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Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:00:00

Are you a mother who's felt overwhelmed by the emotional, energetic, and psychological demands of motherhood? An individual who feels disconnected from your body due to physical discomfort or other struggles. or possibly someone who's had many interests and struggled to find the way that they all align. Whichever of those may identify or speak to you, Interestingly, today's guest is someone you are going to connect with and enjoy. Stick around to find out more.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:00:33

Welcome to The Grit Show, where our focus is growth on purpose. I'm your host, Shawna Rodrigues, and I'm honored to be part of this community as we journey together with our grit intact to learn more about how to thrive and how to get the most out of life. It means a lot that you are here today. As you listen, I encourage you to think of who may appreciate the tidbits of we are sharing, and to take a moment to pass this along to them. Everyone appreciates a friend that thinks of them, and these conversations are meant to be shared, and to spark even more connections.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:01:14

Sarah Frederickson is a health and wellness counselor and educator using Eastern And Western Sciences to help other step out of toxic intergenerational behaviors, choose health, happiness, and healing, and elevate to their higher potential. After years of exploring, seemingly disparate careers in Italian, Buddhism, and early childhood. It was not until becoming a mother that Sarah was forced to reexamine her life path and experience of wellness. That's a little bit about the skill stacking that we often talk about here on the good show. unexpectedly overwhelmed by the Shawna, energetic, and psychological demands of motherhood. Sarah returned to a more deeply immersed herself in the wellness practices of her past. Her hunger for knowledge has resulted in not only a master's degree in child and family development, multiple certificates connected to that, but also training in yoga and yoga therapy as well as Ayurveda. She's currently working on her certification as an Ayurveda practitioner. She currently connects with others to her business, elevate you well, where she offers consultations, classes, and workshops to individuals, families, and groups in a multitude of ways through all of those topics because she does have so many skills to offer. And I am so excited to have her here for this conversation today. Welcome, Sarah.

Sarah Frederickson [: 00:02:33

Thank you, Shawna. It's good to be here with you.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:02:35

Yes. I'm so excited for this conversation, and I am excited to have a conversation today because this is our fiftieth episode of The Grit Show. So thank you for being here for our fiftieth episode. Yay. It’s hard to believe.

Sarah Frederickson [: 00:02:46

Congratulations.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:02:47

Thank you. We made it this far. It's been almost a year. It's, like, very exciting.

Sarah Frederickson [: 00:02:51

Took a lot of grit.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:02:53

Yes. A lot of grit. Exactly. When we chatted about having our conversation today that we were gonna talk a little bit more about grit and how that works into things as well as talking about. Ayurveda and yoga and early childhood and family development work that you do as well. So let's start a little bit with you and your path to getting to where you are and kind of how that connects to the grip piece. So you wanna share with us a little bit about your journey and how you manage to -- stack those skills because we talk about that on this show a little bit about how like, when you find your magic place is when you take all of your interests in skills and turn them into one thing. And you've managed to kind of do that with your current work. So can you talk a little bit about how you bring together ayurved, and yoga and child and family development and wellness to do your current work?

Sarah Frederickson [: 00:03:42

Yeah. I've Absolutely. And it's definitely been a long road. I think, you know, from the time of being a young child that I knew I was meant to connect with people, You could say serve them, help them, resonate with them, align with them. And then, you know, going out into life and this culture, and experiencing the pressures. I gave into certain pressures. I went down different roads. Our little meandering roads off the path. You could say, and often found this isn't resonating. This isn't me. Or this resonates for a while. And then I realized, There's something deeper that I'm really needing to work on, and maybe that's a deeper connection with others. Maybe that's something internal. So, you know, I I love all the different paths I went on because they're all part of what has brought me here today. but things like Italian. You know? It allowed me to thrive in the gregarious way that I wanted and needed to thrive at the time. but then came to a point where I was like, well, you know, I'm only gonna go so far teaching Italian, and I'm not gonna keep, you know, traveling to Italy over and over because I wanna have a family. So it's shipped a little. As soon as I started working more closely with children in professional settings, I realized I need to know how their brains work. I need to know how their bodies are developing so I could do this right, and I can really connect with these kiddos because so important that they're held in, I'm gonna say, the sacred space of early childhood, that they're really given the resources and supports from the adults them that they need to thrive. From there, I, surprisingly, to me, primarily, decided to get a master's degree and moved across the country from California to Massachusetts to do that. Got my master's degree in child and family development. and wanted to then work with the purpose of, how can we all children and the grown children? So adults, access what we need throughout our life starting from early childhood so we can thrive. And I know that's not always possible because we live in a very diverse, sometimes challenging world with so much going on. But nonetheless, I knew that this was going to be my path was was helping people to thrive. Especially people who may not have had the chance in early childhood. So then from there, I went into a career a little more than a decade that was hugely beneficial for me now in retrospect, I can say that. But in the time, I didn't feel it. I was constantly feeling challenged there was a lot more rules and regulations. And I was applying this early childhood, child development, and family knowledge. But I think not in the way that my heart was really calling, so I had to do a lot of self work during that time to help myself stay equilibrated, figure out, is this the right path? How can I plant some more plants along the pathway to make it more appealing and interesting for me to stick with it. And then realized during that time that I needed to do some more practices for myself outside of work because work and career is not the only thing. Do things like yoga, which I had done years before and was introduced to by my mother and others through the years. And so I came back to yoga and found some roots there, found some approaches practical approaches and practices that I could really wrap my arms around literally and figuratively some breath work, meditation, etcetera. And then, you know, began to study some Buddhist philosophy began to travel a bit more to India and Nepal. Of course, there was Italy mixed in there because of those earlier years. and connect with people from around the world and hear their life perspective, observe their way of being and see that my way was not the only way. So, really, you know, expand my perspective. All of this just brought me back to how do I align within myself. How do I continue to connect with others authentically and to support them whether they had a strong positive early childhood experience or not, support them, help them, or just connect with them.

Sarah Frederickson [: 00:08:33

So you managed to do a lot of incredible traveling and learning and kind of the path that you were on was not where you wanted to stay. And so you made some changes, and you got this so then you moved to getting the training. So you took that yoga to actually getting trained -- in yoga and also now trained in ayurveda. So how did you make that big shift to actually changing your career away from that?

Sarah Frederickson [: 00:08:55

Yeah. Naturally, I went from Buddhism to yoga and then to Ayurveda and then began, you know, intermixing all of these because they all come from lineages in the same place. Ayurveda really brings me back to the body where I think that health can originate from. It can also originate from the mind, but I'll just offer and relative to my own grit that I think much of my life leading up to early adulthood, I was not fully embodied I perceived myself to be separate from my body that I couldn't control or influence or bring greater wellness to this body. It was like, I just had to kinda deal with it. You know, I could do little things maybe here and there, but nothing would have a lasting impact And ayurveda helped me to see that you can with sometimes little change and sometimes really big change. And as soon as I started drinking, I'll just use one example, a particular tea that was a mix of 3 seeds. Those who know Ayurveda, cumin, coriander, and fennel. Soon as I started drinking that on a daily basis and seeing the way my digestion And then there's just the way I felt overall shifted so significantly over a number of months I was sold. It was like, oh my gosh. This feels great. And I think that that change then brought me to the state of more embodiment. I felt more empowered more active, I could be an agent of my own wellness. Of course, I dabbled with that in yoga, but the Ayurveda really sunk it in because so many of us, I would say, across the world, are dealing with chronic imbalance, so being out of balance, often manifesting in disease. And sometimes we just throw our arms up. And it's like, well, You know? The doctor says this. The doctor says that. Or I got this medicine or that medicine. And these, you know, doctors and medicine can absolutely help But often times from my perspective of practicing, it doesn't always alleviate the root issue. And so Ayurveda brings you back to the root issue. I like to use the analogy of a dandelion. We have a lot of dandelions here in Vermont all across the fields and the mountains. And so, you know, you can cut the flower off of that dandelion if you don't want it to go to seed. or the seeds rather to disperse and grow more around. You can even rip the leaves off. Right? It's not there. Great. Dandelion's gone. but it's gonna continue to grow. And the seeds, if you don't, you know, bury them far, far into the ground, they're still gonna disperse, and there are still few more dandelions. So using your travel to gently nudge the soil around and dig out that root and then put some more compost or nurturing soil in there. So that's basically what I like to think that we're doing with Ayurveda. is trying to find the root causes of our imbalance and the mind and the body and the energy, the spirit, and root it out and then apply different cells or therapies to support and sustain ongoing health And I should have said earlier or could have said earlier that I became a mother about eleven and a half years ago. And that was part of what pushed, not nudged, but pushed me to need to become more embodied and to realize, woah, I'm not fully embodied. And what are these shadows that are coming up for me when I'm interacting with my children. And for those that are there with psychological work or young in theory, etcetera, we may talk about the shadows. and the shadows came into my mind as a young mother thinking, I've got the master's degree in children. I'm fine, especially infants. You know? I've worked with children most of my life. My mother was a teacher. No problem. And then to have these reactions, For example, by shadows, I mean, not feeling comfortable when my baby would wake in the night and cry. Okay. It's not comfortable for anybody. But having that sense of dread, I'm talking about deep angst, whether it's sadness, whether it's anger, whether it's anxiety and having those shadows, those strong feelings arise, and needing to deal with that was part of what allowed me and pushed me to dive deeper into these practices, yoga, ayurveda, etcetera. So that I could find the cells, so that I could start to examine the dandelions and wonder, oh, You know, is is that a dandelion? Do I need to root something out that's been embedded in my Psypea or in my heart or in my body tissues for so long.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:14:09

Yes. And I think that that's a beautiful thing when you and I were first chatting about you And this conversation today and relating back to the grit piece, that's one thing that we talked about is that the grit show, like, the name of it, is that we all have the grit. We all have worked really hard to get where we are and to be in this place in life, and you've worked so hard with your career and getting to where you wanna be and all these pieces. And then we get to this point where we have the grit, but we also want a life where we thrive or we have ease or we have good positive things. And, grits not enough. And so it's interesting because the name of my show is the Grit Show. And people hone in on that, and there is so many studies and so much important stuff around Grit, and Grit is important there's the important qualities of it, but there's also this important piece beyond it, which is that alignment and that thriving and this embodiment that you're speaking of. And that's what I feel like. This show was for the people with a grit, but this show is bringing that next level with this community of that ease and that -- embodiment and enlightenment. I love that you're talking about embodiment because this has come to light for me recently. as well when, like, emotions and actually filling emotions in your body and that I was taught to think. Like, I have a master's degree and it's, like, cognitive behavioral therapy and thinking cognitive. Everything's cognitive. And, no, feelings you feel them. You need to feel them in your body and work through them. And if you don't feel them, you won't get to the other side of them. And these things that we've been taught our entire lives, it amazes me that with my schooling and education, and I went to a wonderful program. And I know incredible people. I'm like, how did I never get that I was supposed to actually feel my feelings that I can't just think my way through them and talk my way through them, and cognition isn't the sole of doing things, and I recently read and saw some things around, like, how much our society pushes that on us. And so I feel like your perspective on -- the embodiment and the importance of getting back into our bodies and having this empowerment that we can do things for our body, and we do have the ability. And we've had some fabulous conversations. We have Jenelle Woodlief on here talking to us about the body, and she does body work. And, like, that conversation was really powerful around that piece too. And so I love having more of these conversations about connecting with our bodies, and I love that Ariveda is one of those tools that really does that. So as you've taken your own journey, you've taken a step further that, like, you learned and now you're ready to work with others. So can you tell us about your experience learning and and teaching and working with others?

Sarah Frederickson [: 00:16:42

Yeah. Absolutely. So I've gone through several layers of ayurvedic training. I'm at what we would call level 2 in the United States. I'm in training right now as an ayurveda practitioner but certified already as an Ayurveda health counselor. But through that, in particular, I was finally able to see, oh, I can work 1 to 1 with clients. I can do this. Then I intertwine you might say the yogic tools such as breath work, meditation, etcetera. And then also the knowledge that I have and the other tools that I have relative to child and family development. So I meet with clients 1 on 1 primarily in my consultation practice, and I do that both in person here in Vermont And also virtually in fact, I've been doing it virtually longer because I started doing that during the pandemic. And so I do my consultations. I ask people all about their body functions. And sometimes think folks are a little put off by that. Why are you asking me about my poop and my pee? You know, don't you wanna know, you know, some something else or my list of medications or what my goals are. And I do ask those things too. But by understanding where the body is and how it's functioning right now, I can come to understand how the elements There's 5 natural elements that we focus on in Ayurveda. All those elements are manifesting within you right now and what your natural baseline is, your natural state. And then I'm creating the bridge. Right? How do we get you from now potential imbalance back to your natural state, and then it involves, you know, digging up the dandelions, etcetera. And some of the primary tools I used I mentioned earlier, the yoga and ayurveda, breathwork, and meditation, but I also use herbs We talk a lot about daily routine. When's the right time to eat certain foods, talk about getting out into nature. Are you only in a city? Do you ever connect your feet to the grass? Do you ever look at a tree connecting with other people? So depending on the person, there's gonna be more social interaction recommendations, other lifestyle recommendations. It really can run the gamut, and I've got a broad full kit, which is nice.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:19:07

Yes. You're really dealing with a full picture. And I think so many of us are looking, like, when we go to our doctors, I know I did, but I was dealing with recent medical things. You're only worried about this one thing. What about these other 3 things? And they don't wanna hear about the other 3 things. I'm a whole person, and I think it's all connected. Can't we have a real conversation?

Sarah Frederickson [: 00:19:26

Yeah. And the beauty in part particular of ayurveda, but really, you could say my whole toolkit is that I can try to tackle multiple issues with one recommendation. So trying to get out in nature and take a 10 minute walk 3 days a week can tackle all sorts of challenges. I also choose herbs that are going to address multiple challenges. So whereas, you know, you might take this thing for headaches. You take this other thing for your spinal inflammation, this other thing for your high blood pressure. We try and come up with fewer than those 3 medications within a single herb that are going to tackle all of them and root out. the issue and help bring you back to balance. And I will say it absolutely takes grit to make the choice for this kind of remedy you might say or these kind of approaches. Right? Because it's not all gonna happen right away.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:20:30

Yeah. That makes sense. It takes time for those type of approaches.

Sarah Frederickson [: 00:20:35

And I would also say it takes grit to choose specifically wholeness stick methods to be more well because, you know, our society is not set up in such a way to encourage us to go after those, we would tend to go for the band aids. Those are more accessible. Those are what are highlighted in marketing and media, etcetera. And oftentimes, that's what's provided to us by our health practitioners. And, again, not to say that those cannot help. But if that's all that's available, then we can't root out the root of the imbalance or the disease, etcetera. And then in this society, there's so much stimulation and so many options or indulgence. And I'm using that word with a lot of grace and not judgment. because we are humans and we simply seek the things that we desire. And so, you know, These things are everywhere. It's anywhere from ice cream to the loud music to the devices, to alcohol, to not connecting with people and just staying in your home, not being in nature, etcetera. Again, no judgment for any of these. I do these things too. But when they're so over abundant in our world, then it makes it easy for us not to do the opposite. And so choosing these holistic methods is challenging because of that and it requires some acknowledgment on our part. You know, I'm not feeling well, and I'm ready for change. I'm also ready to do some work some hard work that may not come about right away. And I'm not saying for everybody, you know, to eliminate disease or alleviate disease that it will take years, but it's not like putting a Band Aid on something. Right? It takes some time to work through and willpower. I sometimes do the things or eat the things that I know are not going to help the lingering imbalance in me, but then I still go back and I make the choice to do something that will bring me more balance and bring me to a greater state of wellness. And along those lines, it makes me think of the healer still healing, healer needing to be healed. It's a constant process, and I think that's important for the public and for clients to know. Right? Like, I and other holistic health saying choose our lifestyle. We are so well. You know, Sarah is always blissed out in her meditation absolutely not. I have a therapist. You know? I ate ice cream after my lunch meal, which is not appropriate for my digestion, but I did have a little bit anyway. Right? And so there's always something to heal and work through And we get to choose when and how we do that and know that it's a process.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:23:47

Yes. I was talking to Ella Shawna. She has the Black Writer Therapy podcast, and she's in my network, and she was on AuthorExpress last week. And she was saying, like, we just all walk each other home at night. And so we're all just trying to get through this. And I think a lot of the work we're doing as counselors and supporters and coaches and You know, people that are speaking about all this or having podcasts, we're working through it all too. And we have the advantage of regularly talking about it. We talk about self care on my podcast every single week because I need to hear about self care multiple times a week. It's not something I'm an expert, and it's something I'm working on alongside everyone that listens to his podcast as well, and just like you're working on all the pieces you talk about as well. So we're all in this together.

Sarah Fredrickson [: 00:24:29

Absolutely.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:24:30

As an excellent reminder. I love that. And that actually is a great segue for us to go into our self care. Actually, I've changed this, and I need to remember I've changed this. It's no longer A self care spotlight. It's a self maintenance moment because self care is actually self maintenance, and it is necessary to do things to maintain yourself is necessary to maintain yourself. So what do you do for self maintenance to take care of yourself?

Sarah Frederickson [: 00:24:55

Wow. That's a big question. because there's so much, and I will offer for those perfectionists out there. There's so much more that I aspire to every single day to do that I don't do. So when you ask this question, I go to, oh, well, I would blah blah blah. Here's what I'm actually doing. So self care maintenance, I would say the morning routine is one of the most critical things for me and oftentimes is encouraged in Ayurveda. So getting up by a certain time of day, driving close enough to the sunrise, doing sense care, basically setting up my physical being to take on the rest of the day, so rinsing my mouth out, scraping my tongue. Some people do oil pulling, doing a little oil in my nose and my ears, And taking a shower before I have breakfast, these are really critical self care and maintenance, self maintenance strategies that I use that make a huge impact on me because if I don't do them or I don't do them in a particular order, I see the discomfort.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:26:08

Nice. So you have that. That's something you're able to stick to even as other things are more challenging at times to take care of That's awesome. That's good to share.

Sarah Frederickson [: 00:26:17

And you mentioned before we were chatting the stick-to-it-iveness or the grit. That's absolutely what keeps me doing it. And like I said, some days less than others, and some days a whole lot more.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:26:30

We all have that balance. Right? That's awesome. And for I thank you for being on this show today and sharing with us. We actually, for each of our guests, give them a coloring book as a thank you. So there's 2 options. There's the vintage mermaid and magnificent ocean coloring book, and there's also you've got this, which is inspirational quote. So which one can we send you?

Sarah Frederickson [: 00:26:53

Oh, I think I will take the vintage mermaid because I have some little mermaids that I live with who might enjoy using it with me as well.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:27:04

That's perfect. Then it can be a self care you all do together. I love that.

Sarah Frederickson [: 00:27:08

Thank you. Yeah. And doing something like that, the drawing or the coloring just makes me think of another practice that I can offer and or just share that I use as breathing. So that would be, like, an excellent tool to make you pause and just start to have some more focused breath because our breath can often get so shallow or so heightened And by just taking those moments to pick up a pencil and color in like a little space and breathe with it can really help us to re regulate ourselves and to keep going.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:27:42

Oh, that's fabulous. Well, that's our next piece is getting to the grit wit, which is, like, what we can do as a takeaway. So Is there that or something else you'd like to offer is what our takeaway is for our audience today or something from that they can incorporate that you'd like to give them as a little gift in their takeaway?

Sarah Frederickson [: 00:27:58

Yeah. Well, that was a freebie. Here's another one. Not that I'm charging anyone for this one, but I would say Creating space between eating. So creating space between meals or snacks, preferably 2 to 4 hours between. And that can go a long way to helping our bodies come into greater regulation, helping us to med analyze any buildup that's been stuck in our bodies and then bring us to a state where we can better digest the food to come. And I could get out all day about why it's so important.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:28:47

That moves into why people should if they would like to learn more about why that is important. So that can get into getting in touch with you, which is the next part of our conversation. We're just flowing right into the next thing. But we'll stick with that for just a moment. So for folks that are listening, that if you do have stuff for your digestion and you've noticed that, then maybe one of the things you can try is to go ahead and space out your meals and your snacks and to not be noshing all the time to actually have a break for 2 to 4 hours between meals and see if that gives your body time to actually process what you've eaten -- and give it a break between meals and see if that's helpful for you. And so that's something that you can definitely look at doing and incorporating. So there's that piece. And then if folks are interested in talking to you more learning more about Ayurveda, this connection with them is about this embodiment and connecting with their body and seeing about pulling out the roots instead of just cutting off the tops of the dandelions and understanding that they need to get to the root of what's going on with them. you actually offer an opportunity to chat with you. Right? So if we give them the link that that we'll put in the show notes that they can just call and have a free consult, and that's like, 20 minutes to be able to just chat with you and see if this is something to connect with what's going on with them?

Sarah Frederickson [: 00:29:56

Yes. Exactly. Yeah. I call it an elevation call. And so folks can go to my website. It's elevateyouwell.com. All the words are spelled out. And there is a link or a tab on there to go to elevation call and actually schedule it through my scheduler. I offer 20 minutes. We can dive into, like, if you're comfortable sharing just a couple of your top priorities that you would like to tackle potentially, Again, there's no commitment with this. And then I would share, okay. Here's some ideas. I do think that, you know, I have some tools in my hand basket that could help from ayurveda, yoga, child and family development, etcetera. And then we decide if it's a good fit and you want to schedule a consult, and I do packages as well. So it could be one off could be multiple, but I love to work with people over time to help them really get excited about the changes they're seeing and really map out that path on your wellness journey that you're gonna take with me as background support.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:30:57

That's wonderful. So, yeah, So if that did pique your interest in any of those parts of that conversation, a great way to learn a little bit more and how it fits exactly with you and something too easy to get a call to get to learn more about that. And if you're in Vermont, that is where Sarah lives, and she does lots of in person things as well.

Sarah Frederickson [: 00:31:15

I do classes regularly. I do workshops. I do consultations. You know, I'm with various packages of topics that I can approach, but also accept requests for exactly what folks want. I would love to travel around to some of the different New England states working with different partners in those states and be able to see more clients over a couple of hours and make it like this community health clinic sort of setting and bring people in to really just dive in. Here's 5 strategies. Go forth. Let's check-in in 2 weeks kind of a thing.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:31:51

Yes. Sarah has a lot to offer. She's great to connect with. Well, I really love the piece that you've shared about the importance of recognizing the root and kind of digging things out and being really connected with your body and what you've gotten out of this that things are connected, and you need to be able to see that. And also the piece about your part of the process as well, we're all trying to get better at this. And sticking to it, and that's kind of where it's useful to have somebody to kinda count through that process and having that person to support that is important. Thank you so much for being here and chatting with us today.

Sarah Frederickson [: 00:32:23

Yeah. Certainly. It's lovely to be here, Shawna, and to check-in with you.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:31:26

Yes. Alright, folks. If you wanna check it out, elevateyouwell.com is her website, and there's plenty more there.

Sarah Frederickson [: 00:32:32

Thank you.

Shawna Rodrigues [: 00:32:35

Thank you for joining us today. I hope you enjoy this episode. I know I got a lot out of it. Be sure to jump on over to Instagram and follow us at the.grit.show. And if you are already following Authentic Connections Podcast network @37by27, you should definitely be doing that as well. We're launching the authentic connections podcast accelerator. It's an amazing opportunity for you to be part of a cohort launching your podcast together. It's a small group. It's very select. If you join this summer accelerator, you'll be part of the founding circle of authentic connections, which is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Get into the DMs @37by27, with the word amplify. I'll send you our workshop from dreaming to doing, and you can learn more about this amazing opportunity. Don't forget, you are the only one of you that this world has got, and that means something. I'll be here next Tuesday. I hope you are too.