S1-Ep 3. Returning Home to Yourself: Embracing Authenticity with Kathryn Sawyer

Welcome to She Speaks: Women’s Wisdom for Every Woman, where we celebrate women’s voices, honor women's wisdom, and share our sacred stories. Hosted by Char Wilson of Wilson Phoenix Wellness - MindBodySoul wellness content creator, coach, and spiritual teacher. 

In this episode, I’m joined by the incredible Kathryn Sawyer, a spiritual development coach and intuitive healer. Together, we dive into our personal journeys of breaking free from burnout, shedding the hustle, and finding our way back home to our true selves.

Kathryn opens up about her transition from a fast-paced medical career to a slower, more intentional life that allowed her to reconnect with her authentic self. We explore the power of pausing, tuning into your breath, and listening to your body as ways to align with what you really want—and to set boundaries that protect your powerful feminine energy.

We also talk about how mastery isn’t a destination but an ongoing, ever-evolving process of growth and self-discovery. Kathryn shares so many gems in this conversation, including her advice to her younger self: “You can’t save anyone.”

If you’re ready to stop running on empty and start living in alignment with what feels good and true for you, this episode is filled with practical wisdom and heartfelt encouragement to help you embrace your authentic self.

Highlights of the Episode:
00:00 Welcome to She Speaks and Host Introduction
01:00 Meet Kathryn Sawyer: Spiritual Development Coach
03:09 Kathryn’s Journey: From Hustle to Home
07:08 The Power of Saying “No” and Embracing the Pause [See free resource below]
16:54 Advice to Younger Self: “You Can’t Save Anyone”
20:55 Breath and Body Awareness: Tools for Reconnection
26:29 Mastery as an Ongoing Evolution
27:04 Connect with Kathryn: Offerings and Social Media [See contact links below]
28:44 Closing Thoughts: Where You Can Show Up as Your Authentic Self [See community resource links below]

Show Resources:

• Feeling stuck in the cycle of saying yes to everyone and everything but yourself like we discussed in this episode? Download my free Pause People Pleasing Guide and learn how to take a mindful pause before jumping into pleasing. It’s packed with simple tools to help you set boundaries, honor your needs, and show up authentically.
• Connect with Kathryn’s offerings and on social media. Her 4-part Self-Empowerment Workshop starts January 23rd! 
• Looking for virtual community spaces and in-person gatherings to reconnect with your authentic self and sacred sisterhood? Join me here…
  • The Invitation, a virtual studio offering yoga, breathwork, and meditation classes. Book your first class and use my teacher code “CHAR” for a full discount. 
  • The Woman’s Portal, offering monthly full moon sister circles and year-round retreats
  • Early Bird access is open for the

Disclaimer:

The information shared on this podcast is for educational and informational purposes only. While we share advice and personal experiences, it’s not intended to replace professional medical, legal, or financial guidance. Please consult qualified professionals for advice tailored to your specific needs. The views shared here are those of our guests and host, and do not represent all women’s experiences. We encourage you to explore what resonates with you personally.

Transcript

Char Wilson: 0:00

Welcome to She Speaks, women's wisdom for every woman, a space for us to feel seen, celebrated, connected, and inspired. Here we come together to tell our stories, share our lessons, celebrate our unique strengths, and reconnect with the sacred feminine wisdom that exists in all of us and guides us towards a lit up life of peace, empowerment, purpose, and prosperity. I'm Char Wilson, your host and owner of Wilson Phoenix Wellness. I'm a MindBodyWellness content creator and coach helping high performing professional women transform from burned out to lit up through a holistic wellness approach. Each week, you're invited to join me and my guests in heartfelt conversations on holistic health and well being, resilience, and living authentically. Whether you're navigating life's big changes, seeking deeper purpose, or simply craving connection and inspiration, you'll walk away with bite sized brilliance as we uncover empowering insights and practical steps to help you create a life of balance, joy, and fulfillment. And today, I am joined by my guest Dear friend, soul sister, and, uh, colleague in the coaching field, Catherine Sawyer. Catherine, welcome to She Speaks.

Kathryn Sawyer: 1:13

Hello, hello. I'm so excited to be here and it's so great to see you. Yeah, so Catherine and I go back, what, like a year and a half? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. About that time, yeah. That's a while.

Char Wilson: 1:26

Yeah. A little longer. Yeah. We met through a mutual friend in a spiritual community, and I walked into this mutual friend's house, and Catherine was sitting with her, the back of her head to me. And there were other people in the house, but I just walked in and I was like, Catherine, is that you? Like, I just, I just knew, I just knew, like, I felt you. So there was just this immediate connection, kind of energetic attraction towards each other. And since then we have collaborated in a few ways, an event, master classes, teaching, and before this podcast, we were talking about all the other ways that we can collaborate through courses and programs in 2025. Very, very aligned there and excited to have you and to give you space to share your story and your wisdom with the sisters that are tuning into this podcast. So Catherine is a spiritual development coach and an intuitive healer, very powerful, intuitive healer. I've experienced you in an Akashic records reading and just being in your space during meditation. So I hope you all get to experience Catherine's magic. And Catherine brings a wealth of wisdom and insight on bringing you back home to yourself. Specifically through the physical practices that connect mind, body, and soul. And a lot of what we teach and coach on is very, very similar, and so that's very exciting. We'll dive into what does that mean, you know? What does that mean for you and your personal life, and what does it mean that you are now teaching and coaching others on? So, Katherine, go ahead and tell us a little bit more. Before the podcast, you were telling me about this big shift. In recent years from leaving the hustle behind. And when you did that, which is really hard to do, like it sounds so nice and crisp and clean and easy, it's so not at all, but when you left that hustle behind, it opened other doors that you hadn't even imagined yet. They weren't on your radar. And by slowing down specifically, also sounds so simple as incredibly, incredibly hard for ambitious women. Yeah. But by this, the slowing down, you actually grew to get closer to yourself, to know yourself more deeply and to come home to your true self. So will you tell me a little bit about that spiritual awakening journey for you from hustle to home?

Kathryn Sawyer: 3:57

Yeah, absolutely. So I come from medical background and I did it for over a decade and enjoyed it, loved it. But at the same time, there was those parts that did not fit and I was trying to fit all those pieces into one. And I was also raising a daughter. I had my own business on the side. So I was running my, my business part time and I kept hitting this wall. And it was around the time COVID shut down and I was actually in the medical field. And so I was shut down for a long period of time and was caused to take a break then. And then my guides really started pouring in. There was no more. You know, I'm not, I can't ignore this guidance and all the help that I was getting then I still didn't understand I was fighting it. And from there, I got back into work, worked for a little bit, and there was something that just brewed after COVID that was like, this does not fit anymore. I am really trying to fit inside this box and it doesn't work. I was like, okay, that's it. I'm just going to focus on my own, on my own business. I've been doing this for over a decade, doing my own business. So I did that full time and really put all the hustle and grind into that and traveled and did all the things. And I loved it. But I was finding myself again in that same position where something's not right. I'm hitting this wall, doesn't feel good anymore. I'm not enjoying it. Parts and aspects that I did, but I really knew I was being called to something more. And I didn't really know what that looked like. So from there, it was like, okay, what do I need to do? And that really, again, was when I started listening to my guide. It's like, okay, you've been there before. You're always there. What, what's happening here, things started showing up and it was things I could start saying yes to, instead of saying, no, I'm too busy at this or that. Um, then I had this huge pivotal time in my life where it was like, I chose to put my business online and it slowed down a lot. I quit traveling all the time and being gone. I got to be present. I got to homeschool my daughter. And in all of that. Really started to show up to where I could start saying yes to things that I really wanted to do things. I really wanted to learn and I wasn't putting everybody else first. It was what can I do to grow myself to know myself what I what I really want to do. Do I actually like these things that I thought I had to do and it got me to the point to go? You know what? I know. I'm sorry. I can't and that and I would just leave it. No, with my complete answer, I said, if any more excuses of why I said no, why I couldn't show up and, and it, and it really did. I started to open up to like, realize that all the personal power I had that I was giving away to everybody and everything else at my cup was so empty. It was, it was a dry well and you can't feed others from that space.

Char Wilson: 7:06

Preach, girl. Okay. So there's a few things in there that I want to touch on. Can we go back to one of the most powerful things that you said, no was my complete answer. Whoa. That shift from saying yes to everyone and everything out of usually a fear of like, I have to, this is how I was raised to be a kind, good girl. They're going to judge me or think I'm selfish. You know, all of those. Messages that we've incorrectly received and, and believed and taken into us, that is not an overnight shift from saying yes to everyone and everything to saying no is my complete answer. Correct. It is a practice and it is a deliberate practice. Yeah. Tell me more about that. A bit of a night for you. Again, like, let's really break down. There's so much statements that we say as practice healers and coaches that we forget. Like, if I rewind to who I was five years ago, my question was, that sounds great. How do I do that? I don't know what that looks like.

Kathryn Sawyer: 8:18

Well, and for me, it was such a, a huge shift instantly because I took the pendulum from saying yes to everything to saying no to everything. And while I took the pendulum and threw it to the other side and I was like, nope, nope, nope, nope. How did that go for you? My guide were showing up all the time going, why were you so quick to say no? Oh, and then it was like, well, because I'm focusing on me and I'm doing this. And you know, that means that I'm showing up with other people and I'm doing all these other things and I'm focusing on me and it's like, can you do both? And then it was like, Oh, I don't know. Can I do both? But I can, and it, and it started this place of where I took a moment to pause before I wouldn't respond. So, you know, I, I worked very. You know, being in the medical field, like, needing to know things ahead of time and, you know, moving so quick and so fast, it was like, I was still doing that in my response patterns. So, starting with the pause, teaching myself, when somebody would ask me something, when I would instantly have that reaction to say something, I'd bring it back. And that practice of the pause was like, does this feel good in the moment? Does this feel good now? Is this going to feel good later on? And sometimes it would be like, you know, I don't really know at the moment. And so instead of giving somebody an answer, being like yes or no on the spot, it'd be like, can I get back to you?

Char Wilson: 9:49

That is such a powerful response and one that, like, for a long time I didn't realize was even something I could do.

Kathryn Sawyer: 9:55

Right, exactly, because we're in a society where it, answer, I mean, we're taught from children, you got, you're on a time test. Give it, give it, give it, give it, give it. You gotta shoot it out. You gotta have it. You gotta have all the answers. Have everything right here, right now. Yeah. And that's not the case when it comes to what is an alignment for me and with me right now. And that comes from the pause of the knowing myself. What do you do in that pause? I ask myself questions. So just like if you were a toddler or if you had a toddler, you know, are you hungry right now? Is there a part of you that's not being fulfilled? No. You know, all those things, but to be a little more precise, if you ask me, you just move, Hey, are you willing to come up and help me for a week X amount of time or X amount of time, I would have to look at my calendar. I would need to, you know, get some things in place before I could say yes. And so I wouldn't come back to you with an ultimate yes. I would be like, let me look at a few things and see, that would be part of the pause of like, give me a moment. If you were down the street. It might be a different story. You're like, Hey, can you come over and help me pack? You know, can you help me? Can you help me unpack? Then it might be like an instant, you know, well, what time and, and so you can sit with yourself and feel before you even start to ask other people question, what other questions do I need to ask to get all of the information? So even asking the next question, if you're only getting bits and pieces of information, get all of the information and then sit with yourself and be like, okay. Does this feel good? Is this the action that I want to take? Am I going to have time at that time? And even if you say yes to something, if it comes down to a week later and you don't, it doesn't feel good anymore, you're allowed to say no. Okay. So let's cause right

Char Wilson: 12:00

there because whoa, whoa, whoa, that was like so much wonderful wisdom packed in. Can we, can we kind of like, boop, boop, put that into a, uh, A nice little package and share one overarching lesson from your life that you wish every woman knew. In

Kathryn Sawyer: 12:22

that pause, you realize that you have choice. And in that choice, you get to choose what is for you. No matter how it's going to affect anybody else, because what comes from you comes from that well. And if that well is dry, you have nothing to give. Yeah. Yeah.

Char Wilson: 12:42

And I want to add on to this, because again, five years ago, me would have been like, I don't know what to do in the pause. Number one, pausing in and of itself feels very unnatural. Number two, I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing in that pause. How long am I supposed to be there? Like, am I, do I, do I go into a meditative state? And so I like to, I like to, you know, give options, like real life options. One of the things that I teach as a mind body coach and, you know, specializing in nervous system regulation is the first thing to do in that pause so that we can be more attuned to our body instead of listening to the tricky stories of our mind. It's to slow your breath down, up into some form of breath work or moving your body that you could do that for what, like a minute to three minutes just to calm your system, get you into a safe part of your nervous system, and then you can get curious, then you can start to ask those questions. But I want to, I want to add on to that piece of like get into your body, slow your breath. Calm your system, and then step into a place of curiosity, start asking those questions, and listen to how your body responds. Because your body is a language. You gotta learn that language. So can you talk a little bit more about that?

Kathryn Sawyer: 14:05

Yeah. So if you catch yourself in a tense moment where somebody asks you something. And you notice that you're holding your breath, that is the biggest key point right then, then and there, your body is actually saying no.

Char Wilson: 14:20

So true.

Kathryn Sawyer: 14:21

And so you, even, even in that moment where you're just not even fully aware, you're so consciously in development with the conversation or whatever is going on in your environment, where you can bring yourself back to the breath and just be like, and you don't even have to take that big deep of a breath. But sometimes what it does is it gives you the space where you don't feel like you have to be so tense. And then in that feeling, once you've taken that big, deep breath, is your body still restricted? You know, and this is the inquisitive parts of like knowing, knowing thyself, right, is what is my body physically doing here? How am I responding? How am I responding to the environment, the noise around me, the person that's talking to me, am I trying to run from this conversation? People will come into your field to show you something that is asking to be healed. And if you are ultimately in reaction to that, then what's your body telling you? There's something here, you're, if your arms start to fold, you know, all these things, you start to just have this higher awareness of what my body's doing when you're in that pause. And so with the breath, taking a full body scan. Is what I like to do. So I take the breath, I scan my body and it sounds like it's long, but it's actually getting in the habit of it. It's quick. It happened in a second. Yes. And so it's just the practice of doing it. So, you know, it's like going to the gym and you go to work out. This is not stuff that you learn overnight. You don't build muscle just because you woke up and it's like, yeah, I got this. No, you got to go to the gym. You got to practice. You got to practice. So you're an infant learning to walk again.

Char Wilson: 16:15

Our brain learns through repetition.

Kathryn Sawyer: 16:17

Repetition. Yep. Exactly. And so in that step, the breath, the scan, and then once you're, you notice the scan, where's your body holding the tension? Go into that space. Is this something that you want to explore now more or not? You know, I mean, it's tailored to every question that comes up and tailored to every movement and choice that you make. And this is where our free will comes from. You know, it comes from that conscious awareness of our choice. And then our reaction from, from the environment that we're in. Yeah. Beautiful.

Char Wilson: 16:54

Let me get to another question that I'm so excited to ask you about is, if you could go back and give your younger self, and you get to decide what that younger self is, like is it 5 year old Katie? Is it 21 year old Katie? Is it 35 year old Katie? But you choose, if you could go back and give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be? You can't save anyone. Oh, say it again. We can't save anyone. Okay, so again, we're not taught that. We're actually taught the opposite. How and when did that message come through for you?

Kathryn Sawyer: 17:32

Man, you know, funny thing is, is going back in all the work that I have done probably about three months old is when it initially started. And it started to make sure that I, I had a safe environment. I was, I was going to make sure that I was protected and taken care. And so ultimately my own on taking was, I can assist in taking on other people's emotions and their feelings. And so my ability to be an empath was super amplified. Into making sure that my environment was a safe place for me and I can feel where I needed to make sure that my energy was being most used. And again, that's where I left myself drained. Yeah.

Char Wilson: 18:36

Yeah. And I, I want to kind of add on the, the science piece of what you're describing is it's the FON response. It's the FON nervous system response and all of our adult conditioning and behavioral patterns, they really do stem. From those early transformative years where we were just a sponge to our environments in the womb and all the way up to four or five, six years old, whether we remember those consciously, our body remembers those unconscious and everything we're doing in those early years because our survival depended upon it was What do I need to do to feel safe, loved, and valued here in this, in this tribe, in this family? And so we do a lot of contorting and, and learning the conditioned self patterns that follow us through teenage years, young adult, potentially through middle age or the end of our life. Like my parents who never, I don't think they ever really knew their authentic self. They lived from their childhood. Conditioned self. I just, I love that you, that you brought that up. It's like, you, you may have a memory, an actual memory from three months old. I certainly don't, but my body, my body remembers those. Yeah.

Kathryn Sawyer: 19:53

And well, and that's the beautiful thing. Like when, because what was coming up within the body, there was something that was coming up within my body and I needed assistance to work through it. And like, okay, guides, where do I need to go? How do I get into this? And I, I went and I had fascia done and it, and it took a couple steps to be able to get myself prepared to like, actually see the event that happened, that like changed and morphed this into a bigger thing. And it was just like, Oh my goodness. But I had to come from it from a compassionate standpoint. I couldn't come from it from just being an observer. I had to be a compassionate observer to what I experienced. That's how I was then able to see the experience and then was like, oh my gosh, this actually is a memory that is stored within the cells of my body. It embedded in there, and now here I am ejecting it from those cells. Yeah,

Char Wilson: 20:55

I mean that's why breath and movement is so important. Actually in the early days, if you're kind of in the earlier parts of your spiritual awakening and healing journey. If your physical body has been screaming at you for years with discomfort and fatigue or illness, disease, a major diagnosis, that's usually how it starts. And again, our body is like, girl, flee, listen to me. But eventually with these practices, it doesn't have to get to. In the early days, that's where, I mean, for me, it was yoga. When I was going through my divorce of 17 years and thought I was dying and my world was falling apart, man, I, I slipped on my tears and sweat into a yoga classroom and I stayed there and I was compassionately witnessed for over a year and that was so transformational for me. And then it guided me on, you know, my journey of finding other mind, body, soul modalities, breath work, Reiki, sound, fascia release, all, all the beautiful things. So Thank you for, for weaving that back in, in such a wonderful way. So, for the sisters listening, it's okay if you don't have a memory from three months old. Exactly. Consciously. But your body does. And in the early days, everything that we are doing as young children is to feel safe and safe. Loved and valued and oftentimes that leaves us contorting ourselves into a version of us that is not actually who we are. So the healing work is not about becoming someone different. The healing work, that journey is about. Unpacking and removing all of the layers of not selfness to get back home to self. I could talk to you all day long. Okay, let's slide into the next question. What lights you up about helping others and how does it keep you going in your own life?

Kathryn Sawyer: 22:55

Oh, and I love this question because it has, it has really done a 360 for me. It has gone from serving others from a place of emptiness, of showing up for them. In a way that they needed me to me now, how I am serving is as I show up giving from my true authentic self, knowing what my limits are, what my limitations are, where I can start to delegate from a place, not as comparison, or I'm not good enough to do that. It is from a place of this person's going to be able to assist you in a certain way. And then, and that's where we come in with a co creation piece. I know what keys I hold and where I am meant to serve, to assist others, to activate within them, to open those locks. And that way the doors are opened for them. I'm not trying to fit into any kind of structure that does not serve me and will not serve my clients, my people that I serve with my community. So coming from a place of wholeness and where I show up and I, and I shine. And girl, you are shining, can I tell you? Thank you. Thank you, doll. So,

Char Wilson: 24:17

you made a comment as we were chatting before the podcast, can I just re read this brilliant quote? There's been a lot of brilliant quotes in here, but this is the one that I think really takes it home. You said, this is you, you are already home. Now go show up in the world as your authentic self. So with that in mind, go show up in the world as your authentic self, listening to your bodies, yeses, and nos, and honoring those boundaries. Functioning as your unique self, as the key to unlocking other people, But not being all things to everyone. So, to wrap this up, what is one small, actionable step that our sisters can take today to move closer to that sense of home and authentic self? What does that look like?

Kathryn Sawyer: 25:13

Really, it just ties back in to, to taking that pause, breath, and coming back to the choice. That aligned action of choice. This is how it's going to benefit me for me. This is where I'm going to come from. And it doesn't have mean that you're showing up for your family anymore. You're showing up for this. You're not leaving anybody behind. You're showing up for you. And then that means you can show up for everybody. I love that

Char Wilson: 25:45

statement. You're not leaving anybody behind. Prioritizing your authentic. Yes, is the most selfless thing you can do. And by doing it, especially as women, By doing it as a woman, we give each other permission. We unlock that peace in each other.

Kathryn Sawyer: 26:09

Hundred percent.

Char Wilson: 26:11

And I think that's why the journey is so worth it, because it's not just about me, you know? Like it had to start with me first. I had to find my own authentic voice, and I'm still finding it. Please don't hear me say that I've got, I've got her pinned down. Oh

Kathryn Sawyer: 26:27

yeah. Well, and that's the beautiful thing. Like people believe that mastery is once you complete something. I think. Mastery is an evolutionary process. Say that again. Say it, say it, say it, say it again. Mastery is an evolutionary process. That is the circle of life is truly a spiral. You're just looking at it from the top angle and it looked like a closed circle. But when you, you, it's, it's an evolutionary process

Char Wilson: 26:58

and you're

Kathryn Sawyer: 26:58

spiraling up. You're always growing. You're always learning. Yeah. Beautiful.

Char Wilson: 27:04

So, I want to end with always giving my, my guests a, a podium, a shout out, if you will. So you've shared so much brilliance here and there's more to be shared. There's more to be experienced from you. There are sisters listening in that are going to be magnetically drawn to you. I need what Catherine has to offer. She has the key to unlock something in me and, and, and I have that with potentially someone else, or maybe we have it with the, with the same woman. We're speaking the same language right now. But how can they find you and what, what offerings do you have coming up that we can let them know about so they can be in your energy, in your space and learn from you?

Kathryn Sawyer: 27:47

Yeah. So, I mean, I have social medias, website, everything is through mystical energy alchemist. And so you can search that and it pops up my website and I have the services that I provide. So I've got group sessions. I've got one on one sessions. I have a four part workshop that's coming up and I think I'm like in a week and a half. And then I've got some events that are happening this year. I've got a creator's dinner that's coming up, a camping trip that we're doing. And so, yeah, quite a few different things. Not much,

Char Wilson: 28:26

not much. Okay. Well, I will definitely put your website link and your social media handles in the show notes so people can find you there and connect with the service offering that you're offering. Feels right to them in this moment. Thank you for the opportunity. I appreciate it, and I'm honored. Yeah, it's a pleasure. It's an honor on my end as well. Sisters, I hope you leave feeling seen, inspired, connected, and ready to take one step closer to living as your authentic self. Remembering. That the wisdom we seek is found within keep shining, keep speaking, keep listening to that subtle inner voice and join us next time as we continue this wisdom journey to wholehearted living. If you enjoyed this episode, please give it a five star review and share it with the beloved sisters in your life. I love you, sweet friends. I'll see you next week. And please do check out the show notes. We will include ways to connect with Catherine, her upcoming offerings. I have a few free resources. And if you're looking for. A virtual community on moving your body, stepping more into yoga, meditation, breath work. If you're looking for more of a community to tap into that sacred sisterhood connection, I'm going to leave you with a link for that. We love you. We will see you next week on She Speaks.