Ep. 87 - Surviving Stage 4: How a Mindset Shift and "Cancer Ramblings" Saved Sandy Duarte

In this incredibly moving episode of the She Can Heal Podcast, we sit down with award-winning actress, author, and certified sound practitioner Sandy Duarte. Sandy shares her raw, unfiltered journey of battling non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma—a diagnosis that came after a relentless, mysterious cough and a tumor so massive it collapsed her left lung.

But Sandy’s story isn't just about surviving; it's about a profound mental, spiritual, and creative awakening. Sandy opens up about:

• The "Cancer of the Mind": Navigating the isolation, brain fog, and psychological battles of aggressive chemotherapy.
• Cancer Ramblings: How arguing with the divine at 3:00 AM birthed her beautiful book, Cancer Ramblings from Why to Why Not, and why writing became her judgment-free sanctuary.
• The Power of Sound Healing: How she intuitively bought crystal and Tibetan bowls mid-chemo, eventually using vibration therapy (including Peter Hess body bowls) to release physical trauma and calm her nervous system.

Whether you are navigating a medical diagnosis, managing your mental health, or looking to bridge Western medicine with Eastern wellness wisdom, Sandy’s vibrant energy and deep insights will remind you that healing is always at your fingertips.

Connect with Sandy:

• Book: Cancer Ramblings from Why to Why Not 
• CANCER RAMBLINGS | Empower Through Resilience—Join Us
• Instagram: @Sandy__Duarte
• LINKEDIN

Transcript

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Welcome To She Can Heal

SPEAKER_00 0:37

Hello and welcome to the She Can Heal Podcast, a podcast aimed at helping women heal and thrive emotionally, physically, and spiritually. I am your host, Kayla Eldea. I'm a licensed therapist and a self-care advocate that is passionate about helping women take back their power and help them realize they're important, worthy, and deserve the care and attention they give to those they love most in their life. This show is meant to help inspire you on your healing journey, no matter if you're in the discovery phase and are just realizing that you have unhealed wounds, habits, and mindsets that are keeping you stuck in your life, or you've been on this journey for a while and are looking for inspiration, encouragement, andor new tools to help you continue on your healing journey. My goal is to help you realize that you can heal from all that lightheps thrown at you and are capable of evolving into your healthiest and happiest version. On this show, I will provide you with resources, tools, and insights to help you heal and thrive emotionally, physically, and spiritually because you deserve all of that. So if you're ready to ditch the guilt and make yourself a priority, then you're in the right place. Because the truth is that you can't pour from an empty cup, even though most of us do this on a regular, and we really need to stop that nonsense. So get ready to be inspired, motivated, and equipped to truly thrive. Hello

Meet Sandy Duarte

SPEAKER_00 1:59

and welcome back for another episode on the She Can Heal Podcast. So I am so deeply honored to introduce today's guest on the show. Her name is Sandy Duarte. She is an award-winning actress who recently added another incredible chapter to her life's journey, Stage 4 Cancer Survivor. But Sandy's battle with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma wasn't just about survival, it was a profound creative and spiritual awakening. Right in the middle of chemotherapy, she penned her raw, poetic and beautifully resilient book, Cancer Ramblings from Why to Why Not. As her body healed, she turned the restorative power of sound breath and movement. And today she is a certified sound practitioner, yoga teacher, and wellness guide. From teaching in Los Angeles Studios to leading transformative sound journeys at USC LA, Long Beach City College, and directly in hospitals for both cancer patients and healthcare staff, she creates sacred spaces for deep internal healing. She's a living testament to how we can transform our deepest pain into our highest purpose. Please help me welcome this incredible Sandy Duarte to the podcast. Well, welcome to the She Can Heal Podcast. And I'm so excited to have you here and have you share your story.

SPEAKER_03 3:24

Well, it's nice to be here. Thank you. It's I just I'm so happy to share my story and how it hopefully can inspire others to keep healing beyond what they're given. I'm a recent stage four cancer survivor, and I'm really happy to be alive, to live and tell. I I had uh a lot of aggressive chemotherapy. It took up almost a year of my life. But in the process, I wrote a book. I have my book here, Cancer Ramblings. And I also birthed this whole, how do I say, modality of healing through sound that now I showed the world. And I want I want you all to just take away that wherever you are and whatever you're going through, there's so much healing at your fingertips that sometimes is simply free to support the other's medicine that you're taking. That's kind of like my takeaway here.

SPEAKER_00 4:13

Yeah. Absolutely. Great, great. I think that I know that your story is really powerful when it relates to you recovering from illness, right? Um, as a therapist, you know, I deal with, you know, individuals with their emotional health, but I think that both of those can really come together. So I would hope this converse for people to really understand that no matter if you're going through a some type of medical diagnosis, a an emotional or mental health diagnosis, that I think today's conversation can be really valuable just for everyone.

SPEAKER_03 4:47

I agree. I agree. You know, what's one thing that I I've said a lot in conversation is that there was battling cancer of the body, the obvious cancer. Then there's something that I call the cancer of the mind. Equally, if not more challenging, I can swear to you, was like battling the mind between the chemo drugs, the brain fog, feeling strange, isolated, and out of your body. Like what reality am I in? Your whole world changes, your rituals. So it was really those two battles coming together. I don't know if which I I think I would take cancer of the body over cancer of the mind because that was such a challenge to notice your mind slipping and having to keep sharp in order to keep your body intact and going through the crazy thing that is, you know, fighting cancer. It was in that process, I swear to you, that uh the writing was born. And through the writing, I was able to make sense of the nonsense that is cancer. I was able to feel less alone in the middle of the night or in the middle of the days, and just you know, it it helped me to digest the absurdity of it all. Without having to have anybody in the room. There's something so simple yet powerful about writing. It's free. A laptop, a pen to paper, and it really supports your mental health.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

Amazing. Yeah, I truly believe that. Can we go back to your story? So,

The Cough That Would Not Stop

SPEAKER_00 6:11

where it all started, where you got your diagnosis and you going through that period of time?

SPEAKER_03 6:17

Yeah, you know, I've always been healthy my whole entire life. I I never needed to be in the hospital and take care of myself and very conscientious about my health. And then I was di I was before I was diagnosed, I had a really bad cough that wouldn't go away. It was just this cough. It was so relentless, and it got worse. I thought I had pneumonia or bronchitis, especially being an East Coaster, moving over to Los Angeles, to the West Coast, different climate. We forget. And then the months go by and I'm declining. My health is declining, and I can't do yoga. I can barely cut walk up my hill. I'm I it's it's like I'm 150 years old. And I thought something's really messed up with my lungs. And I'm not one to panic about health because why would I think I'm sick? I just thought maybe there's just something I need to. I did everything, right? Finally, it got so bad I couldn't even get my car out of my parking spot, like to even steer it. I was just really messed up. I said, I gotta check out my lungs. So I went and actually paid for out of my own pocket because you know, I just like I'm just gonna go check this out. I went and I got an MRI. And a primary care doctor that here that got the results called me and said, They want to see you again. I'm just giving you fast forward. I said, Okay, I go back again. Guess what? The next day the doctor calls me with that voice that I always tell people, it's like the typical voice you hear in the movie scene that it's gonna be bad news on the on the phone. That was the voice. She goes, Yeah, forget all this stuff about your lung. You have to go to the hospital right now. I thought, what? I had a I had one of my dear friends meet me there. It was kind of late in the night. I thought I'd be in and out. I thought maybe it's just something with my lungs. Long story short, I never left. I what I went in for, what I thought would be maybe a quickie in and out solution, ended up being biopsies and everything you can imagine, eyes wide open, to discover two weeks later, you have stage four non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and your tumor is so massive, he was 10 by 15, it collapsed my left lung, and that's why I was having the breathing issues. So, in the process of fighting cancer, I had to, I was told I could live with one lung, which I didn't accept. So, again, power the mind. I believe I brought back my lung, but I had to also live with a chest tube for like two almost two weeks, and that was the worst thing ever. So it was insane. That was the journey. I gotta tell your listeners, your viewers, don't be paranoid. I'm I'm still, you know, you can't be, oh, every little thing, I'm is it a disease. No, but there's something about coughs. If your cough is not going away, just go get it checked out. Just get it checked out. I waited a little too long. Thank God I wouldn't. I had to go in. I was declining. But check those things out. The cough is the body's way to maybe say there's something going on here. You know,

Stage 4 News And Mindset Shift

SPEAKER_03 9:26

English without words.

SPEAKER_00 9:28

Wow. Okay. All right.

SPEAKER_02 9:30

That's a little much.

SPEAKER_00 9:31

I know it's a lot. I know, because you know, I'm just thinking of like you going into the hospital right away, and they just tell you that you have stage four cancer, which if people don't know, that usually means like you're at the end, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. What what went through your minds? Like, how did you process that?

SPEAKER_03 9:52

You know, I gave I it was a shock. I dropped an F bomb when the ecologist came in, like what the F, like literally. Like, are you serious? I didn't believe it for a minute. And I allowed myself to wonder for about 24 hours, and then I I just switched. I knew that I had to take care of this and it had to be with my mind. So I start I stopped thinking about how could this happen to me? I'm so healthy. People asking me, how can this happen to you? You're so healthy. I just stopped all of that from everybody, including myself. And I went into this like CO of my own health mindset, where I was basically, I had all my oncology team in front of me, and I told them, listen, you know, I I was a quite ignorant patient in the sense that I didn't want to know all the details. I just needed to know A to what happens now and then what's going to go. I don't want to know all the details. I said, you guys are the finest minds, you CLA minds that I was treated by here in Los Angeles. I said, you guys are the finest minds. You take care of all the details, the B to Y. All I know is the A to Z. A, I got the diagnosis, Z, I'm walking out of here. So that's my job. I know I'm getting out. You guys figure out the details. And so it started with a mindset. And then from there I said, I'll do whatever it takes. Surgery, what do we need? Chemo, what do we need? And I I really believe my mindset supported my body to uh get on board and fight this and and also with a dose of faith, love, God, universe, I thank spirit, I thank all of that. I couldn't have been here today without the spiritual quality of healing and survival.

SPEAKER_00 11:27

Yeah. Strong faith. Yeah, no, yeah. I think that's very powerful because when we think of illness, and I think of like when I hear of people who have gone through some type of medical condition, they get some type of diagnosis, right? It's all about how you think about it in the moment where I'm gonna die, or like this is it, is the end of my life, or someone like you that said, I'm gonna, I'm gonna make it through. And I'm wondering for you, is that something that you feel is inherently yours, or do you feel like you had to develop that at this point in your life? That's a good question.

SPEAKER_03 12:07

I I I'm I'm a pretty positive person. I think that's my natural disposition, and we're all different, you know, and I don't want to spew any toxic positivity that just think positive and the cancer's gone. There's a lot of death from cancer. Cancer is an ugly and vicious disease. And one of my dearest friends, her father passed away from my exact cancer. So I'm not here to say that that's, you know, the one thing, but I I really believe that just the way I am, my mindset supported me on the journey, regardless if the door opened for me at the end. I had a choice on how do I want to be as a human through the journey? How can I find the joy? How can I make sense of the nonsense through this experience? How insane to be given a stage four cancer diagnosis. I'm still blown away when I look back and I'm like, what? That was me? So it's like, how do you find the lesson? How do you find the blessing? How do you find the teacher? And now, fast forward a year and a half or so in remission, and I thank God every day for my cancer. It birthed me my book, it birthed me my sound, it elevated my creative arts to fall into more of a landscape of love and compassion, serving it in a different way in my life. And I never, I've never felt more whole and more uh filled with joy for what it is that is my purpose. So I I made a point to find some kind of reason, some kind of sense in the nonsense that it was, or else it's just absurd. You know? It really is mindset. And and how do we want to live our days? And it's the same thing, whether you have a cancer diagnosis or you're waking up in the morning, what is the choice for your life for today? You know, we're all given limited time. I'm just given a little bit more borrowed time, you know? What is the choice for our existence? So it goes beyond that. Yeah, I really think mindset is very supportive on any journey when it comes to your health.

SPEAKER_00 14:00

Yeah, absolutely. So, can you talk about so you mentioned writing was really healing for you and ultimately led

Writing Through Fear And Brain Fog

SPEAKER_00 14:09

you to write your book. Can you tell us about how you started that process? Because I think I'm just thinking as someone who just received this diagnosis, like you have to, I don't know, it's just really difficult for me to fathom it because I'm not in your shoes and I can never understand what it's like. But I'm just thinking of someone who has gotten a really basically a life sentence to then say, I'm going to write or I'm gonna use this tool to help me feel better. So if can you tell us how you started that and how you feel like it helped you?

SPEAKER_03 14:43

Yeah, it's a good question, you know. To be honest, I I never planned on writing a book. I didn't even want a journal. I had friends giving me journals saying you should write. You know, there's all these interesting experiences where I would tell them interesting stories of of roomies, you know, interesting patients, some of them wonderful, others obnoxious. And it's like the whole scene of the hospital is something made for TV, as we've seen time and time again, you know, hospital dramas and stuff. I never intended to write, I swear that from my heart. One day I'm going for a walk, I'm doing my rounds with my chemo machine, my chemo friend on wheels, and all of a sudden I'm getting these downloads of of book titles, and I'm arguing with the divine. Like, what? I'm not writing a book. Like, I'm like, it always happens this way. I'm arguing with the divine, and I'm like, that's a terrible title. That's awful. What? And then finally I got pinged with cancer ramblings, and that's why I was walking in the hospital and I said, okay, fine, we're writing a book. The title came to me first, the vision, the opening before anything else, because it was the permission through the title, which is very informal, cancer ramblings, that took away any self-judgment that I'm not a writer. I don't know how to write. What it took away all of that, and then I started just writing whenever I was divinely just needed to, or I it was scary, or I was feeling whatever. It's three in the morning, nine in the morning, six at night, anytime the keyboard was my temple, my sacred space to let it out. And then soon after I got released, I I got it going with publisher, and then in remission, it got it went out in the world January 2025, I think it was. Yeah, it's just about a year and a touch old. And that was that that was the way it went. It's it was not a conscious decision. I think a lot of the things I have to say with my own personal life, it's divine, it's it's a marriage of surrender, trusting, listening, and and flowing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:42

Okay. Yeah. I've read this book. I think it's called Writing Down Your Soul. And I just picked it up, and it's a woman talking about how she went through a really difficult marriage. Her husband was really awful. She went through this awful breakup, and she did. She just said, she sat down and she took out a notebook and she said, she just wrote, and she just wrote, and she just wrote, you know, and she said the first time she wrote pages and pages, and she talked about how helpful that was for releasing so much anger that she had for her ex-husband. So I'm wondering, when you were writing, when you were putting your story on the computer and really like telling your story, like what did you notice about yourself? What did you notice about what it did for you?

SPEAKER_03 17:29

It's a good question. I I felt I felt heard, I felt held, I felt safe, I felt less crazy because you're you're you're emptying it out of this vessel. You're not fighting the mind with the mind anymore, you know, which is such a battle. You're you're getting it out and putting it out there. I I felt relief. I felt in my moments where it was very scary, you know, a lot of fear, I felt less scared. And it was this whole, it became a whole ritual of process for when I needed it. It helped me to process. It's just, it's everything. It's so magical and divine. And I think it's for everybody. And whether you you publish a book or not, it's it's the ability to get things out of your system, is is such a way, you know. So I I yeah, that's what I can say. I I felt definitely better, and I know it was a huge part of my my mental health and my healing as well. Great.

SPEAKER_00 18:25

I hope my audience, if you're listening to this, that you are like hearing what Sandy is saying because I truly believe the same. I think that many times as individuals, we tend to keep everything bottled up. We're afraid to just share. And I think as a therapist, like one of the things that I've learned is that individuals have a difficult time of facing right. I don't want to write it down because once I write it down, I have to confront it, like I have to see it. Did it did you ever have any any of those thoughts as you were writing where like I'm afraid of what's gonna come out?

SPEAKER_03 19:03

No, no, because it was my it was my space without walls. And well, while I was writing, I know I was I knew I was connecting with something divine, universe, and I knew I was writing for all the faces I couldn't see that would need this book one day. As it was supporting me, I knew in the ether I would be able to support people that maybe are gonna start on the cancer journey or any journey of challenge and fear. So if it was a calling beyond myself, it's like when you do acts of service, it gets you out of your own crap, you know, of your own uh maybe anxieties of your own things when you're giving stuff outward. It doesn't stay anymore in here. So yeah, and it was a safe place. It it's when you write like prayer or like anything, it's I felt safe. There's no judgment. I'm just like, I'm letting it out. Thank goodness. Yeah. And it's still, and it's still something I do till this day. I I'm writing my second book, and I still journal every night my gratitude, my thoughts. When I get those waves of wonder or fear, so I go right into the page, into meditation, into prayer, all those rituals. So it's not a one-done thing. It's it's what we do as a practice daily that keeps you sharp for when life surprises you with something, you know, like cancer, like whatever, a relationship failing, anything. A challenge is a challenge. Pain is pain, whatever you call it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:30

Yeah. So who would be the ideal person? Like who is this book wrote written for?

SPEAKER_03 20:37

Oh, that's a good question.

Who The Book Helps Most

SPEAKER_03 20:38

You know, funny enough, it's cancer rambling. So you, you know, the through line is clearly written in real time on my journey, but a lot of feedback that I've gotten from a lot of people that don't have cancer was that, oh my God, this book helped me. One person, Brian Christopher, had said, I'm no longer afraid of a cancer diagnosis, if that were to ever happen to me. Somebody else said, I was going through a really hard time, no cancer at all. Completely different person than me, said, Wow, your book really helped me. So the book goes beyond the that message. It's kind of like many years ago when I was starting out in theater and stuff, I had a wonderful acting teacher, David Switzer in Toronto, my God, many, many moons ago. I'm embarking on my first acting class, like it feels like a lifetime ago. He gives me a book. It's this tiny, small, and it's called Zen and the Art of Archery. And I thought, why is this acting teacher giving me a book about archery? Well, guess what? The book was about archery and and beyond everything, and about everything. So there was so much kernel of wisdom and knowledge that went beyond the obvious, and that's not to compare it to, gosh, I love you, Zen, in the art of archery, uh, but to share the the comparison in the sense that it goes beyond the cancer and to the message of strength, resilience, mental health, and that you're not alone. You gotta believe in yourself and believe in something outside of you, whatever you want to call it.

SPEAKER_00 22:09

Okay, perfect. So we'll definitely link it in the show notes. So if anybody wants to check it out, they can. Why don't we move on to sound healing? Because that sounds like that was another big part of your journey. Um I would love to number

Discovering Sound Healing In Chemo

SPEAKER_00 22:25

one is just learn how did you learn about sound healing and just your journey to where you are today.

SPEAKER_03 22:32

Oh my gosh. Well, uh teaching a lot of yoga and exposed to sound and doing a lot of curtain when I was did my training out in Mexico. And again, it was a divine thing. I'm in the hospital, and something tells me I have to order the bolts, and I'm arguing with the divine, saying, Really? I'm living on my savings, I'm unemployed, I'm battling cancer, I'm gonna go and spend money on bolts. This is the argument. Finally, I relax. And I ordered the bowls and I made it make sense. I said, fine, I'm ordering them so that they could be something to look forward to when I'm home for two weeks from chemo before I go back again, which is so every time you go back, it gets harder. So I thought at least I have something I could play with. Fine. And well, I've never looked back. It's it's really become another part of my life, intertw intertwined with the book and wellness and yoga and all that. Um I really believe that the sound supported my healing. I mean, sound science is quantifying so much what everyone, the ancients knew. You know, sound healing allows your body to access persympathetic nervous system. Access meaning dive into that, allows you to relax. And if you're relaxed and not stressed and worried, guess what? Your body can heal. You know, it's very it makes it very difficult when you're under a lot of stress. Stress creates disease, but also keeps you in a state of illness, you know? And so I really believe that the the samples made my cells, my body, more susceptible to receiving the aggressive chemo. It helped my mind, and it's been quite a journey to cultivate peace, peace without words, peace without anything. It's sound, it's vibration. And it's been a real joy bringing it out into the world in the work that I do.

SPEAKER_00 24:10

So for someone that doesn't really know about sound healing, what is it and how does it help the body

How Sound Calms The Nervous System

SPEAKER_00 24:18

to, like you said, access that parasympathetic portion of our nervous system?

SPEAKER_03 24:23

Well, very simply, sounds alter the way you feel, right? So what happens if you hear aggressive sounds or nasty words or somebody yelling or violence? Your body, right? Yeah, it it it tenses up. This is the opposite. Sound bathing is kind of likened to being by the beach. So if you're by the beach, you know you feel great. Your body is is is trying to sync up with that gorgeous harmony or resonance of the flow of the of the beach calm, gorgeous. So it's that same thing. The vibrations of the bowls, whether they're crystal or Tibetan or any other sounds, chimes, gongs, there's all sorts of sound. It allows you, it supports you to get into um a nice meditation, you know, rather than and I love all forms of meditation, but rather than being like, I'm gonna sit here quiet, it's an it's an alternate. It's it's it's another way of meditation to just allow your mind to get out of the thinking and the stress and the wonder and the worries, and to just follow instead of sound that goes in these beautiful waves and frequencies. So it's taking you out of yourself in that way and allowing yourself to meditate. It's supportive. And it's actually been scientifically shown to help people with PTSD, with all kinds of ailments, by just bringing and supporting the person back into a harmonious, peaceful state of being. And energetically, we have seven chakras from our crown to our root, you know, that run along our spine. We are all energy. The heart has energy, we are energetic beings. So the sound in harmony, I have like I have more than seven bowls, but the seven bulls that cover all those chakras, you're creating balance, right? So just like acupuncture, right? Acupressure, meridians, right? Accessing points, keeping the chest soft and and and and on uh without tension, keeping that heart feeling gorgeous. It's it's same, same but different. The sound can do that as well, and they all work together, you know? So it's just keeping a stable, calm mind and body, and that's the supportive sound. I'm just simplifying it in the best possible way.

SPEAKER_00 26:30

Yeah. Yeah. I know I've been to sound healing classes, and it is amazing how you feel. And me personally, I was like, how does this work? Because it makes me feel so relaxed, you know. I've been to like one where you laid down, I've been to something where you're sitting, and I was very close because it was like a small little workshop. They had those big ones that you hit, all of that. And I felt like I felt my body just like vibrating, which was really cool.

SPEAKER_03 26:58

So and work with vibration, you know. I I work with two incredible uh bowl uh creators, one of which my crystal bowls are rainbow sounds, incredible. Oh, cute little dog. Sorry, oh no, I love dogs. A great company out of Australia, Rainbow Sounds, very exquisite crystal bowls, 99.9% quartz, really beautiful. And then I work with Peter Hess, Hess Sound, and their bowls are incredible because it's um metal and exquisitely made, the best bowls in the world. I mean, they go through six people before seeing if it even passes the the test of quality and resonance. But those bowls you can actually put on a person's body. They have it for sound, but they also have it for physical therapy. And so I I have one, I have a lot of bowls, you know. Thank you, has sound. But one of them that I use a lot, especially, is the universal bowl. I use it on my clients and on myself. And what the universal bowl is, is it covers a wide range of frequency. It can be placed anywhere in your body, and your body, whatever your problem you're having in your body, it'll know what it needs from the bowl. So it's it's supported me to get rid of old trauma and my ribs from the cancer. I place it on my body, on my heart chakra, my solarx, and I just, you know, and I and it's it's creating harmony, it's creating organization, it's it's reducing, um, I believe, inflammation in my body. And it's it's been a game changer in my healing, and my clients swerve by it as well. So that's what I work with, and more and more hospitals, science, and fine minds are going, wow, this is no longer hippie-dippy. This is for real. We are all in vibration, right? We're all resonant. We don't want to be stagnant. That's what we move, we jump, we walk. So the vibrations on many levels through crystal sounds and and vibrations on our body is all in that form of celebration of wellness.

SPEAKER_00 28:48

That is amazing. I've never heard of putting it on your body, but I can totally understand what that must feel like and how that can really be helpful.

SPEAKER_03 28:58

Oh, it's unbelievable. And I I I did, you know, on my own test, I have to test these things on myself, and I swear by it, I got to work and get to pick the fine mind of of Jana Hess herself, the daughter of the incredible Peter Hess, who's been doing this for 30 plus years. And I had this, my body, you know how the body holds on to trauma from the cancer and the chest tube. And I thought, man, I just can't, my body's convinced it still has something. My mind is clear, body needs help. So I I did like a long several weeks of every night putting this bowl on my body, and I went, ah, this is, I couldn't believe it. So my body needed a different form of communication to let go of that deep tension in connective tissues and stuff, and that was through Hesse's bowl, the universal bull. So yeah, it's all incredible. And you know, and I'm not one to say I beat cancer with just sound or writing, I needed my chemotherapy, I'd be dead. I was at I I that tumor was growing so fast, I'm glad he didn't collapse my heart, you know. So I needed the chemo, but it the thing is use your wisdom. What is it that you can do in conjection in conjunction with with our medicine here in the West? How can you mix it up? You know, how can you support the medicine of the West with the wisdom and medicine of the East? I believe the two can coexist. And when we find that coexisting area, that that beautiful bubble of love there, magic can happen.

SPEAKER_00 30:25

All right. So I think that that is amazing. Just your story on sound healing and how it has it can really help us heal. Now, I have a question for you. Um, if someone wanted, maybe they're interested and they're saying, wow, this is amazing, I would really love to like to

How To Start With Sound Healing

SPEAKER_00 30:44

start somewhere. Would you recommend that they go to a class to try it out? Would you recommend they go ahead and buy a small bowl and try it out for themselves? Like, what would your recommendation be for people to just jump into this?

SPEAKER_03 30:59

That's such a good question, you know. The other day I brought my sound to Long Beach City College here. A wonderful, the faculty brought me in for their yoga program, and I met a wonderful gentleman who fell in love with my sound and he was so like enamored of the bowls. So he wants to buy a set of bowls, so he's gonna be in touch with me in a couple of weeks. And all the reason I bring this up is that every journey is very different, you know. I think you know, he's gonna jump in, buy some bowls, and play with them. You know, some people might want to go take a class first. It the journey is so unique, and I I I always caution people when there's too much of a this is the way you do something. I don't believe that there is this is the way. There's many, many ways you have to listen to what's in your heart and soul. For me, I bought the bolts in the middle of chemotherapy. I started playing, I found my own voice through them. Till this day, people ask me, you know, or tell me that my sound is very unique. Where did I learn? I did I chemotherapy. I I was by myself, you know. So so you you've got to listen to that inner voice and play. Uh, and then, of course, go and find some training. I got certified during my treatments. So afterwards, I got certified because, you know, I I need to know now theory. I want to know a little bit more outside of my creativity. What is what is this about sound? So my journey was bowls first, playing, finding my voice, and then getting the certification before being able to facilitate with people. Every journey is different. This one student wants to buy the bowls in a few weeks, you know. Uh maybe somebody's curious, they buy one bowl, they don't have the money to buy a whole set. Maybe they buy one or two bowls to play and they realize I love it or I hate it, you know. So the journey is so much your own. And then there's so many great uh courses out there. So find what's what's right for you, you know, what feels good in your soul.

SPEAKER_00 32:46

I bought one of the small tin ones. Is it called the Tibetan bowls? Mm-hmm. Yes. Yep. I bought those and I use them from time to time. And I can feel, I can truly feel it. And I have also heard or on YouTube the the Pandrums.

SPEAKER_03 33:04

Yes, the hand pen is beautiful. Yes, yes, I know those very well. I I have a few fellow sound artists that play them, and they're just you know, I'd like I'd like to get that one day. They're quite beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 33:20

It just sounds I I've seen small ones on Amazon that I want to purchase just to have them because the kids really, really like it too, just kind of doing, and the sound sounds really nice.

SPEAKER_03 33:32

So I love that, and you know, it it's always great to to find somebody, somebody facilitating. You can pay for a class, you can do that. You know, people hire me all the time for things, but I'm also here to say that make it your own. You find a bowl or something that speaks to you. You can be your own beautiful self-teacher, self-healer as well, while of course taking from the minds of others. And of course, you know, you there's a lot you can do at home. We're lucky, we're we're lucky to be living in this day and age. There's so much out there.

SPEAKER_00 34:03

You can empower yourself. I would definitely recommend anyone listening to just even like try a class. I think just going to a class where someone is actually doing a sound bath, I think it's a good way for you to really like understand what she's talking about because you really can't picture it until you've gone through it. I know I've done several classes and they it I've I've gone to sound healing classes where people literally fall asleep within three minutes, three minutes.

SPEAKER_01 34:35

That's amazing. That means they are so in their they're they're so relaxed, yeah, and that's that's a beautiful place to be. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:47

Great, great. So I hear that you use writing as a healing modality. It really helped you not only to release

Turning Healing Into A Vocation

SPEAKER_00 34:55

what you were holding on to with everything you were going through, but also just to share your story, which was very healing and helpful to you. You're saying that sound healing was another big part of your story. And now you're telling me that you made a like you are a sound healer. So you do this for your work. So, how did that come about? How did you turn this from something that really helped you to then utilizing it as your own the work, right? It sounds like your purpose of really helping people.

SPEAKER_03 35:27

Gosh, you know, it just sort of came in, it got weaved into my life pre-cancer. You know, I I'm in the creative arts and you know, I love all of that, the theater, the expression, the writing, and all that. And then I also do a lot of in the wellness, you know, women's retreats, teaching yoga. I have an affinity and love for yin yoga. And so when I was coming out of chemotherapy and I had this new thing on my that, you know, I added on to my life, it was very easy to kind of introduce it into the landscape that I had temporarily left. And and then from there, they just they just came together really naturally. I mean, it wasn't anything, I didn't really uh plan or pre-think anything. I I just I flowed through cancer and and and I flowed through whatever it is that was coming through it, and it just layered on really nice in in the the natural uh flow of my creative life. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:20

Okay. How long was your the timeline between you getting your diagnosis to you becoming cancer free?

SPEAKER_03 36:28

Oh gosh. I was in the hospital March 2024, and then I got cleared, uh, I think it was September 2024. I had the first clear of first scan, and then really clear January 2025. So about, yeah, that the January 2025, about a year-ish or less than a yearish later, about, the scan was like, okay, I think we're officially in remission. So it's been about a year and a half, I think, or so of being kind of clear. And I go in every, I think every six months, I go in for a for a checkup. I'm not worried. I I really don't think I'll have cancer again. And it and and God willing, if it does, I'm gonna be a okay. I'm not gonna live in fear. You can only do the best you can. You know?

SPEAKER_00 37:18

Yeah, yeah. Okay. As we wrap up today's conversation, like what advice would you have for someone that

Gratitude Prayer Movement And Perspective

SPEAKER_00 37:28

is going through a either a difficult diagnosis or they're just going through some type of mental health challenge or some type of really difficult life stressor that you feel could really help them to move through it versus really stay stuck in it.

SPEAKER_03 37:49

A few simple things that I I swear I do till this day, pre-cancer, during, even today, every day, is gratitude. Even if I'm having a tough day or you're getting these old things in your brain, you know, that don't feel so good. I always come back to the journal and I think, what am I grateful for? Gratitude is very powerful. I'm I'm on day almost 800, I swear to you, of gratitude journal. Eight hundred almost 800 days where every day or every other day, if I miss a day, I write down, I flush out what happened in the day, and I say thank you. I'm grateful I got to do this podcast with you. I got to meet you. I'm grateful, oh my gosh, I had this successful call with somebody else. I'm grateful I had my favorite cup of coffee in the morning. I am grateful, oh, this came through, or I got to see somebody I loved, or I got a gift, or I purchased something. What is it, big or small without judgment? Gratitude gets you out of the funk, even out of the challenge, and gets you better able to see all the good in the sea of all the not so good in the moment. So that you're not focused, the more you focus on the crap, you know, the the the really obvious. If I were to focus the whole time, I got cancer, I got cancer, oh my god, I don't know what I would do. We get it. There's cancer, we get it, there's a life challenge, we get it, maybe there's a job loss. Those things, yeah, they're there. But the more you focus, the more heightened they become. So how can you change the focus of something else? A gratitude journal is very powerful. Every day, even when it feels hard on your heart, you think you have nothing to be grateful for. What is it in your day right now? We all have one thing we have to be grateful for. We woke up this morning, right? Did we have a cup of coffee or some food today or breakfast? Wow, I got to did I get to shower today? Oh my god, hot water and soap. It can be that basic and then it grows very abundantly. Number two, take five minutes a day to pray or meditate, or to sit in nature, or sit in your backyard, or sit in your terrace, or take five minutes, five minutes no matter where, and just be still. No technology, no noise, and send a prayer out. You know, a prayer outside of religiosity. You know, I'm not talking about religion, I'm I'm I'm more into God is everywhere. I'm a spiritual person. So find that in yourself, whatever you believe, right? Faith is key. And what else can I tell you? Move your body when you feel funky and it feels hard, go for a walk. Telling you, just look around, just start looking around. And let the walking and the momentum of the movement remind you that you're alive and that you'll move through this period of your life and look back. This is a key thing as well. Sorry to give you so much. Look back on your life and the hard parts. Did you not make through make it through them? So now when something happens where I feel challenged, I swear to you, I go, Sandy, you went through cancer and you survived that. There's no way in hell anything can bother you. This, this small potatoes, this person, this, this challenge. I laugh now. After cancer came to kick me in the butt, you become a warrior of your own life and better able to grasp and see the nonsense and discard what you don't know, don't need anymore.

SPEAKER_00 41:05

So I hope that helps, guys. Oh wow, Sandy. Thank you so much for this conversation. I think that I myself am I just received all this positive energy from you and your story and everything that you shared with us. And I know that my audience, anyone listening to this, I know that you guys are going to just, I feel like the biggest lesson is like if you could do something like this, a diagnosis of cancer, stage four, which anytime you hear that, you're like, that's it, right? I'm gonna die. And for you to be able to just recover from that, heal from that, and be here to this day to say, like, I've made it. And a lot of it has to do with, like you said, combining both, not saying I'm not, I'm just gonna like be positive and I'll get through it, but saying, like, I need chemotherapy, like I need you guys to shrink these tumors, and I'm also going to take care of my mind and help myself to really get through this as best as I can.

SPEAKER_02 42:08

Thank you. It's been a joy to share with you and to meet you. Thank you for bringing me on board. You're welcome. Thank you for everything you're doing and sharing the message of healing in all its ways. It's been a real joy. Thank you to your listeners.

SPEAKER_00 42:24

Thank you so much for joining this conversation today. I hope this episode was helpful to you on your healing journey. Don't forget to subscribe

Final Thanks And Subscribe Request

SPEAKER_00 42:31

so you never miss an episode packed with valuable tips and insights designed to empower you. If you found value in this episode, I'd be so grateful if you left me a review wherever you're listening from. And share your thoughts and feedback. This really helps me to reach more women just like you. Thanks for listening.