#48 - Sarah Hayes: Follow the Breath to Steadiness

Sarah Hayes follows what lights her up. From a childhood on a South Australian farm to animal behaviour research, expedition guiding, yoga, breathwork, freediving and her organisation, "Breathe Her", her path has been shaped by curiosity, place, practice and a strong sense of inner response.

In this Natural Genius conversation, Sarah and Sam talk about leadership, Human Design, Generator energy, the Kimberley, breath as a practical pathway back to steadiness, and the small practices that help people feel more calm, clear and grounded in daily life.

Sarah’s natural genius is following the nudges, trusting what lights her up, and using breath as a way back to steadiness in life, leadership and the body.

Thankyou to Olena Severyn for introducing Sarah to Natural Genius.

This episode explores
• Ecology, tourism and stewardship
• Expedition leadership in the Kimberley region of Australia
• Yoga, Pranayama and trauma-informed breathwork
• How small breath practices support steadiness
• Human Design, Generator energy and following the gut
• Freediving, breath, embodiment and community

Guest bio:
Sarah Hayes is a breathwork coach, yoga teacher, trauma-informed wellness facilitator and educator, expedition naturalist guide and freediver. Through Breathe Her, she helps busy people move from reactive to calm and clear through gentle, practical breathwork practices for everyday life. Sarah brings together ecology, psychology, expedition leadership, yoga and Pranayama to support people to connect with place, body, breath and self.

Guest mentions:
• Sarah Hayes: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahellenhayes/
• Breathe Her: https://www.breatheher.com/nomoretriggers and https://www.instagram.com/breathe_her_

Conversation mentions:
• Olena Severyn's Natural Genius: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2SyBOiIdWR4SHARDxyh6mh
• Create your Human Design profile: https://www.mybodygraph.com/
• Learn about the Kimberley Region in Australia: https://www.australia.com/en/places/broome-and-surrounds/guide-to-the-kimberley.html

Chapters:
00:00 Introducing Sarah Hayes
00:56 Growing up on a South Australian farm
04:27 From animal behaviour to tourism and stewardship
08:36 Expedition leadership and the Kimberley
16:41 Yoga, Pranayama and finding breathwork
24:04 Small practices for full lives
31:13 Trauma-informed practice and self-authority
39:05 Breathe Her, steadiness and following what lights you up
46:43 Freediving, Olena and breath in community

Explore further:
Natural Genius: https://naturalgenius.com.au

Credits:
Hosted by Samantha Bell in Kiama and Amed, Bali, 30 April 2026.
Produced at the Kiama office, 30 April - 19 May 2026.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to the Natural Genius Podcast. We're here to help you tap into your natural genius. Let's go. You're about to meet Sarah, who has been recommended by Elena who was on an earlier podcast episode. Sarah is a breathwork facilitator, and as a dear friend to Elena, I'm really looking forward to meeting her. Enjoy. Sarah, welcome to the Natural Genius Podcast. Hey Sam, super excited to be here.

SPEAKER_02 0:31

Thanks for having me on.

SPEAKER_00 0:33

It's kind of fun to hear your Australian accent because for some reason being friends with Elena, maybe I just assumed that you might have been from another land. So when you came on a moment ago, I'm like, oh.

SPEAKER_02 0:48

Yeah, South Australian, born and bred for sure.

SPEAKER_00 0:51

And you were saying that you grew up on farms or far a farm?

SPEAKER_02 0:56

Yeah, I for the first 15 years of my life, I grew up in South Australia remotely on a farm on the coast, so I wasn't like in the middle of nowhere, as most of Australia is really. It's so big. So yeah, my roots are deeply rooted in the earth through that way.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

Wow. How do you think that changes how you approach life, or do you notice the difference between you and other people in terms of their upbringing?

SPEAKER_02 1:50

I mean, yeah. I mean definitely growing up on a farm. That's such a leading question, wasn't it? Such a huge question. I I definitely feel that growing up on a farm created a very solid and deep and embodied connection to the earth for me in many ways, and you know, to the earth in many ways, but uh to the environment as well, if we're thinking more kind of like scientifically, etc. etc. And it it really led me to where I am today in many ways as well. And I think I I owe my research science years to growing up on a farm, I owe my um my travels all around the world to growing up on a farm, um, growing up in a family sort of circle of mostly boys, mostly sons as the kids. And so I was often off doing my own thing down in the scrub on the block. Um, so I learned a lot of sort of self being happy in my own skin, doing my own thing, super independent. And then I mentioned the first 15 years I grew up on a farm, and that's because when I was 15, I went to boarding school in the city, which was three hours away. And so that as well really formulated and integrated this sense of independence and um I guess strength and um which then really has created this uh travel bug and always you know being in different countries and also being being comfortable with experimenting as well. And I mean, I'm a 3-6 generator, so my life until kind of now and for the next few years has been all about experimentation, you know, naturally, but it's it's you know built into my human design. Um yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:08

Whoa, that was a lot in a short space of time. I'm thrilled. Tell me, I loved your words around I owe dot dot dot to the farm. So there was science in there, there was travel in there. Tell me more.

SPEAKER_02 4:27

I, you know, growing up with such a love for the planet, the environment, nature, I naturally I I knew, well, actually, no, that's a lie. At one point I thought I wanted to be a doctor because I watched too much Grey's Anatomy, even when as far as doing the UMath, but of course, epically failed that. But I didn't care because actually I really didn't want to be a doctor, funnily enough. What I really wanted to do was work with animals and work in the environment. And so I went straight into doing an animal behavior science degree, and then I sort of um combined that with a a psycho like human psychology degree and went on to do my honors in animal behavior, which essentially at that stage the degree was more of a biodiversity and ecology degree. It was in its sort of early years of being built, I guess. We were sort of the guinea pigs. Um and yeah, I was I was totally into research science, which I never thought I would be, and I fell into you know working with bees in Fiji, researching the native bees.

SPEAKER_00 5:49

I can see the link to bees, but how does Fiji come into that?

SPEAKER_02 5:54

Uh it was purely the the supervisor that I wanted to work with. He was based in doing a lot of work with the bees in Fiji. Funnily enough, it's very, very niche. Um yeah, and it took me, I my my love was primates, so monkeys and apes, and that was really ultimately the animal or the the what what I wanted to work with. And I I did that for a little while. I I went and researched capuchins in Paraguay, I worked with orangutans in Borneo, I did work with various primates in in Central America, and I loved it, but I was sort of set to go into a PhD, but ultimately during that time I had also fallen into tourism, uh nature tourism, and realized that I actually really loved the education side of science and facilitating experiences for people to connect with the environment because and we know this through through research and science that when people can experience an environment literally, like actually be there, when they feel an emotion and when they have the the kind of information of you know why it's important, how to to protect this sort of environment, all of those things together cultivate um a sense of stewardship in someone. And so through tourism, I could really hopefully kind of make more of an impact rather than sitting in a lab writing up research papers and only being in the field for like three weeks of the year. So I decided not to go down the PhD route and to really stick with tourism. And um, I it was originally going to be a just a summer of fun away from the lab and the computer, but I am here like eight or nine years later, still in tourism, and in the meantime, have really solidified my yoga and breathwork practice into teaching as well, and now running my own breathwork um business.

SPEAKER_00 8:23

I love that, Sarah. You explained that so well. What a ride. Tell me about being an expedition leader. What do you love about it? What is the privilege around that?

SPEAKER_02 8:36

Expedition is something that I got into I think about three or four years ago now. Before that, I was working um down in South Australia. But these days I'm I'm working on expedition ships. So essentially they're really small-scale cruise liners, um, about 100 to 200 people. So it's still a big boat, not like a small liverboard. And essentially, we take people, it's it's a preset itinerary, you know, a big company in France um does all of that stuff, um, and then they fly us in to wherever the the ship is we get on, and it's a team of 10 to 15 people, and we essentially with the captain of the ship, we guide all of these guests that come on board through wherever we are. And so for me, I'm based in Asia Pacific, so we do a lot of Indonesia trips, a lot of Papua New Guinea, a lot of um Melanesia in general, but then also a lot of the Kimberley in Northwest Australia, which is truly a privilege, yeah, to be able to guide people through all the coast of the Kimberley, um, especially it's it's a very ancient land, you know, as all of Australia is, but has a really rich, rich history of Aboriginal culture that's still living and breathing today, of course, as with the rest of Australia. Um, but yeah, it's truly a privilege to take people through there and to facilitate that experience for them to connect with a land like this, this sort of interesting kind of like subtropical, sub-semi-arid zone area. Um with this really rich Aboriginal culture as well as the really interesting geology and everything else that comes with with the Kimberley, but basically we're taking people in small groups around, you know, on little blow-up zodiacs that I mean blow-up zodiac, it's like a military grade kind of James Bond style rubber boat. Um, and we drive them around and we show them cool things, point out all the amazing birds and animals and you know, rock formations, and we take them ashore and um with indigenous folks we head up to sometimes rock art caves, and yeah, it's truly amazing. And the teams that I get to work in are so much fun and so full of knowledge, and you know, I've been lucky enough to also co-lead a few of those teams as well, and leadership is really one of my one of my life values, one of my core values that I I try to live by. And breath, interestingly, comes so strongly into leadership. And I think the two have really, you know, helped me with a lot of things, learning through leadership, but also learning through breath. And you know, that also creating the person, the version of the person that I am today as well.

SPEAKER_00 12:16

Whoa, no wonder Elena recommended you you keep having me out of uh out of words. I mean, so let me understand, let me catch up. So the Kimberley, which part of the Kimberley are you talking about? Northwest Australia, and is it yeah, I never know whether it's Cape Levique or Cape Levesque. Is it that area in Broom and is it land as well as the zodiacs coming into the shore? Tell me more.

SPEAKER_02 12:44

No, it's basically the the company that I work for, we we essentially we pick up people in Broome and then we take them all the way along the coast to Darwin. It's only a 10-day trip, so we're only hitting, you know, 10, 12, 13 stops along the way. Sometimes two locations in a day, sometimes just one. Sometimes it's just a C day. Usually there's only maybe one C day um per trip. And then we drop them off in Darwin and then we pick more up in Broome and we take the next slot down to pick them up in Darwin, then take the next slot down to Broome. So it's back and forth the whole time, which some people, you know, as a guide would get bored by because it's the same thing. We go to the same places, but for me it's being able to visit these the same place multiple times, you know, sometimes over 10 times in a season, and being able to watch how the environment changes and ebbs and flows with the seasons and yeah, and um, you know, really deeply getting to learn a place and to know a place and to connect to a place over time is something that I really value, but and that's how I travel as well often is that you know, quote unquote, slow travel. Go to less places, spend more time, really connect with a place, and get to deeply understand it and and know it and you know feel into the ancestors and the people that came before us here and everything. So I think as of right now, I've spent maybe two-thirds, accumulatively two-thirds of a year in the Kimberley, which is quite special. And I I really I know that that's not a normal thing because as an Australian usually knows, the Kimberley is extra, extra remote, and really is like the last kind of one of the last remaining places on the planet that is so untouched and so few people, and um holds such a rich indigenous culture and such a rich history as well, even with you know, the first arrivals of humans onto the continent of Australia, the Kimberley was sort of you know the second major place that they they walked to. So yeah, it's truly special to be able to spend so much time up there and work there and and show people around.

SPEAKER_00 15:40

Uh one of the questions I had as you were describing the Kimberley when you first started talking about it was how do you keep up to date with the knowledge and learning of the place? And you've just answered that. When I was lucky enough to be up there afterwards, I would talk to people on my travels within Australia and overseas, and I would encourage people to go to the northwest of Australia because often the tourism in Australia can be East Coast, and the colours and the sense of energy and the difference in the area, the Kimberleys and beyond in the Northwest is just it's something to be experienced. I love hearing that you're definitely you're one of the very rare people that has spent so much time there. Tell me about the your breath work. Get how did you get into it and and your yoga practice? I'd love to hear more.

SPEAKER_02 16:41

You know, I fell into yoga as probably many have through a dark night of the soul. Um I was 21, I think, at the time, and I had started struggling with social anxiety, and it got to a point where I, you know, had one of those dark nights of the soul, and I was like, nah, I'm gonna get help. And I started seeing a a psychologist and you know, did all the things, and she was like, you know, I really recommend you try yoga. And I was like, you know what, I've been thinking about that. So I dragged my dad to my first yoga class.

SPEAKER_00 17:23

Thanks, Dad.

SPEAKER_02 17:25

Yeah, uh, and he hated it, and I loved it. It was, you know, I grew up in school team sports, and I don't know, it was never really something that I overly loved. Uh the sort of over exertion of sport. And then yoga for me just felt so natural and I was naturally flexible, and so it was easy for me. And I was like, Yeah, yeah, it's something that I'm naturally good at. And so I fell in love with it that way, and then of course, as usually happens with people, the whole sort of spiritual, you know, learning and unfolding and deepening. And um it was when I was in Paraguay, which is Central kind of South America, if um anyone's unsure. I met a lady called Milena Marino. We still sort of keep in touch every now and then, she's American and or Californian, I should probably say. They prefer to be called Californian. Um and she gave me this little book, a book, it was like a little kind of introduction to Buddhism, and it was a tiny little pocket-sized book, and that was really where I kind of started my a deeper sense of self-inquiry and learning, and starting to kind of believe in energy and all of that, and yeah, so I practiced yoga for about six years, and I was leading a research expedition in the northwest of Madagascar once upon a time, and all of the scientists and students would see me doing yoga every day, and they were like, Sarah, please can you give us a yoga class? And I was like, Well, I'm not a teacher, but sure, we'll just do it. And hilariously, halfway through the yoga class, a lima fell out of a tree onto the ground right next to me and jumped onto my leg for safety and um attached itself to me for about five minutes because it was so scared of what had just happened. Luckily, I had I had spent a lot of time working closely with primates before this, so I was okay with the fact that a lima was attached to my leg. And I was so close that I could see the the insects running through its fur on its head. It was quite interesting. Um eventually it kind of calmed down and I I sort of waddled over to a tree and let it make its own way back up into the trees. But after that, I was like, hmm, I like this yoga thing. I like teaching. No, it wasn't the lima that made me fall in love with teaching, it was it was the class itself. Um but I I realized I really loved teaching yoga, just like I really loved, you know, educating people about the environment and facilitating those experiences. And so eventually, after a few years, I did a teacher training and became a yoga teacher and then finally found a pranayama teacher, which is uh the yogic breathwork. Um I'd been looking for years, had never found one, and finally came across one. Um, her name's Uma Spender, highly recommend for anyone also looking for for pranayama teachers, other than myself, of course. But um yeah, and I went straight into a pranayama teacher training, and that kind of changed also the trajectory of my own practice and how I teach. And I taught yoga asana for a few years, you know, loved it, but it didn't feel like it came as naturally to me. And breath work always came so easily, and I always felt so amazing during teaching and after teaching, and I always I I love how accessible the practice is. I love how like everyone breathes, right? And you know, even if you're not conscious and there's a machine breathing for you, you're still. breathing and it's something that you don't you don't need to be wearing Lululemons and in all of your active wear and you don't need to be able to do fancy poses or be flexible or anything. You can literally be standing in line at the grocery store and using your breath in that moment without anyone even noticing, using it consciously, intentionally, literally to you know self-regulate, help yourself get from a state of stress into a state of steadiness. It's so powerful. It's so tightly interwoven into our nervous system and the fibers of our being and you know out into the universe in so many ways. And I love how impactful literally the most automatic function in our body breathing. We do it without even thinking about it. Thank you breath thank you body thank you brain for doing that for me. It's so automatic happens all the time it's always there and it's like the one of the most impactful things on our health our physical health our mental health our spiritual health so it impacts so many things and I I'm just obsessed with it. I I love the science behind it. I love the the sort of spirituality behind it the physiological aspect of it it's so much fun and so now I I specialise just in breath work in my business. I rebranded and restructured at the start of last year to purely just focus on breath work because that is what truly lights me up like 100% and that's why I'm here right now.

SPEAKER_00 24:04

Tell me more Sarah what are you offering at the moment what do you love seeing in people the outcomes or the surprises that delight you about working with people I think I love I love working live with people whether it's online whether it's in person actually breathing in real time with someone and being able to really see the sort of process happening you know in them and with them in the moment and then afterwards the conversations that we have whether it's in a group whether it's a private 101 the conversations are always so amazing and excuse me the just the the transformation that people feel from just a simple breath practice and if it's the first time they're sort of consciously breathing with you know through guidance it can be like life changing for them.

SPEAKER_02 25:10

So I really love and most practitioners will agree with me here is that sort of in-person um facilitation is where I really get the most kind of fulfillment from because you do get that sort of instant direct feedback of you know the the actual change happening in people and I do on my website I have a few different sort of breathwork bundles and programs that people can buy and and use anytime anywhere it's self-led which I love the accessibility of this because let's be honest everyone is so busy these days our schedules are so full. So having these available I I love um but often you know the feedback that you're getting is like weeks later or even months later and it's sometimes you know through a conversation that you randomly have in the messages in Instagram and they go oh actually yeah I wanted to let you know that yeah you've like changed my life so thanks it's like okay this is amazing um please tell me more like elaborate you've changed my life how fun yeah so and I think you know I work with a lot of really you know embodied and self-aware and intelligent and authentic women and you know they live their lives in this way or they you know are trying to but the the lives that we're living in this the kind of the world that we're living in is so full and intense and full of notifications full of you know news alerts that are horrific it's full of so many things that we kind of expect ourselves to have to do. And so it's really not surprising that these women even though they're so intelligent they're self-aware they're you know emotionally intelligent they're all of these things this they still struggle like we still struggle to stay regulated we still struggle not to be triggered at even the slightest thing we still struggle to not you know be reactive as like a base level of you know experience waking up first thing in the morning and it's it's so it's so okay and so like normal to be overwhelmed daily like so many people are experiencing this and this is what I'm seeing you know in my clients and people that are working through my my self-guided programs and and bundles but of course with these full lives you know we can't be expected to move mountains just to get that self-care and to get that nervous system regulation into actually you know be able to deactivate a stress response that's maybe been going on for days, weeks sometimes even years for some people unfortunately and so I think it's really I really love showing people that you don't need to move mountains to do this like literally a lot of the well all of the practices that I currently have up on on my website are less than 13 minutes. And I'm yet to hear from someone that it hasn't worked that five minutes wasn't enough you know so it's there is proof you know the smallest of practice the smallest of conscious awareness towards the breath is like it works and you know there are cases where the breath can be stressful and uncomfortable and triggering for some people and I'm totally totally aware of that and I've done a few uh trauma informed trainings with um various folks uh you know with yoga facilitation and breath work facilitation and this has really informed um my teaching a lot um but that sounds important Sarah yeah and but just you know to to let your listeners know as well if they're listening to this and they they do feel like the breath doesn't work for them they do feel like it makes them more stressed than they think they should be it's okay and it's it is also quite common very common actually and it could be that the technique that you're using or the kind of style of breath work that you're using isn't really suited to what you need right now. It might be something that could be useful for you in maybe a few years or in a few weeks a few months but perhaps you know checking in with okay are there different styles of breath work maybe more gentle nourishing foundational practices like we teach um at Breathe Her or perhaps you know trying a different modality before you dip back into breath work. There are so many people that you know deal with their stress and self-regulate using other techniques and the breath work doesn't have to be your kind of medicine or your golden egg so yeah just to to note that and know that if if that is you.

SPEAKER_00 31:13

Wow Sarah you've covered so much and so much about the breath what about your own practice how has your own practice changed through the yoga and into breath work and then what you might do each day or each week or each month around your own practices my practice before I became a teacher is completely different to now how I teach and I think for any kind of yoga or breathwork teacher it's probably the same.

SPEAKER_02 31:47

Essentially well I was one day doing a yoga class and it was a sort of high intensity yoga class and we were in downward facing dog for quite a while too long and I'd been practicing for six years at this point and up until I became a yoga teacher that the next year no one had actually ever taught me how to do downward facing dog properly and which is kind of wild because it's literally you do it probably 20 times in a yoga class. And so you know I was in this this class and it was like one minute into holding downward facing dog and it was probably the tenth time that we'd done it already and I felt my shoulder it it had this like pinchy kind of sensation like there was a little bit of pain. And I was like that doesn't feel right but okay essentially I I I injured my my shoulder and this injury then went along to stay with me for the next um probably three three years and no one it took me a while for someone I I went and saw various therapists and it took a long time for someone to to really actually give me the correct advice and you know the correct treatment for the correct thing. So eventually you know I worked through it but from this injury that completely changed my practice um in a way that I couldn't do downward facing dog. I couldn't do the classic chaturangas I couldn't you know the yoga pushups I couldn't do a lot of the arm you know balance or sort of upper body related practices and so I had to adapt and you know then in teaching I had to adapt to you know how was I going to teach these seemingly fundamental you know poses that you know everyone's taught must be in a yoga practice how do I teach a yoga class to people when I can't even do it myself and essentially I I stopped trying to do that and I started teaching authentically to how I was practicing which was a lot of you know not a lot of upper body stuff and ultimately a lot of people really resonated with that because so many people get injured you know doing downward dog incorrectly doing chaturanga incorrectly it's they're pretty intense poses and in your yoga in general you you do I mean it depends what you're doing but you do need a sort of a good base level of strength to do a lot of the traditional poses and you know a lot of people don't and I didn't obviously I never had a strength practice until actually you know a couple of years ago and I'm 33 now and now I'm like all about the strength practice right the strength training everyone go lift go lift some weights but so yeah that really changed the way I practice and then the way I teach and my for my breath work once I'd had training um I trained through Imma Spender of both yoga and once I'd done my trauma informed you know modules with her and then with um um yoga for humankind which is a an East Coast based company that also completely changed the way that I teach and the way that I practice and I realized that actually the most nourishing practice for me is really something that is rooted in trauma informed facilitation because it's the simplest things of the language that you use while you're teaching language in terms of really invitational language. So instead of saying okay you know do in inhale for four exhale for six you're actually instead inviting someone into that and letting them know that they can if they want to but also they can they can increase the counts they can decrease the counts you know to really you're inviting people to really listen to their own body and to to really have full self-autonomy and self-authority and instead of telling people what to do you're inviting them into this sense of kind of curiosity about their breath you know what might it feel like if I breathe this way what might it feel like if I try it if it doesn't feel good that's okay I'll just go back into a natural breath for a bit and you know continue to embody this sense of self-empowerment through literally my breath so this yeah trauma informed is is really the way forward and we've seen it become more and more integrated into trainings since you know the COVID era it's become more more present in trainings which is great but it's still not I think taught as much as it as it really should be. And yeah I love it. I I definitely excuse me I definitely feel the difference myself as a practitioner being in a trauma informed class or a class led by someone that really knows what they're doing.

SPEAKER_00 38:00

They've had that sort of trauma informed training or that's maybe just the way they teach compared to being in a class where someone is teaching kind of like the the trendy yoga way where everything's sometimes just kind of hard and fast and intense and you know prone to injury so yeah that's kind of yeah I'm sorry to interrupt I wonder whether with some people you work with whether you might be leapfrogging them in terms of being able to get into the sensed or into their emotions into their feeling how does it feel through the practice it might take them years of doing yoga before they start to sense into what they need physically if they're in classes that are led maybe maybe it's more about listening and being guided rather than them finding their own way with it.

SPEAKER_02 39:05

Yeah absolutely it's and I I have these conversations with women all the time about you know they've gone to a breathwork class or event where it's been this really intense experience big experience um quite activating and quite triggering and it's just completely scared them away from the modality altogether and you know has scared them away from any form of kind of internal interoceptive desire they don't want to feel what's going on on the inside because it's too much. And so people coming to Breathe or to any of my retreats that I've done in the past or you know doing one-on-ones or running through the online uh products that I have it's like an exhale for them you know finding something that actually really allows them to to fully kind of let go and relax and receive the breath complete properly receive the breath you know it's really hard for some people to actually get a full inhale because of many reasons but yeah it's one of the things that I I pride myself on is is being able to help people actually be able to breathe properly again teaching people how to actually breathe again and you know we were born with the ability we were born with the ability to breathe yes but we've often lost the brain body connections of how we're naturally supposed to breathe because of a lifetime of trying to suck the belly in trying to hold everything in being tense and tight from all the stress that we're holding from you know such early ages but yeah the the way that we facilitate in breathe her is really just such a great exhale for so many people and I'm really proud of that and it's something that I really love and I'm so excited to have this new curator program coming out and by the time that this um podcast is live it will be the the program will be live but essentially it's a five week slow release program where I release a short effective practice once per fortnight and folks will work with that practice daily for I mean we suggest about five days a week it doesn't have to be every single day because I know lives are busy but working with this this small consistent committed actions over time really compounds in value and so these practices are really going to help people to transition from that overwhelmed that you know mental load that a lot of women carry the triggered the reactive feeling really into a sense of steadiness a sense of ease embodiment and a lot more focus which is a what a lot of us are really seeking right now so I'm super super excited to get this out really really soon so Sarah you mentioned being a generator as part of your or a three what was it three six generator is a human design um technology or whatever we call it how does that how does being a generator show up in your life what do you get a lot done do you do as a solopreneur I assume as well as an expedition leader as well as like coach and family member tell me more about being a generator it's interesting because actually since I remember I've always been someone that lives very intentionally And I live my life by what lights me up. I've, you know, I'm privileged to be able to live a life where I can follow those nudges and just kind of go along with what does light me up. And I indeed, yeah, I've I've I've intentionally, you know, curated an entity of my life to be that way. But I just follow where my passions lie. And I I follow my gut. For the first you know, early years of my life, I didn't, I don't think I knew that I was following my gut, but I I always was, and you know that became really useful during travel because I was always traveling alone, so female solo traveler can be tricky sometimes in places like Africa and South America and wherever have you. But so as a generator, I'm I'm built to respond to life, and so I've been doing that since forever. And I do in the past, I have struggled with I do get a lot of ideas, and I used to want to act on them all the time, and I would act on a lot of them quite a lot, which wasn't sustainable or helpful at all. But over the past couple of years, I've really learned through various mentors and you know, listening to podcasts and doing further self-inquiry that actually I don't need to act on everything. I get a lot of great ideas, amazing, but small, consistent, committed action to, you know, one, two things is really where the most impact happens. And I'm loving bringing that into my work in terms of the breathwork tools and practices that I'm making live in the world. I I really am living my true like 3-6 generator era, and I have been for a long time before I even knew what human design was, that it was even a real thing.

SPEAKER_00 46:23

I should first up I'm a two-four generator, so it's good fun to meet another generator. Human design. It's been great to help me with the perspective of responding, and it's also been great to talk about energy and how to best use my energy and get things done. How did you meet our beautiful friend Elena?

SPEAKER_02 46:43

Freediving, of course. Yeah, where so both of us are living in Ahmed at the moment, and I started freediving 18 months ago, and it was another one of those things that I that just came really easily to me, really effortless. I was really good at it right away, and 100% that has everything to do with my 12 plus years of yoga and breath work and mindfulness. So I, you know, fell in love with it initially because of that, but I've stayed really because it it's this deeper embodiment of everything that I've learned, that I teach, that I know this really deep embodiment of the breath. And of course, when you're freediving, when you're under the water, you're not actually breathing, of course, you're holding your breath, but that is still a part of the breath work practice, right? Um, and so that's why I've stayed, but also a huge part of why I've stayed in free diving and why I come back here to Ahmed time and time again is because of the community. You know, it's free diving is a really internal practice. You're it's really it's you that's doing it. It's not, I mean, it is a team effort because you always have a safety diver with you, but it's it's an internal practice where you're really working with your own stuff, but in a community, you've got people with you all the time, you you're diving with friends, and you know, after the session you get out and you all have lunch together, and it's just it's the best.

SPEAKER_00 48:17

I love how these conversations freestyle and go into all different background stories and go places that we might not have expected when we first got on the call together. Sarah, thanks for your time.

SPEAKER_02 48:30

Absolutely. You're welcome. It's been an absolute pleasure. Thanks for having me on, Sam.

SPEAKER_00 48:35

Thanks for listening to the Natural Genius podcast. Please share this with anyone who came to mind and visit us at naturalgenious.com.au. Thanks so much.