Braving the Brightside

Joy Is Your Birthright with Zoraida Morales

• Season 2 • Episode 33

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 1:22:12

Send a message into the Brightside

What happens when life completely changes course?

In this episode of Braving the Brightside, I sit down with cancer thriver, speaker, and coach Zoraida Morales to discuss resilience, healing, identity, and the choice to build a life by design rather than by default.

After thirteen years of chemotherapy, a difficult divorce, and countless moments of uncertainty, Zoraida shares how she transformed pain into purpose and discovered that joy isn't something we find—it's something we choose.

This is a powerful conversation about rebuilding, self-discovery, and becoming the person you were always meant to be.

Social Media: 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zoraida-morales/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/z.morales2018/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/zoraida.morales.1428

Website (upcoming): https://lifebydesignnotdefault.com/

Website: https://zoraidamorales.com

 Books: 

Awaken – https://a.co/d/cnGTfUC

Forge – https://a.co/d/7vneKAx

Perspectives on Cancer – https://a.co/d/4QQcMm6

Soul Parent – https://a.co/d/5QXBOLk

 Free Resources: 

Discover Your Energy Archetype: 

https://quiz.lifebydesignnotdefault.com/

 Honey‑Ginger‑Turmeric Bomb (Healing Recipe): 

This immune‑supporting recipe contains antiseptic, antibacterial, and anti‑inflammatory ingredients to support digestion, joints, skin, and overall wellness.

https://api.leadconnectorhq.com/widget/form/di8oVgX5KIbyLTwflOHD

Official Brightside Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1QnOBVBM8NRC9nFtxcPEpd?si=uGOTwlqyTRSqggcMCJhzSQ

The Rethreadery-Sustainable Style: therethreadery.com-Use Code BRIGHTSIDE for 15% Off!

IG: @the_rethreadery

Haven on Adullam Lake Retreat: havenonadullamlake.com-Use code LITTLEDAN for 10% Off!

IG: @haven_adullam_lake

The Library of Daniel Bradley: Patreon.com/daniels666time

Braving the Brightside Hub: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2498205

New episodes every Friday at 2 pm on all major podcast platforms. Interested in being a guest or perhaps just wanna chat and share opinions or concerns? Email me at Bravingthebrightside@gmail.com or slide into the dm's as the kid's say @braving_thebrightside

Appreciate yous.

Love,

Dan

SPEAKER_01

This was a small but powerful example of companion. Compassion. Most people don't wake up one morning and decide to completely change their lives. Usually life makes that introduction. Sometimes it's a diagnosis. Sometimes it's a loss. Sometimes it's divorce, a layoff, an addiction, heartbreak, or a moment that leaves you staring at the ceiling at three in the morning, wondering how the hell you got there. And in those moments, we're faced with a choice. We can spend our lives running an autopilot, living by habit, living by expectation, living by the stories other people have pretty much handed us. It's easy that way. It's comfortable that way. Or we can stop, take a breath, and ask a difficult question. Is this really the life that I want to live? The answer isn't always comfortable. In fact, it rarely ever is. Because growth often begins with an honest look at what no longer fits. The good news is that no matter where you find yourself today, your story is not finished. You are allowed to rebuild. And maybe, just maybe, the life you've been searching for begins the moment you decide to stop living by default and start living by design. My name's Dan Bradley, and this is Braving the Bright Side. Listen, do you want to hear something crazy? Like pretty crazy. In just a few weeks, Braving the Bright Side turns one year old. One year. It's crazy, right? It's kind of insane. So what does that mean? It means we're throwing a birthday party. Yeah, that's right. A birthday party episode on July 24th. My good friend Woods, the man who helped me kick this whole thing off by interviewing me on episode one, is going to be coming back to the studio to turn the tables once again. We'll be talking about what I've learned over the past year and what I still haven't figured out. The highs, the lows, the surprises, the so, so many challenges, and everything in between. We may even debut some new music from Woods himself. We'll have giveaways, teasers for some upcoming projects, and maybe, just maybe, some Braving the Brightside merch making its first appearance. Possibly. Stay tuned about that. Either way, I am really excited about it. And truth be told, none of it happens without you. Whether you've listened to one episode or all of them, whether you've shared the show, left a review, sent a message, or just simply spent an hour with us each week, thank you. From the bottom of my heart, I mean it. I would not be here without you. Sitting right there, yes, you. So thank you. All right. Let's get into this week's feel good news segment, shall we? Because if you spent enough time online, you'd probably think that civilization is collapsing. Raccoons are running Congress, which at this point I feel like raccoons could probably do a better job. And everyone is arguing about something. But every week there are also people helping each other, communities coming together, animals making comebacks, and scientists doing things that would have sounded like science fiction 20 years ago. So let's spend a few minutes focusing on what's going right in the world, shall we? All right, number eight, teacher makes a personalized quilt for every student before retirement. A second grade teacher in Iowa spent months handmaking custom quilts for every child in her classroom before retiring. Each quilt was designed around the student's interest, hobbies, and personality. Imagine being seven years old and receiving something that's personal from a teacher you'll never forget. It's a reminder that impact isn't always measured in grades. Sometimes it's measured in the effort someone puts into making you feel seen. Number seven, woman rescues an injured crow. Crow starts bringing her gifts. After helping an injured crow, a woman began noticing small gifts appearing in her yard. Shiny objects, buttons, trinkets, and other treasures started showing up regularly. While scientists have documented crows do remember and reward human beings before, it's still remarkable to watch an act of kindness create a crossed species friendship. Cross species. You get it. All right. Uh number six, Chicago Builder stops construction to protect bird nest. A home builder in Chicago paused construction work after discovering a kill deer nest on the property. Rather than relocate the birds or continue work, the company chose to wait until the chicks safely hatched and moved on, which is wild and amazing and awesome. In a world obsessed with deadlines and profits, this was a small but powerful example of compassion winning the day. Number five, veterans and service dogs received surprise $80,000 donation. An Atlanta-based veterans and service dog organization received an unexpected $80,000 donation that will help connect more veterans with life-changing service animals. For many veterans struggling with PTSD, anxiety, or physical disabilities, these dogs aren't just companions, they're lifelines. One generous gift is now set to impact countless lives. Number four, high school students take a 100-year-old veteran to prom. A group of high school high school students invited a 100-year-old World War II veteran to attend their prom. What started as a simple invitation turned into one of the night's most memorable moments. The veteran said he was deeply moved while students got a chance to connect with living history. Different generations, one unforgettable evening. Number three, Chilean American stolen as a baby reunites with birth mother. After decades apart, a man who was taken from Chile as an infant and adopted abroad finally reunited with his biological mother. The emotional meeting gave both of them something they thought they had lost forever. Answers, connection, and a second chance at family. Number two, five new search and rescue dog teams graduate. The nonprofit Search Dog Foundation recently celebrated the graduation of five new search and rescue teams. These highly trained dogs and handlers will now deploy to disasters, missing person cases, and emergencies across the entire country. Every graduation means more communities have help when the worst day of someone's life arrives. And number one, 10-year-old builds his own 3D printing business. While most kids are figuring out what game to play next, 10-year-old Ernesto Hernandez has already launched a 3D printing business. He saved up for his first printer, taught himself the technology, and now sells custom products with a dream of one day buying his mother a house. That's entrepreneurship, determination, and heart, all rolled into one story. I mean, kudos to you, Ernesto. That's um that's insane. Yeah, at 10 years old, I was, you know, probably just dealing with anxiety and figuring things out. And you're building a business. That's fantastic. Um there you go. There's your feel good news segments of the past two weeks. Boy howdy. All right, let's um let's shift gears here and talk about who we got coming up next. My guest today has been through more than most people could imagine and somehow found a way to turn that pain into purpose. What struck me most about this conversation wasn't just the adversity that she faced. It was the way she chose to respond to it. There's a lot in this one about healing, self-discovery, finding joy in difficult seasons, and learning how to build a life that actually feels aligned with who you are or who you feel you're meant to be. I think you're really gonna like this uh this conversation. So here's my chat with Zorida Morales. Today's guest is Zorida Morales, a cancer thriver, speaker, and legacy-led coach who helps survivors, caregivers, and change makers reclaim their lives through her movement, life by design, not to fault. After 13 years of chemotherapy and a powerful journey of healing, she now guides others through her three pillars of nutrition: mental, physical, and spiritual. She's a four-time international best-selling author, speaker, and founder of this N CEO of Zorida Morales LLC. Zoraida, we are so glad to have you here on the bright side. How are you today?

SPEAKER_00

Oh, I'm good. Thank you. And it's so happy to be here with you.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Um, man, listen, uh, we've been trying to make this happen for a couple months now. Um, you know, life keeps lifing at times. But one of the things that I love about doing this podcast is coming across amazing individuals. And a lot of times I have these talks with people that I would love to have on the show. And for whatever reason, things happen and it gets getting pushed back. Sometimes it just doesn't happen, right? And which is understandable because things happen. But with you, I love that you kind of pop back up. You're like, Leo, Dan, listen, I'm back. I'm around. I would really love to make this happen, you know, and reading your story and really kind of digging into who you are and what you do for people out there, you know, it's it's almost humbling and very exciting to have someone like you be like, no, no, no, I want to be on the show. I want to speak to this, um, to have you push to be on here. So I really can't thank you enough, especially since you know life gets heavy sometimes. It gets crazy, and you found a way to be on here any anyway. So I wanted to thank you for that.

SPEAKER_00

Thank you. You know, I was I was actually caregiving. I was doing long distance caregiving. Um, and it was the first time that I got to experience it myself. So I teach caregivers. But you know, being in the space of actually being one um meant I had to shift a lot of things in my life.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And the biggest thing I had to learn, and I took my devotion to self to a higher level because of it. Even though I had all these, you know, it was November, had all these goals. I was reflecting on 2025. And I was looking at 2026 and planning 2026, and I had to redo my whole life. Now, I say I had to. I did not have to, I chose to. And that's what we're going to talk about today. Choosing.

SPEAKER_01

Choosing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Love that. Um, well, let's just start from the top here, shall we? Um, so people kind of start to get to know you and know who you are and the kind of amazing things you're doing out there. Um, when people hear the phrase cancer survivor, which you are, they often picture the diagnosis or the battle. But who is Zorida today outside of all that, outside of all the battles and the fighting and everything?

SPEAKER_00

Hmm. So I was 45 years old when I got this diagnosis of chronic malloe leukemia. And I thought my life was perfect. I had a finance manager job working for the top company. I had two small children, married, a house built just for me.

SPEAKER_03

Wow.

SPEAKER_00

I thought it was okay. I thought I was happy. Then I got this diagnosis almost 18 years ago, and it changed everything. So to answer your question, today I am the person the woman who rebuilt herself from the inside out because that's what it took. Right? I'm no longer defined by that cancer diagnosis. Now I'm defined by the person who became the cancer thriver, the cancer coach, the nutrition coach, the founder of a company, the woman who's building an ecosystem to help survivors and thrivers. So I'm helping families feel less alone and I'm teaching people how to live a life by design, not fault, mentally, physically, and spiritually. Because I'm I'm teaching from lived experience.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Yeah, you're you're in it, you're living it. I love that you call it a cancer thriver. When I was doing your opening, I b I thought I botched it. I was like, oh, I said thriver. Did you mean survivor? And I love your response. You said no, it's it's I'm not just a survivor of cancer, I'm now thriving. And I think that's so important for people to hear. You know, it doesn't need to define you as a human completely.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and look, you will feel like a survivor at the beginning. Okay. Because you are surviving. You're in that fight flight mode. But like for me, and and I took chemo for 13 years, so this was a journey. There came a point where I just said, I'm feeling dead on the inside.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I don't want to survive anymore. I want to thrive. So I had to redefine what thriving looked like for me. And I said, I've already been through the worst. What else can happen?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I'm just going to get comfortable being uncomfortable.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And I did that with taking these small steps, right? These might little microhabits that then started to build on top of one another and one another. And it got me here with you.

SPEAKER_01

And I am very grateful for this. Um man, I mean, yeah, your story is incredible. Talk about Klong and fighting and just kind of figuring out who you are piece by piece, which is something that I uh see myself in as well, and that I'm still currently trying to do. Um before cancer entered your life, who, you know, who were you becoming? Do you did you feel yourself becoming somebody? Um, like a version of yourself that was truly aligned with who you're meant to be? You know, was it just somebody like the path you're on was wildly different than you know, in terms of where you're at now?

SPEAKER_00

That's a really good question because interestingly enough, two years before my diagnosis, I started waking up spiritually. I read Erhard Tolle, The Good Earth, and that blew my mind. And I was like, oh my god, he's speaking to me. He's speaking to me. And I was questioning my life, and I was feeling something shifting.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I was still becoming the woman everyone expected me to be. I was performing strength, I was living on autopilot, and I was building a life that looked good, but it didn't feel aligned. So when the cancer came, it didn't just interrupt my life, it broke me. But here's the thing. And I say this lovingly because it's been a gift for me, not for everyone, but it revealed the life that I was living. It wasn't right. It wasn't really what my heart wanted. I was living by default.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And so that diagnosis brought out for me my purpose. What makes my heart happy? Joy. Joy is my birthright. I can say that now. Before cancer, I didn't feel that.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I mean, it's a scary thought when you think because I mean I nothing is dramatic, nothing is as substantial as cancer, but you know, I fell off my deck. I'm sure my audience is sick of hearing about this, but I, you know, I almost died at one point. And there is a frustrating, almost frustrating part that I feel inside where I'm like, I hate that my I hate that my face had to be pressed to the to the edge of mortality to really make me realize and remember and like what all right, well, what am I doing here then? Like what who actually am I? And you know, to have that kind of scare or to be stripped down so to the point of such rawness that I had to really start breathing and taking in life and really deciding what I wanted to be and who I wanted to get and what I wanted to get out of this life, you know? Um, and like again, it's like it's kind of a weird feeling. We're like, well, you know, I wish I had more kind of wherewithal before all that, which I the same thing. I kind of felt that as well. But you know, I I love the fact that you kind of felt a tug before all this, you know, so it was kind of leading regardless.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Interesting.

SPEAKER_00

Um Yeah, because for me, and this is the way I look at it, now I look at it, it was my my ancestral um members, it was God, it was my archangels, it was the four babies that I miscarried leading me, leading me to the spiritual world. Maybe they were um well, maybe they were hoping that I would change my lifestyle, change my way of being before I got the cancer the cancer diagnosis. Maybe. Maybe they felt that okay, she's gonna need this spirituality because something big is coming.

SPEAKER_01

Right.

SPEAKER_00

So now I'm looking at it like we're all special to whatever we believe that's higher than ourselves. Yeah, I answered the calling. You answered the calling. Not everyone does, and not everyone has to. For me, the calling was to he help others heal, but before I did that, I had to heal myself. That was the hard part. That was where all the work came from. That was me sitting in my shit going, okay, how do I change my perspective?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

How do I start living by default?

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Um, I mean, yeah, jumping off that point, which is a really good point, a lot of people facing especially that level of illness, talk about fear, but you know, my mother um had cancer. She passed away from cancer, and she spoke very briefly when at times about it, but you know, there's there's grief, there's grief about missing out, and there's anger, and there's an identity loss, and you know, even an isolation feeling, I'm sure. So she had 13 years of chemo, which is unbelievable. You know, what was the hardest part that people around you maybe couldn't fully see when you're in that that season of your life?

SPEAKER_00

You know, you go you mentioned it, right? You go through the five stages of grief. You go through denial, you go through anger, fear. Depression, bargaining, and then you toggle in between all those all those pillars.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And you're doing that for a really long time, years. I didn't feel seen from my family, my friends, the medical industry, people. Because what I kept hearing, because see, I'm I'm a strong woman, right? I'm the firstborn in a Puerto Rican household. And so I was taught to not ask for help. I was taught to um defer to others, including especially my elders, and you know, take care of my siblings, right? That's a cultural thing.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

But then I'm a woman. So now I've got the I've got a society thing, right? And so I'm born into generational poverty. I'm born with generational trauma. I go to college. I work, I start working in the finance industry. I start hustling and grinding, hustling and grinding because it was my whole entire life. It's what I knew. I mean, my mother went to college for 10 years in the 70s and the 80s at night while working during the day with four kids under six years old, just to get us out of poverty. So I come from that lineage of hustle and grinding, hustling grinding. I get this diagnosis, and everyone wants me to keep hustling, grinding, hunting and grinding. And I'm going, I can't. I don't want to. I didn't have it in me. They weren't seeing me. So what were they saying to me? They were saying, You're the strongest person I know. Right? That's how they were trying to get me to continue giving them what they needed from me. Right? Because unfortunately, people still want what they want from you.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Not all, but some.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And so they wanted me to make the money I was making, right? They didn't want to sell the house, they didn't want to change the lifestyle, but I wasn't seen. I wasn't looked at at the person who needed help. And when I asked for help, I didn't get it. Because I was uh I was in a circle that wanted me to stay the way I was. So Nipsey Husse has a great phrase. And when I read this many, many years ago, it blew my mind. And I'm gonna say this because I think someone needs to hear this, and I love it. It it changed everything for me. And it says, if you look at your circle and you're not inspired, you don't have a circle, you have a cage. And when I read that, I was like, I'm in a fucking cage.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

These are mostly family and friends. And everyone did the best they could, but I knew at that moment I had to shift because heart was not happy. So unfortunately for me, not feeling seen and heard, I had to remove people from my life. And look, you'll do that anyway, right? Regardless of the diagnosis or not. Sometimes you have to temporarily remove people from your life, sometimes you have to do it permanently. Not everyone is supposed to be with you for the long haul, right? You learn lessons from people and then you move on. I had to do that. And it was really tough because I was worried about what other people think. And and I did get the who do you think you are?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Right?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um, um, you know, it was making people uncomfortable that I was asking for what I needed and and and wanted. And I knew I needed to create space for people who are gonna support me, for people who are going to embrace me, for people who are gonna hold me and say, it's okay, Z. I got you. You don't have to be strong right now. I got you.

SPEAKER_01

It's incredible. Yeah. That's really that's amazing. So, you know, in a way, I guess you're setting these boundaries, or at least you're pushing your most authentic self, and sometimes that doesn't align with people that are already in your life, you know. Um, did you have a good amount of people that said, We got you, Z, we're gonna hang here with you?

SPEAKER_00

You know, you'd be surprised who stays and who goes.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So a lot of people, a lot of people walked away. And, you know, we have friends and then we have friends. It's okay, it's okay, right? But the people that you're normally having a good time with, so they're the first people to leave. Because they're the ones that are just there for the good time. And then you have your inner circle, and they're uncomfortable. They don't know what to say, they don't know what to do. It makes them feel uncomfortable. So now they're putting all their shit on you. Right. That's what happened to me, right? So my I remember someone telling me, you're telling me this now? After six weeks of knowing you had cancer, you're telling me this now? There's someone in my inner circle. It took me weeks to do this because I got diagnosed right before Thanksgiving.

SPEAKER_01

Wow.

SPEAKER_00

And I was planning most of the meals.

SPEAKER_01

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00

It was a big part of the being in that planning committee.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

But here's the thing. I needed to be okay. I needed to have, I needed to sit with this.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_00

My husband needed to sit with it. And so in my head, I'm thinking, I just can't blur this out to my family and friends. Here I am still thinking about other people.

SPEAKER_03

Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_00

I don't want to do that, I don't want to mess up anyone's holiday. So, yes, I went through Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year's, I think, without telling anyone. But I needed to sit in it.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And I knew, and this doesn't happen to everyone, but I knew that I was going to have to support the people that I was telling this to. Because I knew they weren't going to take it well. And wouldn't you know it? It's a wild state. They made it about them. And so someone told me, You're telling me this now? Like they were offended. Offended.

SPEAKER_01

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_00

And I looked at her and I said, This isn't about you. I knew she was going to make it about her. I said, This isn't about you. I had to do this for me. So, yes, I'm telling you now. And what do you know? I had to console her. So I spent that moment, that moment should have been my moment for her to console me as if I was consoling her. And here's the thing about any diagnosis, not just cancer. We're all coming into this without limiting beliefs, with our own traumas. And so sometimes we don't we make it about ourselves instead of the other person. And then some people who do not have that compassionate gene or empathy gene will not understand what the other person needs because A, they've never received it, they've never felt it. Or something similar was said to them. Again, we're working, everyone's working through with their default being. Until you become enlightened, you're going to continue communicating in that way.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_00

So the people who did support me were the people that I didn't expect. So for instance, my mailman brought me the mail every day to my house. I didn't have to go walk. He brought it to me.

SPEAKER_03

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00

He wanted to see me every day. And I'm telling you, you're not you're going to be surprised who is going to be in your circle, right? Um, then there were there were there were friends. So I have friends from all over the world. And so some cannot be there all the time, but you have friends who are sending you a text, hey, how are you doing today? And you got friends who are calling you. Um, how'd it go? And you got friends who are like, that I I've had to ask, hey, can you take a day off from work and come with me to the doctor? Because I'm gonna get some news. And I I need someone to listen for me. I need someone to advocate for me.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's a big one.

SPEAKER_00

Right? But I've asked certain people and they were like, oh, in my family, I can't, I'm babysitting, um, I'm doing this. Um, and I was like, okay. And I had to be okay with that.

SPEAKER_03

Right.

SPEAKER_00

But I had to find my people. And that's the first thing that I tell people the seven things that you should do, find your tribe. Find who's gonna help you with groceries, who's gonna check up on you, who's gonna hug you, who's gonna let you sit in your shit and not offer advice. Right? Because right, we all do that. I'm a coach. I know that.

SPEAKER_01

What we always try to do right away is fix it.

SPEAKER_00

Right. Oh, right. So I'm gonna solve your problem. No, let me sit in my shit. Let me just say the words. That takes a lot for someone to hold space for you. So the people who did that for me, oh my God. Even some that are not in my life now, I gotta tell you, I hold them so dear to my heart because I'll never forget what they did for me.

SPEAKER_01

I'm sure. Yeah. Well, at some point, you know, you start, I mean, after dealing with all of this, you start taking a turn for the better. I mean, you start slowly but surely, you know, heading down the path of recovery. Um, you know, at what point did you stop seeing yourself only as someone trying to survive and begin seeing yourself as someone called to help others? You know, did that help happen during your journey with cancer, or you know, did it come afterwards? What where where at what point did that pivot happen for you?

SPEAKER_00

You know, it was during COVID. It was the beginning of COVID. I had just gotten a divorce. Yes. I got a divorce while taking chemo. That was hard. Yeah. That cracked me open. You see, the cancer robbed my work. The divorce while taking chemo, that cracked me open.

SPEAKER_01

I yeah. So no words, I can't imagine.

SPEAKER_00

So I get a divorce, I sell my kids' childhood home. Um, I move to the state where my job is, and I get let go before the house even closes. And so now I'm in New York City with no job. And I am in a two-bedroom apartment surrounded by boxes uh that contain 2,500 square foot of stuff. And I am feeling my lowest. I am feeling unloved, unprotected, uncertain. And it was that moment that I reached out to God. Now, I hadn't I hadn't spoken to God since I got the diagnosis because when I got the diagnosis, I was like, F you, how could you let this happen?

SPEAKER_01

Right, we done. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Right. And so I remember just going into this corner and going, I almost I felt like Martin Scorsese directing the movie because I was watching myself, but I was just being in the moment and I was like, I need you. Oh, first I said, wait a minute, first I said, it's me, Sarata. Because I was kind of introducing myself, reintroducing myself to God. Because I thought he left me. And so I'm like, it's me, it's Sarata. I need you. I need you to hug me, I need you to hold me, I need you to protect me, I need you to tell me everything's gonna be okay because everyone's mad at me. But I know that I did the right thing getting this divorce. Like that was the me getting a divorce was putting myself first for the first time in my life. So God hugs me and something cracked open spiritually for me. Again, two years before, a few years before I got the cancer diagnosis was when the spirituality started to open for me, right? And I knew at that moment that I was spared, that I was being redirected because he hugged me. And check this out, Dan. I felt it.

SPEAKER_01

Wow.

SPEAKER_00

Like I literally felt his arms, his on my arms. And I tell you, I stepped in. Like for me, God is, well, I'm 5'7. So for me, God is like 6'3. And I just leaned into him and I cried. And he held me. And I I cried for like 20, 30 minutes. And I just cried and I just I put my head on his shoulder and I just let it out. And for the first time in the two years, because my divorce took two years to finalize, I felt seen, I felt heard, I felt protected, I felt loved. And I because at that moment I saw myself as the woman that I was not just going to survive, that I was going to become. I didn't know what that meant, what I was going to become, but I knew that I was I was on the path to becoming.

SPEAKER_01

Wow. Incredible. So right then and there you knew, okay, I'm becoming something. And I need to follow this.

SPEAKER_00

I don't have to be afraid anymore.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Um you left the finance industry and stepped into coaching and advocacy. Um, you know, I'm sure that transition was both terrifying and liberating. Uh you know. So, you know, they're wildly different worlds. What was that transition for you like? You know, I mean, this is after the cancer diagnosis, is this pretty much when you're finalizing and getting done with chemo and everything like that? You've decided, okay, this is this is where I want to step into.

SPEAKER_00

I was still taking chemo.

SPEAKER_01

Oof, and you are. You are a warrior.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, I am. And I'm an Aries too, so makes sense. Yeah. I the warrior um title suits me well. Yeah. You know, it was it was both. It was terrifying. Hell yeah. But it was also liberating because I knew that I was coming into alignment. Right. And it was terrifying because I'm I'm going into the unknown. I don't know what I don't know. I know finance. Finance is about following the SEC rules.

SPEAKER_03

Right.

SPEAKER_00

You know, corporate, there's there's corporate um strategies and rules.

SPEAKER_01

It's more of a roadmap for you.

SPEAKER_00

There's a roadmap. There's no roadmap for coaching.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And what I didn't know, and for anyone else who is going to transition careers like that, is that the work has to start within first. You see, I had to change my mindset.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, it's awful. I had to change my way of being. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. And so, you know, there's certain things that you do and say that come out of your mouth easily. Well, I had to change, I had to understand that. Why, why do I say that? Why do I feel that way? You know, because we carry our parents' traumas.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And I'm a parent, right? So I don't say this judgingly, but we carry generational traumas and we carry generational shit. And sometimes we have these limiting beliefs and we don't know where they come from. And sometimes we put them on ourselves, and sometimes our parents put them on us. Sometimes society puts them on you. Sometimes your generation does. I mean, sometimes your culture does. But I had to now sit in it, sit in my own shit and go, okay, where did I, where did this come from? And there were times where I was like, oh, that's society shit. Well, fuck society. Yeah. Right? And then sometimes it was like, oh, there's a cultural thing? Oh. And then there were times where I was like, okay, I'm having a hard time getting rid of this. It's in my body. The body keeps core. And I was like, where is this coming from? So I had to do a lot of inner work. And guess what I found out? Not only was I working through childhood shit, I was working through generational trauma. Right? I I I come, I'm Spanish, Portuguese, French, African, Indigenous. You know how much shit is in that?

SPEAKER_01

That's a laundry list of shit, I imagine. My God.

SPEAKER_00

Oh my God. I had to work through all that stuff. It was in my body. It was in my soul. I'm still working through it. I have past lives. I have three that I know of that came into my childhood. Those are the three that I'm working towards working on now. But I told Spirit, I don't want to know of any right now. Anymore. I'm just working on these three, is all I can do for now. Right.

SPEAKER_01

I got enough of my kids.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. So I asked Spirit for what I want, and then I asked them for what I don't want. But I had to, I didn't know that, you know, when I read that people went from being a police officer to maybe a lawyer to um being a um construction worker to being in corporate, that it was a mindset shift. I had never thought of it that way until I went through it. But it could you could do it. You're gonna spend less time on Netflix, you're gonna spend less time hanging out with your friends, having a cocktail. It's not gonna be pretty, but you could do it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Yeah, it could be it's hard work and it's isolating.

SPEAKER_00

Very isolating for sure.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Because it takes a lot of energy. So devotion to self means okay, I don't have the capacity right now. I made plans to see um in a two hours how do I honor myself?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So what I do now, I make that phone call. I don't have the energy right now to pour into you, right? Or to show up as my best self. So I'm gonna dec I'm gonna say I can't make it. And some people are not gonna like it.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

It's okay. But some people are going to surprise you and say, Hey, are you okay? And when that happened to me the first time, I was so shocked. I cried.

SPEAKER_03

Wow.

SPEAKER_00

Because no one had ever said that to me after after no one had ever said that to me. Are you okay? And I was like, no, I'm not. But I need to sit alone with it for right now so that I can now then show up for you and we can have a really good time.

SPEAKER_03

Right.

SPEAKER_00

Because I'm gonna come right with joy in my heart. Right now I don't have it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's important. You know, showing up 100%.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. You want and here's the thing, you want people to show up for you 100%.

SPEAKER_03

Right.

SPEAKER_00

You if you and I are going out and we and we're having a a dinner, you're, you know, we're we're both on the mindset that we're gonna have a really good time, we're gonna have a good conversation, we're gonna laugh, we're gonna eat good food, we're gonna get to know each other better. But if I'm not in that space because I'm still feeling stuff, and I show up that way, yeah, that's not gonna be good for me or you.

SPEAKER_01

No, no.

SPEAKER_00

So why not just call the person and be truthful?

SPEAKER_01

Right.

SPEAKER_00

Right? You don't have to sugarcoat and say, I can't do it. I uh I'm very authentic. So I'm like, I'm sitting in my shit right now. Right? I've gotta sit in my shit. Sorry.

SPEAKER_01

When we get to Yeah, I think it's important. It's not steeped in something personal towards the other person. I think that goes a long way. It's not like, well, you know, I can't really withstand the way you laugh, so I'm gonna stay at home. You know what I mean? Or you know, I didn't I didn't care for the place that you pick, so uh, this isn't for me. You know, you're like, I I gotta sit in my shit. This is me. So in a way, it's for you, but right now I gotta do this for me. So I love that. That makes absolute sense. Um, so you speak openly about healing mentally, physically, and spiritually, like we talked about earlier. Um, not just medically. And what interests me is coming from everything you've come from, what do you think modern healthcare still misses when it comes to health care?

SPEAKER_00

This is why I'm building this healthcare ecosystem. Because what they're doing is they're not seeing the person as a whole person, mind by spirit. So, yes, you need a doctor to perform the surgery, to give you a diagnosis, a treatment plan. Um, but it disconnects you from the it disconnects you from the body. It doesn't treat the identity loss, it doesn't treat the emotional collapse.

SPEAKER_03

Right.

SPEAKER_00

It doesn't treat the spiritual disconnection, nor the family dynamics, the fear, the grief, the loneliness. Because healing is mental, physical, and spiritual. And so this is what I call whole person care. Because you need that alongside the medical industry. And that's what I'm working towards right now as we speak. I am building a framework with AI, by the way. And then I'm going to bring it to two strategic advisors and go, okay, here's my baby. What do you think? And can you build it for me?

SPEAKER_01

Wow. Yeah, I mean, when you said earlier, one of the hardest parts about what you were going through was you felt unseen and unheard. And I think that is, I mean, I think modern, you know, obviously medicine and Medicare and all that stuff is important and it does help people, but it's also it can be very cold and by the by the numbers, you know, there's they don't see you, they don't they don't hear you, they're just doing their job by the numbers. Which is great because they're focused on making sure they're where they need to be to get you where you need to be healed, you know. But I think that other stuff is so important to keep the actual soul healing and moving forward with the body.

SPEAKER_00

Because we're human.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And this is what the medical industry forgets. We're humans. We have a soul, we have a heart, and that has to be that has to be addressed, that has to be um amplified.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Yeah. I love that. I mean, a lot of industries probably need to amplify that, but especially, especially that's for sure. Um wow, that's really that's really amazing that you're building that. Um wow. How far along are you in the process of building that? Where where are you at with that anyway?

SPEAKER_00

So right now I'm building the architecture of it, right? The foundation, the phones. So it's defining all the definitions. What does whole care person mean? What does survivor mean? What does caregiver mean? What does um the care unit mean? Right. So I'm building that the foundation first. Um and I gotta tell you, uh, it's in it's interesting because I'm sitting in it like sometimes, because I have to answer, because remember, I'm not answering the course, I'm not completing this as a person who's just a coach. Right, a survivor.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, you're putting yourself in it.

SPEAKER_00

So I have different perspectives. Those perspectives are what need to be in the ecosystem.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Right. And so I'm sitting in it because I'm remembering, oh yeah, I remember, I remember that conversation. I remember feeling bad. I remember I'm just starting, I it's like, so I'll work on it for a couple of hours and then I'm exhausted. Going back to you know, the energy. I'm exhausted. I need a nap. Or I just need me time, right? Where I'll do a meditation or I just lie on my bed and just close my eyes.

SPEAKER_01

Um You need to step back out of it. I mean, right.

SPEAKER_00

I can't just like, okay, it's seven o'clock. I'm going out with Dan, right? Whoa, it's I've got to move through it. Move through it. So it's it takes it takes time. And right now I'm in this, I have 12 steps and I'm in the first one, and I've already spent, you know, 10 hours on it, but that's it's how long it takes because this is a license that I'm building. This ecosystem is a license that I'm selling to the medical industry. I'm selling it to cancer centers, I'm selling it to Harvard Medical School. I'm selling it to healthcare organizations because I want to change the way we look at medicine.

SPEAKER_01

It's incredible. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So they, the medical industry, I have to and then I have to write it so that the medical industry understands the terms. So terms like thriver are not in this ecosystem. Because the medical industry doesn't understand that. They look at thriver like, oh, that's woo-woo. Right? And look, spirituality. But so I have to I have to make sure that I'm speaking in the language that they understand. And they don't understand a lot of, they don't understand it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Excuse me. Yeah, they don't really understand the the humanity part too much, really.

SPEAKER_00

The humanity part until they get cancer themselves.

SPEAKER_01

Right. Right. That's usually how it works. So, um, well, I mean, for someone listening right now who just received devastating news, whether it's cancer, loss, addiction, heartbreak, something else, um, what do you hope they understand about the human capacity to rebuild, seeing, you know, the journey that you came from?

SPEAKER_00

You know, I wrote about this in one of the um anthologies. I think it was forge turning power, turning pressure into power. And I started I started the the chapter with this. So there's a great question. Cancer is not the end of your story. You are allowed to fall apart. You are allowed to rebuild. You are allowed to become someone new. You have more capacity, more resilience, more strength than you can see right now.

SPEAKER_01

Hell yeah. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Love that. Uh I feel like people just need to hear that no matter what, but especially if they're in a in a dark time. Um, yeah, I mean, your story, I feel like I just keep saying this, but it is. It's it's it's a badass story. It's incredible, it's heartbreaking, it's tough, it's dark, it's light. I mean, what you're doing now and creating that ecosystem to introduce to the world, to the medical world is incredible. You know, one of the things that I personally have not struggled with, but wondered, um, especially doing this podcast and talking to people, do you feel that adversity um reveals who we are, or do you think it helps create somebody entirely different? Or you know what I mean, when you come across such a mass of whether rock bottom or darkness in your life, you know, do you think that strips it down and reveals the actual you, or does it help you build somebody into somebody different?

SPEAKER_00

That's a good question.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. It's not one that I've answered myself yet, honestly.

SPEAKER_00

Because my my perspective as a survivor, thriver, is that it's a bit of a bit of both.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Because see, we all have free will.

unknown

Right.

SPEAKER_00

Free will. I can I I know people who've gotten cancer and have done nothing with cancer. No volunteer work, don't even talk about cancer. And that's okay. That's not where they're at.

SPEAKER_03

Right.

SPEAKER_00

I chose to do something with it. And I and I'll tell you, I chose to do something with it because I wanted to heal. So when I everything that I teach, it's lived experience. Because I wanted to change my life.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I saw myself in that box. And I said, Well, how do I want to live? What am I hungry for?

SPEAKER_01

Right.

SPEAKER_00

What do we need that I don't have, and how do I get it?

SPEAKER_01

Same girl. Same.

SPEAKER_00

And so I had to I had to. So once you say those words, you can't take it back. Yeah. You know what that feels like in your body. You've got to do something about it. Small microhabits. You start shifting. You start shifting. I'm I'm I'm 18 years almost. It's now that I'm thinking about this ecosystem. I wasn't gonna think about it 10 years ago, 20, you know, 15 years ago. You go through these stages. So I think that it's a bit a bit of both. I think that, you know, everything that I've experienced in my past life, in my, in my childhood, I think those were things that needed to come up to the surface to help me be my better self. And so now cancer comes, and that was another opportunity. I look at it now as an opportunity. Okay, so what change am I gonna make? I have free will. I don't have, I don't have to act like the person from the South Bronx of New York City who was born into generational poverty. This is my life. I get to decide.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_00

So that's when I started to work on the little things that I could. Physical. Let's take the physical pillar. Physical pillar is food and movement. I figured, okay, I'm gonna start eating clean. I'm gonna take out all the processed foods from my diet. Soda, corn, bread. I mean, you know, little increments. Little by little, I just started changing things until I totally eat clean. Well, I live in the United States, so 85 to 90% I eat clean because I have to go to restaurants and I have to go to people's homes. Yeah. And I have to eat. So I mean, you do the best you can. You do the best you can. And then movement. Movement. I worked out every day of my life since I was a kid. I was a um I was a tomboy. I played softball and volleyball all the way to high school. So it was these little things that I started to change within myself. And then got a great story. A few months after God hugged me, I'm speaking to a mom who became my first client, caregiver. Her daughter, 27 years old, got diagnosed with metastasis breast cancer, negative four. Incurable. So she's in front of me. It's COVID. We're on Zoom, and I'm just letting her talk, talk, talk. She's telling me she didn't like the way the doctors gave her the news. She didn't like the fact that she felt alone. You can imagine what the rest of the conversation went like. She said, how can I help my daughter? I gave her seven things. One, take a breath. Two, get a get a cancer coach. I had never heard of a cancer coach. This is 2020, 2020, 2021.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um change your your food diet. Start moving more. Get your people, get your tribe in order, and believe in something higher than yourself. What? Where did that come from? How did those words come out of my mouth? I don't know. It was spirit.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Spirit was telling me, you're gonna be that cancer coach. So when I get up, I get so now the call's almost over. She's pouring into me. Oh my god, thank you, thank you so much. I know what to do now. Thank you, thank you. I get off the phone and I'm like, oh my god, what the heck just happened? Cancer coach, never read about one, and I'm a reader, read about one, seen one, knew one, nobody. And I was like, hmm. That's interesting. Yeah. And I sat with it for two days, and then I said, I'm gonna be a cancer coach. And my ego went, What? Oh no, we're not. We're not gonna be poor. Limiting belief.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

We want to go back to finance. We want to go back to the house that we lived in. We want to go back to making money. We want to go on vacation every three months like we did before. No, no, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_01

Right, there's comfort in there.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. There's comfort. All right, right? Because you default.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

My mindset, girl, what do you know about being a coach? And now I'm looking at myself as the heart. And I said, just because we're gonna be a coach doesn't mean we have to be poor. I didn't, I didn't really know what that meant at the moment, but that's what I felt.

SPEAKER_01

And sometimes that's the most important part, is just mentally making that shift. Even if you don't know what that means or where it goes.

SPEAKER_00

Exactly. And I said, and we're not going to be poor anymore. Because remember, I come from generational power. But then I'm in finance, so my life is different, you see?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And now we're back to being, okay, we're living on our retirement fund. And then I go to the mind. What are you talking about? I was a manager. I had to coach people to do their jobs. I have two children. Hell, I was a wife for 24 years. Don't tell me I'm not a coach. And I didn't believe it 100%, but I believed it enough to say that to myself. And then I was like, am I fucking crazy? I'm looking at myself like heart, mind, and ego. Oh. Oh. So I went to the, I went, I sat in it. Two days later, I come back and I go, okay. Again, to my go back to my mind and my ego, and I go, we're gonna be a coach. I need you on board. I need you to follow and support. I'm the leader now. I can't do this without you. Right? You get things done.

SPEAKER_03

Right.

SPEAKER_00

But I need you on board. I'm the leader now. And my mind and ego are like, hmm, that's what do you think? And for two years, it was a battle in my head. But I was the leader, the heart. So the heart signs off on everything. If my heart is not in it, it doesn't happen. So I had to learn to say no to things because my heart wasn't in it. Even though my mind and ego were like, no, it's a good opportunity. There is money there. No, my heart's not in it. We're not doing that. I had to shift a lot.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Incredible. Um just a few more questions, and then we'll uh I'll let you talk about some books. I mean, you've done a lot, so I'll let you talk a little bit about what you've been up to. And um let's go with two more questions here. Uh at the end of someone's life, what do you hope mattered most about the way that you showed up in this world?

SPEAKER_00

I want people to say and feel and know that I loved myself. Like I truly love myself. Like I devote to self mentally, physically, and spiritually. And because of that, I love people. I help families feel secure. That I turned my pain into purpose. And that I left the world a more compassionate place than when I found it. And that was what I was thinking when I saw myself in that coffin. How did I want to live? Where do I want the words said about me? And now they're going to also say, oh, Sarita, founder of Life by Design Not Default, the pioneer in aligning whole person care with the medical industry. That's what they're gonna say about me.

SPEAKER_01

Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Last but not least, what does braving the bright side mean to you?

SPEAKER_03

That's a good question.

SPEAKER_00

It means that I could choose joy even when life is hard. That joy is my birthright. That it means believing in the possibility, even when that path is unclear. It means letting the heart lead and trusting that the light will meet you where you're at.

SPEAKER_01

Damn, that's really good. You said earlier, joy is my birthright, and I'd never heard that before, and I absolutely love that phrase. Oh tattooed on my back. I don't know. We'll see.

SPEAKER_00

But it's one of my tag lines. I I love it.

SPEAKER_01

It's such a good line.

SPEAKER_00

But it goes back to again that devotion to self.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Where do you find joy? Joy is not at the bar, hanging out with your friends, doom scrolling on your phone.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Working. Joy is right here. It doesn't require anyone else, but you sitting sitting with yourself. And for me, here's a he's the quickest way I'm gonna tell your audience to tap into that joy. Because look, there's stuff that we can look at and go, there's no joy here. I have a cancer diagnosis, right?

SPEAKER_03

Right.

SPEAKER_00

But you could flip it and look at and be in gratitude. And say, hey, I'm sitting here. My heart rate is normal. My fingers are tingling. I'm enjoying what I'm reading or speaking with someone. That moment, that's joy. Doesn't require any anyone. So I find gratitude. So in those years, I had to find gratitude, even though the diagnosis said you have cancer. And I was like, at first I was like, oh even when the diagnosis came every three months, because you go every three months. I was like, it's okay. I'm good.

SPEAKER_01

It's a superpower right there.

SPEAKER_00

Let me tell you something is you have to be delusional.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Right? You have to be delusional and tell yourself, no.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I'm going to be in joy. Now so what I do is I teach people how to find that joy. And what's great is that I'm teaching people who do not have a cancer diagnosis now. I I'm actually teaching entrepreneurs. I'm I'm teaching them on Saturday. I'm teaching entrepreneurs, regular people, how to find joy.

SPEAKER_01

Well, speaking of joy, let's get into the joy that you've brought. You've brought a couple free gifts to the audience, right? Uh, which I'm pretty excited to check out. So let's, yeah, let's talk about these gifts that you've brought, shall we?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. So one of the gifts that I bought is called the Energy Quiz. It is the most fantastic quiz that I've created. So I am creating a new website called Life by Design Not Default. And I knew that I needed to have a lead magnet that will appeal to everyone, not just people with cancer. And I had created a energy archetype quiz. Now, this quiz helps you understand how your energy is showing up today and what you need to feel aligned, grounded, and confident. And it follows the energy pillars, mind, body, spirit, and strength. And so what it does, it gives you that language of your patterns. And then it gives you a personalized path to shift your energy in real time. 10 simple questions. Um, all again, mind, body, spirit. After you take it, it'll give you a percentage of where your energy is. So then you get to decide which pillar you want to work on. So if you want to work on the mind pillar, most people who work on the mind pillar, I'm an overthinker. So I'm I'm gonna use that as an example. So if your your percentage comes out lower than you want it to be, you can look at that mind pillar and then work on some microhabit to increase that that that percentage. So a person who has um an overthinker um usually wakes up in the morning and goes, Oh, I have so much shit to do. That's an overthinker. Right? A person whose body is you know showing pain and discomfort will say things like, Oh, I don't know if my body could do that today. A person who's coming from spirit will go, and this is what I did today. I was like, I get to speak to Dan Bradley today and be on his podcast, right? And then a person who's coming from strength will say, This is a glorious day, right? I am going to be present. And how am I going to be present through the whole day? And so you look at it and it'll give you these microhabits because again, we're not trying to we're not trying to do things, we're not trying to build an ecosystem that can, you know, quickly. We're not trying to do those things. Everything takes this way, it's taking me 18 years. It it's little, little microhabits that change your world, change your life. And so I love this quiz. And I take it once a week. So I'm gonna take it again on Saturday because Saturday I'm gonna teach it at a workshop. But then let me tell you about the other honey, ginger, turmeric bug. Yeah is a recipe.

SPEAKER_01

So you sent me this recipe when we first chatted, too. And I tried it about three different times now. Boy howdy, is it a good time. So I'm sorry, I don't interrupt. No, no, tell me more. Tell me more. Oh my god, it's incredible. I mean, I've this past couple weeks, I've been kind of getting hit left and right with random sicknesses and colds because the weather's been so kind of all over the place. Um, so kind of like, you know, I saw your email and I was like, oh, I should give that a shot. Just to try it out, regardless. And I gotta tell you, man, it that not only like physically just kind of helped lift me up, but mentally. It helped clear my brain and just kind of helped settle me. It was really, really good. It did more than I, no offense at all, but it did a lot more than I expected.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and and it's yummy.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it's delicious.

SPEAKER_00

I really look forward to having a spoonful of this. So this balm eases your indigestion and it reduces inflammation in your body naturally. We have ginger, turmeric, honey, cinnamon, pepper, which activates the turmeric, um, raw honey, right? Because I eat clean. So I eat raw and unfiltered honey. Um, I use NCT oil because if I'm gonna use a coconut oil, I'm gonna use a high grade oil. And it's just I meal prep it every Sunday with the rest of my food, and then I put it in a jar. And this is what it looks like. And my mom just had a stroke in November, and you know, she's been talking about the aches and pains on her knees because she has osteoarthritis, and I have osteoarthritis too. And this eases that so you know I took emo for 13 years. I don't want to take any more pills. So I don't take I really don't use um ibuprofen or I said amenophen, um, unless I had to, right?

SPEAKER_01

Right. Same. I'm never a big fan.

SPEAKER_00

But I do this every day to help me with my torn meniscus, because right now I have a torn meniscus, to help me with my osteoarthritis, to help me with my shoulder bursitis, um, helps me with my scoliosis. I mean, and here's how I know that it works. When I travel, and I'm traveling for three weeks, that's what I'm getting ready for. I can't take it with me. First of all, it's more than three ounces. So I'll I either have to make it wherever I'm at, right? Or sometimes I just have to do it out. And when I have to do it out, it's when I know that it works. Because that's when I feel those aches and pains. Now I'm in my 60s. So I also have the the aches and pains of using my body for 60-something years, right? So when I don't use it consecutively, I feel the difference. I'm lethargic, um, my digestive system is not working as well, the inflammation is a little higher. It's um, I could feel like the hard to take out, take off the jewelry. Right. Um it's it's I I I think I learned this from an Indian woman at Mind Valley University. We met in Estonia, and I was just in love with this. Uh, what it did for me was incredible.

SPEAKER_01

And it's a deli, it's almost like a delicious dessert. It's almost like a sweet treat. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Because I can't have a Snickers bar anymore because it has, you know, that has um ultra-processed ingredients. So this for me is like candy.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Um, also, shout out to, I mean, you said you're six, you're in your 60s now. You're 60. Mind blogging. Oh my gosh. You look younger than I do. I'm gonna need to put a filter. This is ridiculous. My gosh. Um, well, what we're gonna do was I'll I'll um I'll post that recipe um on my socials and all the posts with you, and then also in the description of the episode, as well as um the the 10, was it 10 question, seven question pillar, the qu uh the quiz you came up with, right?

SPEAKER_02

Yes.

SPEAKER_01

I'll post that as well. Um and let's talk about what you're doing now, where people can find you, um, where they can interact with you. Like I said, I think you've you're like, I'll just send you a quick email of all my books and socials. And I was like, oh my gosh. All right, so please talk to the people about where to find you, where they can interact with you.

SPEAKER_00

So I live on LinkedIn and I write about two or three times a week. And I write about things that me and my clients are going through: faith versus fear, right? Um, how do you devote to self when your world is looking really crappy? Um I write, yeah, I put myself out there. Um, I've been through this transformation and I want people to know that uh they could do it too. Yeah, that they can do it. Uh and I'm also on Facebook and Instagram, but LinkedIn is where I'm really who uh myself. Um you already know I'm building this ecosystem. I am hosting a devote to self using AI workshop on Saturday. It's virtual. I'm happy to share it with your audience. And so I'm gonna teach people how to devote to themselves using AI.

SPEAKER_03

Wow.

SPEAKER_00

And we use the energy quiz as the um as the tool. So you're going to learn less than five minutes microhabits that you can do to shift mind, body, and spirit.

SPEAKER_01

Fascinating. Wow.

SPEAKER_00

And then so I am going to travel for three weeks starting June. So I'll be gone all of June. I'm going to New York. My baby's hitting 21, so I'm gonna take him out to a fabulous dinner.

SPEAKER_03

Nice.

SPEAKER_00

Um, I'm gonna do some business, have a business meeting scheduled, and then I'm going to Greece from there. I'm going to a speaker's mastermind.

SPEAKER_03

Nice.

SPEAKER_00

And I'm going to elevate my keynote speaking. So um I'm going to elevate it from 15 to 20 minutes. Uh, to, I'm sorry, from 15 to 30 minutes. And I'm going to be around 22 other fabulous people who um want to make an impact with the communication skills.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And um I'm going to see Greece, which is, I can't wait, it was on my bucket list anyway. And then I get to go back to New York, have more business meetings, see more friends, see more family, and then I come home the end of June. So I'm and then I'm going to come back and work on my ecosystem because I'm going to take all that and incorporate it into the because I know that that's what the this part of the ecosystem is requiring right now. It's requiring me to step back and bring some other things in. So I'm really, really excited.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I think that's more.

SPEAKER_00

I got more, but that's deep.

SPEAKER_01

I got you on here now when I did before, you know, you go and light the world on fire all over again. I mean, I gotta tell you, Zerida, you uh you're living life by design, not by default.

SPEAKER_00

I am what I did there, pretty practical. I'm gonna show you something. I don't know if you can see it. There it is.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, you can see it. Look at that.

SPEAKER_00

Life by design, not default. And as you see, life by design is in script. Lewic, flowing, and then not default. Yeah, it's rigid. You see the you see, you see, um the the two different energies. Yeah, we are two we are many energies. And so when I got this, my little one who's now 21 was 17 at the time, and I said, Would you take me to the tattoo place? I'm fit, I'm in my 50s, I'm getting my first tattoo. So I'm thinking I gotta wear, I got, you know, I have to wear dresses, and you know, I just wanted something small, simple. My kid was like, no, mom, we need to be bold. And so I thank you, Kyle, because because of him.

SPEAKER_01

Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

It's it's a it's a nice showpiece.

SPEAKER_01

It's beautiful.

SPEAKER_00

I love it. It's it reminds me, it's like a watch. I have a I have a watch that I a real high-end watch that I purchased after my cancer diagnosis. And for me, that watch was perseverance, hope. And so when I wear it, I say a little prayer and I I I I I feel like I'm okay. I'm in a safe space. Let's be authentic. When I see this, when I see this tattoo, I feel the same way. I feel that hope is my birthright. Joy is my birthright, and thriving is the expectation.

SPEAKER_01

Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_00

You're uh Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01

You know, I said it before, you're a warrior, you're great. Um, so right, and it's this has been uh a fantastic chat. I cannot thank you enough for making it a point to be on my show um and talking to my audience about everything. I mean, your incredible journey, your you know, your fight through chemotherapy and cancer, how that transformed you, how open you are about how brutal that was, and then everything you're doing now in terms of trying to change the medical industry, in terms of opening their eyes to seeing human beings, at least adding an aspect to that to helps that helps other people feel seen, feel heard that you know you did not get while you were there. Um man, I mean, you're doing so many awesome things, you've been through so much. Um I think you are an absolute inspiration. And the fact that you're you're still going strong, you're going to Greece to talk, and you're gonna be in a room with a lot of good people, a lot of uh important people. Um, I can't wait to see what else you do, honestly. And you look better than I do. That's just a big deal.

SPEAKER_00

And because Zoom has good f uh filters. But um, you know, I get to be in a room where I can build relationships, where I could learn how to be a better, more inspiring storyteller.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Where I can experience Greece. You see how you see that you see the frame? I get to. I get to. I'm very grateful for that. So I'm gonna sit in that. Thank you for reminding me today. I'm gonna take five minutes and I'm just going to reflect on the gratitude because I get to do that. I didn't always get to. I always didn't always have that energy.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I've said this a lot of times already, but hell yeah, Sarata.

SPEAKER_00

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Listen, let's have you back on down the road when uh when you finish your design for everything you're working on now, we can kind of check in, see where you're at, you know, seeing everything else that you're conquering and inspiring out there. So um, Sorina, thank you so much for braving the bright side with us here.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, well, thank you. Because through your journey, you birthed this beautiful podcast.

SPEAKER_01

So I appreciate that. And it's it's an honor to have you on. And I hope you have a lovely day, and I hope you have a safe and lovely trip.

SPEAKER_00

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01

You take care.

unknown

Bye.

SPEAKER_01

Thank you so much for spending a little time with us here on the bright side. You know, one of the uh one of the things that really stood out to me throughout this conversation was the idea that while we don't always get to choose what happens to us, uh, we do get to choose how we respond. Your story is one of resilience, reinvention, and learning to find purpose in places where many people would probably only see pain. I loved our discussion about healing, not just physically, but mentally and spiritually as well. And I think your reminder that joy is something we can actively choose, even in the most difficult of times, is a message a lot of people need to hear right now. Thank you for sharing your journey, your wisdom, and the work you're doing to help others feel seen, heard, and supported. If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to follow Braving the Bright Side on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also find the show on Instagram at braving underscore the bright side, on Facebook and TikTok at BravingTheBright Side. For guest inquiries, speaking opportunities, coaching, or just to say hello, you can reach me at braving the bright side at gmail.com. Thank you for spending a little time on the bright side with me today. Until next time, keep braving it. One step, one sunrise, one intentional choice at a time. I'll see you next time.

Head Shot

Daniel Bradley

Host