Special Guest Expert - Sarah Dawkins: Video automatically transcribed by Sonix

Special Guest Expert - Sarah Dawkins: this mp4 video file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Daniel Aaron:
What does it take to create a vibrant, thriving life? First, the sad news is that Thoreau was right most people are leading quiet lives of desperation, lacking in meaning, fulfillment, and vitality. But we choose more. We choose to create extraordinary lives and the art of vibrant living. Show entertains you with inspiration, empowerment and education to create your life into a masterpiece. It's time. Let's vibe up. Allo, Allo. Hi, y'all. Welcome, welcome. Welcome to the show. I am Daniel Aaron, your host. This is the Art of Vibrant Living show. We have a phenomenal show with an incredible guest today. And as you know, this show is all about empowering you to live your most vibrant, thriving life. And newsflash, radical piece of information. What's going on in your body has something to do with that. And we've got some amazing stuff to learn today. First, though, please, here's my request. I implore you, be entertained, be regaled by the stories, and even better, though, take something from the show and apply it in your life. Like, what I really want for you? Is that not just the entertainment, it's that this actually empowers you to make your life better. And by the way, if you would like some help with creating even more vibrancy in your life, breaking out of something, breaking into something, please reach out. Send me an email. So many different ways that we can support you. Daniel at Daniel aaron.com and today's guest Sara Dawkins. Phenomenal woman. You are going to love her and I know you like me will be inspired by her. She is a author, a keynote speaker was a registered nurse. I say that with some drama. You will hear about that. A multi award winning entrepreneur, a expat and a really cool, interesting, brave, smart woman who knows what it's like to not be well physically and to heal and to empower other people to heal. So Sara, thank you so much for joining us on the show. Welcome.

Sarah Dawkins:
Hi, Daniel. Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be here.

Daniel Aaron:
Yeah. Awesome. Well, you know, one of the things I love to do is, um, just hear something about how you got to this point, you know, and I ask a lot of my guests. I say, you know, what's your story? How did you get here? Your story, though I, of course, I have the advantage over the audience at this point because I have heard what you overcame, what you experienced and how you got where you are. Would you be so kind, though, as to enlighten our audience a little bit as to how you've gotten to be at this point in your life?

Sarah Dawkins:
Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. Um, so I had a, a regular ish upbringing, raised by a nurse in the medical model. Believed that when we were sick, we'd go to the doctors, get medications and possibly a diagnosis. We'd take those and get well. And I lived that life for 41 years. And it was when somebody at work had a nurse, questioned me about pharmaceuticals at my house and why I was doing that, and alternative things that could support my body. And I'm like, well, this is new. And why would she say something like that when she's a nurse herself? And that led me to doing lots and lots of research, searching the internet, reading and reading and reading. And I started, um, changing my diet, changing my lifestyle. And slowly but surely, I started healing my body. The first thing I healed was, um, eczema and psoriasis and acid reflux, and I healed all of those three by cutting out lactose and gluten and by de-stressing. So I did a little bit more walking, and I was doing lots more research. And then I went on and healed Candida, um, chronic joint pains, um, severe debilitating headache and underactive thyroid, burned out adrenal glands and finally culminating in a depression with suicidal thoughts. And I had no idea how I was going to heal that depression, but I knew I was. I just had this deep seated knowing that I would heal it, but I didn't have a clue, and I just I just plodded along for. Oh, maybe a year in that deep, dark depression before I started realizing there was an outside world because I was out walking with the dogs. Um, so I realized then when I started seeing things outside of me, instead of a black abyss that I was in, that I was starting to heal and I didn't know what I was doing. But looking back, I realized I was practicing mindfulness. I was being in that moment with where I was walking the dogs. Um, and then I would look for things to have gratitude for, and I didn't again, I didn't know what I was doing, but, you know, I'd be looking up to the sky and saying, oh, this gray sky in the UK. But look, there's a tiny speck of blue and there's flowers on the ground, and I can hear the stream at the side of me. So I was. Expressing gratitude for all of that. And the gratitude and the mindfulness, as I now know, was a huge part of my healing. Um, and lifestyle change. Because, you know, I'd never done that before. I didn't I didn't understand what mindfulness and gratitude was. So, so that it was the real start of my of my healing, um, from all of those health problems.

Daniel Aaron:
Wow. That's amazing. So there's so much in what you said. Uh, is worthy of further examination and but, you know, so we'll definitely come back to with the words you use, um, uh, depression with suicidal thoughts.

Sarah Dawkins:
Yes.

Daniel Aaron:
Right. I mean, that's that's a big deal, but I want to put that aside for a minute because go back just to recap some of what you said, because you grew up normal. Right. And what. And I did too. Right. Yeah. I mean, it's it's just like that's the normal way of doing things. You get sick, you go to the doctor, you get a diagnosis, maybe you get some medication. Uh, and, uh, and you became a nurse in that system, and you worked within that system, not questioning it for 20 years before you had this awakening. Is that right?

Sarah Dawkins:
No. Not quite 20 years. No. I qualified in 2001. And actually somebody questioned me in 2005. So I was starting doing the research and making small changes in my life over a period of time. But by the time I had healed the suicidal depression back in 2014 over 15, that was when I was really conflicted with my role as a nurse, because I then healed all of those health problems naturally. Um, and, and I was having a real fight with my, my conscience treating people in the hospital with pharmaceuticals and surgery and then yet stepping outside of that at home, um, and using herbs and oils and lifestyle changes and food, um, and that it took me two years to decide to leave my job as a nurse because all I ever wanted to be was a nurse to to look after people in their times of vulnerability. And then once I realized how powerful our bodies are, I was so conflicted. Excuse me. And it was like all I ever wanted to be was a nurse. And I saw myself working my whole working life as a nurse and retiring as a retired nurse. So I'm like, well, you know, there's a real issue with authenticity. Then who am I if I'm not a nurse? Who is Sarah Dawkins? You know, it's Sarah, the nurse. So that took me, you know, say two years to to even come to terms with the fact that I was no longer going to be a nurse and step outside of that.

Daniel Aaron:
That's phenomenal. Yeah. I mean, I can just imagine I mean, in the way you describe it, I get okay, it was a gradual process. And but the piece that you said, I think one of the key pieces in there is that you, you always wanted to be a nurse, you know, and I feel just touched, as you say that, like there's such nobility and beauty to that caring and then to to little by little realize, like, I'm not sure if I feel aligned with the way I'm caring for people. Um, so what was that like for you, that process? Like, you know, a lot of times we think of it these days, the phrase cognitive dissonance is, is pretty common in our world. Um, but there must have been a part of you, I'm guessing. Tell me if this is true. That was like wanting to be okay with continuing in that nursing world. Um, yet part of you saying, like, I'm feeling less aligned with it. Did you feel conflicted?

Sarah Dawkins:
Very conflicted. Yes. Um, and and I knew I wasn't running cognitive dissonance because I was very aware of my own healing and how I was healing. And yet I was still, you know, in the in the medical model, I had to do what the doctor said and give the tablets that the doctor said. And and actually, I was a critical care nurse. So I looked after cardiac patients and post-surgery patients. So I was very, very conflicted, still wanting to be a nurse at some point, but also thinking, well, this just doesn't align with me anymore because when we when we undertake surgery and when we give pharmaceuticals, we're just suppressing the symptoms. We're not truly helping that person to support their body, to heal itself.

Daniel Aaron:
Yeah. Wow. So. And then it I mean, it must have taken one some extraordinary bravery to first put the crack in, in your worldview, to say, oh, maybe what I was sold for all these years isn't, isn't the the truth or the way things are. And then to gradually evolve and experiment on yourself with different ways of healing yourself naturally. Um, and then to actually break out of it. So what was that like when you, you know, you got to a point, obviously, where you said, I can't do this anymore. I'm too conflicted. What what was that part like?

Sarah Dawkins:
That was around, um, 2013, I, I was struggling with my role as a nurse in the I worked in the hospital in the critical care. So I stepped out of that and set up my first business. And that's when I became an entrepreneur. And I still did a little bit of work in hospital settings through agencies, but obviously there wasn't the full time agency work available, and that wasn't what I wanted because I'd stepped out of that role. So I did a bit of medico legal work, I did a bit of DNA work, and I went in and trained as a teacher and became a nurse trainer. So I was helping people who worked in health care settings to go through their annual updates of all the different legal things they had to do. So I was I sort of fingers in pies, really, and I was writing articles for nursing journals, so doing a lot of different work. Um, but I still had my nurse registration. I couldn't do any of that work without my nurse registration. So I was still a nurse, but I was very limited in the hospital doing more of the other things. Um, so that was me stepping away from the hospital, per se, if you will, um, into trying to become other things. But I was still conflicted because as a registered nurse, my name is on a register, and I have to uphold the duties bestowed upon me to stay up on that register, which and that led to conflict, because to stay a registered nurse, I obviously had to follow the medical model. And in my personal life, I was not following the medical model and I was struggling with patients in hospital, especially when I saw that, you know, with some tweaks to their lifestyles, they could have avoided surgery or pharmaceuticals. But of course, I couldn't say that. Um, so that was a real source of conflict. But it wasn't until I trained to be a coach because I realized once I'd healed myself, I'm like, well, I can help others now to heal themselves. And that is my true calling. That caring side of me is, is natural, holistic. Um, so I trained as a coach in 2016, and it was at that time the person who took the course was actually quite a spiritual person, and she took us on an internal, um, emotional healing meditation.

Sarah Dawkins:
And it was through that emotional healing meditation, we found a core wound that, um, we hidden from a long time ago. And we looked at it through the eyes of compassion, and we understood what happened. And the people involved in that situation had a conversation within the meditation and came out and, you know, it was like a weight lifted off my shoulders. And that for me, that was the like the end part of my own healing, um, and made me realize that, um, I see healing as the physical aspects which most people tend to see. It's about food, it's about sleep, it's about exercise, about hydration. Those are the things most people think about when we talk about healing. And yes, of course they're important. But then there's the mental aspects, things like mindfulness and meditation. So that's having downtime for the mind. But we also need up time for the mind. We need to stimulate the mind, whether that's crosswords or learning a new language or learning a new skill. We need to have up, up time for the mind as well. We need to connect to our inner voice, whatever people want to call that. Some people call that inner voice God or the higher wisdom, or sorry, the higher self or the inner wisdom. Uh, angels? Spirits. It doesn't matter what name you give to it, but we need to connect to that inner voice inside of us. And that's the spiritual pillar as I see it. And then finally, when when I did my coach training in 2016, I found the emotional side of it. Um, and that really is healing your past. Um, but it's also about connection as well to people. In your world making those good connections. It doesn't mean to say you can only connect with people who think like you and are like you. Not at all. It's about connections, but understanding. Because I think we've lost the art of debating and conversation. And it's so it's about, you know, when people have different views of the world, having conversations with them can help us to open our minds to things we we might have closed off to before. So that emotional healing sort of encompasses all of that.

Sarah Dawkins:
Um, and from my point, when I believe, you know, once we've covered the physical, the mental, the spiritual and the emotional aspects of health and healing, that is how we tap into holistic healing, because it's got to be holistic. You know, everything in our body and our mind. Everything is connected. So why would it not? Why would he not be holistic? Um, and and that's how I see it.

Daniel Aaron:
Yeah, well, and I love that you say all that and for so many reasons. One, because I've been so immersed in alternate healing, holistic healing perspective now for me, for I don't know what, 30 years or more though I grew up. Same with you. Better science, better living through science model and that medical model. Yet it's been so long since I've been in there, I forget. And as you're as you're speaking, I'm like, yeah, that's that's still widely purveyed. That's what most people grow up with. That's what's being spewed out of the media and out of a lot of the, the experts mouths. And that's what a lot of people still believe. Um, so, you know, it's astounding to me on that level and again, astounding that you, from being so deeply immersed in that world, were able to get the experience for yourself to break out of it. And I was thinking as you were speaking, well, no wonder you wrote such an amazing book because you had those years of not being able to speak to patients about what you really felt. So I imagine by the time you finally got to that level of releasing yourself from the registry, that there's so much you wanted to say, it just came streaming out of you. Yeah.

Sarah Dawkins:
Yeah, absolutely. Um, and, you know, I wrote my own healing in my book. Um, heal yourself. Um, because I wanted to help other people to see that we can heal ourselves, um, especially when we tap into those four pillars, um, and work through them. And, and it does take work, you know, it's it's we have to be committed to want to heal because it's all too easy just to change nothing and take a pill. So healing takes work. Um, and I wanted to help other people to understand what, not just what I've been through, but what I've learned in my own healing journey in the hope of helping them on their healing journey.

Daniel Aaron:
Well. So that brings a question for me, which, yeah, it's easier to take a pill. But there's also presumably, you know, and I have my opinion, but I want to hear from you presumably. Well, there's a downside to that or it's not necessarily so effective. And then on the flip side, it takes work as you said. You know, it takes effort and commitment to heal. So what what are the what are the pros and cons or what are the benefits of actually putting that effort in. Presumably there are some. Yeah.

Sarah Dawkins:
Oh absolutely. Yes. Because with every pharmaceutical comes side effects. Um, so quite often people will put on one tablet and then they'll be put on another tablet to protect the stomach. And there may be a third tablet to counteract some of the side effects from the first or even the second tablet. So pharmaceuticals allow people to not change anything but take one, two or more pharmaceuticals and keep living their lives. And and what the pharmaceuticals are doing now is I really, I realize, is actually symptom suppression. So we're not healing. We're just suppressing the symptoms. We're pushing them back into the body. Whereas when we do the work, we heal because we heal in on so many different levels holistically. And the emotional side of healing. Yes, it takes work. Yes, it can be painful. But the beauty is that once we've done that healing work, we've healed that from our past and it no longer affects our present or our future. So it is a permanent healing if we address it and deal with it accordingly.

Daniel Aaron:
Yeah, beautiful. And so I'm curious then just to go a little deeper, when you say yes, it's hard right to do what's what. What is hard though. What's why is it hard. What do you think is going on there?

Sarah Dawkins:
I think I prefer the word challenging. I know I might have said hard, but challenging is a better word because our traumas from our younger years, we tend to squash them down. And then. And then we tend to have addictions to keep them down. Things like eating or drinking or social media or something else. And we find things to distract us and keep layering on top of each other to keep pushing that trauma down. And a lot of people don't want to open that up because they see it as a whole can of worms, you know, opening up that past. And when I'm working with clients, I'll, you know, we look at it tentatively, we open it very slowly because it's about looking at our past through different eyes. We know what's happened, but we're only seeing it through our eyes, through the filters that we've put around our eyes. Almost like like blinkers, because we don't want to see any of this. So our life is just what's in here. But when we take these blinkers off and look at the bigger picture, we see a lot more around what's happened. And it's about understanding that the people who hurt us obviously likely went through their own traumas, and maybe they've never spoken about them. You know, maybe they've had a really challenging childhood, maybe they were abused, maybe they, um, you know, awful things happen to them and we might never know that. And because of what's happened to them, they haven't got the skills and knowledge to know how to be an ideal parent. But but then who does? You know, parenting. We tend to do what we can when we can, with the skills and the knowledge that we have at that time, we can always look back and go, I could have done better, absolutely. But we didn't have the skills and knowledge when we were in that situation. So we did what we did with the availability of of skills and knowledge we had at that time. And I think if we can look back to those people who hurt us and and see them through the eyes of compassion, that they too, more than likely had things happen to them in their childhood that they've never dealt with.

Sarah Dawkins:
Because in our parents and grandparents era, there wasn't the help that there is today. People were taught to be stoical, push it down, forget about it, move on with your life. Whereas our generation we're more about well, let's, you know, let's look at that and pick it a little bit and see if we can identify something in there that we can work with. So it is about being compassionate and looking. Looking through outside of your own life filters through the eyes of compassion and unconditional love because you know, nobody goes goes out. Well, there may be a couple of people, but in the main, most people are kind and don't want to hurt anybody, so they don't go out and deliberately to hurt people. And we can, you know, when we say trauma, we can look at trauma like trauma with a big T as in some form of abuse. But we can also look at trauma with a little t. One of the ladies in my book was teased by her elder sibling. And she took that on board and really stewed on it. So it's about it's not about what happened to us so much as it's about how we perceived what happened to us at the time it happened and how we hold on to that. So if we can look at it through different eyes, through the eyes of compassion and understand that other person was probably going through something, or like the healer in my book, her older sibling would never have realized what the lifespan of that teasing would do to her sister and just, you know, try and unpick it, but look at it in the broader picture, um, and, and see, are your perceptions still valid today? Um, and how can you look at it differently to understand the situation so that you because at the part of emotional healing to heal your past is about accepting what's happened, knowing that we can't change it, but looking at it through the eyes of compassion to understand that that person who hurt us might also have been hurt, um, so that we can then forgive that person in our mind and then move on.

Daniel Aaron:
Yeah. Beautifully said. Thank you. That really makes it clear, um, just how those how the the how we ended up pushing things down, not wanting to feel them and then resisting those things coming back to us. And, you know, I one of the modalities that I worked with for a long time is, is breathwork. And one of the things that happens when people go into a deep breathing process is that material that has been pushed down. Like, I don't want to feel that it's uncomfortable. There's a reason I repressed and suppressed that that comes up to the surface and can release like super, super quickly. And there's this level of freedom that comes from that. And I think the whole thing, really so much of it hinges on just that willingness to say, okay, let's let it come up, okay. I'm willing to look at this because then when we do right, it doesn't necessarily have to stay around very long. And it's so freeing and liberating when we allow it.

Sarah Dawkins:
Yes. Yeah. Allow and accept it.

Daniel Aaron:
Yeah, that's that's powerful. So, Sarah, can we talk for a minute about the part, like, because you you made the nice distinction in what you just said, that we often think about healing as being a physical thing. Right? And of course, that is part of it. Then you also said, well, there's there's an emotional component or emotional, spiritual, psychological components that come into it. And you described earlier a stage in your own healing journey where you were depressed and felt suicidal. And one of the things that really stuck out to me, as you described that, is that you somehow you knew early on that you could heal that. Right. And and so will you tell us more about like, what was that like and how did you know that and what happened?

Sarah Dawkins:
Um, so I had to go because I was I was still working as a nurse, so I had to go to the doctor, um, to get signed off from work. And in the UK, we have what's called a sick note, and only the doctor can sign you off work so you don't get if you're off work without a sick note, you don't get paid. So I had to go to the doctor to get this sick note so that I could get paid from work to be off. Um, whilst I was having this depression and suicidal thoughts. And, um, so for the doctor had to diagnose me, and the first thing he wanted to do was give me pharmaceuticals. And I had no idea how I was going to heal the depression, I really didn't. Um, and so I, I declined the pharmaceuticals and said, you know, thank you. I don't want them. I know I'm going to heal this. I have no idea how I'm going to heal. Um, but I know I will because, you know, I've healed other things. Um, and I really didn't know how I was going to heal it. And it was. I healed the depression and my underactive. Well, not mine. The underactive thyroid that I had and the burned out adrenal glands I had. I healed all of those together because, as Charlotte Gerson says, healing is healing. You can't heal two diseases and keep one. When you heal, your body just heals if you support it. Um, and so I've done some work with diet and changed my diet, and I had to get out and walk the dogs. Um, and then, as I say, I started becoming mindful and expressing gratitude, although I didn't really know what I was doing at the time. And once I started doing that, I actually started feeling a bit better. And that's when I did some meditation work. At first it was literally just five minutes of guided meditation, because sitting still and being with my own thoughts wasn't going to work for me. I didn't I couldn't shut this voice up. Um, so I chose some guided meditations and initially just five minutes because I was just all over the place, my mind was literally just on the go all the time.

Sarah Dawkins:
Um, so I just kept myself busy so that I tried to quieten my mind down. So being quiet, my mind was all over the place. So I just started doing some five minute guided meditations, just trying to find peace initially. Um, and then as I, as I was healing and feeling a little bit better, I started lengthening the meditations into, well, what's next and what's next and what's after that. So I started meditating on setting up my own business, because this was before I'd set up my business. And then I started meditating on being a successful entrepreneur and then an award winning entrepreneur and and just trying, you know, little bit by little bit, I was looking more into the future. But initially during the very early stages of that depression, I could not even look into the end of the day that I was on, let alone, you know, a few months or a year into the future. Um, but it was all it was all baby steps. And that's all we can do when we're on our healing journey, especially when we feel so overwhelmed and engulfed in this depression. It was so dark. Um, so it really was just tiny baby steps, little by little, every single day.

Daniel Aaron:
Wow. That's amazing. So I want to go back, though, for a second to that moment when you had to get the sick note right, and, and you go to get a diagnosis and the doctor that you're seeing says, here's this pharmaceutical medication, take this. And you felt somehow inside you that you didn't want to do that. Was that a challenging moment? Was the doctor puzzled, insistent? What happened?

Sarah Dawkins:
Um, I'd. Had antidepressants before, after the birth of my son for a postnatal depression, and I knew that they they just made me feel like a zombie. And because of all the natural healing I'd done to get to where I was at that time, I just said, no, I've done I've done antidepressants in the past. I don't want to do them again. And he's like, well, but but they'll help you. They'll make you feel better. Like, no, they made me feel like a zombie. And and I don't want to go down the pharmaceutical route. And I just said, look, I have no idea how I'm going to heal this. I just know I will. Um, and he was like, okay, we'll come back and let me check on you because I was still having the suicidal thoughts. So come back next week and let me make sure you're kind of alive and, um, and see how you're going. So I did have to go back every week to see him, um, because he wanted to see me, and and, you know, it. Slowly, slowly, I started to improve.

Daniel Aaron:
That's phenomenal. Well, and as you say that one of the things that occurs to me is probably your, your own level of certainty around it was reassuring in a sense for the doctor. I mean, who knows? That's a lot of speculation.

Sarah Dawkins:
Yeah. And that's all I can think. Uh, and plus which in the UK, I think we only get four minutes with the doctor anyway, so we didn't have the time to have a long discussion with me, like, yes, just going to heal this. I'll just come back next week.

Daniel Aaron:
Right. Okay. So and then you mentioned in that little part about how you became an entrepreneur, and something that I postulate is that there may be is some relationship between being an entrepreneur and creating a vibrant, thriving life. Now, of course not that one has to start a business in order to have a great life. Plenty of people don't start a business and have amazing lives, and plenty of people have businesses and have crappy lives. Um, though, what do you think though? Do you think there's some kind of relationship there or is there for you?

Sarah Dawkins:
I think I, I knew I wanted to do something different. Um, when I was healing that depression and and I wasn't, I saw myself as being less and less happy in my work in the hospital. Um, because of some of the healing work that I've done. So I knew I didn't want to stay there. And my husband said, why didn't you set a business up? Well, I have no idea how to set a business up. And what on earth am I going to do? And, um, but anyway, I just. I just leapt out of the hospital because, you know, it's like I don't feel aligned with anymore. So I leapt out into a nothingness. So I thought, well, I've got to lose. I've, you know, jumped out of the the work in the hospital. Um, so I set a business up, uh, in and the university that I did my nurse training and my degree and my master's, um, also had a graduate entrepreneurship program running, and I was invited to go and join that. So I did, and they did classes on setting up businesses on the legalities of it and the things you need to be aware of and the things you need to pay for. And so I went to all these classes and the university then said, oh, we're having a showcase day, and we'd like you to showcase your business because you do lots of different things. Um, so I was terrified. What do you mean? You know, I'd stand in front of people and do a presentation. What? What even is PowerPoint? So I had to learn PowerPoint, and I did a presentation in front of all these people with a few other entrepreneurs and properly like a deer in the headlights. And, um, and I won that company. Um, company to watch was the prize I won because they said I've made something out of nothing. Um, so that was my first, uh, award. And then a few months later, the graduate entrepreneurship program said, look, there's a Freelancer's day coming up in London for the whole of the UK to pick some top prize winning freelancers in the UK. We think you should enter.

Sarah Dawkins:
I'm like, well, you know, there's all the all these entrepreneurs in the UK and I'm just, just me. Who am I? You know, I'm nobody. And they said no, no please enter. So um so I entered, sent it off, thought nothing of it. A couple of months later, I get a letter saying you're one of 15 entrepreneurs being chosen to win this entrepreneur of the year award for National Freelancers Day in London. And can you come down to the ceremony? I might, or so I went down with my mum because my husband was working and and we had dogs. Um, so my mum and I went down and it was in the evening. There were some famous people there. And I was lined up on stage with 14 other people, and they called my name out as second winner. They pulled out three top winners and are flabbergasted. And, you know, never thought to win anything. And they said, no, you're quite unusual because, you know, you're a nurse, but you're doing all these different things. Um, and we think you're a fabulous entrepreneur. So as part of that prize, myself and the first and the third prize winners went to ten Downing Street to meet the Prime Minister, which at the time was David Cameron. So we went inside ten Downing Street and upstairs and met the Prime Minister. So I became a award winner, a national freelancer, second prize runner up.

Daniel Aaron:
Wow. That's amazing. And so a couple things I note in there that are really cool. And then I got a question for you one. I love that your husband said, well, why don't you start a business, right? Yeah. Um, you know, to have that level of belief in you and support, um, and then for you to say, okay, well, I don't know how to do that, but why not? Right. So, you know, I know that a lot, a lot of our audience, some are already entrepreneurs, but I know some people that watch the show are watching in part because they they would like to start a business or would like to create more of their own independence in terms of creating their life. So what do you think? Like what helped you to succeed? What does it take for someone to succeed as an entrepreneur?

Sarah Dawkins:
Um, well, I. Think as I said, I meditated on it, um, for, for a while, um, but not really thinking that I would do that. And, you know, this would be nice to have in the future, but I didn't really see it happening. It's like like I didn't really believe what I was meditating on. Um, but then I thought, well, you know why? Why not? Because the hospital nursing really isn't nourishing my soul anymore. Um, and I'd written, um, I'd written a booklet to help people do the job that I was doing because there was no local or national guidance for it. So I wrote, um, a flowchart which I got into intellectual properties on and wrote a guidance book, um, that was obviously copyrighted. Um, and then and then I sold that over the world, um, as well as do the medico legal work, the DNA work, a bit of work in the hospitals, in the agencies. So I have lots of fingers in lots of pies. But it was when I first stepped out of nursing, um, all I had was the, the instruction booklet that I'd written, um, and not really anything of anything else I'd done. I'd paid for and done a private course to become a teacher, to help me in the role of teaching other people within the health care. But I it was at that point I put a profile up on LinkedIn thinking, well, you know, in for a penny, in for a pound. These are the skills I've got. And three different companies came to me asking me outright to work for them based on my own skills and knowledge. Um, so I had interviews with these people and, um, decided, well, why not? You know, just a few more fingers in a few more, few more pies. Um, and that's how I my business started. But when I was setting up and I'd gone to the bank manager to set up the business, they said, well, what's what's your business plan? I'm like, well, I don't really know, you know, because I do a bit of this, I do a bit of this and I do a bit of this and they're like, well, really, you need to have one thing, or why do I need to have one thing? And they didn't give me a bank account because I had all these fingers in all these pies. So I had to kind of go back to the bank manager and go, okay, so I've decided this is what my business is, and this is, this is what I'm going to be. But in reality, it wasn't because I still had my fingers in all these pies, but that got me the bank account. Um, so I could set up my business properly. Uh, and it was. It was a bit crazy, really.

Daniel Aaron:
Well, well, I love your chutzpah. Your your, you know, initiative and drive and willingness to just keep facing up to the challenges and the obstacles along the way there. And. All right, so let's shift gears, because time's ticking along. Sarah. You know now, right? You you're originally from the UK. You live in Spain now is that right?

Sarah Dawkins:
Yes, I do.

Daniel Aaron:
Um, and and your book has been translated into several languages, which is amazing. And what? You know, what's it look like for you now and what's coming up?

Sarah Dawkins:
Um, well, I was doing one on one coaching locally and on the internet through the globe. Um, but I had the, like, intuition, if you like, last year to do some workshops, even though I've never run one before, I've run teaching, uh, you know, because it used to be a teacher trainer. So I've spoken to groups of people, so that wasn't really an issue. But, um, again, one of the ladies from my booklet, my book, sorry, asked me would I do a workshop for and I went into a bit of a panic mode because I'm like, I can do this because I used to teach. So, you know, why am I having this panic attack about it? And it was because it was. I was online on a camera, but I thought, no, I'm going to push through this. And I wrote a program and I presented it in her group to many different ladies. And and it went down really well. And I did a workshop on on finding what your core belief is, finding the origin of your core belief and then changing anything that that no longer serves you. Because quite often we just run in our life through our subconscious mind and we're not actually conscious of what we believe. So my biggest one, like I say, is understanding that our body heals us. Um, that I didn't need those pharmaceuticals and medications. That was a massive 180 degree turn in my beliefs. Um, so it's about understanding what our beliefs are, where they've come from, and how we can change them because we, we get the power of choice. So once I've done that first workshop in the in her group, I decided to run one locally and I've it's it's happening next week um, locally. And I've already got several people signed up to it based on the information I've put out from the feedback I've got from the group, and it was phenomenal. One lady said, well, that's it. I've just changed my future now, um, because of changing my beliefs. So I'm looking to do more group work in the future.

Daniel Aaron:
That's beautiful, right? One I love that you know, the the themes that I keep seeing in you is this one desire to help people like, you know how you know, okay, I'll do this. I'll offer this, I'll create this, I'll write this because that'll help people. And to me, that's one of the biggest keys to successful entrepreneurship is that drive to to be of support, to to make people's lives better. And a you keep, you know, even though there are moments of doubt you you don't let them stop you, you encounter or ask the questions about why why am I doubting myself? What's the problem here? And you still find a way to move forward so that that caring and that bravery seemed to combine really well for you.

Sarah Dawkins:
Yeah. It has its challenges, obviously. You know, and the very first time you do anything you there's there's issues and things can happen that's unforeseen. But but once I've done something once I feel a lot more confident in my ability and know deep down I can do it. But it's the whole it's part of an old trauma that people pleasing that got to be perfect. Um, what if you mess up? Well, well, what if you mess up now? I'm at the point where if I mess up, I mess up. I'll just, you know, correct it and move on. But it is it does bring challenges and it does throw up some traumas sometimes. Um, and I just I see it for what it is, you know, I see that I'm needing to be perfect because that's reared its head from my past. So, you know, I see you, I acknowledge you're there, but I don't need to be perfect because perfect doesn't exist. So just go out and and do. And I think by my doing, I'm helping other people to be authentic and for them to step up and be themselves as well.

Daniel Aaron:
100%. Yep. Sometimes when I'm in a leadership position, I feel like the best thing I can do is make a fool of myself. Um. And when I make a fool of myself and don't let it, um, bring me down, it gives people permission to. To make mistakes, to try things to be themselves.

Sarah Dawkins:
Yes. Absolutely.

Daniel Aaron:
Yeah. All right. Well, I think, Sarah, we have come to probably the final big question. Um, and so if it's okay, well, actually, let me pause before I say that. Um, so for people that want to get in touch with you, learn more about what you're doing, what's the best way for that to happen?

Sarah Dawkins:
Um, you can find me. Through my website. Website? Sarah Dawkins com s a r a h d a w k I n s um, or my social medias are on there. My podcast is on there, my books on there, everything you will find. Everything. How to connect with me on there.

Daniel Aaron:
All right. Cool. So that's Sarah that does have the H and it's the d a w k I n s. For those of you all that are just listening Sarah dawkins.com. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Beautiful. Okay. Great. Well so now the big question is so big it's impossible. Um, you there's no way you can answer it because what it what you've got so much experience now and you've got so much wisdom that you've cultivated. If you had to boil that all down, if you had to distill it into one thing, one piece of advice, what's the one thing you would say to our audience, um, to help them to create a vibrant, thriving life?

Sarah Dawkins:
Be kind to yourself and others come from a place of love. Do everything from a place of love. Because love heals everything.

Daniel Aaron:
Wow. That is phenomenal. Thank you. You know, I somehow I was expecting a bit more of a physical healing response, right? Because you've got so much wisdom and experience on the physical side. But as you said that I could just feel, you know, everybody uplifting from that. So thank you for that, Sarah.

Sarah Dawkins:
Thank you.

Daniel Aaron:
And thank you for being with us. I mean, not just for investing this time to share with me and with our audience. I appreciate that, but also for the extraordinary journey that you have had and your continual integrity and bravery and your deep desire to learn and grow and serve. Right. That's the all of that has made you such an incredible value. So I really appreciate you for doing all that and for taking the time to be with us today. Thank you.

Sarah Dawkins:
That's very kind of you. Thank you, Daniel, for having me as well.

Daniel Aaron:
Oh, such an honor. All right. And y'all, our audience, thank you so much for joining because this show, it's all about you and the fact that you you have enough interest to come here and say, yeah, I'm interested in making a more vibrant, thriving life. That's amazing. The fact that you will please. Right. Do one thing from this. Take something from what you've learned and apply it in your life. The fact that you are growing and learning and vibing up, that makes a difference in the world. That is how we together change the world. So I really appreciate you, I love you, thank you for tuning in and please come back soon. We got another amazing show starting right away. All right y'all, mahalo for tuning in to the Art of Vibrant Living show y'all I'm Daniel Aaron and may you live with great vibrancy.

Sonix is the world’s most advanced automated transcription, translation, and subtitling platform. Fast, accurate, and affordable.

Automatically convert your mp4 files to text (txt file), Microsoft Word (docx file), and SubRip Subtitle (srt file) in minutes.

Sonix has many features that you'd love including automated subtitles, automated translation, transcribe multiple languages, secure transcription and file storage, and easily transcribe your Zoom meetings. Try Sonix for free today.