Sarah Blondin shares some incredible heart-centered wisdom and what she learned during the lowest period of her life. Listen to a deep discussion on the tragedy and pain inherent to life, as well as the love and joy, and why everyone is in the process of rediscovering their heart.

• Sarah grew up exposed to the struggle of addiction early on. She had supportive parents and a good household, but growing up next to a recovery center and seeing human pain on a constant basis led to her internalizing the pain.
• We are born as children seeing a sea of pain without the ability to articulate or deal with it, and that’s part of the reason that we are seeing so much disconnect and fading out today.
• Sarah recognized that people don’t want you to see their pain. As a society, we ignore and suppress pain and avoid shining a spotlight on it. She recalls a time in Vancouver where she encountered a man on the street that became aggressive and threatening, and how all the people around her turned away and ignored what was happening.
• Covid has exposed a lot of the unresolved pain and trauma in society because we don’t have any idea how to process it. 
• Sarah had an English teacher who helped her see the magic of writing stories to take people out of their experiences. 
• Sarah has had three major low points in her life, and she noticed that each one came with the birth of a more expanded version of herself. The first was when she was working in Vancouver, and even with her early success, she felt painfully out of integrity with herself. Her second happened after moving to the country where she had a near-psychotic break with reality and her third was an extremely dark period in her life.
• Since she has been through the depression, the reality shake-up, and the anxiety Sarah feels like she’s been rattled as deep as she can go but now she’s able to stand stronger because of it.
• Transformation is extremely painful. We have to shed the layers of who we are to become who we can be.
• It’s about surrendering and re-finding your ground and going back to your life the best you can. You need a ritual or process to open a deeper relationship with yourself, without that you risk a neurosis that you might not escape from.
• Sarah had always been a writer because that was how she processed the world. Whatever you do quietly on your own time is probably the thing that has the gold dust that is going to help the world.
• Sarah started her work and put it out into the world in order to help herself, but other people connected with what she was doing organically.
• None of our problems are unique. We all struggle with the same problems. Sarah doesn’t ask what other people need to hear, she asks what she needs to hear. 
• We are all working to excavate some sort of gift within us that we can offer back to the world. 
• When you go through the Twelve Steps, it gives you the tool of service that gives you purpose and freedom and the ability to stay out of your own way.
• Sarah has been in a deep state of gratitude recently. Even pain can be a gift when you embrace the love on the other side. As you get older you gain the wisdom of learning that the learning never stops.
• If Sarah would send a message to her younger self, it would be “it all hurts, but you can handle it.”
• Meditation is the practice of admitting what is happening inside of you. It allows you to see the things that you’re holding in your body without even knowing it. As long as you choose and become disciplined in something, it has its own unfolding.
• We don’t have to worry so much about how our pain gets healed, we just have to see it. Maybe we are all supposed to be a little more messy and show up for the process.
• Awareness is the first step to creating any sort of change.
• The nice thing about seeking refuge on your yoga mat is you don’t have the distractions to prevent you from feeling something. It’s all information and it’s there to teach you about something. 
• Is the price you pay for listening to your fear worth the sacrifice of living in alignment with your heart? Going towards the things that are uncomfortable lead to the greatest revelations and transformations.
• Pain hits the heart first. We are born with our mother’s pain within us and we can’t walk ourselves through it.
• Men have trouble living in their hearts in particular. Something happens in the world that teaches young men to abandon their heart.
• If you’re just starting this journey of intimacy, don’t come at it thinking it’s going to be easy. Accept the invitations as they come.
• Sarah’s comeback story shoutout goes to her husband who has been there to support her and anchor her from the beginning.

Donny is back this week with Monday Motivation Raw. In this hot take, he shares his keys to recovery, no matter what you might be recovering from. He covers topics such as: honesty, open-mindedness, willingness, gratitude, and the importance of staying in the middle of the herd. Donny & Darren created these short, but powerful Monday episodes to help you start the week with the right mindset and perspective. We hope you enjoy!