everybody's kind of rebounding, I think that it really teaches you who your friends are, and who you can trust. And I mean, I'm sorry, you had a big breach of trust. But I think that it kind of whittled down or weeded out some of the false friends that I had at least and whoever has stuck around, there's a true friend.

Todd McLaughlin: 48:21

Agreed. That's a great, I like, I appreciate that kind of summary of the experience, because you're right. And it does. I think the thing that keeps like I'm almost I keep laughing about now is it feels like we're like right back to normal. There are little things here and there that will remind me that you know that we did go through like a major event. But I there's there's been so many things lately that I'm just like, Ah, this feels so good. Because it's just like, just like normal. And I remember like, I love music. I love going to concerts, like I get so much good energy out of like just hearing people saying and being in crowds and stuff. And for me that was like such a big, big challenge. So recently to be able to go and just see shows, I just was really appreciating like, oh my god, I really do get a lot out of this. Like I need this. So I'm so, so thankful things are coming back around like that. I'm curious. Yeah, I right. I'm curious, Sarah, you mentioned that like you put real solid focus on making meditation like Ground Zero, like that's something that's going to really play a big part in as you're coaching people for them to work and process through whatever's going on and have like technique to get through it and grow and become who we dream of being. What are your big dreams, your big Asper aerations like, if I guess it doesn't matter how long of a time period five years, 10 years, 20 years, but what is your big, big picture dream?

Unknown: 50:16

Well, I don't have a time line on it. But I had a meditative experience. And it's a vision and literal vision that I have in my head. That is probably a little bit difficult to explain. Because it's interesting, you asked me at the beginning of this conversation, if I lead people in meditation, and and I don't lead large groups and meditation, only one on one and small groups when I do group coaching or things in corporate offices. And I had a vision this was about almost a year ago. And it was so crystal clear. And I had it twice within a very short period of time. And so I sometimes use this vision that I had, and I meditate on it in order to manifest it not TM because TM is its own thing. But if I only have a few minutes, or sometimes right before bed, or right after I wake up, you know, those are the times when you can access that hypnagogic or hypnopompic state of the brain where there's that they call it the trapdoor between the consciousness of consciousness rather than but the image was me leading like close to 1000 people, it was like a darkened conference room or the auditorium and I was on the stage, and everyone was meditating. And I see these swirls of energy, like colors that I can't even name the colors, that they work, there was dark, but it sounds fantastical. I know. But I knew I mean, I started crying. I'm like, that's what I'm here to do. This is my purpose. It's my dharma. This is what I have to work toward every day. And I don't know what it means. But I'm so ready for it. I'm ready to manifest that. Every day. Everything that I do is basically working toward that or working backwards. From there, if you will.

Todd McLaughlin: 52:34

Nice. That's amazing. for

Unknown: 52:37

that question.

Todd McLaughlin: 52:37

Oh, my gosh, right. I'd like to, I'd like to share that vision that that sounds incredible, at least on the level at one point when you're explaining like a large group of people and leading a meditation because it sounds like what you said, you work one on one. So the idea of doing that on a larger scale, maybe that's something that do you feel like you have a little reservation toward that? Or do you feel? I'm kind of curious, because, obviously one on one, it's a lot easier to navigate the situation and read somebody and then if there's something that is apparent that they need some assistance with then, you know, you can be right there to answer it or to acknowledge it. And then on the large group, that seems like it would be uncontrollable on some level, right? Like, what if 1000 people have the same moment have some sort of big T release moment where, you know, a large group comes in contact with all of these really deep seated issues that are holding us back? Like, that's almost a little scary, I guess. I mean, I would be a little cautious of that. Right? Like, because we want to be responsible when we're working with people like we don't want to create an uncommon an uncomfortable situations, is that, does that sound? Does that make sense at all? Or do does that something that you've thought about and agree with or disagree with? What do you think?

Unknown: 54:13

Yeah, know, Todd, that's really perceptive of you. I am Yes, a little hesitant. Because of, because I've taught I've taught high school. And I know that there's a big difference between six kids in a class and 16 and 26. And so I can't imagine 1600 or, you know, even several 100 trying to organize some sort of an activity like that, synchronize it, if you will. But the real big reservation that I've had is that I haven't wanted to step on the toes of the TM organization because I have I've learned techniques that are that are kind of proprietary or trade secrets or whatever. And of course, I'm honoring that oath that I took Yeah, but as a result, it's it's really propelled me into learning about other meditation techniques, so that I am not infringing upon the oath that I took to them. And instead, I'm able to share just some of the things out there that because it's interesting because you mentioned Autobiography of a Yogi and some of those specific techniques are repeated in other places. And so just having more and more knowledge and and I've been following Dr. Joe Dispenza, and going to a retreat of his very soon and you know, Dr. Su mortar she does these, that's the energy code, she does these meditations well, and she was a Tamar. And it may still be a TMR and is a yogi, and she does this body awake Yoga. But, you know, I think it's just getting comfortable with making sure that I'm remaining in my integrity, because as I said, I'm honest to a fault. And I'm a do gooder. And if you tell me that this is the line, I'm gonna stay behind the line. And so I think it's just been me getting comfortable with calling myself like, I even still have reservations of calling myself a meditation teacher, because even though I do teach it all the time, I want to call myself a medical mentor, because I just don't want to claim that and to have any retribution of them thinking that I'm putting out any of the information. Proprietary. Yeah,

Todd McLaughlin: 56:26

wow, that's a great answer. Because that is a big dilemma that we all face as I'm going to use your term spiritual activists. Don't you think? Because we learn, we take this knowledge we grow from it, we benefit from it. I think the natural progression is that we want to share it. And that's like, at the heart of most spiritual traditions, like what fun would it be to be enlightened? If everyone else is suffering, like, don't we want to help other people, but then, but then the ownership of the techniques. And I, and I agree with you, I am the same way as you like, I toe the line. When I'm told to put my toes on the line. I looked down and I get them on that line. Like I don't mess around, like and I respect that big time. And I've always had I think that's ingrained, probably from when we were young. So but, but then the rebellious side of me, that just wonders about ownership and trademarking and copywriting and, and the business side of it, and what a dilemma, but maybe it doesn't have to be a dilemma, and I do appreciate you taking it down that direction, because I think that's a really important question or discussion to have, I know we're coming in already in an hour. And, and I'm like, oh, shoot, like, now I really want to, like, pick that one apart. But um, maybe we could rejoin again, in a future conversation and kind of pick up on that, on that note. And you also and also that you made mention, like, at the beginning, before I hit the record button that we know, where's the link, because we're going to do it on video. And one of my dreams is to like, kind of be able to move over toward the podcasting with the video camera on as well and not be so self conscious. So maybe I'll step outside my comfort zone. I'll send you the Zoom link. People actually be able to see us if they want, but I would like to continue our conversation. Because there you have a great vibe. I mean, you I love, you're very passionate. You're a great speaker. I mean, that's what you do for a living, but you it's I love to have the opportunity to speak with people that I probably could have just stopped asking questions. And you could have gone straight for an hour and just kept going with some great information without me even like, prodding you at all. Thank you for making it extremely easy, because I know like, you know, we're both going out on a limb like we don't know each other. But hey, let's get together and talk about yoga meditation and what's going on in our lives and actually attempt to be honest on a on a public forum and not be nervous about what people are gonna think of us and all that jazz. So I just really appreciate this opportunity. And I think I just want to thank you so much for taking time out of your day to speak with me. And I really thank

Unknown: 59:28

you, Todd, this has been one of my all time favorite conversations of my life. Thank you so much. I'm curious. We we obviously have a deep connection here. So thank you for this opportunity to get to know you better and your listeners.

Todd McLaughlin: 59:43

Thank you long to put all the information down below so people can find you if you're listening and you're driving and or walking or exercising or something like that. Go back to the show notes later and click on the links and go look at Sarah's website and follow her on Instagram and LinkedIn. And I will reach out again Sarah to do another session with you because I think people are going to love to hear your message. So once again, thank you so much.

Unknown: 1:00:09

I can't wait. Thanks so much, Todd. Many blessings to you,

Todd McLaughlin: 1:00:12

Sam to have you on. Native yoga taught cast is produced by myself. The theme music is dreamed up by Bryce Allen. If you liked this show, let me know if there's room for improvement. I want to hear that too. We are curious to know what you think and what you want more of what I can improve and if you have ideas for future guests or topics, please send us your thoughts to info at Native yoga center. You can find us at Native yoga center.com And hey, if you did like this episode, share it with your friends, rate it and review and join us next time. Well, yeah,