Do You Deserve Joy? Asking the Question That Changes Everything

Do You Deserve Joy? Asking the Question That Changes Everything

What if the fear isn’t that you’ll fail—but that you might actually feel good? That you might like your life?

In this conversation, Sarah De Block shares how one question—“Do I deserve joy?”—became the gateway to a completely different way of living. We talk about the hidden cost of “comfort,” the whisper of intuition underneath the noise of ambition, and how joy isn't a reward you earn for suffering—it’s something you get to choose. Sarah didn’t blow up her life overnight. She chose slow change, sacred pacing, and nervous system integrity over hustle. The result? A life she actually wants to be in.

Sarah is the founder of Soma Yoga Healing Center in Alexandria, Virginia, and author of The Year of Sarah, a memoir chronicling her journey from corporate engineer to Ayurvedic yoga practitioner. Before opening her healing center, she spent years navigating burnout, performance pressure, and the disconnection that comes from living a life designed for someone else.

If you've ever asked yourself, “Is this all there is?” or felt like success left you strangely numb, this episode is for you. Especially if you're sitting in a life that’s technically working—but quietly wondering what it might mean to feel fully alive.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• How to recognize when you're stuck in a "logical" life that’s misaligned with your values
• What joy really is—and why it’s not the same as happiness or achievement
• How Sarah faced down deeply embedded fears around money, failure, and identity during her transition
• The surprising reason she slowed down instead of leaping—and how that protected her nervous system
• How Ayurveda reframes burnout, emotion, and energy through elemental balance

Connect with Sarah: 

https://somayogahealing.com/
https://a.co/d/7qql2qP
@somayogaalx
@sarahdeblock_heals

The REAL Change Kickstart is a 45-day 1:1 coaching intensive designed to help you:

• Identify the behaviors keeping you stuck
• Unlearn what is no longer serving you
• Create new patterns that align with what you truly want

Click here to get started.

Interested in longer-term support for making a significant change? You can apply to work with Meg here.

Want to learn more about the art, science, philosophy, and psychology of making significant life changes? Sign up HERE for my weekly newsletter and have the Changeology podcast delivered straight into your inbox!

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Transcript

Sarah DeBlock: Changeology Podcast Recording - June 24

Welcome to the Changeology Podcast, Sarah.

@5:58 - Sarahde Block

It's such a pleasure to have you here. I am thrilled to be here and so grateful that you have me on Changeology.

@6:04 - Meg Trucano

Yes, I can't wait for today's discussion because we are going to talk all about your inspirational story of massive career change.

So you made kind of a dramatic career transition from what I think are two of the most like opposite type careers possible, chemical engineering, to Ayurvedic yoga practice owner, right?

@6:34 - Sarahde Block

Yes. And you actually wrote a memoir about your change journey.

@6:37 - Meg Trucano

So we definitely wanted to get into that and have you tell us about that. But before we do, how how did you get into chemical engineering and what was your early career like?

@6:50 - Sarahde Block

Yeah, so I was just one of those kids in high school who really didn't know what I wanted to do with my life and it felt very daunting.

To have to choose a major at 17 years old. Like I had a passion for life. I loved everything.

But I didn't have like, oh, I know that's my dream career. Or this is what I really want to do.

I kind of wanted to do everything. And so it became a thing of like, what are you going to do in college?

And since I couldn't decide, it turned into a little bit of process of elimination. Like I don't really like history.

So that's out. English class wasn't very fun. So let's not go in that direction. And my strengths were in chemistry and math.

Those were like the two subjects of school I really excelled at. And I always wanted to do something different than my parents.

For no particular reason, I was kind of born that way. Like I'm going to go a different path. But both my parents are engineers.

And they were like, this might be in your genes. Like you're really good at chemistry and math. And you can't decide what to major in.

And my mom is a chemical engineer. And she told me, you know, if you major. Yes, you'll be able to do so many things like a chemical engineering major will allow you to do jobs beyond just chemical engineering.

And since you don't know, like do a major that can be really broad for you. And that's really how I decided to do chemical engineering in college.

And it really wasn't, we'll talk about, you know, probably down the road in the podcast, but it wasn't even until college that I discovered what my really true passion is.

And so I didn't even know what that was in high school. So I went through chemical engineering school, which is extremely hard, extremely stressful.

And I did several internships in college, which really helped me see that engineering is really broad.

@8:40 - Meg Trucano

You know, someone says you're an engineer, can mean anything.

@8:43 - Sarahde Block

You know, like what industry do they work on? What type of engineer? What are they really doing more engineering work or management or modeling?

You know, it's just, it can mean anything. So I thought, okay, I'll find my way in the engineering world.

Like, right, I'll start with a job and I'll find my way through it on, what. What of engineering do I really love?

And I ended up in the spot that I thought was somewhere I would never be, which was an oil and gas company.

So out of college, I accepted an offer in an oil and gas company in their chemical plant, because I had had the opportunity to intern there.

And my passion was sustainability. And I had realized that if you're actually in that company, where the majority of greenhouse gases or consumption is, you know, being created, that that's where you can make the most impact.

@9:34 - Meg Trucano

So yeah, so somewhere I thought I would never work was where I ended up.

@9:40 - Sarahde Block

And I really focused on want to help with sustainability, and, you know, support the world in that way. And I was fortunate that I did get to work on some really big sustainability projects and do some of that.

@9:53 - Meg Trucano

But at the end of the day, I never really felt like I fit in.

@9:57 - Sarahde Block

And not just in the company, but just you you what I think even just wearing casual business clothes was just never my jam.

@10:04 - Meg Trucano

You know, felt weird.

@10:05 - Sarahde Block

It felt like I was trying to be someone else, like when I put these slacks on and cute shirt.

And then I was always being told you need to be more assertive, your voice is too soft. And I was really good at playing the role.

And I was very good at becoming the part.

@10:19 - Meg Trucano

But there was always this part of me of this is a persona, like a professional persona and not really who I am.

Very interesting. So a couple of things that stand out for me in your story is, you took like a very logical path to deciding what you were going to major in you like process of elimination.

That's a very like, concrete, logical way of approaching it. And later in our conversation, I'm sure we're going to get into some of the tenets of Ayurvedic yoga, where, you know, there's a lot of like, more, less logical components.

That I will say, like more feeling and more spiritual components. So at what point in your kind of chemical engineering career, you're working in sustainability and you're good at it, right?

Like you excel at this, but you're playing a part. So at what point did that kind of tension between, well, not tension, but at what point did that difference between who you really were, right, at home, in your spare time, what you actually like to think about and do in your own time, when did that become friction, your job?

@11:43 - Sarahde Block

Yeah. In a way, probably day one. But it grew, of course. So I had discovered yoga in college and so even coming out of college, I had in the back of my mind, like, I'm going to learn more about this, like this really lit.

You know, just lit a fire in my heart, and I need to know more. And so out of college, I had made a strong commitment that I'm going to learn what this is and learn all the principles about it.

And so I found a yoga teacher pretty soon after graduating college, and I started training in it. And I had in the back of my mind, I kind of think I want to do something with this.

Like, I think this is my path. But I was brand new to it, right? Like, I just dipped my toe in.

So I was still very immersed in the engineering world and kind of like dipping my toe. Outside of work in yoga.

so I think what happened is the longer I trained in yoga, and I would say it was about year three or four of my career where I was like, okay, I am now far enough along in this yoga journey that it's really creating like friction in my heart that I want to be going more in the direction of working with people on health and their spirituality, and just an environment that is you zoned right in on it, like falling hard.

do start. There's logic. And so it was really this, you know, do you follow your heart or logic? And I even say in my memoir, like, it's, it was a journey from my head to my heart.

@13:12 - Meg Trucano

And that's, there's this really famous quote that's beautiful, like the longest journey you'll ever take is the 18 inches from your head to your heart.

Oh, my gosh.

@13:21 - Sarahde Block

Yes. That's not a long distance, but it took me a long time and many years to really move from one to the other.

And to, I think, I think you need like a certain number, a certain amount of friction to really make the jump.

And it probably took about like, it took about four to five years, where I was like, okay, something's got to shift.

@13:41 - Meg Trucano

Mm hmm.

@13:43 - Sarahde Block

Mm hmm.

@13:43 - Meg Trucano

So we'll definitely get into your, like actual transition, because I think you did it in a really smart way that a lot of our listeners could probably learn a lot from.

But you previously said in your memoir that yoga was the first time that you actually Like your heart slowed down.

So what was that moment like when you kind of had that realization?

@14:08 - Sarahde Block

With awe, with awe and curiosity. Well, and that moment relief, too, because I was suffering. That was during, you know, a very stressful semester college, which maybe didn't have to be that stressful, but I was a perfectionist and I wanted to get all A's.

And so I was putting a lot of pressure on myself and the curriculum was very difficult. And so my heart had been racing that whole semester.

And like that very first yoga class I took, at the very end of it, I realized, wow, my heart's not beating out of my chest.

I feel some peace. I feel some calm. And I couldn't believe something in one hour could make that kind of shift.

And it was just, I have to know more about this. Like, what about what I just did created such a profound shift in my health?

And I was very aware that the way my heart had been beating that semester was not healthy and not.

Sustainable long term. And so I also was like, I'm going to keep coming back to this class all semester because it's the only thing that's really helped so far.

And, you know, I don't want this to become like a health issue.

@15:13 - Meg Trucano

Yeah. So how did practicing yoga kind of evolve into an interest in the specific type of yoga that you are an expert in, which is the Ayurvedic approach?

Do you share a little bit about this specific yoga? Is it a niche? I don't know much about it, but I know it's different from.

It's more nuanced than like traditional, quote unquote, yoga.

@15:44 - Sarahde Block

Yeah. So I originally went to several different yoga. So I had the good fortune in college to do five internships in five different states.

Wow. so that was when I discovered there's yoga studios because I had just been doing yoga at the gym.

Yeah. At my college, and then I had found, you know, yoga at a gym at an internship. But then my whole world opened up when I realized there's yoga studios that specialize in this and can really teach you it.

And so I had gone to several studios all across the country who did different branches of yoga and different lineages, and kind of like got to taste each one, which was really neat.

But really, what occurred is in yoga, they say when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. And when I graduated college, I was fortunate enough, or, you know, maybe it was always meant to be, but I found my yoga guru, very close to where I ended up living after college, and she practices Ayurvedic yoga.

And I just when I walked in the door and got to see the studio and started working with them, I knew that was the place that was going to teach me because they did all eight limbs of yoga, they were really a yoga school, more than a studio, like really focused on education.

And Ayurveda is a sister science to yoga. And so yoga is all about self I don't really- And Ayurveda is all about self-healing.

And so you can think of it as like, Ayurveda is the who, where, what, when, and why. And yoga is the how.

So Ayurveda is like, here's all the knowledge of how you should sleep and eat and move with the sun and the stars and eat and be aligned with the seasons.

And of course it gets into herbs and different things, but Ayurveda has like this whole knowledge base of here's how to live well and vibrantly and a longevity.

It actually translates to the art of longevity or the, you know, the science of living, the wisdom of living.

And yoga is really the tools of how to implement Ayurveda. And so they were always meant to be together and in sister sciences.

And so you can, of course, practice yoga separately without Ayurveda, but then you're doing less of maybe a holistic healing process.

Then you're focusing on, well, in America, you know, we focus physically, but yoga is really meant to still the mind.

And so you could just simply focus on reducing thoughts in your mental mastery, but Ayurveda brings in like the other picture of it, which is really, really beneficial, and it's all based on five elements.

And so Ayurveda basically says there's five main elements with qualities, and everything in our world is a mixture of those, and that's how you can know if something's out of balance or in balance.

And so, for example, if someone is really angry, having excess anger, like Ayurveda is disabled, that's excess fire, and so we need to bring in a little more earth and water into their life, and that could look in many different ways.

That could be a food, it could be a yoga practice that's like got more of that earth and water quality, or it could even be, oh, they need to do oil massage to get more cooling in their life.

So, you just look at everything elementally to bring it into balance, and it's honestly a very common sense system, but my favorite part of Ayurveda is that.

It doesn't have the same prescription for everyone. So it says like everyone's body has its own natural constitution of the elements and your health is when you're reflecting your constitution.

So it wouldn't say everyone needs to eat carrots. It would depend on your body. And so I love that it's individual and not a one size fits all.

@19:24 - Meg Trucano

Oh, I love that description of the sister science of the kind of educational component and how to live well and marrying that with kind of this bringing all of this into practice in your body.

I love that.

@19:42 - Sarahde Block

And I have practiced yoga off and on for many years.

@19:47 - Meg Trucano

I miss it when I don't practice. But there is something about the experience of yoga that does, as you say, connect your 18.

Which is between your head and your heart really somehow effortlessly if you are open to that experience. But I'm curious, how did practicing and then teaching yoga begin to kind of reveal your true path, your interests, and your gifts?

How did yoga and Ayurveda propel you specifically forward?

@20:25 - Sarahde Block

Yeah. Well, what you're talking about where when you practice yoga and you feel that synergy, you know, we have three bodies, at least in Ayurveda yoga, you know, we honor three bodies, which is your thought, emotion, and physical.

And when you do the practices, what you're doing is you're getting all of those in sync, working together. So they're all flowing together.

But if we don't practice or we're not mindful of it, they can all be going different ways. Like, your mind, body, and emotions can all be kind of like pointing and arrows in different directions, and that's when we feel anxious or depressed or .

. Chaotic or, you know, all the emotions we can feel. And so when you get all of those working together and in sync, that's when we have more clarity of mind.

And so I was very, as already noted, leading with logic. And I was a very, you know, academic person, my parents are very intelligent.

You know, I was leading with logic. But that wasn't giving me like full clarity of what I wanted, because I had a lot of ability to discern and analyze and, you know, pro con list, whatever you all the things we do, and we use our mind.

But I wasn't in tune to my heart on what it wanted. And when I got all three working together, that's when I was able to start hearing my heart.

And I always say like our mind kind of screams, but our heart whispers. And if they're not aligned, you can't hear your heart.

Like my heart, you know, was whispering, it wasn't shouting, and I couldn't hear it over my mind. And so I did need to get all three back coherently.

And together, and then I was able to get still enough to listen. And the first thing was just hearing that you're not happy where you are.

@22:08 - Meg Trucano

Like it wasn't like it immediately said, you should go open a yoga studio.

@22:12 - Sarahde Block

But it was like, I first heard, you know, you have to like admit, you're maybe not, you know, fully satisfied in the path that you're on.

And you need to start thinking about what's needed. then, you know, layer by layer, it's almost like you got to peel back the layer.

But probably like you mentioned teaching. So then once I got my certification, I started teaching. I think that lit a second fire where I was like, wow, I love this.

Like, I love being able to bring a whole class of people together. And because in a class, it's almost like you're bringing those three bodies of all the people in the room together.

So even a more powerful, like, synchronicity or oneness that you feel. And it only takes like one or two students to walk up after class and say, you know, I

Forgot that you're not supposed to have back pain when you sneeze. Since I've been doing your classes, like that doesn't happen.

Or someone tell you, you know, this is the most peace I have felt in a year. And, you know, all you need is like two of those comments to be like, I've got to keep doing this.

@23:14 - Meg Trucano

Yeah, oh my gosh. And I know, I know, you know, we practice different ways of connecting people and reaching, helping people reach their intuition.

I call it intuition.

@23:28 - Sarahde Block

You might call it the intuition.

@23:30 - Meg Trucano

Yeah. But it is that just energy and raw power of connecting, helping someone see that they are whole, powerful, complete.

And, you know, if things are out of whack, it's okay, we can fix it. We can, we can figure it out together.

And I, you're right, one or two people is all it takes. And you're like, and I'm hooked. I'm doing like, this is exactly why I was put on.

It's the same with me for coaching, and it sounds like the same with you with your studio. So, you know, we talk a lot about change on this podcast, and if listeners have ever kind of made a big transition, you know there's that fear of risk and of the unknown, right?

It's a huge part of the equation. So some people are able to successfully manage that fear and make the change, and others don't make it past that point to kind of take that leap, right?

And then they end up staying stuck or staying out of balance for a really long time. So how did you manage that fear of risk?

You know, money is a thing, failure is a thing, like these are all very real considerations.

@24:55 - Sarahde Block

So how did you manage kind of that uncertainty? Yeah. I think that is the success of an entrepreneur is that you face your fear, you know, not even the business, but you face that fear.

So originally, it was very much like, okay, how do we manage the financial situation? And so out of college, my husband got his Ph.D.

And so we decided, well, during his doctorate, I would work and make the money. And we had always agreed that once he got a job, that's when I'd open my yoga studio.

Because then he would have a solid salary, and I could live my dream. And so that was the original way we started managing it.

However, it wasn't until I truly went and looked at real estate properties and looked for leases that the fear hit me.

You know, I always knew in the back of my head, like, oh, my gosh, will it succeed? You know, all those little things we all tell ourselves, like, will it succeed?

Will this work? Will anyone show up? Like, those were there, but it was truly looking at the spaces and talking with the realtor and the landlord.

It's that just this overwhelming fear hit me. was like reality struck. And multiple ways that I handled it. One, obviously, coming back to my yoga tools, I was like, I need to do even more, you know, breath work, more grounding, more asana.

I had a teacher, you know, my yoga teacher really helped me walk through my fear and what's really underneath there.

And working through that, I had a fear of failure that was stronger than I knew. And what I didn't expect was a fear of money.

I never really lacked, you know, I'm fortunate in that way. I did grow up with two engineering parents and then, you know, studied engineering.

So, you know, it's not like we were, you know, Taylor Swift rich, but of course I had money, I had food, I had a house, like that was never something that I had to worry about.

And so I didn't really think I had a big fear of money. But when it was like, you're going to be generating all of it by yourself, suddenly that.

And so, you know, journaled about that. But probably the biggest thing I did was that initial shock of fear.

And that kind of does become a pattern for me. Sometimes I get like a shock wave. But then like before something happens, which is nice, because when the actual event comes, I've moved through it.

But I'll call that my like initial fear shock wave. It told me I need to go a little slower.

It told me I wasn't ready to just leap and dive in, that there was some things I needed to And I was opening a yoga studio, I can't open a yoga studio and have my nervous system fried.

So I was like, I have to live the principles, I have to be the example of how you use these tools.

And, you know, I need to live what I'm preaching. And so it showed me like, I need to go a little slower, I need to go at the pace my nervous system can handle it.

And I did that. So you know, I looked at I, well, I I didn't. I learned that you don't get a commercial property just by having the money, that landlords are different than residential, like, there are a couple landlords who just said, well, I don't want a yoga studio, or some landlords that were like dragging out the process for months, because they didn't really need the money.

And I was like, okay, I need to move on. Like, this has been multiple, you know, six months down the road, we still haven't started negotiating.

And so I learned commercial is so different. And so because of that, it took a year to find my space.

And that was beautiful in the end, like in the moment, it was frustrating. But in the end, was beautiful, because it gave me a year to process all that fear.

it gave me a year to be able to work on all the things I realized I needed. So I went to my first spot.

I was like, wow, this is a great deal, like a great location. But then it hit me, I don't have a website yet.

don't have a sales system yet. Do I know how to market? And so that year was like, okay, well, I guess they're working on all those things that I realized.

And so I was able to work piece by piece on the behind the scenes business. While getting the commercial space and working through those spheres, so that when I opened, I could be a stronger person and stable.

@29:11 - Meg Trucano

Oh my gosh, I love so many things about that. So let's unpack that a little bit. You took the highly integrity, that's a terrible way to say that, of high integrity, right?

Like you teach a thing and you experience something that probably your students experience, fear, scarcity, lack, all of these very, on the surface could be labeled logical considerations, right?

And you said, no, wait, let me figure this out first and be what I teach. And that gives me goosebumps, first of all.

Second of all, that is so full of integrity. And I think that there's a lot of duality in the entrepreneurial space and in businesses in general, but this idea of saying one thing and actually having your priorities lie truly somewhere else, right?

But you decided to take this as slowly as you needed to in order to feel good and feel able to hold those people who are going to come in through your practice.

So I think that's a beautiful lesson. And looking back, that's exactly how it needed to happen, right?

@30:44 - Sarahde Block

Yeah. Looking back, it all makes sense that there was a reason, you know, there was a reason there was obstacles.

It was helping me grow and it was helping me develop. And you said, hold, you know, the space. And I think that's exactly right.

It's like, if you're going to have a community, you have to be. Hold the space of all the people who walk in the door.

And it's a practice to build your capacity to hold space and to hold. And in a yoga studio, you're not just holding space for like, you know, the numbers that come in and out of the door, but also like whatever emotion they're coming in with or dealing with.

Like we are a healing center. I call my place a healing center. And so, you know, I'm asking people to come in and be honest about where they are.

I'm not asking people to come in and be perfect. And we do have to hold space for that.

@31:30 - Meg Trucano

Yeah, it's so hard to be messy, right? You have a goal and you want to meet it. And especially those of us that are, you know, it sounds like you are by nature kind of a hard worker and ambitious, right?

And you want to do things well. But at the same time, there's all these different ways to approach that same thing, right?

And you mentioned perfectionism before. That's something a lot of my clients. clients. I really struggle with, too. I struggle with it, right?

And so I imagine having a place where people can come and just be their messy selves and seek guidance from where they are.

@32:13 - Sarahde Block

I imagine that's tremendously healing. Yeah, that's my hope. My hope is that everyone feels seen, heard, and loved, and not judged, you know, that they can just be seen for who they are.

And also, like, the not judged part is that if someone is experiencing something messy in that moment or an emotion that, like, we understand that's not who they are, right?

Like, to be able to know, like, we go through experiences, but that's not who that person is.

@32:43 - Meg Trucano

Yeah, yeah. That's so good. So good. So, you wrote a memoir about your journey. Can you tell us a little bit about the process of writing that?

made you just, like, feel the pull and then decide to write it? And, yeah. Yeah.

@33:01 - Sarahde Block

Well, my yoga teacher suggested that I write the book. So she had been with me over the five years that I was in Houston when I first, you know, started practicing with her in yoga.

And when I got there, was really heartbroken because my husband and I are high school sweethearts, but we had to go long distance after graduation.

So he was in Los Angeles, I was in Houston, and I was very heartbroken and not happy with how my life circumstances are going.

You know, not only was I apart from the love of my life, but I was like, is engineering for me, you know, just questioning everything, you know, at the same time.

And she watched me be able to train in yoga and change my perspective and expand it and ground my nervous system and really, um, develop myself.

And she actually is, said the words of the title. It's called the year of Sarah. Um, but she had told me, I know you're not happy where your life is.

Well, this isn't what you wanted or dreamed of, but if you're going to be here for a year, make it the year of Sarah.

And so that's what the title means. And it was about taking this time in my life where I did feel that tension we talked about and that turmoil and how can I use it to my advantage.

And it was all about like self-development and really being able to figure out what I truly wanted so that I could create that.

And at first I thought, I don't know if I'll write the book, but I did eventually, obviously.

@34:30 - Meg Trucano

So, you know what, I will in case anyone else is going through it.

@34:33 - Sarahde Block

So my idea was like, in case anyone else is going through something similar, which I believe many people are, that I hope they don't have to suffer as much as I did and that I can help them through what I learned.

@34:46 - Meg Trucano

Oh, that is so beautiful. I love that concept of the year of Sarah, the year of the self. And many people, I am certain, do not have that experience because they, you know.

They're kind of on a hamster wheel. They keep going. They keep going. They keep striving. And to actually turn your focus inward as a means to really clear out all the brush and start to listen to what you actually want, right?

@35:15 - Sarahde Block

That's the whole thing. Once you know what you want, the rest kind of appears.

@35:19 - Meg Trucano

And I'm a big believer in that. But to get clarity a lot of the time is really uncomfortable and it's hard, right?

So how was your year of Sarah?

@35:31 - Sarahde Block

Yes. Yeah, I'll tell you about it. But you said they were comfortable. I want to touch on that because I think that is a huge part in being able to make the leap.

We talked about how do you get over the fear. But there can also be a point where you listen to your heart enough where you got your life comfortable.

And then sometimes comfort prevents us from going to our passion, too, because it is after the comfort that the fear can come.

You know, like you're in this comfort zone, but you want to get here.

@35:58 - Meg Trucano

But there's a wall of fear. And that was a choice point I had to make.

@36:02 - Sarahde Block

There was a really strong choice point at one point where I had to say, am I going to stay in this comfort?

Or am I going to go after, you know, something that could make me really happy and be transformative? And I'm glad I did.

I'm glad I took that leap of faith. Because, you know, just getting on the other side of fear is freedom.

@36:24 - Meg Trucano

Yes, yes.

@36:27 - Sarahde Block

Absolutely.

@36:28 - Meg Trucano

And so many people that I work with who do face their fear do make these changes. You know, after the initial kind of the dust cells, they look back and they're like, Oh, my gosh, why did I not do this sooner?

Why did I not make this choice sooner? And, you know, I mean, that's neither here nor there, right? But there's this idea that there's a block in front of you.

And once you clear the block, it's like, Oh, wow, you can actually actually see the landscape, you can see what's what, right?

@36:57 - Sarahde Block

Yes, absolutely. So in the year of Sarah was I had that block when I didn't see it yet, right?

Didn't see the landscape. So I joined a teacher training. So I was in a yoga teacher training. So the year Sarah became five years.

I'll mention that. it ended up being five years because I had said we're only going to be long distance for a year.

And that was where like that year came from that I was really adamant it was only going to be a year.

But in the end, it became five years. And so I did my 200 and my 500 teacher training in that time.

So I was doing a lot of yoga training. And at the same time, was still an engineer full time.

So I was able to apply what I was learning in yoga to my work culture, which is really cool.

So it was like this dichotomy of like, go to the super nonjudgmental loving yoga studio and learn how to set boundaries, learn how to explain your perspective, learn how to get your, you know, physical health in order, and then I go to work.

And how do I apply these principles of compassion and different things in a very high paced and, you know, demanding?

And I was on call 24-7. That was a lot of my mental anguish at the time. So I really didn't get a break from work.

And I would say something like the main things I learned was just you have to take responsibility for everything in your life.

I was still playing a little bit of a victim of like, oh, I got separated from my husband or, you know, or I was led, I don't know, like I was just playing victim in some places.

And I was like, okay, need to be done with that. Like, if I'm responsible for everything, then I can make a change.

I also ended up being physically sick during that year. I think between the heartbreak and moving states, and we were also planning our wedding that year, there was a lot going on, a lot of change.

And I didn't know that my physical symptoms were from all of that. And it took a year to find a doctor who was finally able to say, like, you have anxiety, like there's nothing physically wrong.

But these symptoms are from anxiety. And once I heard that, that was another thing I could take responsibility. I was like, okay, if there is no, like, virus or physical thing, then I can work on that.

I can get my health back in order. And also, like, the words and just all my perspectives, like, there was a lot of training of, like, the way you see the world is through your own lens.

Like, none of us see reality. We see the world through our own perspective. And so there's little perspective shifts that you can make that just expand your world, like, obviously gratitude, but even, the change from I can't, to I'm not willing, or, you know, or I have to, and I get to, you know?

And so even just these little shifts started to make a big change in my world. And I think it's that empowering you talked about earlier, you know, like, just as we help clients empower themselves, I had to go through that first.

I had to learn how to embrace self-love and self-worth and realize that I truly can choose anything. you. And if I'm limiting myself, it's probably my beliefs that are limiting me.

So it was me going through that process so that hopefully I will be passing that on to others.

@40:10 - Meg Trucano

Yeah. And I love those little perception changes, right? I have to, do I get to. I love that one.

You know, I have small children and that's one that I do with myself a lot is, you know, just changing it from a chore into I get to, right?

@40:33 - Sarahde Block

Like I have to do bath time tonight. No, no, no. You get to do bath time tonight.

@40:37 - Meg Trucano

Right. And, um, those little things help you reclaim your autonomy and your, um, your kind of self-efficacy even, right?

Like you, you get to, you get to decide and that shift is so powerful. The other thing that strikes me as you're talking through some of the principles of Ayurvedic yoga and.

And your approach to teaching and your story is how different approaches Ayurveda, for instance, and my training in psychology, they have the same truths, like they have the same tenets, just talk about them slightly differently, right?

So you are talking about, you know, okay, taking responsibility for everything in your life, and making these little shifts in your perception.

mean, that's very much something that, you know, we understand from the psychological literature is that nobody, there is no, like, there is no uniform reality.

We all have our own lens that we look, look at the world through, based on our history, based on our, you know, experiences, all of the stuff, all of our beliefs, that we kind of pack into our lens, right?

And so I do love that there's kind of these, these different approaches. To come to the same understanding. I think that's just a beautiful, just a beautiful thing.

@42:07 - Sarahde Block

It is. And I mean, truth is truth at the end of the day, right? And I think this is where we can have less conflict in the world, too, is a lot of people are like, no, my system is the one, my system is the one.

And well, all the systems probably have a little bit of flaws in them. But at the end of the day, there's truth in all of them.

Like, when you get to the core of them, it's the truth, and the truth doesn't change. And there's many ways to get to the truth, or to put words to the truth.

And I do believe that, that there's, we have all these different words to say the same thing and to get to it.

And maybe one resonates more with someone else than another, but we're getting the truth.

@42:46 - Meg Trucano

Yeah, and then, you know, Or we need both. Yeah, or we need both. We need to have conversations with each other, right?

A yoga instructor talks to a coach, and we have slightly different approaches, but it's the You're trying to help people feel whole again.

They're already whole, but they're whole, right?

@43:07 - Sarahde Block

Yes.

@43:07 - Meg Trucano

Because there is a difference there. So in your book, you, you wrote that you promised yourself you'd be a joyful adult.

So what does that look like for you these days?

@43:22 - Sarahde Block

Yeah, it's using joy every day. And so what I have seen and learned over all these years is that one way to be joyful is you do have to choose what you want and not let those limiting beliefs stop you or other people's opinions stop you.

But no matter what you do, even if you've created, you know, this dream job, and you've got all the material things and the relationships you thought you'd have, there's always struggle in life, even if it's not in your own life, the world is in struggle, there's always going to be something right.

Right. And so. It's a daily choice to choose joy and I've also really seen that there can be a difference between like happy and joy like I do use those words interchangeably a lot but I believe happy is more externally based like oh I'm happy because I got to do you know a dinner date with someone or I'm happy because I got to go on vacation or because I had that dessert where joy is an eternal state that's like inside of us that we have to tap into.

Like there is like a part inside of us that's always joyful but being able to connect with it and stay connected with it and resonate is a choice and that we can feel two things because I think sometimes we don't let ourselves feel joyful because we think well this thing is going on you know X thing over here is going on so I need to feel sad I need to feel angry or guilty or something but what if you can be bold like what if we can hold this space time wait and can

I that this is making me very sad and at the same time I still feel joy and gratitude that I have the life I have or gratitude that I have food on the table and a house over my head and maybe it's just gratitude for the sake of gratitude you don't always have to have a reason and so meditating has really helped me learn to tap into that state of joy probably wouldn't have mastered it without meditation but like so there's many ways to truth maybe there's another way but for me it was meditation and choose it every day and also every day thinking and remembering that that's a goal remembering that am I doing something right now that leads towards that and if not do I need to make a different decision oh I love this so much so happiness I hear you happiness as being like oh this is awesome I got to do this thing or I'm looking forward to this thing forward and that is

@46:00 - Meg Trucano

That is wonderful and lovely. And we want to have many of those things in our lives. But the way you conceptualize joy is being always there and always present.

We just have to figure out how we as individuals can access it. So to someone who's listening and, you know, they're objects to that, or maybe he's like, well, I can't access joy.

Like, been a long time since I've been able to feel joy. What would you say to them as a way to maybe get started on that?

@46:36 - Sarahde Block

Yeah, I often will just pose the question for someone. Do you believe joy is possible? Do you believe you like it?

Do you believe there might be a thought you don't deserve joy? Or is it you know, is it possible?

You're not allowing yourself to feel it because you feel I have Badly heard from people like, well, I don't think I'm a good person or I did one bad thing.

So I don't know if I deserve joy or something of that sort. And so I think the first thing is just asking ourselves honestly the question and I purposely blocking it for myself that you may even be doing it subconsciously.

But it's like, do I am I blocking because I don't believe I deserve it. And you just start asking yourself those kind of questions, you might even journal on them.

But then the next step are in tandem, we'll say in tandem, because that could be a life journey with those questions.

would be, how can you just have a second of joy in your life, a moment, you know, a common one I hear is like people who have to caretake or they have, maybe it is just, you know, three toddlers at home, and they feel like, well, there's all these things I need to take care of, and there's no time.

And so then it's like, how do you find one moment? Like, is it just recognizing the butterfly past your window, and that was a really beautiful moment?

Or is it, I'm going to just What? Outside in the grass, even if it's 30 seconds. And you just start giving yourself a little dose.

And you might have to start with more of the happiness stuff. You might need to start a little bit more external when you haven't tapped in for a while.

And then when you get more time, because that'll eventually help you get more than 30 seconds, you'll start to want it, you'll start to be attracted to it, then it's coming to your breath.

And I think breath is a really important one to help us return to ourselves. It is the only function of our body that's like voluntary and involuntary.

And it's really connected to our emotion. Our breath really mimics our emotion. You know, if you're, you know, fearful, it's going to be jagged and short.

If you're anxious, it's going be more at the chest and shallow. If you're feeling great, it's going to be a full, deep breath.

And so our breath is mimicking our emotions, but we can shape the breath and help us start to feel the more content, joyful emotions as well.

@48:59 - Meg Trucano

Oh, that's. that's. Really excellent combination of practical advice and like, more spiritual advice.

@49:08 - Sarahde Block

And yeah, I love that.

@49:09 - Meg Trucano

I love that, that cross section there, that intersection. Okay, so we are at the point of the conversation where I ask you a few rapid fire questions, and just kind of answer from your gut, your intuition, and we'll see where it goes.

@49:30 - Sarahde Block

Okay.

@49:30 - Meg Trucano

So, if you could go back in time, what would you say to pre-transition Sarah?

@49:39 - Sarahde Block

I would say that anything you dream up, you can do. And the most important thing is to believe in yourself.

Always believe in yourself.

@49:52 - Meg Trucano

What's the one thing you hope listeners take away from your story?

@49:57 - Sarahde Block

That if you're experiencing fear. story? story here. And It doesn't mean it's the wrong path. It might mean that you're exactly on the right path, overcoming the fear that's limiting you, and take the time you need to process it, but keep going if your heart is set on what you're doing.

@50:16 - Meg Trucano

That's beautiful. What one piece of advice would you offer to someone who's standing on the edge of making a big life change?

@50:26 - Sarahde Block

One thing I really learned through this process of opening it is that failures are going to occur, or obstacles, but obstacles will occur, but that doesn't mean it's going to be a failure or shut down your dream.

The obstacles will only make you stronger, and so if you're standing on the edge going, what if I fail?

Just know that things will come up, but it doesn't mean it's catastrophic. It might just make you stronger.

@50:57 - Meg Trucano

Oh, I love that, and I will add on to that. Yes, the obstacles absolutely make you stronger, but you get to choose.

You get to choose what you do with your failure. You don't have to let a quote-unquote failure undermine your entire endeavor just because it happens.

Bringing it back to that ability to choose and intentionally choose. I love that.

@51:24 - Sarahde Block

Yeah, it's how you respond, how you respond.

@51:27 - Meg Trucano

Yes. Okay, so where can our listeners connect with you? And if they're local to the Northern Virginia area, where can they go to either take a class or participate in your healing center?

And where can they buy your book? All the things. And we'll put all the links into the show notes, but just in case people are out walking the dog while they're listening to this, where can they find you?

@51:54 - Sarahde Block

Fantastic. So the year of Sarah, I would love for you all to share my story is on all online platforms.

And if you're looking for the ebook that is on Amazon, if you're local, you can buy it at Soma Yoga Healing Center, or actually several places in Alexandria, Virginia, but if you are local to Alexandria, you can find me at Soma Yoga Healing Center in Huntington, and the website is somayogahealing.com.

Also, for everyone, Instagram, somayogaalx. And I do do Monday Mind Shifts on Instagram. So if you want go on there and, you know, just get a little perspective shift or elevate your mood for Monday, check out the Instagram.

And there's also free meditations and resources on my website.

@52:41 - Meg Trucano

So everyone can go there to find some meditations and a morning yoga practice. Oh, that's so wonderful. I love, I love that so much.

So if you're listening to this, and you're like, Oh, I really want to like tuck into some of the energy that you are so well.

And your energy is so warm. And as you said before, non-judgmental, people can go and experience some of that for themselves, even if they're not local to Alexandria.

So I have so enjoyed this conversation with you, Sarah. And thank you so much for so openly sharing your perspective and your story with us on Changeology.

@53:23 - Sarahde Block

Thank you, Meg. It was a joy.

@53:25 - Meg Trucano

Oh, it was so wonderful to have you. And thank you for listening to Changeology. And I will see you in the next one.