PP 304: You Have All You Need with Sera Snyder

Kim Sutton: Welcome back to another episode of Positive Productivity. This is your host, Kim Sutton, and I’m so happy that you’re here to join us today. I am also thrilled to introduce our guest, Sera Snyder. Sera is the Founder and CEO of Healing U, and just has a phenomenal backstory which I want her to share with you because she’s going to be able to tell it to you so much better than I can. Trust me, because I tried, and that will be in bloopers later.

Sera, welcome.

Sera Snyder: Thank you so much for having me, Kim,

Kim Sutton: You do have such a remarkable backstory, and I’d love it if you could share with listeners where you came from, and what you’re doing today as a result of your journey.

Sera Snyder: Yeah, wow, it’s a big sort of tackle. And you’re right, I could probably tell it better because I lived through it. I think we all have unique stories to tell. And my journey has certainly taught me that everyone has their own beautiful story to tell. Mine happens to include being able to walk through a health journey and come up at the other side with a lot of victory. I was diagnosed with a rare abdominal desmoid tumor when I was 26 years old, which totally kind of flipped my life on its head. These days, I get to say for the better. Initially, it wasn’t as challenging as any health crisis can be, and sent me into a lot of seeking answers, and trying to figure out the right path of treatment to take. And then after I took the treatment, the right ways to deal with chronic pain and chronic fatigue, that kind of continued to happen. And honestly, Kim, the emotional roller coaster that was having my life turned upside down. And I think that part of my story is as important, if not more than the physical journey that I went on, which was I had to first deal with and accept the fact that this new reality of my health was a part of my life, and that I couldn’t change it, that I had to walk forward with it. 

And for me, what ended up happening was also realizing that that physical ailment was an opening to so many other areas of my life, which I didn’t know initially, but was able to walk through the fact that it helped me to put up a mirror and see that I was not in a career that made me happy. I was not taking care of my body and my health in a way that really made me feel well. Although I thought I was. I was a marathoner, I was a runner, I thought it was taking good care of my body. I was not in healthy relationships. I didn’t have really stable people around me, or wasn’t attracting the relationships in my life that really helped to uplift me. And I just overall wasn’t fully, I guess in step with who I truly am. And I walked that journey with a lot of support, a lot of guidance, and a lot of time on my knees crying, begging out for relief. And I’m grateful to see that I came out the other side with a new purpose and a new reason for living, and that’s the work that I do now, creating that space for women who have embarked on health challenges to really utilize that as a way to propel their life into a new direction. And to really get into the deep rooted stuff that is, I believe, can be behind challenges like that. I specifically stay in the realm of health challenges, but I’m sure you can relate, and maybe probably a lot of your listeners. Just really when any challenge comes up in our lives, I think it’s an opportunity for us to see an obstacle and flip it on its head kind of, and see the good that can come out of it. But I certainly didn’t see good at the beginning, so I’m very careful when I tell them that, this isn’t roses. I’m not saying that everything is good and it’s all roses. I’m very careful about that.

Kim Sutton: So how was it discovered that you had the tumor? What was going on? If you don’t mind me asking.

Sera Snyder: It’s so funny. So many people ask me that. I find that I don’t even think about that anymore. But 26 years old, and I was working in finance in Philadelphia where I lived, and I was a runner. I used to love to train and run for half, specifically half marathon races. That was my favorite length of race. I’d been out for a long run and I’d come back, and I was at the gym actually just doing some abdominal work. And I remember feeling this, I guess now I could say like a lump or just a hard math in my stomach, and thinking, well, I must have pulled a muscle that’s really bizarre. It was just the most odd thing to feel this hard place in the middle of your abdomen and I kind of just dismissed it, let it go. A few weeks later when I was starting to have some digestive pain, I would go to the primary care doctor and just ask her what you do for a pulled muscle in your abdominal wall. And then obviously, she said for an MRI, and I went through a series of tests, and it realized that it was not a pulled muscle. It was in fact a soft tissue sarcoma that was embedded in my abdominal wall. And from there, my life just became a series of doctor’s appointments. I think I was a professional patient

Kim Sutton: Oh, wow. I can’t even imagine. I want to jump back just for a second, you address health struggles, but a lot of struggles teach us a lot about ourselves. And you’re so right. I mean, I went through my own struggles. I went through a failed marriage and learned so much about myself. Are you seeing the same transition with a lot of the clients that you work with too?

Sera Snyder: One of the most fascinating things that I’ll find is that women will come to me because they will see that, like I changed my diet, and I started transitioning my exercise patterns and doing different things that helped me to get well. They’re interested in that. I’m a big proponent of functional medicine. I’m a big proponent of self empowered wellness, and people will come to me interested in that part of my story, or so think that they are. But really, what I find is, it doesn’t take very long into our conversations where, yes, that stuff will help them and they are interested. They’ve tried every diet in the books, and they’ve tried all these transitions in their physical. But what they’re really hungry for, what they’re really eager for is understanding this stuff underneath of that. So I guess the answer to your questions is, yes, they want this stuff underneath that helps to elevate their lives. I’m trying to think of the best way to answer that.

Kim Sutton: I hear what you’re saying.

Sera Snyder: They think that it’s the health, but really, honestly, very often, it’s like my childhood trauma stuff that came up. If that makes sense?

Kim Sutton: For you, do you think that you would have found your path to where you are now if you hadn’t gone through your struggle?

Sera Snyder: Well, I believe that there’s an omnipotent God that has a path for us that we follow and we’ll find it. I believe that if I wouldn’t have done it this way, there would have been something else that would have opened it up for me, because I think we’re always guided. But I do believe it was the opening path for me. And it was this process of like, I was just actually reflecting on this when I was driving the other day, it’s this process of layers. Like, you can’t elevate to the next layer until you kind of deal with that first layer. So first of all, I had to learn how to take care of myself. 

And I think that as a 26 year old woman working in corporate America, training for half marathons, having social relationships, going out, having fun drinking, being with friends, I was doing the best I could then with what I had, and I thought I was taking good care of myself. But then when a health crisis came in, I had to learn how to take care of myself in a whole nother way. Society was telling me, and I was looking at the outside and it looked like I was taking care of myself well. Like she’s a runner, she works hard, she has a job, she’s climbing the corporate ladder. But really, that was not great self care. I had to learn how to rest. I had to learn how to actually really eat healthy food for my body. And I had to learn how to really embrace vulnerability and intimacy to have deep relationships with people. I no longer wanted those surface relationships. And so I feel like by going through that journey, it was this invitation into that part of my life. Had it not come through that, who knows. I don’t know, I might be on the same journey as you, and maybe there would have been a failed marriage. I don’t know. But I believe that that was my invitation, and I chose to accept it at that point.

Kim Sutton: Yeah. I can see that. I mean, mine, when I came out of that, and really, I consider a rebirth is what I’m trying to say, it was when I really figured out myself. And even that’s been a progression, that was the end of 2010. So even eight years later, I’m still figuring out who I am.

Sera Snyder: Okay, I think we won’t be for the rest of our lives. But that was an invitation for you to dig deeper into that.

Kim Sutton: Absolutely. And I know a lot of listeners could be thinking, well, how did you not know? I just didn’t because I was working so hard to keep everybody else happy that I wasn’t taking the time to look inwardly and see what I was really doing. And [inaudible] hopped onto the podcast, late dawns on Marblehead, I think I had a tech glitch or something, short memory today. But that’s really what it was. All of a sudden, it was like the light just shone brightly. And even though there were struggles, I mean, with your health struggle, the same thing, but all of a sudden, the light just shines and everything becomes a lot clearer.

Sera Snyder: Yeah. Not instantly. I don’t think it’s instant, and I don’t think it ever ends. I think that we’re continuously invited into that deeper and deeper level of healing and of awareness, and maybe even of consciousness as we kind of accept the invitations to just keep going on and on. So I’m not surprised that maybe it’s been eight years for you and you’re continuing to dig deeper. But I think that’s the beauty of the invitation that we get to just continue to heal and evolve ourselves.

Kim Sutton: Sera, on the form that you filled out to come on the podcast, you said that you used to watch The Secret on replay after your treatment. Did you watch it regularly before you got sick? Were you introduced to it before? How did that come to be?

Sera Snyder: It’s hilarious. I had not been introduced to it before. But what happened when I came out of the surgery is I was still in chronic pain. So as I’ve mentioned several times, I was a runner, that was like a way that I dealt with life, a way that I relieve stress, it was a way that I measured accomplishment. And when I came out of surgery, obviously, I had a huge abdominal surgery and I couldn’t run anymore. And the more I tried to run, the more I hurt myself, and the more I set myself back. I was grasping for something to tell me how to get better. I don’t even remember who gave me that DVD, or what it was. But I just thought, if I would just listen to it every morning on repeat, and listen to what they had to say, and practice the manifesting, and practice of affirmations that I would just get better, and things would be better. That’s not what happened for me. But that is when I started, yeah, I just started listening to it then. And I just had to stop watching it. And realize that there was just deep spiritual work that I got to do, and I was invited to do, and it wasn’t going to be any affirmations or anybody else’s story about my own. It was going to take this deep layer of healing, and really being accountable and connected with other people authentically in my life. It wasn’t about watching something on TV or having somebody tell me what to do. It was about sitting down, and sharing my secrets, and telling my friends eventually, look, I am really unhappy, and I’m really scared. This is really painful, and I don’t know what to do. And just revealing myself. And then eventually, that became, I really disliked this job. It’s not right for me. And my joy, and my passion, and my truth comes in the space of wellness, and health, and spirituality, and kind of starting to walk that path into that authentic self. It just wasn’t something came that I could keep watching, or repeating, or affirming. It was something that I had to walk out, I had to take action on.

Kim Sutton: No, I really appreciate that. I was actually introduced to the law of attraction in 2009 after losing my job. And I remember going on to some message boards. I was on Facebook, I don’t remember groups being around then. But I was on a Yahoo message board and people were talking about how they wanted to win the lottery. And just by thinking positively about it, they could win it. And I just sat there shaking my head like that’s not really how it works. I’m not saying don’t think positive. Remember putting out there that I didn’t care so much about winning the lottery, but it would be nice to work for somebody who did. I was an interior designer back then. But that was even going to take action. Well, I see it in a bit of the life coaching space that I work with, because I do digital marketing when I’m not doing the Positive Productivity Podcast. In the woowoo realm, there’s a lot of positive thought. I do believe that positive thought is really important, clearly, Positive Productivity requires that action to get there. And I would love to know, if you don’t mind sharing this, what happened when you started being more open, transparent and authentic with your friends and community members?

Sera Snyder: Yeah. Can I comment on that law of attraction? Just listening to what you’re saying, and I think, so I’ve gotten to a place to [inaudible]. It’s been a decade of me evolving from that place of what we were just talking about. And what I’ve realized now is that it’s a practice for me of asking, listening, and then being in action. And what I mean by that is, I believe that it starts with a deep connection with our Creator, with God and with prayer, asking for what we truly desire, being clear on that. And sometimes, it takes prayer to figure that out. But what I’ve realized is that it takes that place of sitting back, and listening, and receiving the right next step for our lives to move forward. And when we’re in alignment with that asking and receiving, then we can take the inspired action. 

And I believe that’s when the stuff begins to manifest or open up, the words that we can use to show that, but it has to be aligned. It has to be in alignment with our highest idea, and our highest self, and what I believe the creator of the world has for us. And then it comes to fruition, but we can’t, like you were saying, I want to win the lottery. Well, you know what? That might not be what is in the alignment for you. That’s my belief process. And that’s how I’ve practiced it. And that’s how I’ve been able to walk it out. And you know what? The truth is about that. That sometimes, the season or the reception that we get from this higher being from God is that it’s a time of rest. It’s a time of just being patient and living in the world that we’re in right now. It’s not a time of moving forward. Would winning the lottery probably feel like it would feel better? Yes. I mean, for example, this conversation, would I have wanted to manifest disease into my life and having a sickness? No. Did it provide for me incredible positive stuff in my life? Absolutely. So I just think that’s my experience of it. And I believe in positivity, like you’re saying, but I believe that there has to be in alignment with our greatest good, and the greatest good for the universe and all around us.

Kim Sutton: Oh, I love that. I have to say, I do agree. Sometimes, I have a lot of trouble with asking, though, and my husband can attest to this. I have trouble admitting that when I need help, he’s actually in my office right now. Is that true? But if you don’t ask, you’re not going to receive.

Sera Snyder: But you know what the beautiful thing is, and I agree with you, and this is something I’ve actually put kind of a prayer circle around and beyond the fact of prayer around, you can ask to learn how to ask. I might not even know how to ask, because that might not have been safe for me in the environments that I have been in historically. But when we’re being elevated in our consciousness, we can learn how to ask. I don’t know about you, but sometimes, I actually challenge myself because I have told myself, taught myself and my experiences. What I’ve derived from them is that it takes hard work to be able to produce results. And that is true in some senses. But not everything has to be hard. So sometimes, it’s just like [inaudible] and receive. Honestly, I would not even know that if I wouldn’t have a direct connection, and deep connection with God, and be able to have that come up in my prayer and mindfulness time to be like, oh, I can ask about how to ask, and I can ask about how to receive. And maybe, I’m not doing either of those to the fullest of my capacity. And that might be one of our lifelong journeys that we were talking about before. But I just think the beauty is now. It’s not like this passive thing that I just sit back and say affirmations all the time. I’m actually in connection and in a relationship.

Kim Sutton: Thank you for talking about the difficulty of receiving.

Sera Snyder: Is that something you experience?

Kim Sutton: Oh, yeah. Difficulty of even asking too. Just yesterday, listeners, you know I’m very transparent. Just yesterday, I was talking to a new client. They were a new client, but they wanted to know what my proposal was. And I even sat here at my desk, arguing with myself, not out loud. I wasn’t talking to myself, is this going to be too high? Is this going to be too low? And the answer I ended up doubling my initial thought. And there was an instant guest, but I was doubting myself because I, there’s also that worthiness fight that a lot of us face inside. Am I worthy of this? Are they going to laugh at me if I asked her this? But at some point, even though I was still struggling with it yesterday, at some point, I realized that, yes, I do need to just put myself out there because the worst that I’m going to get is NO. And over the last few years, I haven’t completely lost my fear of the word NO, but I’m definitely more brave about accepting it.

Sera Snyder: That’s great.

Kim Sutton: I am. How has patience played into your asking and receiving? Do you ever get impatient waiting?

Sera Snyder: Can I be honest about this one, I think I have to–

Kim Sutton: Absolutely.

Sera Snyder: –tell this story. A few years ago, after I had gone through the surgeries to remove the tumor, and then I had an abdominal reconstruction, I went through a season where I had a thyroid and adrenal imbalance, which, if any of your listeners have experienced this, they’ll know how challenging it is. If you’ve experienced yourself, it makes you very fatigued, it’s very hard to manage. For me, I also experienced the symptoms of weight gain even though I was eating healthy. Trying to exercise, but I was so fatigued, and also trying to work. In my previous job, I traveled a lot. And so I was on this plan of the supplement regimen, the food regimen, getting exercise, getting sleep and rest, and I was still feeling terrible, I was exhausted. I’m a very driven type personality, and I’m used to being able to go from early in the morning, and my morning run to late in the evening. And in that season in my life, I might work a couple of hours, and then I would have to take a nap. And it’s really challenging for me. Also, for me, I’ve had challenges with body image and eating disorders in my past, and so I’ve been in recovery from them, but that season was really difficult. I bring that up because of your question about patience. I knew I was doing the right thing, and I also knew that I was in connection with God and talking to God about that experience in my life. And the answer just was not yes at the time. Like I could, I don’t know if you experienced this in your business or your personal life. I was doing everything on the list that said would lead me to success. But that was not the outcome that I was having. And it was a season where I was being taught patients. Like, do you believe that you’re doing the right things? And do you believe that there is goodness at the end of it for you? Do you believe in health? Or do you believe in constant disease? 

And of course, I was able to lean on my previous health experience with the tumor and having to remove that reconstruction. There were seasons in that journey where I just thought it was never going to end, that my body was never going to be okay. And then in this season, what it was like, okay, I had to even go out and buy a whole new set of clothes because I couldn’t fit in my clothes anymore. It was so frustrating, and I was so impatient. Like, why me? You start to get the victim, why me? But it taught me patience for myself for the process. I did end up coming out on the other side of that, and being able to get my energy back, being able to get my thyroid balanced. It’s very challenging to get your thyroid balanced by messing around with medications and trying to figure out how to get me into the right place. And that season taught me so much about patience, especially patience with my body, and patience with where I was, and even patience with how much I could do. In that season, I just could not do as much, and I had to just have acceptance for that. I feel like we’re talking about acceptance earlier. I just had to accept that that’s where my body was, that’s where my life was. But as soon as I tried to get forceful and just figure this out, like, you know what? I’m just gonna go find a different doctor, or I’m just going to starve myself today, or I’m just going to go for an extra long run. Like, that wasn’t an option. I had no option for patience then because I couldn’t do those things, because I was physically not well. So that’s been my experience with patience. And gosh, we could talk all day about patience and entrepreneurship, couldn’t we?

Kim Sutton: Yes, would be an understatement. I deal with that struggle every single day. I would be completely lying if I said I didn’t. And it’s multiple times.

Sera Snyder: I think that coming, I’m sorry to cut you off. I was just gonna say, I think that becoming an entrepreneur has been the greatest growth journey that I’ve ever experienced, a personal growth journey. And I’m so grateful that I accepted that invitation.

Kim Sutton: Yeah, absolutely. I have to share with you, I’ve actually had hypothyroidism since birth.

Sera Snyder: Oh, so you know what I’m talking about?

Kim Sutton: I know exactly what you’re talking about. And actually, at the time of this recording, I am going through my own thyroid crisis because my body hasn’t been accepting my medication. So we’re trying to figure out what’s causing that. I’m actually going to be treated or tested for celiac at the end of the month, which is going to create a big flip of diet, especially in my house with five kids.

Sera Snyder: It does. But I will tell you, first of all, I can’t believe you had hypothyroidism for so long, and they’re just now testing you for that. That thyroid journey, I often say, was actually harder, equally as hard as dealing with the journey with the tumor in cancer. Because that thyroid journey is so unknown and so challenging, and it really caused me to completely change my diet and change my exercise regimen. I really learned patience, and it really taught me how to rest. I had to learn how to rest because I just did not have the energy levels that I had before. And gratefully, when I was able to put those pillars in place, and also spiritually surrender the process, I did get well. And if it gives you any hope, I’m off with my medications. Now, I’m doing very well. And there’s stabilization there. So there is stabilization and opportunity for that. But in that journey for me, I was kind of where it sounds like you are right now. I had to accept that, that was where I was. And I think once I finally accepted that, maybe I was going to be on medication for the rest of my life. And maybe I wasn’t going to be able to exert as much energy, or do as much work, or maybe I was going to have to stay on this diet for the rest of my life. When I could just accept that one day at a time, that was when I started to heal, and that’s how I learned patience. I only have to do it for today. Just this one day. Maybe tomorrow, my thyroid will miraculously start working. I am somewhat insensitive or empathetic to you for that. It’s not easy.

Kim Sutton: Listeners, if you’re dealing with thyroid struggles, you have to make sure that you’re visiting your doctor. Don’t slack, clients can wait, your family can wait. Because if you don’t go get your thyroid, you take it from me, you don’t want to know what’s going to happen. Sera, in 2008, I wound up in the mental hospital for six days because of my thyroid.

Sera Snyder: I believe you. I believe you.

Kim Sutton: That was a crazy experience. But what I found out, and maybe you’ve experienced the same thing. Well, it was twofold why I wound up in there. I was working too much in business. And to be completely honest, my thyroid medication had gotten buried under all of my business paperwork on my desk. I actually had an online craft store, so there were materials that I was selling, invoices and papers, and I stupidly slacked on taking care of my thyroid. But then, I was also working a full time job during the day, and then working this business essentially full time at night, and I wasn’t sleeping. I was sleeping two to three hours a night. So when you compound the not taking care of the thyroid with two to three hours of sleep every night, that is bad news to like the 10th degree. And when I went to the mental hospital, they didn’t consider the fact that I wasn’t sleeping, they did see that my thyroid levels were way out of whack. But instead of looking at the cause, they treated the symptoms and put me on antidepressant medications, three or four. And that to this day ticks me off so much, because I think that, we as entrepreneurs, and medical professionals need to start looking at the symptoms instead of, no need to start looking at the causes of the problems instead of the symptoms.

Sera Snyder: Well, yeah, I could go on this forever. My passion is healthcare. And I’m really passionate about people with thyroid and adrenal issues, because I’ve had my own. But it’s why I believe so highly in functional medicine and the work that they’re doing with lifestyle medicine, and looking at the root causes. I think one of the greatest things I learned in this journey is that we play a role in our health. We get to be empowered as patients and we get to take care of ourselves. But also, we get to look for physicians that see the whole person and get to see the underlying causes. I think that it was functional medicine that really helped me to heal, specifically from my thyroid and adrenal issues. But it was because they not only cared about what I was eating, they cared about how I was sleeping, and they cared about my relationships in my life, they cared about the stress levels in my life. What was my job? Did it fulfill me? And then we talked about what medications I was on, etc. 

But really, seeing me as a whole person and helping me to understand my thyroid journey, I ultimately had to completely change my job because I could not, like you said, lose my thyroid medicine under the bounds of paperwork. For me, I was traveling a ton, and that just didn’t align my rest. I really needed to heal my adrenals and heal the rest of my life. But that causes a whole shift in my belief system, to be able to step back from what I considered my identity, what I considered my provision, the money in my life, and what gave me a sense of purpose, I had to step back from. And that’s a belief shift. So this healthcare journey, I could stay on this mountain for a long time and talk about it, but I think to just accept what you’re saying, we need physicians that see the whole person and deal with all these facets of us. But we also need to, as patients, understand that every single thing we do affects our health. I love a quote I heard years ago from a physician that I followed that basically said, it doesn’t matter how much kale you eat, if you’re in a terrible relationship, I cannot help your health. I just can’t because that plays an incredible role on the body. And so yes, this is a passion area of mine, health and wellness, and kind of seeing our own empowered role in it. So important.

Kim Sutton: I don’t believe I’ve ever shared this on the podcast before. And I do want to say it with the preface that he and I get along better now than we ever did while we were dating or married. But while I was in the mental hospital, my ex husband who I was married to at the time actually contacted a divorce attorney. I completely agree with that quote, if you are in a bad relationship, it doesn’t matter how much work you do because your mind is just not going to be healthy, and that’s going to impact the rest of you. So thank you for sharing that quote.

Sera Snyder: Yes, it impacts all of us. And I just can’t stress enough. Make sure you find practitioners that understand that because that’s the best way to heal your body.

Kim Sutton: So what do you do now Sera?

Sera Snyder: I bring women together who have experienced health challenges, and we talk about the kind of stuff that we’re talking about today. I definitely elevate them and make sure that they’re being their own patient advocates with their physicians. But really, I help them dive into this deep belief work that we’re talking about, and the work that’s underneath of this. I hate to call it superficial, but this high layer is physical. So what I have found in my journey with myself and the women that I get to work with is that there are thyroid issues going on, or cancer going on, or chronic fatigue, or other you maybe chronic conditions that are happening. But underneath that, all of us have a story. All of us have things that have happened to us in the past, whether it’s relationships like you just shared with us that have impacted us, or our childhood, and situations that have happened to them, there is this deep work underneath of stories that we face in our belief systems that impact our health. What I do is help women unravel that, and dive into the truth of those areas of their lives. And I love, Kim, bringing women together in community and allowing them to share these experiences, and grow and learn together. Because what I found from the work that I do is that we’re all unique, but we’re also very similar. I bet that there’s women out there that relate to the story that you just told about your husband, your ex husband, and the divorce papers while you were in a health crisis. 

But what happens is when we hold those stories inside and we don’t allow them out, we don’t share them, and we don’t allow other women to be like me too, I experienced that too, it turns into shame. And it turns into this mental chatter that keeps us from being the fullness of ourselves. And I think ultimately, it really impacts our health emotionally, spiritually and physically. And so I create spaces for women through workshops, through retreats, and through one on one work where we really unravel those stories. And we really get to the bottom of it. And ultimately, I’m trying to help them and free them up from the physical ailments that they have by doing that work. I mean, in conjunction with traditional medicine and the medicine that they’re doing, I believe it’s so important, but I believe our emotional well being matters so much. And our spiritual beliefs of like, what we’re connected to and what we believe in. I love that you brought up The Secret earlier, I didn’t even remember that. But that’s a part, I was seeking all of that stuff that I was seeking, and I feel like I have received victory over. I teach women how to walk through that. Because when we are not feeling well, it impacts everything. Impacts our work, and impacts our relationships, and impacts the way we view ourselves, and our motivation, and our happiness. So I just want to bring women into the fullness of who they are, and be able to experience that.

Kim Sutton: I have to say that I appreciate the fact that you brought up faith in God. Because after I went through this whole journey, I was raised Catholic, I just need to put that out there. I was raised Catholic, but after I left home to go to college, I stopped going to church. I never really had a connection to church while I was growing up. It wasn’t until 2009, as I already said that I was introduced to the law of attraction. And it wasn’t until 2010, after I left my ex that I was called to go to church. That was his own huge aha for me. I’m not saying to listeners that you have to have church or organized religion, and I don’t even know what I’m really trying to say. But just having that higher power from me that I felt was out there, that I feel is out there looking out for me and knows where I’m going, even if I don’t see it yet, it has done so much for me.

Sera Snyder: Yeah, it’s so true. I feel like the health crisis brings us to a place of desperation. And when we’re in that desperate spot, I always say like, I thought if I could just find the right doctor, if I could just find the right physical therapists, if I could just find the right nutritionist, if I could just find the right coach that would help me that I would just be better. But it wasn’t until I surrendered that I was able to have a deep connection with something that I felt like was greater than myself. And for me, that is God. And for me, I also found the church and was able to find my space there, that I was able to find the deep healing that I needed, and I was able to have this faith. You mentioned it in such a way like there were these things that were uncertain that were unseen for me, that I learned how to believe in. And when I could learn how to believe in those things that I could not see, that was when I was able to let go of control. What I realized, and like my checklist of trying to find the right doctors at my checklist of trying to take care of myself in certain ways was my sense of control, that was really false control. I never had control, there was no way that I was going to gain that control. But when I could release and surrender, and accept where I was and have that deep connection, that’s when I got guidance into where I was going, and what I was doing, and what was the truth for me. It was a layer process of pulling off the layers of what I had created for myself, what I thought society wanted me to be, what I thought the people around me wanted me to be, pulling off those layers and being deeply connected with God helped me to understand my true self.

Kim Sutton: Those solar models that they have in science classrooms in high schools, where it looks like they’re on coat hangers, and there’s foam balls, and they just spin around each other, I felt like when I was able to start giving up control, instead of having tension on the center all the time and things not lining up, that the planets just started lining themselves up how they need it to be.

Sera Snyder: That’s great. What a great visual.

Kim Sutton: When we’re constantly working in tension, there’s going to be, well, there’s going to be greater tension. I know I could have said that much more eloquently. I’m not always eloquent.

Sera Snyder: Did you find a shift in your health and your healing when you started, it sounds like when you started finding a spiritual path for yourself about a year after that happened?

Kim Sutton: Yeah. Everything. So when I started getting my thyroid back in order and gave up that control, well, I actually lost my job after being in the mental hospital. And everything happened for a reason. After that, I lost my job. I joined a local networking group and met the chiropractor who introduced me to the law of attraction. I realized that I didn’t need to stay in an unhappy relationship. And then I actually wrote a soulmate spec sheet, which only a couple weeks later, I met my husband who’s just absolutely my soulmate, and the rest of the story goes on. That’s not to say that all of the planets on the planetary model are lined up, because they most certainly are not. And I don’t know that they ever will be. By relaxing the tension has gotten to be a lot less. That would make sense, right? If we’re relaxing your muscles, the tension would be a lot less too. But really, that’s just knowing that I can’t control everything and letting it roll. Who have been some of your mentors while you’ve been going through this journey?

Sera Snyder: Do you mean in terms of like who has helped me in the healing process?

Kim Sutton: I guess to be more specific, were there any great books that provided aha, or we always want people to go back to you, but let’s just say that somebody can’t today, they might be able to tomorrow. Is there any one great resource that you would recommend that they could look at?

Sera Snyder: There’s so many. Well, I would say one great resource just because we’re on the subject of faith and talking about it, the Bible is where I found so much of my freedom, and so much of the guidance, and so much of the wisdom that I really needed to be able to increase my faith and be able to walk forward. If I ever need any kind of wisdom, that’s where I always go first. It taught me how to trust the things that I cannot see. It taught me how to believe in healing. And it’s taught me how to just have hope in those darkest moments. You be able to have hope in a million other things in terms of, how to just be strong and courageous, whatever I don’t have. I don’t have to look within myself to be strong and courageous. So definitely, scripture in the Bible has been the greatest mentor and greatest book to me on this journey, and has given me so much momentum in the healing process. 

And some of the other resources that have been really helpful for me from a book standpoint, because you ask, I’m sure you’re familiar and so many of your listeners, but the work of Brene Brown has been so impactful for me. I love her work on vulnerability, I love the things that she talks about encourage. Her Rising Strong book was so meaningful to me. And the things that she taught us about a vulnerability, and courage, and how difficult that can be. I really enjoyed reading her work. Trying to think there’s so many. I’m a reader, so you’re asking your reader to, I read books. And what I will say is, over the last few years, I have been a part of a writing group, the power of writing and healing, and I’ve been writing a memoir about my journey and what it’s been like. I have read probably about 75 to 100 memoirs in the past two years, and I love reading other people’s stories. I’d love to see their messy, I love to understand the two most challenging situations just being redeemed and restored. I’ve read so many memoirs in the past few years, When Breath Becomes Air was a great memoir. Love Warrior by Glennon Doyle was a great memoir. I loved The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, which was made into a movie last year. So many memoirs. I just love when I can find my story in books and in other people’s lives. I think that the greatest mentorship to me has been finding those stories and finding my story, just finding a little piece of myself in that work.

Kim Sutton: You just shifted my reading list for this year.

Sera Snyder: Ooh, have you read any of those?

Kim Sutton: I have not read any of those. But while I am a fan of Brene Brown, I have to admit that I have not read any of her books.

Sera Snyder: Well, just block off a couple hours and you’ll be done. Because for me, as soon as I sit down and read her books, I am immersed. I’ve realized that I need to stop devouring them because there’s so much wisdom. I have to go back and reread them.

Kim Sutton: Yeah. What about The Desire Map by Danielle LaPorte? Have you heard of that one?

Sera Snyder: I have heard of that, I haven’t read through that entire thing. Has that been impactful to you?

Kim Sutton: Incredibly. When I read that, I stopped. That was the big shift for me to stop chasing income and focus on making an impact instead. And also to stop putting unrealistic deadlines on myself. And that has changed my business incredibly, because I’m not getting stressed out when things don’t go as planned. I’ve realized that things will happen when they’re supposed to happen.

Sera Snyder: That’s good.

Kim Sutton: And if I’m forcing him to happen, then it’s not going to feel as good to me. It’s not going to feel as good to the people I’m trying to help.

Sera Snyder: Yes, totally agreed. I’ll add that one to my reading list.

Kim Sutton: And then the other one I’m on, I’ll be finishing it tonight is Brendon Burchard, High Performance Habits. Every book that I read, it impacts me greatly.

Sera Snyder: I haven’t read that one.

Kim Sutton: It’s been amazing. And actually, just last night, I was reading a section about, well, a few sections that we’ve already touched upon in our conversation here about superficial reality. People who will be there for you in the good times and in the bad, and people who are there to support you in all stages. And then also the asking, we need help to get to the next level of our life, whether it’s business coaches, life coaches, health coaches, fitness. We can’t go at it alone and expect to get to the highest level of our health or anything when we’re trying to do it alone.

Sera Snyder: I totally agree with that.

Kim Sutton: So just asking for help, and I am stubborn. I mean, we already covered that. Even with my husband, I’m so stubborn about that. And that’s been a huge transition for me. So yeah. Oh listeners, before I forget to mention, all the books that we just mentioned, because I know you want to load your library, will be found at thekimsutton.com/pp304. Sera, this has been an amazing conversation. Where can listeners find you online, connect with you and get to know more?

Sera Snyder: Well, I’m most active on Instagram @serafiana, and my name is actually spelled S-E-R-A, and F-I-A-N-A. So you can find me on Instagram. Also at healingu.org, and healing, the letter U .org.

Kim Sutton: Thank you so much. And listeners, again, those will be in the show notes so you don’t have to worry about writing them down if you’re driving or exercising. Sera, do you have a piece of parting advice or golden nugget that you can offer to listeners before we go?

Sera Snyder: Yeah, well, I think just in alignment with what we’ve talked about today, that if you are experiencing a health crisis or anything in your life, just know that you have everything that you need in this moment, like right now in this moment. I always thought that I needed something more, that I needed something to fix me, that I needed to know something different than I knew at that moment. But what I’ve come to realize is we always have everything that we need at any given moment. It’s just about being patient, to go back to your question earlier, and being accepting of where we are. I’m just praying that your listeners ,wherever they are, if they’re experiencing that kind of stuff, they’ll be gentle on themselves and they’ll be able to believe that they have all that they need right now.