E131: How to Incorporate Mindfulness Daily with Sarah Sturino

Learn about the nine pillars of mindfulness and how to start incorporating them into your daily practice to live a more mindful and heart-centred life, featuring special guest, Sarah Sturino…

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

[1:11] Valerie LaVigne: Welcome back to The Women's Empowerment Podcast. Today I have a very special guest Sarah Sturino. Sarah is a woman, mother and daughter, friend, teacher, Pilates instructor Reiki practitioner and mindfulness facilitator, her whole life has been a wellness journey. All the work she does with others stems from her own self healing and her fundamental belief that we all must operate out of love, rather than fear. Sara is an outspoken introvert, a beauty seeker, and anxiety queen in recovery, a lover of crystals and essential oils and movement junkie and a lifelong learner. Oh my goodness gracious, I feel like you wear all the hats, and I love that that bio ended with lifelong learner because I'm looking at all of the things you do and I'm thinking, Well, she must have taken every course, ever.

Sarah Sturino: We do love to learn and take courses, I think I could have been one of those like students for sure.

VL: Absolutely, and I find as a, as a teacher and instructor myself, I find that, You know, there's always an opportunity to learn more, and it's not just from the courses but also from the people that we work with, and our students and our clients and all that good stuff so Sarah and I actually met at a was like a little photo shoot party thing was really random was kind of like a serendipitous thing on my end anyway. And we didn't know each other and I remember like, when I first saw Sarah I was very intimidated.

She's very, you have this like, incredible presence that's a fairy, it's your you have like a very confident presence of very you're very sure of yourself, but you can see how when you're, when you're, when you're holding space in a room, you're also very aware of other people's energy so right away I knew that you are very much an empath but you had really good boundaries with your energy and whose energy you were going to hold spacebar, and I was like, Whoa, this is someone who I don't know, you just, it was like fascinating because it was like I wanted to get to know you, but I was also a little nervous.

SS: That's very funny actually to me and interesting because I think once people know me I'm anything but intimidating, but I often, I often hear that.

And I would love to be able to view myself from somebody else's eyes because I think what some of that is, is some of that is, is some walls that I put up, right, that is maybe because of past hurts, and even the boundaries thing I'm not sure my boundaries were that great back when I met you or I guess we're always developing them them lifelong.

Yeah, I've always been very aware of the energy in the room and gravitated towards certain people and kind of almost shied away from others, so we definitely gravitated towards one another that day and, yeah, you're right.

VL: Yeah, exactly. And I was gonna say to you I mean, now that I've gotten to know you over the years, I think I kind of was like, oh my god I can't believe I thought she was so intimidating before because you're actually very wonderful to talk to, you're very, now I feel like you're really approachable and, I mean we've had so many deep conversations that I always think after I leave the conversation at the end like Darren, who should have recorded this for the podcast so it's really a pleasure to have you on the show today it's definitely, it's definitely been an overdue interview. And today we we've actually decided that, out of all the things we'd love to talk about because I'm sure we could talk about oils and crystals, and pilates and all the other things. but what we're really focusing on today is mindfulness, and you said it before, and I'm sure you'll, you'll mention it again but mindfulness is really a huge pillar and a huge part of everything else you do so, why don't we start with what is mindfulness.

SS: Sure, well I think to make it as uncomplicated as possible really all it is is being in the present moment, without judgment, without judgment of others with their judgement of yourself, which is probably the one most of us struggle more with is the self judgment. So, I mean there are a million different definitions out there but I think that is the best, most simple one but it is being in the present moment, without, without judgment.

We get into some of the pillars of mindfulness and some of that but that is a really good definition not to live in the past not to live in the future. And just to be here in this day and moment.

VL: And I think that's the best way to explain it is, it is really much earlier so much about being present, but that's not always easy.

SS: It's not easy at all.

And even when you're a mindfulness coach or mindfulness facilitator, you find yourself not in the present moment, at times.

VL: So, so often.

[6:39] SS: I think one of the, this is where some of my other trends come in because one of the best methods for me personally for getting myself into the present moment is movement and breath, and those can be connected or not connected. So whether I'm breathing through my Pilates practice or yoga class, or whether I'm just pausing and doing some type of breath work those for me and for many, are two of the ways that you can definitely return to the present moment, and with the movement piece, even if it's not feasible in that moment or in that date to squeeze in a yoga or pilates practices, perhaps, dancing around the kitchen, even just shaking the body balancing the body in different ways, moves the energy around and shakes up the brain and puts you back into the present.

VL: Yes, exactly. I think movement is well for me, I would say it was, it would be a pillar of mindfulness is that one of the pillars of mindfulness, I feel like there's a specific pillar here.

SS: No, it's not one of the pillars of mindfulness, but I think it's one of the ways that we achieve the pillars, mindfulness, the pillars of mindfulness come from one of the fathers of mindfulness, which is Jon Kabat Zinn and he is one of the goddesses who kind of brought it out, what is woven into the Western world.

According to him, and I would abide by this the nine pillars are

Non-judging
Acceptance
Patience
Beginner’s Mind
Trust
Non-Striving
Letting Go
Gratitude
Generosity

In general, and some kind of mingling of those nine things in your life will lead you to truly mindful practice mindful existence.

VL: Well those are actually pretty new to me, I don't think I've ever heard of those nine pillars before but I can definitely see how they tie into mindful, I want to say a mindful lifestyle a mindful human mindful approach to life, I suppose, yeah definitely a mindful approach to life. I really liked that. So, okay, maybe we can break it down a little bit more because I know I've said this before but and I know you've listened to several of the podcast episodes but the show was really about having the tangible, practical tactical tools and methods that we can really take into action because really the only way we're gonna change the only way for transformation, the only way we're really going to have this approach is if we take action so we jump into some of the ways to, to use mindfulness or to incorporate mindfulness into our lives.

SS: Definitely. What I'd love to do is to take you and your our listeners through a little mindfulness practice if that's okay with you. Yes, that would be great. Okay, so let me explain where this mindfulness practice comes from one of the places that I am facilitated with three certified as mindfulness illustrators through an organization called mindfulness without borders.

As the title alludes to they are all over the world, and they're really trying to offer mindfulness to people of all religions, all cultures, make it very accessible to people so I chose to become certified as a facilitator of their Youth Ambassadors Program. Although it's a youth program I've also delivered it with adults and it works extremely well, that I do a lot of work with. So, within their programs all of their programs. They have a breeding practice that they call to them to you that, and the reason why they call it the practice to them. It was named by one of their ambassadors, one of their mindfulness investors in Rwanda, and in that language to them refers to the idea of slowing down before reacting.

So it's the idea that if you do this free breathing practice, you're creating space between your emotion and your reaction, kind of anchor.

So I can take you through a brief TUZA, and then I can also tell you and your listeners where you can access different voices taking you through something very similar to them.

VL: Yes, that would be amazing

[12:24] SS: Okay, so, Val and listeners let's get ready. You're just gonna sit in uncomfortable positions. You can lie down, you prefer, that is fine. And I'd like you to allow both, both of your feet to connect or

rest your hands on your thigh, palms up, if you want to invite new energy in and palms down if you feel like you need to ground yourself and just let your shoulders. Slowly move away from your fingers gently close your eyes. If that's comfortable for you, or find a reference point on the floor, where you can return your eyes that you get your arm.

Don't judge the feeling.

Now bring your attention to the flow of your breath.

I'm not going to ask you to breathe in any special way, simply notice each breath coming into the body with an in breath and leaving the body has been out breath.

Do not judge your personal experience with it. Be kind and compassionate to how you are feeling in the moment, allowing each inhale to be a new beginning. and each exhale to be a letting go.

Allow each inhale to bring new energy in, and each exhale. Select by taking one more breath. When you're ready. Slowly bring your attention back to your surrounding perhaps introduce some movement to the body a little stretch.

And let how you feel now, guide you through the rest of the day, and I'm going to ask you as I would if I was facilitating this in the group. How do you feel now?

[14:36] VL: I feel, definitely calmer and more grounded. I didn't realize how tired I was like I was breathing in then yawning a bunch of times.

And, but then, this is kind of an aside but sometimes when I go into meditation or I do Reiki on someone else, or even myself whenever I go into like a spiritual place I think beyond a lot and it's not always because I'm tired it's like this is like the way that I connect to her spiritual energy. So maybe that was happening, or maybe a combination of both.

Also, I rarely when I'm sitting down on a chair, or the sofa or whatever, I rarely put my feet on the ground. And this is something that someone else has brought to my attention recently too.

So, this is, I feel like I need this so much right now and I'm sure people listening will also agree with how much like grounding and just mindfulness and being present, noticing the breath, because I think as we start to notice our breath, we also start to notice that we're holding our breath, or we're not taking deep breaths.

But yeah, that was lovely. And that was only like a minute or two, it was so easy to do.

SS: Yeah, and that I think is the key is that it doesn't need I think the word meditation can be intimidating to people. Whereas, just something as simple as closing your eyes, sitting with feet on the ground, and doing it. The breath is a mindfulness practice. It doesn't have to go deeper into becoming an actual meditation. It certainly can. Eventually, but that we can still get a results with just that two minutes.

Really what is breath and inner, inner focus is, is I think what makes it very accessible for people.

VL: Yeah, you know what I think meditation can be very intimidating because there's a lot of different types of meditation. I really like how accessible you've kind of demonstrated that mindfulness practice to be. And, I mean it's as simple as putting your feet on the ground and noticing your breath, well you could do that anywhere, right. We could do that when were at the grocery store, we could do that when we're getting out of our car from driving, we just put our feet on the ground, take a breath and then that's our transition to the next place or the next thing that we're doing so.

It's simple, and it's one of those things where, you know the work or the transformation that we talked about earlier comes when we just do the work and we repeat it over time.

Well, as you know I love chatting about habits. I feel like we could make this a habit, but could we maybe go through a couple more maybe examples it doesn't have to be a mindfulness, quote unquote meditation or anything or mindfulness practice but maybe some other things that we could do, and incorporate into our lifestyle.

SS: Sure, I actually when I hold my group I actually talk about developing mindful daily habit. And the reason why the word habit, I guess, is so important, is I'm just going to delve into a little bit here. I'm currently taking a program at McMaster University called mindfulness and modern thought. and it's a series of five courses and of course I'm presently taking it's about the neuroscience behind COVID, which is fascinating to explore doing studies where they're taking MRIs of people's brains before doing an eight week mindfulness program and after and seeing many changes in the brain matter of the brain, left brain matter in that fight or flight part of the brain more gray matter in the logic, reasoning part of the brain, these are all things we want to see. That's, to me it's like scientific proof that eight weeks of a habit, creates actual biological change in the brain, a crazy, like, I love that they can actually prove that out with the technology.

So to give you an example of a mindful daily habit, this is something that happened to me recently, is my dishwasher broke, and of course, my immediate reaction was, oh this is not good and it's it's terrible and. And then I thought, like, the first time I was washing dishes in ages, how mindful practice them dancing, rounded down the ground, not thinking about anything else, not judging the situation or thinking how angry I am that dishwasher is broken and I might have to pay money to have it, but just being in that moment, I haven't met my family, my Washington petition is a quiet moment for don't have to do anything else I can breathe while I'm doing it. It made me so much less resentful of the broken, dishwasher, so adding any kind of daily habit.

Another thing that I've personally done is put a little form kind of mantra thing on my mirror in my bathroom, so that I remember to be mindful while I'm brushing my teeth because again something we do every day, probably more than once or twice a day, and just standing there, you know on the ground, a moment to be mindful to let the brain go kind of into a void space or a blank slate, and breathe.

VL: Oh, my goodness, you're, you're hitting the nail on the head today I want to brush my teeth I'm like okay these are all the things I have to do tomorrow, when I'm doing the dishes, I'm like oh my god okay so now I have to do this which make this meal.

So I feeling called out, which I find a lot of guests are doing to me like I think I need, I think I need this more than anyone else today.

SS: But I think we all do it though we all fit and the more, the more, the more we do the mindful part, the less likely we are to go back there, just like anything else when we start any new habit of constantly talking about habit. Yes. Yeah, so that it becomes more habitual and more of a regular part of your routine, and the mindful moments come more naturally, sometimes I encourage my clients that little alarm in their phone with mindful moments when they're first learning this because, let's face it the day is busy for most people crazy and they need to, you know, then that little reminder was, okay, I'm gonna stop and breathe until it become more natural, and even for myself at times when things are really crazy.

VL:

[24:40] SS:I think everything everybody ebbs and flows practice like this, that's important with the non judgement people to know that we all ebb and flow I would like to think even the most mindful people like the Dalai Lama or Buddha probably.

VL: Yeah that's a great point to make, and I think a lot of what you're saying to has, has a lot to do with habit triggers, which we talk about on the show as well which basically are the cues or the, the if this happens then then so if we're doing the dishes, then we become more mindful if we're brushing our teeth and we become more mindful, and it really does as someone who has practiced mindfulness myself, it really does become more automatic or that habitual routine, and you're, you find yourself sometimes so like, you've probably experienced this before when you're driving to work, is driven to work so many times countless times, that you'll be in the middle of your drive and be like, Oh my God, how did I get here, because you're so not present in the moment, whereas the opposite can also happen when you do become more mindful and you do create a more mindful routine is that you find yourself really in the present moment really enjoying something really just being there with kind of nothingness. I remember going when Craig and I first started dating.

We went on a walk in nature, and at the time, I was really working on mindfulness I was practicing yoga every day I was meditating, I was like kind of dating myself really. And then I started dating Craig, we went into the forest and he was talking to you talking and I said, just listen, just listen to the - it's first second date, whatever it was, we're a little bit nervous with each other so you want to kind of, there's no, there's no space for that awkward silence when you're talking bass I just listened to the wind through the trees. Do you hear that, and it was like an eye opening experience for him because he hadn't taken the time to notice that. And so now when we go for hikes or walks or whatever, he'll stop me now so you'd listen, listen to the trees, and you could hear the wind blowing through the leaves and it's like that one moment of being able to say, okay, I can hear this nature sound or I can see, you know this tree in front of me and when you're really taking a look at what you're seeing I mean maybe it's not in nature but something else and really, you know, just being there and not thinking about the past or thinking about the future, it's pretty it's pretty incredible and then you'll do it more and more that it carries you throughout your day and yeah it's a really cool. It's a really cool feeling but it's definitely not the easiest to go from high energy, high anxiety and then flip the switch to mindfulness, so we have our kind of guided mindfulness practice, we've got our habit triggers of one we can get into mindfulness, are there any other I know you've talked about breath and movement, are there any other things, or ways we can incorporate this into our life.

SS: so I think that you mentioned one which is kind of neat a little light bulb go off in my head which is nature here so nature deprive yourself so you know in North American society I think in general. I know that in here as authors write actual prescriptions for report is a prescription for their patients to go into the forest, spend time with nature, and I actually think that that's one of the ways if I really think back, it was either my movement practices or nature that first drew me to mindfulness is a very good way. Even if you do a five minute walk outside in your neighborhood and it's a silent block you're not listening to music you're not listening to podcasts, you're not chatting with somebody, the very good way to practice mindful, being in nature and outdoors. I also feel that we need to practice it back in, all of us the ability to be mindful, we were all those little tiny kids babies that are just naturally mindful and we lost it for the hustle and bustle of life. So, just like any or practice makes perfect, we don't do a breathing practice once or a guided meditation once and I was struck with the whole time. I kept in meditation, this isn't for me. Just like we wouldn't go to the gym and lift weights and expect to look like. Whoever Arnold Schwarzenegger. The next day, we you know we practice and cultivate a practice in our lives. That's important, I think we're true trying different things. Maybe for you it's not movement. Maybe for you it's not nature, maybe it's breath. Maybe it is the daily tasks that you're doing anyway. I'd like to talk about something that you do every day that I know you do because I've seen it on some of your Instagram posts and things but it's a great example of something that takes like, probably 10 seconds or or more, I don't know, probably not very long, and is a perfect mindful practice what you do with your coffee every morning, or your tea, whatever it is that you're drinking I'll let you explain it but that's a prime example of a daily mindful habit that takes a little time.

VL: Yes, you're right, I completely forgot about it. So every morning when I'm making my, it's usually coffee but sometimes the green juice or a tea.

I start in my intention for the day. And it's become a bit of a ritual and I can't remember when I started doing this, it wasn't too long ago I want to say December or January anyway, it was a few months ago, I would say, but it's made a huge difference in my life.

And when I don't do it because sometimes I don't make the coffee right away, or I will, Like, I'll make a green juice sometimes I usually shake that and I don't stir it so it's not as like a slow process, I kind of like shake it quickly and drink it. So when I if I don't do it, I noticed the difference as well. But essentially what I do is I pour the coffee like Nespresso so I dropped the espresso shot and I stir in like a couple little extra things like cinnamon and collagen powder. So as I'm doing that actually stir the coffee counter clockwise, and I do this because I want to let go of, you know whether it was like a bad sleep I had or like a crappy week, anything from yesterday, anything from this morning that threw me off already got over the wrong side of the bed, whatever. So I started that a couple times, until everything's blended in. And then I add my old milk because I like old milk lattes. And once the old milk is in I stir it clockwise, three times and as I stir in Word so clockwise to me is like, when I think about how I want to feel that day, and it's usually just a word, today I wanted to feel centered and steady, so like it was, I have a really busy day I'm on the move today. And I just wanted to make sure that like I really was present because I have a lot of driving and I know that sometimes when I'm scattered in my brain, I'm driving like bad things can happen right so I just wanted that to be my intention for today specifically. And then after I stir that in three times, I make a Pentagon or a star shape in the coffee to kind of feel it, that's my little ritual.

And I always like the spoon. I know that sounds silly, but I always like the spoon and then as I'm drinking the coffee is when I'm reminded of like okay I'm drinking that intention now it's going into my body. This in the coffee you can say like, oh yeah coffee feels feels you the caffeine whatever but it's really the intention that I'm kind of drinking in.

And you're right, it has totally become a mindful practice I think about it all day, and I, if I don't feel that steady or centered. I take a breath, I take a moment to reconnect to the intention that I've set. So, that's, that's the goal. That's the goal should be all of it.

[29:49] SS: You just made that sound so fantastic and like juicy that I think I’m going to start to.

But that is a beautiful example of something that takes less than a minute, but can be a mindful, start to your day and imagine, even if you know for anyone who's listening out there if you just start with.

Pick something that takes 30 seconds to a minute for the beginning of your day, such as Valerie just described, and something that takes 30 seconds to a minute at the end of your day, perhaps, you know, closing the bathroom door, and breathing while you brush your teeth, even just those tiny little changes will calm you round you and physiologically change your brain.

VL: I love that I love that it's, You know it sounds a little woowoo like I'm stirring a word into my coffee. I'm thinking of the word I'm going to bed with the intention of having a good sleep or whatever it is, but you're right there really is a lot more research, a lot more scientific evidence proving the positive effects of something that is so simple. And the way that I like to look at it is that, you know, it's not that hard to do. It's not it doesn't cost any extra money to try this. It doesn't have any negative side effects, why wouldn't you try it. Why wouldn't you like prove at this point prove us wrong, you know what I mean prove me wrong and tell me it doesn't work.

SS: Very good point. Very good point. One of the sayings, I like to use is that your biography is your biology. So, by introducing these little practices into your life story, your biography, you're only improving your health improving your, you know, aging potential to the ability to age well to keep the brain active as you age, all, all of that stuff I don't know if you're familiar with the term neuroplasticity.

VL: Yes, I’ve heard of this before.

SS: So neural plasticity is the idea, and not to age myself but I did my psychology degree. Whoa. A long time ago, probably about 45 years ago now. So, the idea of neural plasticity, really wasn't there when I did my psychology degree this is that knew of science, the idea that the brain constantly changes and grows. It's not like you reach a certain age, which we'll reach we really used to think of a psychology world you reach a certain age and for a while, you can't learn a new language now you can't do this now know that brain is constantly changing and developing at a rate that low scientists mine. And this is why you can rehab people who kind of stroke, this why things like that, so.

Yeah, it's very new science to prove that right into late late adulthood right into senior years, The brain has the ability to form new connections, new fire new neurons, and, and learn new things. So even if you're, you know, 70 years old, listening to this, you can start a mindful practice and affect affect change for your remaining years.

VL: That's excellent. That's an excellent reminder for a lot of people because my grandma is 85 This year I think it's 86 Anyway, she's an old bird. And she always says I'm too old to learn that I'm too old to do that I'm too old and I keep saying no you're not, and she loves reading, but for whatever reason she wasn't able to get like books all the time, like hard hardcopy books. So, or she, I don't know, she has like a book club with her niece. Anyway, that's beside the point. She wasn't able to get all the books that we thought she's going to she's reading so many books so quickly, let's just get her Kindle, where she can just store all these books she's have to pass the books back and forth with her niece who lives like too far away. So let's get her Kindle so when we first got it for her. She's like, Oh my God, no, I can't learn this, this is a, I don't know how to use this machine is she doesn't even have a cell phone or anything right. So we showed her how to use it and we explained that, you know you can have 100 books on this one little tablet, and it's so light and you can travel with it and all these things. And, yeah, she uses it now, and you can't tell me that, You know she, I mean, she definitely had to. She definitely had to learn a couple of years skill they need someone who's never used a tablet or cell phone, you know, things like that smartphone anything like that. So, but she knows how to use it now and she loves it. She's always like, I mean we put the stories on for her, but she can flip the pages and pick the book and, yeah.

[34:36] SS: And what is that hesitation when it's whether it's an 85 year old or a 25 year old that's hesitation on Oh, I can't do that, let's label that what is that, that to me is it's fear. Right. And fear is within all of our brains, we may not only live in fear but it's fear and anxiety. And I think as somebody who suffered from I suffered from terrible anxiety as a person, mindfulness, helped me more than any other method treatment, whatever you want to call that, because it eradicated the fear part for me. And here's how many if there's anybody listening who's had cognitive behavioral therapy for anxiety, which is one of the most common sort of treatments for people who are an anxious or depressed.

And this is not to at all negate that practice or say it has no worth absolutely not different things work for different people. But for me personally what I struggled with was with that was that it's asking you to change yourself.

So it's asking you to say, instead of saying, I'm scared of learning something new. I'm not scared of something new but that felt inauthentic to me because I was still scared.

So or still fearful or anxious or whatever, however you want to label it. The reason why mindfulness is so helpful, is because it. I'm scared of learning something new, but that's okay.

It's okay to feel that way. And it doesn't mean that I can't learn. It doesn't mean that I can't sit with this uncomfortableness and push through and push practice. And that is one of, to me the key reasons why I see mindfulness working for myself and for many of the people that I work with, it's that expression of the feeling, or the thought that isn't functional or the most positive. It's not about always ponies and rainbows and unicorns, I like to say it's about even acknowledging the icky thoughts that we all are being honest.

VL: That is an amazing point 1,000% agree it's, you know, it's being able to say like, it's okay that I'm afraid, and it's okay to take the risk and it's okay to try something new to do something new, and I mean this is a whole other topic in itself in itself about getting out of your comfort zone and, you know, embracing the fear and doing it anyway and whatever it is, is that similar to mindfulness and to weight training, you're building, you're building your muscles you're building your mindfulness muscle you're building your courage muscle you're building your actual physical muscles, because all of these things take practice and as I mentioned before, the more you do it the better you get at it.

So it really starts with deciding or trying and choosing where do you want to start, what's the best place for you is it the tooth brushing is it the storing it into your coffee is it the movement practice.

Yeah, I think you've given a ton of amazing examples today and I know that you teach a lot of this because we could probably talk about this for a whole series of episodes about mindfulness, I mean, I feel like we could talk about each of the pillars in one episode, for sure.

But you teach a lot of this in a few of your offerings so could you share a little bit more about your retreats your programs?

[38:17] SS: Sure, I can run you when Wellness Week them or retreat for, I don't even know probably about five years now, and typically three to for a year like one every season, pretty much, obviously that's been interrupted a little bit by the current situation, but we've got, we've got some coming up. And the purpose of these gatherings, is to bring women together because I believe when women come together it's a powerful thing. I believe we learn from each other we feed off of each other's energy.

It's powerful, it goes back to ancient times, women gathering and circle. And there's a blend of everything, it's a very holistic weekend so there's always yoga and Pilates classes offered. There's always outdoor components, such as hiking, or snowshoeing, there's always healthy food for the weekend, often vegan or vegetarian, I'm not vegan or vegetarian but I do like to eat that way. Sometimes, and I can activate experiments with people to do for the weekend, and all of my retreats differently. We put different presenters at different retreat with everything from card readers, and the retreat I have to 2021, fingers crossed, is really the theme of that retreat is what we were just talking about going outside your comfort zone.

Something that I recently did that was completely out of my comfort zone was. Try the Wim Hof Method. I will admit that I was drawn in by the goop lab episode on Netflix and curious and started with my partner looking up this would be cool to do and sure enough, there were retreats locally that we could go to workshops rather locally that we go to to try this Wim Hof Method. So, the Wim Hof Method has itself, three sort of pillars or ideas behind it, which are one of them is mindful. One of them is to be in the right mindset and to be very mindful in the present moment, and the other two are breathwork and cold exposure. So the part that was out of my comfort zone was the cold exposure fun worshiping Mediterranean girl over here. Who would like to live barefoot in a bikini her whole life.

The idea of cold exposure which in the context of this workshop with getting into an ice bath for two minutes and 30 seconds was terrifying. And even as the day of the workshop approached, I was thinking for all these reasons why I could maybe cancel or not show up. However I did show up, I did go into the ice bath for two minutes and 30 seconds.

The idea of cold exposure which in the context of this workshop we're getting into an ice bath for two minutes and 30 seconds was terrifying. And even on the day of the workshop, approach, I was thinking for all these reasons why I could maybe cancel or not show up. However I did show up, I did go into the ice bath for two minutes and 30 seconds.

VL: WOW! I mean I've tried types of cold therapy before, but by that I mean that crazy walk we did in the freezing cold winter. And then I remember like when we were kids we used to go to our friend's hot tub in the winter and then it was like, Okay, I dare you to go jump out in the snow roll around and come back.

Those kinds of things, but I don't think I would have ever. Well maybe you can convince me to go into an ice bath for two and a half minutes like part of me is very curious and then the other part of me is screaming right away.

SS: Right and I think once you experience the lead up to it, and the mindset work in the policy breathwork that you're taught, there's almost no doubt in your mind that you're getting in that tub and I asked, Ashley, the facilitator. People must like to get 10 people signed up for a workshop, how many actually get in yet, but never had anyone in the years of doing this, don't get in and I can see that now that I've done it because you're just so pumped up to do it and I guess there's a little bit of the tribe mentality going on there too, that you just do, and it is that ultimate I think going out of your way out of your comfort zone.

Right and I think once you experience the lead up to it, and the mindset work in the policy breathwork that you're taught, there's almost no doubt in your mind that you're getting in that tub and I asked, Ashley, the facilitator. People must like to get 10 people signed up for a workshop, how many actually get in yet, but never had anyone in the years of doing this, don't get in and I can see that now that I've done it because you're just so pumped up to do it and I guess there's a little bit of the tribe mentality going on there too, that you just do, and it is that ultimate I think going out of your way out of your comfort zone.

[43:53] VL: That's so incredible, I would definitely want to try it, because I'm thinking of how I would react in that group mentality and I'm like no I can't be the only one who doesn’t do it.

First, I like, I have to go first I have to go first. I can't watch other people do this. And then, you know, you'll be getting more and more nervous, but just if I'm doing it I'm going for.

VL: So amazing. Well, Sarah. This has been so much fun, like I said, I feel like we could do a whole series on this, and I'm sure that you'll be back on the show again soon, but let us know where we can find you today where we can follow you and how we can support your business.

SS: in addition to the junior retreats, I'm currently offering one on one mindfulness sessions, and also in summer 2021 I will be offering a teen mindfulness program, and information about any of those things can be found on my Instagram, or my websites.

WEBSITE | www.sarahsturino.com

INSTAGRAM | @sssturino

RAPID FIRE

1. What are you currently reading? OR What’s your favourite book?

Becoming Supernatural by Dr. Joe Dispenza

Future Witches

2. What do you love most about being a woman?

I think if I think back, my son is 17 Almost. What I love most about being a woman was that feeling of growing a human and being so there is never a time when I was more in touch with energy and with how much we are animals right it's such an animal experience to give birth to grow human to have milk. So just that our bodies do that is incredible and miraculous and beautiful and then the fact that we didn't stretch marks laughter and hate is, we need to change the culture needs lippett Like are you proud of those stretch marks grew that 6ft3’ boy!

3. What does “empowerment” mean to you?

I think I would say empowerment means finding your voice, and using it. But I would also say, it means to thrive, not just survive I think that there were some years where I was just surviving and not thriving. And my wish for everyone is that they have very few of those. And more of the Thrive.

4. What are you currently working toward?

Many things probably too many things I feel like I confuse the universe by manifesting too many things at once. So, I will share that I am working towards having my own but that's one of the things that I'm currently manifesting and not just manifesting, but the actively working on

VL: Well, thank you so much for being on the podcast today it was an absolute pleasure to talk to you I mean I love chatting with you but it was great that we could finally record this episode, I think what you're doing in the world and for women and for teens is so incredibly important. I feel like every season every year you come to me with like this new idea and this new project and this new program and I just think oh my god, she can do anything and everything you're like a super woman. So I'm so happy to know you as a friend. I'm so happy to have you as a guest on the show so excited to share your voice, your story or your resources, your expertise with the audience today, and hopefully again soon. Thank you.

SS: Thank you, Valerie, thank you for giving me space for my voice, and for LASIK women you do that on your podcast is truly needed and truly a pleasure to listen to. Thank you so much for having me as a guest.

Podcast Host

Valerie LaVigne

Valerie is the creator and founder of Valerie LaVigne Life and the Women's Empowerment Show. She helps busy and empowered women create healthy habits so that they can become the best version of themselves and transform their lives. Learn more about Valerie here!