Energetic Wellness For Ambitious Women Without Burnout | Sarah King

You can be the woman who gets everything done and still feel like you’re disappearing inside your own life. That’s the tension we get honest about with Sarah King, founder of Empress Nation, as we unpack what burnout looks like for high-achieving, spiritually curious women and why intuition is not a luxury, it’s a real leadership skill.

We talk about the pressure to be perfect across every category, the mental load that never seems to ease up, and the way people-pleasing turns into automatic yeses that drain your energy and blur your boundaries. Sarah shares a sovereignty-first lens on success, including why asking for help can feel loaded, how outsourcing can be an act of self-respect, and what it looks like to choose your priorities on purpose instead of living by everyone else’s expectations.

Then we get practical with energetic wellness and nervous system regulation. Sarah walks us through simple grounding check-ins, sensory shifts that help you move from masculine push-mode into softer feminine energy, and even how a heart-to-heart hug can change your state and your family dynamic. We also explore the long-term cost of ignoring the body, the impact on business decisions and focus, and the tricky line between genuine healing and spiritual bypassing through substances or everyday numbing.

If you’re a female wellness entrepreneur who wants sustainable business growth, clearer intuition, and a calmer nervous system, you’ll get a lot from this conversation. Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s carrying too much, and leave a review with the biggest insight you’re taking into your week.

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Transcript

Welcome And Sales Confidence Offer

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Welcome to Cheese the Boss, the podcast where female wellness entrepreneurs talk ambition, money, and ownership out loud. I'm your host, Lee McSwan, a certified holistic nutritionist turned wellness business coach. This is where conversations are unfiltered, the rules of entrepreneurship get rewritten, and nothing is off limits. Money, motherhood, friendships, legacy, wealth, power, and what it really takes to build a life and business on your terms. Let's get after it. You know when someone asks you about your offer and suddenly you're overexplaining yourself, you're lowering your prices on the fly, or you're just hoping they don't say no. Yeah, that's because no one teaches us how to sell as a nutritionist. Sales confidence is my four-week mini mine that shows you exactly how to talk about your work, own your pricing, handle objections, and actually feel really good selling without it feeling pushy or weird or icky. It's simple, practical, and it will completely change how you show up in your business. Early bird pricing is in effect for the next couple of days. So if you've been meaning to clean up your sales skills, this is the time. It's linked below in the show notes. Welcome

Meet Sarah King Of Empress Nation

SPEAKER_01 1:13

back to She's the Boss. Today I'm joined by Sarah King, the founder of Empress Nation. Sarah is an energetic healer and intuitive coach who works with high-achieving, spiritually curious women, women who often look like they have it all together on the outside, but inside they feel overwhelmed, disconnected, or are quietly burning out. A former Kiwi now living in Brisbane, Sarah is also a mother of two, and her work is deeply shaped by a lived experience, relationship breakdown, emotional burnout, motherhood, and a powerful spiritual awakening that called her back home to herself. In this conversation, we're exploring the role intuition and energetic wellness play in building a sustainable business and why learning to trust your inner guidance isn't a luxury, but a leadership skill. This is one of those conversations that's both grounding and expansive. So let's dive in. Sarah, welcome to She's the Boss.

SPEAKER_00 2:09

How are you today? I am greatly. It's very early for me. So I'm off, but I didn't want to wipe the kiddos up making a coffee. So you've got me half fresh face, but ready to chat. Always here for it.

SPEAKER_01 2:22

Okay, we are gonna kick off this episode with an icebreaker.

Icebreaker And Why Intuition Matters

SPEAKER_01 2:26

So my question for you, Sarah, is what's a skill you have that has absolutely nothing to do with business, but you're irrationally proud of it.

SPEAKER_00 2:37

Okay. Oh, that's funny. I was asked this question while I was dating when I was last single. And um obviously it makes me laugh. It's so ridiculous. Um, I'm such a bad singer that when I was younger, like 18, 19, and you'd go to a house party, everyone would be like, Sarah, do your bad singing. And I would do Christina Aguilera's beautiful, but really not beautiful, like horrendously bad, like set up comedy. And everyone just thought it was hilarious. So I got really good at singing really badly.

SPEAKER_01 3:16

Oh my gosh, that's the best. I'm not gonna ask you to prove it. But please don't.

SPEAKER_00 3:23

I mean, it will come out badly, but it was just so ridiculous that I got really bad at doing it. I'm like, well, this is great. Because you know how sometimes you you go and you have a couple of drinks and you're like, everyone stops singing. You're like, I better sound good. Otherwise, everyone's gonna know I'm terrible. That pressure was off. I'm like full-in terrible. I'm like, this is great. You've cracked the code. It's a secret to life. Don't tell everyone.

SPEAKER_01 3:50

It's so good, especially Christina Aguilera. Like, that is that is a tough voice to match. Like, she's pretty out there. Yeah. So you gotta butcher her.

unknown 3:59

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 4:00

You're either phenomenal or you're not.

SPEAKER_01 4:02

So we'll go. Exactly. All right. So thank you so much for kicking that off with such a laugh. I love that so much. Now, you work in a very interesting niche and one that I am completely fascinated by. Um,

The Hidden Burnout Behind High Achievement

SPEAKER_01 4:17

you do work with high-achieving women who look like they have it all together, but don't feel that way inside. And so my question to you is: at what point did you realize that intuition and energetic wellness weren't just personal tools, but business necessities?

SPEAKER_00 4:38

I this came about for me just through having conversations. I'm a mom, I've got two young kids, nine and five. And, you know, when you're doing the daycare drop-off, you sort of like you pass people in the wind. You don't really chat to the mums and dads out there as much as you do as when you get to school. So when I was had my first daughter at school, and you're sitting around and you're waiting for the drop-off time, and you're waiting for the pick-off time, pickup time. I, you know, I'm a chatter. I get to chatting with people. And I found the strain that women were under just radiating from their bodies. And I'm one to go, hey, like, what's going on for you today? Because you can tell by someone's face, by their energy, by the way they walk, the way they move, that things are not really connecting well for them. And you know, I was having the same conversation over and over with different women. They were finding that they were struggling, you know, they were rushing in from a job that we would quote unquote be successful, high achieving, you know, the dream job. And then they're here, they're running to the school pickup, then they're gonna take their kids to sports afterwards. They were hiding really well, burnout levels, fatigue, not knowing their direction or purpose in life anymore. And that was the theme that kept like shining a light on for me. And I'm going, you know, are you talking to anyone else about this? No, no, no. I've got to, I've got to keep up this facade of I've got it all together. I've got to be the perfect mom, the perfect, perfect woman in their career, I've got to be the perfect person in the relationship, got to be the perfect family member. I'm the person that everyone else dumps all of their emotional baggage onto. I've got to keep going. There's no one else for it. I've got to keep going. So for me, I'm like, wow, this is a massive, this is a massive red flag. This is how my community is living, this is how society is living. When you dig a little bit deeper, so many women are in that push-pull of what we wanted in life for so long, and we're just going for it. And then what our heart is calling us is completely different. And I think as a society, we've we've got a lot to answer for on that because we've put a lot on a woman's plate. Because, yeah, I'm all for having everything that you desire. Sometimes those desires change, and it's okay to put them back on the shelf and walk away from them or put them away for temp like a temporary status. We don't have to be doing all the things at all the times, and yet if we're not, that's when the judgment comes out from people. Oh, she's not doing that anymore. Oh, and you feel that you we still feel that. We pretend it's not there. We pretend we're a judgment free zone and it's not there. But I I know I can feel it. We still live in a society where if you're not doing all the things to someone else's expectation, it's it's there. And we still have those people-pleasing tendencies where we say yes to everything. Like every every time an invitation comes up, we're still saying yes. Every time something else gets added to a workload, we say yes. Every time a business opportunity comes up, we go yes, because who else can do it? And what if there's not another opportunity coming up? So for me, this really became highlighted at that point, having conversations, like real conversations with women who were just putting on the mask, going through the motions in life, looking very high-achieving, very successful, but underneath it all, they were the duck on water with their legs paddling away, and they were losing themselves while doing this. And that's what made my heart break most because everyone else was put as a priority, and what they wanted, what their self, their soul was asking of them, was absolutely smothered with a pillow. I know that people just like, I just have to do this, I just have to do that, I'm just a mum, I'm just doing my work. Those phrases to me need to be crossed out, eliminated because if you're saying those words to me straight away, you're not listening to your heart, you're not listening to your intuition, your energy is probably leaking out everywhere, and that causes really well disalignment. And also, that's where a lot of the distress comes from, a lot of anxiety, the burnout levels, the overwhelm, the flow feelings, and we're still hiding that. Whereas if we acknowledge that we're having those things come up in our lives, those feelings that we're looking at the calendar and my stomach feels a bit clenched and sick, and I'm worrying all night about the next six weeks coming up, then there's a misalignment with how I'm living my life. And can I call myself a successful woman if that's how I'm feeling? Or can I shift my energy and put the priorities as what's lighting me up, what's calling me forward? Can I move those, bump them up, the priorities, bump myself up to nourish myself, to fill myself up, to give my energy a boost, then I can call myself a successful high achieving woman because high achieving woman starts with me and everything else can overflow from there. So that's how it got highlighted to me. I'm having conversations with women, and I see the woman leaving herself. I see the woman leaving her body, and I thought that it has to be another way because I hands up, I am all for women leading this world, whether it be in business, politics, um, in the community. We need more females taking the reins because we are so good and we can lead with empathy and compassion and kindness and smarts. And so I'm all for taking on these roles, doing them in a way that fills you up, doing them in a way that pushes you forward in your soul mission that brings you into a light where you're not feeling overwhelmed and burnt out and anxious with every decision or move or thing that lands on your plate, and to start that journey of taking it from what's aligned with you.

SPEAKER_01 11:53

Okay,

Perfection Pressure And The Mental Load

SPEAKER_01 11:54

that is so like that's an aha mic drop kind of moment right there. And we're gonna get back to how we can stop feeling that intense overwhelm. But one thing that you mentioned was that we feel like we have to be perfect in pretty much every category, where, in my opinion, the same standard isn't held for a man. It's usually just be good at your job, right? Run the business, run the corporation. And that's that's the standard of success that they're looking for. Women, I think, want something a little bit more different. And we do have this mentality that if we're not good in every single area, we're not perfect. I think perfect perfect is the perfect way to describe it. We want to be perfect at everything. But who's responsible for putting that pressure on women globally?

SPEAKER_00 12:49

I think, and this is my personal opinion, I think we've all done it as a society. We got to that tipping point of feminism where it's like we want to go out, we want to be doing these things. Fantastic. But the mental load never changed. The mental load of still upkeeping a household was still placed dominantly on a woman. Um, the mental load of raising the children, even as a working mum, like my both my children were in daycare at six months old, and it was me organizing all that, it was me doing the mum duties at home when I was married. Um, co-parenting is actually easier. Like, how crazy bizarre is that? Um, so it's it's us, it's us, and we have not put up the boundaries of going, hang on a minute. My plate is pile, like a pyramid of all of these things compared to a man, typically, that has one expectation. So as women, like we've gone, oh well, that's what we wanted. So that's what we fought for. That's what feminine feminism told us we we wanted. So why just do it? And I think the expectation is we're not going to be doing it forever, so we'll just do it. Um, and yet, I mean, you you have children as well. Children grow, they still need attention. Um, business grows, it needs more attention. The household still needs attention, things still need attention. So there's not this limited time frame of okay, when it gets to this point, it'll ease off. And I think that's the wake-up call we all need to acknowledge that it's not going to get to a point and ease off. It's up to us to put in a boundary and be like, this is these are my key priorities. These are the things that need to be shared, these are things I need help with. And it's okay to be sharing this load or asking for help or bringing in support with the things that I need. I don't have to do it all. And taking the expectation of a woman has to be doing it all to be being successful or being high achieving or being great at business because she can juggle everything. That is the most ridiculous thing. I like I I feel like we've put on ourselves. And I know I've heard women at coffee catch-ups or business networking and they're rattling off the laundry list of things that they all the balls are keeping up in the air. And I'm just like, why? Why are you doing that? Call in a housekeeper, get some meal prep done. Why do you, if that's not the thing that lights you up, if you love cooking, great. If you love cleaning the house and it's a de stress for you, great. But if it's not, if it's adding more negativity into your life and like just to deem it as that for the sake of the conversation, then why not outsource that part and stick in your aligned zone and your creative genius and the work that is calling you here? Like, love your children, play with your children. Fantastic. Do that. I would rather do that than cleaning my bathroom. Let's be honest.

SPEAKER_01 16:07

You and me both. Um, you brought up something that I would love to have kind of like a deep, potentially controversial conversation around. And that is like feminism kind of bringing us into this situation. And I know there's one side of the coin that says, you know, women were pushed out of the home and into the workplace in order to have more taxable income. And then there's another side of the coin that says, like, we needed more women in business. And I think two things can be true at once. I also am in full alignment when you say we need more women in community and politics in these roles, because let's be honest, women rule the world. Um, and we we are incredible voices for so many different populations. But how do how do you feel about that kind of thought process around the role that feminism may have played in putting women into these situations where we are expected to keep all these bulls up in the air, plates and juggling all the things and kind of almost wearing it as this badge of honor that we get to decorate ourselves in as we check off another accomplishment, whether it's education, whether it's parenthood, whether it's business. What are your thoughts?

SPEAKER_00 17:25

Um, yeah, I completely agree. And it is controversial. I feel like at that point, it wasn't a choice because it was expected, it was almost forced upon, we all had to go out and do it. I am in full support of complete choice for sovereignty. If you choose to go and build a career in politics and do all the things, fantastic. I am there for you, sister. I've got you, I'm backing you. If you choose to be a homemaker, raise your children, to homeschool, excellent. I love it. I'm there for you as well. I love the the chalk and cheese of those because you would do that because you choose to. That is a choice that you make. I feel like in the middle, in the gray area, uh some of us women, myself included, that were just going through the motions, we're doing all of the things. And I felt like I had no choice. I felt there was no sovereignty in it, that I was doing it because I had to and I was expected to, and keeping the status quo. And that's where I had the problem. That's where myself personally, I was so out of alignment. Life wasn't lighting me up because I was exhausted going through the motions of everyone else's expectations. And when I started moving some of those expectations away from me, that's when my energy started returning to me. And I could make more conscious decisions about how I was spending my time and what I wanted to co-create in the future. So for me, yeah, I think there was a point where it was just like you are anti-woman if you don't want woman to be doing everything. And I actually fully believe that. Whereas I believe let's give woman a choice because it feels like we still have never had a choice in how we're living our lives. It's still got a narrative running behind it that it's not coming from us, it's not coming from our hearts, and it's definitely not soul-led. So let's go back and let's give us a choice. Like men get choices all the time on how they want to live their lives. Like you said, their their expectation of success is business related. They're not judged on many other things. Yet, as a woman, get out the checklist. There is a ton of things on that list that we have to tick off in order to be meeting the status quo.

SPEAKER_01 20:11

Yeah, and on a daily basis, too. Like when you when you think about it, our our tomorrow starts tonight, right? Like for me personally, um, my husband travels a lot for work, so I'm often solo parenting, and that requires a lot of organization. It requires thinking, like almost reverse engineering tomorrow, tonight, so that I can make sure that everything's on time and stuff like

Asking For Help Without Guilt

SPEAKER_01 20:40

that. And granted, there are so many ways that we can outsource some of these problems. And that also comes with a degree of success, right? Like we have to be able to afford those luxuries and and um the the population that you work with, they are those high achievers and high success people. Do they still have a hard time asking for help or hiring the person? Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 21:07

Because asking for help in our generation was seen as a failure. So asking for help is still an issue. Asking for help in the business sense seems to be very different from in personal life. So breaking down those barriers and that subconscious programming of if I admit I have a, let's say, a weakness, because that's not my phrasing, but in their minds, that's what they're seeing it as an area of weakness where I can't do it all myself, because that's how we've been programmed. Do it all yourself, don't complain, just get it done, make sure it's perfect. If I have a weakness in that area, then everyone's gonna judge me. Everyone's gonna think I'm bougie for having someone come in. And and do my housework for me. Someone's gonna think I'm a bad mum if I have a nanny pick up my kids from school a couple of times a week. Someone is someone, someone, someone. There's always a someone out there that we put their voice in our head. They're not real. They're not real. Although, in the case of my mother, she was very real. So I hear her voice every time I have that pop-up. And for me, I have to unwind that programming because it's not my truth anymore. And I really sit down and I do this reflection very often, every couple of months or so, what's working for me, what's stressing me out, what's causing me feelings of anxiety or lower, those lower vibrations. Is it something that I can change? It's not a weakness to be able to say, yeah, I can change something. We're allowed to change the patterns in our lives that don't work for us. It's okay. We don't have to continue pushing through everything. And that's that people pleasing within push mode, very masculine energy where it just has to be done and it has to be me. Well, I love to take people back into their softer feminine side because when you are high achieving in business, especially if you're running your own business and entrepreneur, you are often sitting in that masculine to get things done. And that's great. That's the perfect spot for it to be. That's what our masculine energy does well. Our masculine energy also loves to co-create life with our feminine. So it's really good to have that division in our in our day. And for me, I love to take a shower, and that's where I wash off my masculine and I put my feminine back in in the driving seat. And you know, I do a nice moisturizer and I put on my robe and I just take a few minutes either to listen to some music that softens me up a bit, and I can feel my energy shifting. I'm changing. I look, I'm a nicer woman to be around, Lee, when my feminine is driving the show because she's not as abrupt and to the point and in that push mode. She's in the receiving mode and she's flowing with life, and things get done, but they get done in a very different way.

SPEAKER_01 24:22

Okay, I love this so much. I feel like you're speaking directly to me because I often find myself very stuck in this masculine kind of role. And, you know, like I'm an Aries and I've got like an Enneagram three, and and I'm a doer. I'm definitely that that pusher, that kind of energy. And I find even when I close my laptop at the end of my workday, even on my days off, I still have that like gotta go, gotta go kind of energy. I love the idea of physically getting into the shower and washing away. Now,

Simple Practices To Shift Your Energy

SPEAKER_01 25:01

I'm somebody that showers in the morning. So this wouldn't necessarily apply to me, but what are some of the other ways that we can soften into our feminine and just kind of put that masculine heart down for the day?

SPEAKER_00 25:17

Oh, I love that. And I would love to ask you, Lee like, do you want to just take a minute now? Like just to put your feet on the ground, close down your eyes, put your hands on your heart, and ask yourself that question. So just go in and be like, Soul, I'm really feeling the masculine take over at times. My feminine would love to come out and play. How would she like to do that? And just sit with the breath for a few moments and just see what comes to mind. And we let it come to mind without judgment, without criticism, without objection, and just let your mind bring you the vision or the words or the sounds that your soul would love you to know right now.

SPEAKER_01 26:07

So immediately I'm feeling like the lights are getting dimmed in my home, and I'm lighting beeswax candles, and I'm putting something soft on, and I'm seeing hugging, like I'm hugging my my boys. I've got two boys and obviously a husband. Um hugging them and just slow, slowly getting into like dinner prep mode and that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_00 26:35

Beautiful. How does your body feel right now?

SPEAKER_01 26:38

Oh my gosh, I'm like, okay, gotta go. I'm gonna go dim the lights, put the candle on.

SPEAKER_00 26:44

Oh, I can say in your face that has really affected you. Like that was your soul connection there.

SPEAKER_01 26:52

Yeah, because I often like hugging is something that we do multiple times a day, but I've never really done it with the intention of let me pass off this other version of myself while you get to literally cocoon me in the version of myself that is soft and loving and tender and slow, and taking that time to just, you know, cocoon into the house, like dimming the lights. It's winter here. So it's very much something that feels very comforting and warming. So that's such a beautiful, simple exercise. I'm actually gonna have to do that more often because I'm sure it changes in on a daily basis as to what you need, right?

SPEAKER_00 27:37

Exactly. So when you're closing that laptop and you're feeling hyper in the masculine, do that. It takes like you just saw 30 seconds. What do I need right now to slip into butt and feminine? And it will change every day. You know, as women, we're cyclic beings, um, our you know, our cycle will change that as well. The kind of day we've had will change that. Our life stresses at the time will change that. And getting into that routine of just checking in what is it that I need right now will allow you to flow. And then you'll see the recurring patterns, and then you can have those in your toolbox. You're like, okay, candles come up a lot. I'm gonna stockpile some candles because there's gonna be some times where I'm feeling out of it all day and even working. I might want to pop some beeswax candles around me because I might want to bring that feminine side into my work some more. Um, and it's it's really cool to see that you, you know, you had fire, you had lighting, which is really sensory, you had soft clothing. And soft clothing could also be a blanket that you wrap around you when you're in more of a masculine situation as well, or the type of clothes um that would support you, you know, if you're presenting something that you might wear, something a little bit softer to bring that energy through as well. It's something that you, when you get used to doing that, doing those check-ins, you can play with the energy behind it and bring it into that more masculine side of life so that the shift is not so abrupt. Sometimes we need it, sometimes we need very masculine to get things done. Sometimes you can play with it more and they can weave in and out and dance together, and that creates a different energy in the business as well, and that will resonate with other women around. Oh, there'll be something that people can't quite put their finger on that they are connecting to with your energetics behind what you're bringing to the table that sort of softens you, makes you more approachable, and makes it easier for them to understand the messaging behind it. And like I said, that's not always in business, but there are certain times you actually get to bring that in and play with it. So that's also really cool. Another point that I'd just love to mention, Lee, on the hugging is hug with intention. So often we can just fling our arms around someone, be like, okay, have a good day, love you bye. Hugging with intention changes everything. Like, if you do a heart-to-heart hug, which is hugging on the left, so that your hearts are literally touching, you feel that heartbeat of that person that you love, that creates an like literally a frequency and energetic alignment there. Your souls know we we are here in this life, we're doing this journey together. It calms your nervous system down because you feel safe and supported. You know that you are surrounded by the people you love. They are safe, you're safe, you can take yourself down a notch. And hugging with intention, so making sure that it's a nice, decent length of time. Like give yourself 30 seconds to show your partner and your sons that you are here for them. It changes that reflex of I've got to fling my arms around them and I've got to pull away. I've got to keep my energy to myself. I can't soften up. I've got to be the one always in control. You know, you've got three beautiful men in your life. Let them hold that masculine for you because your sons are teenagers now, so they can start to realize yes, I look after my mum as well. We create this family together. It's not just mom underpinning everything, taking on all that energetic load, all that mental load. You can create a family life together that's in harmony.

SPEAKER_01 31:34

Wow. This is this is incredible. It's so practical and also just feels refreshing to hear from somebody else to, you know, soften the load. How how simple of a concept, but how transformative that can be to an entire family unit, I would assume. Um,

A Trauma Informed Path Out Of Overwhelm

SPEAKER_01 31:55

what are some of the ways that you work with your clients to help them reduce the feeling of overwhelm?

SPEAKER_00 32:05

So we kind of look at this in two parts because there's the sort of emergency part where I'm coming to you right now and it all just feels too much and I can't stop talking like this, and I'm really, really heightened. We sort of look at it as that part, and then we look at it as a long term as well. So when we when we sort of first start, we're in that heightened sense, you know, the person in front of me, normally their shoulders are up around their ears, they're shallow breathing, they're not sleeping well. Where I mean, I'm a coffee addict, but you know, coffee is being used to get through the day, sugar is getting used to through through the day. So overall, it's affecting every area of life. So what we just really start, and even the first session is very light, we start doing the practices like the one we just did, where we are grounding and we are softening and we are just taking some really intentional um breathing, like breath work comes into play, trying to calm the nervous system without freaking it out. Because if you're not too too far too soon, everything, the whole world's shifting, we don't know what to do. It's gonna make us in that heightened state even more. So, usually our first connection is really gentle, really soft, and then we can build that trust to delve into what exactly is it that's the root cause of this anxiety or overwhelm or fatigue levels? What is underpinning it? Because in life we have all these things, and it might be like, um, you know, business isn't doing great, you know, the sales aren't coming in through the months. That's pushing me. Okay, well, what's under that? Okay, well, the energetics of the sales. Okay, well, what's under that? Well, the energetics of me. Okay, so then we can start diving in deeper. So after we get the nervous system to come and play with us and relax and feel safe, um, that it's not going to be the end of the world, that we are going to move through this. We can do it in a safe way, in a responsible way for your body on all levels. So the physical, um, the emotional, the energetic, and the soul level, they all need to come in play at once rather than just looking at the mindset of things or the spiritual side of things. They all need to come together. So we start looking at that. So, what's going on at a deeper level? And that can get a little bit spiritual when we were at that stage because what we're seeing playing out right now may not be what we think is the cause of that. So it might be coming from something like a past life, it might be coming from a childhood trauma, it might be coming through multiple different things that have just sort of imploded all at once. And so we take a very safe-based approach, like as well as being trained in energetics, um, spiritual coaching, I'm also a trained counselor. So trauma, uh, being informed with trauma is really important to me. Having everyone feel safe and supported is really important to me. Having no one left alone after a very deep emotional session is very important to me. And I feel like that's where some people out there go, they're sort of like, you know, I'll go into a container and then I'm sort of left wandering by myself. And it's really important that you have that person there that goes, I'm here with you as you take this journey, because uncovering what is causing the burnout or the overwhelm or having me in the state is going to be deep, is gonna be there. So you want someone that's right beside you, being that cheerleader for you, helping you keep on track, helping you ask the questions that you need, because we have the answers within. It's usually if we're ready to look at it, hear it, understand it, and then integrate it into our lives. So once we get into the root causes of things and we can release whatever is blocking sort of physically, things come up, emotionally, uh, things come up energetically, then it's time for us to go, okay, a short reflection. This is what it was. I understand it's no longer holding the power over me. How am I gonna move forward with this now? What is this change point gonna be for me? Because if we continue to go, okay, I'm just gonna go back and repeat the programming, repeat the patterns that I've been doing since this childhood trauma started, whenever, as an example, then nothing's gonna change. You're still gonna continue the same pattern. So it's at that point of integration. How am I gonna move forward living my life now? How do I choose to live my life now? And what does that look like specifically? And again, that's where we go into that process of how am I gonna create my life? What is good for my soul, not from what everyone else tells me around me, not from what I'm saying, just from experience and what I've seen people doing, but it goes inwards. And then I support people as they are integrating that into their life and the transformation from when they walk in physically, they are hunched up, bent over with stomach agony, they've got uh shoulders around their ears. To take a deep breath is a challenge because to slow down and to allow your body enough space to relax from the first session to be able to move forward in the container where they go, okay, this is who I am, this is who I'm called to be now. I'm still the same person. I just have a different energetic field around me. Something's not holding me back, they are relaxed in their body, they are confident in their energy, their mindset is focused, and there is an aura about them that you just stop and you go, wow, this woman. And I think that's the difference we see a lot on. I think social media is a good example of this. We can see someone turn up and there's that fake it till you make it sort of scenario, and you go, something's not quite right there. I don't know what it is, but there's something not quite right. And then you have the woman that is showing up, and you're like, mmm, oh yeah, she she she knows what's happening, she knows who she's about, she knows. You don't know what her secret magic is, and I've just told you, but there's a big difference. So that's a great example of if you're wondering, go and have a look on like Instagram, go scrolling, and just go check out people's pages and start feeling where they're at. Because then that will be a gauge for where you might be, and you'll start to understand your energy better, what's going on for you. And who knows, start listening to the questions or the the little voice that pops into your head of your intuition that's calling you to follow a thread along.

SPEAKER_01 39:16

It's interesting that you can feel that in somebody through social media, right? It's almost like you're magnetized to that stranger. And it's just how it is how they show up. And I guess I never thought about it in the context of they've done the work. But that's essentially what you're saying, right? Is like their their energy field changes and they become more magnetic and we're more captivated by them because likes attract likes and we we want more of what we like from somebody.

The Real Cost Of Ignoring Yourself

SPEAKER_01 39:52

Now, what is the cost, both personally and professionally, of somebody that doesn't do this kind of work or maybe holds on to that childhood trauma? What happens to them long term?

SPEAKER_00 40:08

Well, I mean, there's so many things, Lee. Like if you're holding on to what your body doesn't need to hold on to, it can manifest, like I said, on those different levels. So it could be a physical, could be a mindset, could be energetics, could be a soul. Um, so to start on that physical level, like if you're holding on to something that is stuck in your body that doesn't need to be there, often that develops along the way. And it could start off as a niggle in the shoulder, and people go, but it's just, you know, it's just a niggle in the shoulder. Well, did you did you have an injury and accident? No, no, it's just, you know, just started, then it's not just from an injury and accident, it's some energy that's stuck in there that needs to be worked through. So ignoring our body leads to more ignoring our body. Like if we don't want to face it, we're really great as humans to go, hmm, yep, I'm just going to ignore that. I'm going to ignore it some more and ignore it some more. And before you know it, it's 20 years later, then you're having shoulder surgery for something that possibly you could have acknowledged with some energetic work and integrated into life. And poof. Um, so you know, that there can be a physical cost with things moving through your body. That's why exercise is fantastic doing the work as well. Like there's a reason why there's so many retreats that have yoga or Pilates is to start the day because when you're doing the work energetically, you want to release it. And movement is great for releasing throughout the body. And not to say that everything that happens to us physically is going to be tied to a trauma or or something energetically. I'm not saying that, I'm not a doctor. However, I think we know. We know when there's something there. And I know every time that I do deep inner work or go on a retreat, there's that cold and flu season afterwards where you get niggly and you get stuffy, and it's the release, it's the release of everything. Um, or I feel quite nauseous. When I have a deep emotional release, I feel physically sick and usually end up vomiting. When I was getting a divorce, I vomited every morning at 4 a.m. for six weeks until I had moved out of the family home. Every single as soon as I moved, no more vomiting. So for me, that was like a testimonial of our body that physically knows what's not right. Um, so and then mindset-wise, what is the cost of your mindset when you don't have a clear focus? It costs you everything. It costs you everything, and that's exactly what a highly anxious load does. It's exactly what overwhelm does. You cannot focus in the way that you do when your mind is clear and your nervous system is operating at a calm level, and it's just not possible to get it on the same keel. So that is a huge cost when you are running your own business, you're when you are the one making decisions and you're doing it from a survival state versus a calm, collected, nervous system. You're making different decisions. You're making hugely different decisions. So again, that can literally cost you in the decisions that you're making, how you're sleeping at night. So it comes back and entwines with your physical. Um and then energetically, we all know that feeling of being tired and drained. And no matter how many coffees in a You have, you can't shake it. And that's because your energy is pouring out into places it doesn't need to be. And people might think that's a little bit weird. If you haven't been doing any of the inner work, if you've been just focusing on getting through, then I would encourage you, indulge me. Put on a meditation for 10 minutes. Doesn't have to be a lie down for three hours kind of thing. Put on a meditation for 10 minutes, close your eyes, even if it's a chant, and just focus on you. Bring your energy back to you. And when you start doing that, you realize how much energy you're giving out. If you bring it back to you, even for a short period of time, you're gonna notice the difference and how that moves you through the next hour or two hours or of the day or the rest of the week. And that is something that I think we put as a back burner. I'll do it when I have time. And if you look at the very successful people in life, the very high achievers, they have a morning routine that is structured, that things like this come first. These things become the priority. Setting up their energy and their intentions for the day are the key to their successful day. So then I would question why do we put everyone else's energy and intentions first if we want to be setting up for success? Um, and then we come to a soul level. So our soul level pays the price the most, I would say. When we are not delving into our inner work, when we are letting the old operating systems run the show, it's our soul that is there. Because our soul, our intuition, the whatever names we like to call them, is always there with us for our best interest. So it always has messages coming through if we want to tune in. When we're struggling with, I don't know what decision to make, I don't know which way to go on putting this deal together. It doesn't quite feel right, but I'm gonna do it, but should I do it? And we have that mental back and forth in our head. Our soul is there with our answer that's best for us at all times, but we choose not to use it. Either we're not used to tapping into it, or we doubt its intentions, we doubt where it's coming from, or we just go, no, our our ego mind, which we love, it keeps us safe, but it's there playing in the foreground, going, oh, we'll work this out on our own. And when our soul is used to being quietened and used to being dimmed and not used to having a connection with us, it never goes away. It just gets harder to hear and harder for us to go, oh, I should, should, I can, I have the ability to reach out. I have a soul connection right there. What does that say? What would it look like if I took these different paths and help us work through like that? And I've been to the point in my life where I have been so disconnected from my soul, from myself, from my energy, even on a physical level, like it was in there's this struggle waking up every day where I felt like my soul was going to give up on me because my life was just in that. I always feel like I had concrete around my feet, like I felt so heavy. And I knew in that moment I reached out to someone, I was like, I need to make a change here. I need to make a change, or I feel like this world will be not for me much longer. Not that it would be my choice, I just felt that like I was separating from everything. And then everything got taken out of my hands. And it was lovely because I trusted that it was taken out of my hands for that reason. Things got shuffled around, things moved, everything burnt to the ground. I had a big career change, I had the marriage breakdown, I was suddenly living my life very differently. And it was from that moment of I have to do it differently now, or nothing's ever gonna change. And having the trust that I just surrendered in that moment, that my soul was able to then go, great, let's swoop in, let's arrange everything for the better. That was the cost for me. That was the cost. My soul was either gonna take the reins or Sarah wasn't gonna be doing so well in life. So that's why this work is so important for me. Like for people who have never deep dived into the inner work and they're going, well, you know, what is the cost? Is it gonna make me more money in business? To me, I don't care. The cost is everything else that I've just mentioned. Sure, you'll end up making more money from the flow-on effect of that. However, what's more important for me is that you're gonna be living your life. You're gonna be living it with intention, you're gonna be living it with a great connection to your soul, your intuition, and that you are able to pull it up like that. Like that is one of my key focuses with my clients. A lot of people are just like, how do I even connect into my intuition? How do I know what it is? And that's one of our starting points. After the creating that feeling of safety, we go into what does our intuition say? What's our relationship like with it? How do we tune in? How do I trust? How do I build that trust? And that is so beautiful and so magical and such a gift that if we're not using that all day, every day, we're wasting it.

SPEAKER_01 50:05

Oh, the intuition is so powerful. I I literally just filmed another or recorded another podcast before this, and I had just said in that episode that not once in, I think you're my eighth interview at this point, and not once has it not come up about women's intuition or inner knowing. And I feel like it's just the most I say this in every episode, and I feel like it's just gonna be like this tagline at some point, but it is our superpower.

Substances And Spiritual Bypassing

SPEAKER_01 50:34

I'm curious about what your thoughts are around how substances can suppress that intuition or even affect us on a soul level, especially in this type of energetic work. What I've seen in my experience is that there's a lot of spiritual bypassing that can happen. There's um people facilitating specific types of retreats that really shouldn't be. Um, I witnessed this a lot in Costa Rica, where it's very common to come in and do a peyote or an ayahuasca. Um and it I often wonder like, is there a point where some of these substances, whether it's something like an ayahuasca or a peyote, or if it's simply alcohol? And um, I too am a caffeine lover. I love my morning coffee. But how do these things potentially elevate or dampen that intuition or that spiritual side of us? And should we be cautious of it?

SPEAKER_00 51:44

Oh, should we be cautious? I feel like that's a question for your intuition, right? Um, for the record, I've never experienced um a ceremony using any substances, so I can only just speak from that point of view. However, I know people who have been addicted um to drugs in the past, who are deeply spiritual people, very connected people now that they are clean. But bypassing is huge, right? I think we don't give enough credit to how much bypassing we do in this life. And when something is really traumatic, when something is very painful for us to look at, it is the easiest solution to turn to any kind of substance, whether it be alcohol, which is so accepted, uh, especially here in Australian culture, to help us numb out what's going on for us. And like not even substances, um, our phones, our devices, Netflix, Instagram, YouTube. Name, name all the things. Fast food. Um, like I I used to be an addict for emotional eating to stop feeling the pain. I would open a fridge and I would shove everything into my mouth to stop me from feeling the pain in my body. So I feel like there are so many things that we could tag in in that when we're saying substances. Um, there are so many things that are harmful for us that we do every day that keep us away from our most aligned self, from our highest version of ourself, from connecting in more with um with God, universe source, whoever we we deem as is our our highest core. Um, there are so many things that disconnect our soul from us, including these things. Um how do we have how do we have an honest conversation with ourselves when I'm scrolling Instagram? How do I tune into myself? It's the same as when you're having a maybe a conversation about conflict or a deeply emotional conversation with your partner, and one of you is on your phone scrolling. And then that other that other party is hugely upset. I'm trying to talk to you. What's going on? Please pay attention to me. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I hear you, I hear you. So that's a bypass as well. So substances I find, because some of them are acceptable. Alcohol is very acceptable. Um, really interesting. I always believe this is me, I don't drink alcohol a lot. I drink coffee, I love chocolate, um, that if it's harming you, if it's harming your connection to yourself, take a deeper look. I know people who have done who have sat in ceremony and had huge, huge um messages come through that have been life-saving. They they were done in a very respectful, very well trained place. Some people go to ceremony and have a horrific experience. Maybe the intention for going is not quite right, maybe the facilitation isn't quite right. I don't know, I wasn't there. However, that for me, that makes me ask the question what made them go in the first place? Was it because it's the cool thing to do? Jumping on a bandwagon, oh, someone else went here, so I will go too. Again, it comes back to sovereignty. Am I feeling called to go and experience that for myself? Am I going to do the research and know that that is the place or the ceremony or the substance for me? I personally feel my connection is stronger without anything altering it. And I've had that message directly. And when you get to the point where you are speaking directly to what is going to be bringing in your message, I trust that. To be able to experience things that I already do. So yeah, so I am I am always on the side of caution when it comes to things like that. It's not something I would recommend to anyone, but we all do what we feel called to. And that's our journey and our path to take.

SPEAKER_01 56:54

Yes, follow it on me with a dose of caution. I I

Where To Find Sarah And Final Definition

SPEAKER_01 56:58

love it. Um, Sarah, I have so thoroughly enjoyed this conversation with you. You have given such great simple tools that we can use to tap into our higher selves and help our nervous systems and step into our feminine energy. Where can people get more of you?

SPEAKER_00 57:19

Ah, everyone, come get more of me. Um, beautiful. I'm really active over on Instagram, so Empress underscore nation underscore. Um, I have also got a beautiful podcast where I speak into this a lot, and that's called Embody Your Empress. That is very much in the feminine. So I I love I love speaking with people over there. And if there's ever topics that you want me to speak into more, let me know so I can go and speak into them over there as well. Um, those are the best places to reach me. My website, empress nation.au, and always reach out. I love hearing from people because I love to know what's on your mind. Like I started the conversation, I love to have the chat. I love to know what's happening for people so that I can help support you better.

SPEAKER_01 58:06

Oh, you're such a late. Um, I have one last question that I ask all of my guests, and that is what does being a boss mean to you?

SPEAKER_00 58:17

Being a boss to me, it's empowerment, it's courage, and it's being heart-led. With all those things, being a boss will take you everywhere you want to go, everywhere and beyond, because that is your mission, that is your sole purpose. If you are led in that way, everything's available for you.

SPEAKER_01 58:45

Oh my gosh, I love your response. It actually might be my favorite one to date. So thank you for that last dose of wisdom and goodness to carry us through the rest of our week. Thank you, Sarah, for being here. It was an absolute pleasure. Thank you, Lee. Thank you so much for spending a part of your day with me. I want to remind you to take a moment and notice what this conversation has stirred up inside of you. You get to decide what you want to do with that. I'll see you in the next episode. Until then, continue to build boldly and own it fully.