From Trauma to Triumph: Sara J’s Battleplan for Overcoming PTSD

In this powerful episode of Hope Unlocked, Kristin Kurtz welcomes Sara J. Diercks—veteran advocate, resilience coach, and founder of Hope for Heroes—to share a groundbreaking message for veterans and first responders facing PTSD. Sara introduces her Holy Spirit-led “DSTP” method to reverse PTSD by unlocking purpose, restoring hope, and empowering healing from within. From childhood healing moments to coaching transformations, Sara’s story reveals a call to build healing circles, battle isolation, and activate purpose-driven living. Tune in for a timely mental health message that flips the script on trauma and PTSD.

Support the Hope for Heroes cause to erase Veteran & First Responder Suicide by prioritizing your own emotional wellbeing with an express Emotional Healing Consult with Sara for only $22! Schedule your consult HERE

Sara's Contact Info:

Website - saraj.life

Resources Mentioned:

HOPE for Heroes Facebook Page 

HOPE for Heroes Go Fund Me

Lifewave

Dr. Caroline Leaf Neurocycle App

Oxygen by Steffany Gretzinger

Chapters

• 0:00 Introducing Sarah Dirks
• 5:36 A Healing Journey Since Childhood
• 12:49 From Weight Loss Coach to Brain Health
• 19:20 The Call to Crisis Prevention
• 26:52 Reversing PTSD: Flipping the Acronym
• 36:15 Training as Treatment
• 43:06 Building Hope for Heroes
• 52:52 Final Encouragement and Prayer

Transcript

Speaker 2: 0:16

Welcome to the Hope Unlocked podcast. I'm your host, Kristen Kurtz, and I'm also the founder of New Wings Coaching. I help and empower wildhearted and adventurous women of faith feeling caged and stuck, unlock their true purpose and potential, break free from limitations and thrive with confidence, courage and hope. If you're curious to learn more about coaching with me, head to newwingscoachingnet and be sure to explore the show notes for ways to connect with me further. Get ready to dive in as we uncover empowering keys and insights in this episode. So tune in and let's unlock hope together. Welcome to the Hope Unlocked podcast. I'm Kristen Kurtz, your host. I pray this episode is like a holy IV of hope for your soul. Please help me.

Speaker 2: 0:56

Welcome Sarah Dirks to the show. I am so incredibly excited to have her here today. We have actually kind of early slotted her in for a release coming up soon because I know that this message that she has to bring today is for now. It is a now message that needs to get out, and I'm so thankful for the connection that was made recently with her at a local event. So, Sarah, before we get into what you're going to bring to the table today and this powerful message, would you tell us a little bit about yourself.

Speaker 3: 1:32

Yeah Well, I am a Minnesota native. I live here in Lakeville, minnesota. I'm a mom to two amazing boys that are in the throes of baseball season right now. I am going to be talking about serving veterans and first responders today. I'm the sister of a veteran, but I consider myself to be a battle-tested veteran in God's army for about 23 years, so I'm coming from that place. When it comes to you know, this is this is going to be, this is my passion. Helping people heal is literally something I've been doing since I was five years old, and if I'm not doing that or actually doing work I have to do, you're going to find me in nature, which is healing in itself. You're going to find me by the water, near the water, in the water hiking, or my very favorite is in the sand.

Speaker 3: 2:44

Playing sand volleyball is like yeah that is my, that is my happy place. Sand volleyball near the water is my happy place, which I have about 1.5 miles away from here, which oh, that's amazing.

Speaker 2: 2:58

Yeah, yeah, so beautiful. Well, I want to go back a little bit, because you mentioned you've been helping people heal since you were five Not something I've ever heard before on this podcast so could you tell us a little bit about that?

Speaker 3: 3:13

Yeah, go back a little bit to where this is. Um, I think I was while I was in kindergarten and I what I remember is that I was at a dare conference. I think you know, like the dare people come to a dare drugs what it means yeah don't do drugs don't do something like that, don't.

Speaker 3: 3:41

Yeah, it means. But it was a dare conference and it was about, like, not smoking. And the first thing I did was go to my grandpa um, my dad's dad and I basically just said if you don't quit that you're going to die. And he quit that day, cold Turkey, never picked up a cigarette again. So that was my quick smoking cessation client at five, pretty effective.

Speaker 3: 4:12

And what's super cool to even expand on that is when he was 95, my dad hired me as his fitness coach because he was about to be bedridden, refused exercise his whole life, and he said well, you can go to the nursing home or you can work with Sarah. And he chose to work with me. And within the next time my dad went to visit him, he was up and out of bed and getting breakfast and, like just knowing there was a solution, gave him that hope that he was not going to go to the nursing home and he was not going to spend the rest of his life bedridden. And we got a whole nother year of another birthday, another Thanksgiving, another. He started exercising. I saw him every single week and the last time I saw him he was doing shoulder presses and he said man, this feels good. Oh my God. And that was my last encounter with him.

Speaker 2: 5:12

Man, this feels good. Yeah, wow, and he was 90 in his 90s. Wow, Isn't that incredible. So you've got you know. Did anybody ever tell him that that could be an alternative to give him more time of you know, moving your body and yeah, my dad railed on him for years about exercising and he never wanted to do it.

Speaker 3: 5:37

He just never got the motivation until things got so serious that he was facing being bedridden for the remainder of his life. That was the catalyst that said he said, no, I don't want to do that. But he could have had a way more enhanced quality of life had he chosen to take that up sooner.

Speaker 2: 6:02

Yeah, well, I think we can kind of ride into that pathway with what you just said, because I think there's so many areas that I know you're going to bring to the table today that there are solutions that many people don't know about. That can, you know, revitalize your life, that can enhance your life. So would you kind of veer in a little bit to you know, let's go back a little bit to you know, maybe back in your twenties. Like what did that look like for you? Um, you at five, you're bringing smoking deliverance to your grandpa and then like what did that look like as you I don't at that age if you really realized what that meant? Um, as you're getting older, what did that age? If you really?

Speaker 2: 6:44

realized what that meant as you were getting older. What did that look like for you to kind of step further into this realm of what you're so passionate about?

Speaker 3: 6:52

Yeah, that's a great question, because there was a pivot point I reached in my 20s. I was going to school at St Thomas here in St Paul and I was on track for pre-med. That's what I wanted to be a doctor, right, you want to help people heal Well, and I was in this, on this track for a chemistry degree so that I could, you know, have the hardest degree that anyone ever has. And it was going to be a BS degree so that I could say I took the most difficult classes possible. And and I and then I even challenged myself because they said if you do a BS, then you're going to see harder classes in undergrad than you're going to see in med school.

Speaker 3: 7:38

And I was like, okay, I'll just do that, Wow, which was not a fun thing, Um, but to be able to say that I did it is still it's, it's still something. But anyway. Um, when I was exploring medical school is when I learned. I was really like careful about what I take into my mind and where the source of my learning is coming from, and so when I realized that the curriculum for the medical school is being written by the pharmaceutical industry, I aborted that mission because I was not going to go into debt to practice a version of medicine that is prioritizes. Putting a matching a drug with a system with a symptom let's say that to me is not medicine. With a system with a symptom let's say that to me is not medicine.

Speaker 3: 8:50

So what ended up happening is I graduated with the degree, with the chemistry degree, and I was so burnt out that I actually ended up in sales and I learned that I really was good at that. So it was a series of car sales, mortgages and insurance until I landed where I really found my passion, which was in weight loss. So by the time I was 27, I was brought on as a weight loss coach and watched hundreds of people transform right before my eyes and that's where I learned that God was speaking through me. The door would close, the tears would start and the transformation would happen like every time and stuff could come out of my mouth that I had no idea. I knew where it was coming from, but I knew it wasn't me, Like I don't know. I'm only in my late 20s. These people coming in here are 10, 20, 30 years older than me. What am I going to say to them? And it would just flow.

Speaker 2: 10:00

Isn't that the best? Just to be so surrendered to that.

Speaker 3: 10:05

Yeah, and it reminds me of my most favorite story of that whole time was a dad came in and it was him and his wife who did this weight loss journey together. They went all in and he had his daughter there the day. He stepped on the scale and he was down 150 pounds.

Speaker 2: 10:26

Oh my gosh, that's like a whole person.

Speaker 3: 10:28

Yeah, and he broke down into tears and it was to be able to be there for that moment for him, that accomplishment that he had. There's just really nothing out there like that when you're in service to another person, helping them transform their life well, I definitely see that as a huge key of of who he's created you to be right yeah, yeah, that it's.

Speaker 3: 10:59

It's exhilarating, like if if you've never been there, anyone listening to be there at the pivot point of transformation for someone, where the light bulb goes on, where their life is transformed right before your eyes. There's just literally nothing like it. Yeah it's such a gift. I think we all have it in us. To be honest, I really do yeah think we all have it in us. To be honest, I really do. Yeah, I'll have that in us when was this?

Speaker 2: 11:32

was this at like a clinic, or was it a like a some center that you worked at then?

Speaker 3: 11:39

yeah, back then it was called slim for life. Today I I think it's called slim Jevity. Okay, um, and you know it was a great program. There's a reason I'm not with them anymore and there's nothing. It's just it was very focused on getting the weight off and not necessarily effective at teaching the things to keep it off.

Speaker 2: 12:01

So and you've since learned those over time.

Speaker 3: 12:07

Yes, that you have to, absolutely have to learn the habits and learn the lifestyle. And really here's a key gold nugget is you have to get under the emotional root of why you're not eating to nourish yourself. Root of why you're not eating to nourish yourself, it's just food as a medication is what I've kind of learned. People are sort of medicating their emotions with food instead of getting to the root of why those emotions are controlling their behavior.

Speaker 2: 12:42

Yeah, and have you like, have you inadvertently, even now, um still walked alongside people in this work, um, the work that you're doing now, the weight loss the weight loss hasn't been as much lately, um, and there's a whole nother segment that would take a while to explain why that is.

Speaker 3: 13:08

But you know, life got really busy and I became a mother and there's a mother things that led to my own journey of going deeper than weight loss and more so, just in general personal transformation in the space of brain health. Um, because we're in well, when covid came up, I just saw how broken our mental health system was, yeah, and that truly, with what the knowledge and expertise that I learned that that was. That was the priority. Where I needed to go was dealing with stuff that's literally saving people's lives yeah and weight loss, not that it's not it's.

Speaker 3: 14:01

It's really, really important. But I wanted to.

Speaker 2: 14:03

I wanted to do more yeah, absolutely well, I can imagine, like once you are helping somebody, there's this inadvertent um, I wouldn't even say like it's it's gonna happen because you're getting healthier in other ways. Right your mind, you're getting like on top of your emotions and, um, I would love for you to kind of segue into what is he calling like. What is he calling you into right now? Because, um, there's so much power in the times that we've talked I think it's been a couple months now um, I've really just kind of been in your corner cheerleading you along because it's so powerful what he's calling you into and it is needed in our world in this time. So many people, um, when I, when I hear you talking, it's like this is almost a wake-up call for whoever's listening today. It may not be necessarily for you, it probably might be, but it's most likely for somebody in your circle.

Speaker 2: 15:11

So could you tell us a little bit more of what the Lord's calling you into and what does it look like like the last six months to step into this new, new thing, even though it's not necessarily new, but it is kind of new right?

Speaker 3: 15:25

Mm-hmm. You know what's so interesting about that question is what pops up right away when you're asking that. It's crisis prevention. That's what I'm being called into, and there's three times in my life where the Lord has given me a specific directive, woken me up at a specific time with a specific assignment, to go downstairs with my journal and a pen and given me a download.

Speaker 3: 15:59

The first one was just something about telling the people can't is not something that exists, and so that one was a long time ago, but you said within the last six months. Well, the second one was on 9-11-2022. The methodology of the, like the lighthouse method, which is kind of how I teach the intrinsic light from within to kind of heal from the inside out that was birthed on 9-11, which I never correlated that because we're talking, we used to be 22 a day, which is when why we scheduled this to go out on the 22nd of may, because this is mental health awareness month. Yeah, we're losing 20. We used to be losing 22 veterans and first responders daily to suicide. It's very sobering to think about that. I think that it's gone down now to more like 17, but there shouldn't be one happening in this country. The ones on the front lines, right, the ones on the front lines, which is precisely why that is a wake-up call that the way the system is going about mental health is there is something inherently flawed with how we're going about that. Yes, and the third download was just a few weeks ago Well, just four days ago actually.

Speaker 3: 18:28

Um, five on five, 15 at five. I love it. We talked about this triple grace. It's like this is message of grace, uh. But even before that it I don't recall the exact date, but I got a download right here in my living room where we're doing this interview on a strategy for reversing PTSD. That's what we're going to dive into today, because it's such a stigma, but it's really just a set of symptoms and when we dissect a little bit what's going on, it kind of takes the power away from what can be a really, really scary thing. When you have the right tools and the right knowledge of how you can actually start to reverse the process. The physiological impact that PTSD has on a person's state of mind and their body yeah.

Speaker 2: 19:26

Can you just take a moment for those who maybe don't know what PTSD is. I gather that most people do and have experienced it at some point in their life. But for those who maybe don't know what it is and didn't know that that's what they're potentially experiencing, could stands for post-traumatic stress disorder.

Speaker 3: 19:44

So I think most people have some kind of experience with trauma in their life car accident, loss of a loved one. You know it could be something more significant, like abuse, or long, ongoing abuse, which can lead to a more complex version of PTSD, called CPTSD, where it's ongoing emotional trauma that has a different reaction in the brain, and for veterans and first responders, we're talking about war, we're talking about seeing people blown up and really traumatic things that they've experienced. So then, the physiological response is the creation of an ongoing fight or flight response in the body, in the brain, which can be simplified down into. It's the hormones that are released when your body is reacting in a way that it thinks it's being chased by a tiger. It's the fight or flight response. It's a surge of cortisol and adrenaline. The thing is, go ahead.

Speaker 2: 21:14

The thing is go ahead. I was going to say thank you for like getting into the. You know just even visually, what, what it might look like for what somebody experiences. Even you know these veterans who are out there. You know, in war we've had a lot going on in our world, um and and I can't even imagine like what that would do to the body, like coming back to quote unquote reality when somebody gets you know out of that place and then trying to assimilate back into you know real life.

Speaker 3: 21:45

Right, right and yeah, and there's a couple things that we need to touch on with that. Number one is there is a survivor's guilt that they have that they got to come home and they got to see so many people that didn't you know, you're still here for a reason and your community needs you, your family needs you.

Speaker 3: 22:22

You're still on mission because the oath was sworn to protect enemies, both foreign and domestic, and we, unfortunately, have a lot of enemies domestic in our society that we need protectors to be there for and that's the purpose of this message is to rebuild, reboot, re-enlist our veterans that right now feel like they may feel like they don't have a purpose, but they do, and we're going to get into a little bit more of that.

Speaker 2: 23:04

Yeah, well, tell us more. I am just loving bringing to the table here. I'm sure that eyes are opening and ears are like for the next portion of what you have to share here.

Speaker 3: 23:10

Well, it's exciting and I think this is the time to really dig into, like the nuts, next portion of what you have to share here. Well, it's exciting and I think this is the time to really dig into, like the nuts and bolts of what this message is. So I said I had a download of reversing PTSD. Well, I need to back up a second and say that for a time period I was under so much stress that it just started compiling and compiling and to the point I had to go and you know, I had to go in and be seen and ask what was going on. I was experiencing all these headaches and I couldn't think and foggy, my brain was foggy and all this like I could barely do my job. And, um, when I was seen by a trusted health professional, um, he was like you're, you're in constant fight or flight and that's basically what PTSD is. So you're just, it's chronic stress and your body is reacting to it that way. So I need to preface by saying I know what it feels like and I'm standing here talking to you on the other side of it, knowing what it looks like to navigate out of that and overcome the physiological effects of it. So that's exciting, just to share that with you. But to actually reverse PTSD, we're going to actually reverse the acronym and it's going to be D S T P instead of PTSD. We're going to repurpose the whole acronym and we're going to reverse it.

Speaker 3: 24:41

And so the D? Yes, I was like thank you, that is brilliant. Flip in the script, girl, flip in the script, yep. So the D is a decision. Anything that you're facing in life, you have to come to a decision point that says I am not going to let this define me and I am going to overcome this. Because, guess what? The obstacles that we get thrown at in our life are our training ground to overcome that and be someone that can help someone else get through that. It builds compassion, it builds long suffering. It builds, you know, it builds patience, it builds resilience, it builds character. Yes.

Speaker 3: 25:24

You got to be thankful in the mess that that you are being trained for something. It's discipline. It's not pleasant when it's happening right, but it's necessary for the greater good of you and humanity in general, what your assignment and your purpose is, whatever your greatest pain. Probably giving you a clue to what your purpose is.

Speaker 2: 25:51

Yeah, it's almost like bootcamp, right.

Speaker 3: 25:53

Yeah, exactly so that, like I said, the discipline, the decision, the discipline and then being discipled is really key, because that is your community. So mentorship, leadership, someone pouring into your life and you being able to pour into someone else's life. When it comes to discipleship, you know that is the great commission. Everyone has that as a mission. We're on a faith-based podcast here. Jesus died to give us life to the fullest and if we're not out there discipling and being discipled, we are not experiencing that fullness of life. Absolutely. Be able to give that to someone else, right? So that's the first step, that is the D, that's the foundation.

Speaker 3: 26:44

So, if none of those are happening, well then make the decision and get connected, ask for help, get a mentor and find you know, get that process started. So that leads into the S, which is service to others. When someone and I've been there when you're in that place of despair, depression, it's very inward focused and we're very focused on our own circumstances and we can it can be crippling to get in that place of isolation, not wanting to ask for help, not feeling like you have anything to offer anyone else. I'm here to tell you that we all do have something to offer others, and sometimes being vulnerable to express the pain that we're in is part of what gives someone else permission to do that too.

Speaker 2: 27:46

Can you say that one again? I feel like it needs repeating.

Speaker 3: 27:51

Okay, so that was totally inspired. I don't even that was prophetic, the part of like reaching out to somebody you know in pain when you're in pain.

Speaker 3: 28:01

Okay. So by expressing our own brokenness and pain, that gives someone else permission to do the same, and there's purpose. There's purpose in that vulnerability to be to be be able to just have the courage to be broken and ask for help, um, but that's going to lead you to a place where you can get to somewhere where you're just helping someone else in the smallest capacity. It might even just be a smile or asking someone to share a meal, something so small, but you're focused on the needs of someone else instead of your own needs. There's so much healing and soul care in that, if that piece is missing, then seek out places where you can be of service. So many options, opportunities to volunteer or be a helping hand.

Speaker 3: 29:04

Um, now to the t. The t is for training. This is is so pivotal, so important. And training as your treatment thinking of your exercise regimen and your routine is your treatment. It's not optional. There's no one else that can do it for you, and there's so much empowerment in that. I always say this even Jesus cannot do your pushups for you. True.

Speaker 3: 29:34

He can do everything, so many things but he cannot do your bootcamp, he cannot do pushups for you. And what's so amazing I want to dive into that for a moment is what happens in the brain when you go through that physical response to like a high intensity type of exercise. I'll share quickly. What happened to me was I was in that chronic fight or flight state. I was going through a divorce. I was a single mom, or sorry, I had just recently become a single mom, but I was a stay at home mom for seven years and my marriage fell apart. We were in a new city. I had really very little support, I had very little connections, I didn't have a job, and so it was just. I was like stripped bare, naked of everything that I knew. Just, I was like stripped bare, naked of everything that I knew, wow, and I found myself in a place of like literally utter shock and despair, of like my whole world crumbling around me, ended up, you know, having to get a job and go back to work. I got hired as a health coach reversing type 2 diabetes for United Health Group, so that was amazing. I got connected into a health coach reversing type 2 diabetes for United Health Group. So that was amazing.

Speaker 3: 30:52

I got connected into meaningful work again, but I was so chronically stressed at what was going on with my family that I was having a hard time even just focusing on my job. Right, it's just really stressful and I wasn't sleeping well. Really stressful and I wasn't sleeping well. One of my coworkers asked me if I wanted to do a workout one day and I was like, yeah, that sounds good. It was COVID time, no gyms were open, and so we literally did a workout in my backyard, at the park, in the sunshine. In the sunshine, it was about a 20 minute workout, basic stuff, and that very day I became a different person, like I literally slept like a baby that night. I went from chronic anxiety and insomnia in the morning to being empowered to get rid of all that stress and trauma in my body and sleep like a baby that same night. And it never went back to that again, and that was five years ago.

Speaker 2: 32:02

Well, it reminds me of I don't know if you've seen that video where I think it's like a gazelle or something that's being attacked by maybe a mountain lion and what it does is it plays dead and then, once it's, you know, if it's still alive, it'll actually like shake. It'll shake itself to get all that nervous, get the nerves like everything, just shake it all out. And that's what I feel like, kind of, as you were describing that. I was thinking about like that getting all that. You know it is. It's like nervous energy, it's that fight or flight and I like to call it like.

Speaker 2: 32:41

This is what I've experienced, because I've walked through some of these things similarly, with having like adrenal burnout and all the things like living in a fight or flight environment for a long time, since I was a child and you know one of the things that was really interesting and I don't know if you integrated this as well, but I think movement is integral, but I was actually told when I had adrenal burnout, to rest more and that was really hard well, you need both.

Speaker 3: 33:10

I think you need both. I mean, when you have adrenal burnout, um, when you do this treatment, this exercise treatment, I'm speaking of you're. I'm not talking about high intensity like a crossfit class, where it's, like you know, jammy music, and like I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about slow, methodical movement that you're pushing yourself to your edge and then beyond, like you're creating that, where you feel you're feeling that burning and like you're going to a place of almost failure. You know what you're doing is breaking down all those muscle fibers, but in a very controlled way, and you're doing it for your whole body. And then what that ends up doing is releasing a cascade of endorphins, including epinephrine, norepinephrine, serotonin, dopamine, and then you have, like the heavy hitter, which I call is BDNF brain derived neurotropic factor and the only way to get that is like to go deep and really, really get that. That's knowing. That is what drives me. I work out.

Speaker 2: 34:31

What might be an example for those who like, do work out and would understand maybe, like what, what kind of like? What would you do in like a set? Would you be doing like a certain amount of reps or?

Speaker 3: 34:44

something. Yeah, let's just take, like, let's just take a leg press for example, a basic movement. So you're doing your leg press, you've got it set at whatever 160 pounds, whatever you're setting, and you can do it a couple of ways you could do. You know, when I first do a reset with someone, like their physiological reset, I'm going to have them plan on doing that movement for two minutes. You can do anything for two minutes, right? Absolutely.

Speaker 3: 35:15

But depending on where the weight is set. If you're reaching two minutes and you've still got a little bit in you, then you keep going, keep going until you can't anymore. You keep you. Literally you can't do one more. You don't have to do every single workout like that, but when you're truly going to that place of like really resetting your physiology that's the way we do, it is you really just leave it all there.

Speaker 2: 35:48

Okay, and do you feel like this is something that would be most helpful? To have somebody like a trainer walking alongside you that understands this?

Speaker 3: 35:58

I do for the first yeah, Until you know what you're doing.

Speaker 2: 36:01

Yep, that's this is a little disclaimer there.

Speaker 3: 36:06

Yes, but and here's the thing I'm going to tell you all these methods, but the one missing piece that you can't do by yourself is have a companion. Yes, and the companionship in this was everything for me, and that's what I'm calling all of us to do is to be that one person who reaches out and helps somebody else reaches out and helps somebody else. That's why I want to teach this, because then I'm creating an army of healers that know how to go out and be that person that actually has a battle plan to say I know how to get you out of this.

Speaker 2: 36:41

It's so beautiful, like I just keep seeing, like this hand outreach and somebody has just been waiting for for a long time. You know, like the, the man at the pool can never see, yeah, the pool of bethesda you say it, the pool of bethesda?

Speaker 3: 36:57

yeah, it's all it takes. He went there for him, he and, and what did he ask? He asked do you want to be healed? Yes, so that's the decision. If someone wants to be healed, we have the answers. But you have to turn away from the pool of Bethesda where that's not for you. Yes, yes. And that's a lot of. What are some of the modern methods that are being used?

Speaker 3: 37:31

parallels that you're you're matching a symptom with a drug that's going to cause more side effects is not a healing protocol. That is a bandaid Exactly.

Speaker 2: 37:46

Well, could you? I think we need to go back to that Like I want to. I want you to go deeper on that, because I do feel like there is a you know, the 911, the 911 wake up call in that area, but could you tell us what the P is? I'm like on the edge of my seat over here, I know.

Speaker 3: 38:03

Well, the P and you cannot. You cannot get to a place of living life to the fullest without purpose. Yeah, that is the place of despair where people get to, when they feel like they don't have purpose, they don't have value, they don't have worth. Life has kicked them around. They're not on mission Especially for a veteran or a first responder that used to be their important work and now they're not on that mission. That doesn't mean that you don't have a life mission.

Speaker 3: 38:42

You have a life mission that is way beyond and probably way bigger than serving in the military or as a first responder. You have a life mission that was written in the book, in your book, before you were even formed in your mother's womb, and that's between you and God. To figure out what that is, however, it's also discipleship. It's also you're going to find that purpose in community. You're not probably going to find that purpose in in community. You're not probably going to find that purpose in isolation and away from others. You're going to find it when you're in community and in service to others. What makes you come alive?

Speaker 2: 39:21

Yes, that's so powerful. This, this flip, the script acronym of is is straight from heaven. Yes, it was you guys see this. I want you to the listeners, I want you to take a moment and just soak this in. Could you just give? Just read again, like the words that are for each, each one could you?

Speaker 3: 39:44

just say that again yeah, so ptsd, we're reversing it as DSTP. The D is decision, discipline and discipleship. The S is service to others. The T is training as treatment which is also going to lead to a testimony that's powerful testimony of overcoming that. You did the work on your. You did the work.

Speaker 3: 40:16

And then the P is purpose in in your area of passion, which ultimately is going to lead to peace peace of mind, peace within yourself, and that peace is going to ripple throughout your household, your circle of influence, your neighborhood, your work. You're going to be a peacemaker and a peacekeeper because you were able to cultivate that peace within yourself.

Speaker 2: 40:44

Yes, wow, I'm just soaking this in the word that keeps coming over this. There is a piece over this and a piece like P-I-E-C-E. So if we look at what the system is currently, you know the typical system let's just kind of high level, you know you have a veteran, like what is the typical systematic approach to helping veterans at this point that you have recognized in our world.

Speaker 3: 41:22

It's the message of hope, first of all, and that's what this is, and so it leads me to, to the mindset shift first and foremost is that they are a very honored and recognized, much needed piece of our society, that we still need them, yes for.

Speaker 3: 41:44

And so healing circles is what I'm building and what is a movement that I'm starting, and so it just happened organically. Not too long ago, I found myself invited into a circle of veterans and I was the only non-veteran there and I told them why I was there, that I was recently appointed to be the liaison for the American Legion and the Minnesota Coalition of Suicide Prevention, and that got their attention and I started sharing a little bit of the story that I've shared today, and it started bringing up a lot of things for them that they were carrying old emotional baggage which just led to a mindset shift which is so powerful. I came across while I was preparing this PTSD reversal guidance, which is the trauma right. The T was for trauma, while your trauma is not the end of your story, that's the foundation of your calling.

Speaker 2: 42:54

Say that again.

Speaker 3: 42:56

Your trauma is not the end of your story. It's the foundation of your calling.

Speaker 2: 43:02

Yeah, I want you guys to catch that.

Speaker 3: 43:06

So flip the script on the trauma and take the focus off the trauma and put the focus on the mission which probably, if you're in it, is your mission is to heal you so that you can heal others. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 43:20

Cause it starts with you, but it's behind you.

Speaker 3: 43:23

And you can heal from. You can help others from a place of brokenness. You do not have to be fully arrived.

Speaker 1: 43:34

You don't have to be fully arrived at a complete state of healing.

Speaker 3: 43:40

You just have to be a few steps ahead of someone else to be able to lead them a little further than from where they're so.

Speaker 2: 43:50

Cause. How many people, would you say, get stopped in their tracks and don't even move forward because they feel like they have to be like perfectly put together, yeah, a lot Right, but healing happens in community, so you're literally stifling your own healing by not helping others, and it happens in layers too, wouldn't you say Yep, for sure it does Sometimes it happens like this, and sometimes it happens in a longer stretch of time wouldn't, you say oh, and work forever evolving, you know, and there's going to be new traumas that you might, that you might experience, you.

Speaker 3: 44:33

You know, like I said, it's life, life and death. Things happen, tragedies happen, but it's the degree of resilience that we have, that resilience mindset, that this isn't going to take me out. This is just part of my story. Yes, absolutely, I love that. It's in the design. But if you have your, if you have a purpose and a mission and a calling that that is defined, there's nothing that is going to get to you that's going to make you give up hope Exactly Nothing up hope?

Speaker 2: 45:19

exactly nothing, amen, girl. Well, I feel like we need to have you back on, because this is kind of the stage of what's being birthed through you, right? So if people are wondering, like, what is what is sarah up to right now? How can I get involved? Where can I reach her? They're getting stirred. What does that look like for somebody to reach out to you and then like what is your mission currently like right now? What does it look like to go out and serve others in this space?

Speaker 3: 45:45

So I knew that this would be stir in the hearts of a lot of people and what I'm doing is building a community, building a community of hope and healing, and what that looks like right now is called it's just a community landing page on Facebook right now called Hope for Heroes, and you know it's evolving right now. It's brand new. It just came to me because I asked where are people going to gather? I can't take an influx of thousands of calls coming in, but what I can do is build a community. So, basically, think of Hope for Heroes as an online community center. So just come and join the community, be a part of the conversation. Let us know if, if you, you know, if you want to help, if you want to volunteer, if you want to move the thing forward, if you, if you feel called to help financially and donate that's I mean, everything takes some financial resources too.

Speaker 3: 46:59

That's where we're going to land. That's where we're going to go from here to continue the conversation and be connected, which reminds me that I have a book by Dr Henry Wright called Exposing the Spiritual Roots of Disease, where he talks about 80% of disease being literally just the separation factor being separated from others, being separated from yourself or being separated from God is the root of about 80% of the disease out there. So the antidote is connection out there, so the antidote is connection. So what better place to connect than just you know quickly and efficiently online with with a productive reason for getting on social media yes.

Speaker 2: 47:45

So I'm sure, like as you're walking this out as well, he's going to continue to show you the keys and the ways that this community will evolve as well, right?

Speaker 3: 47:54

Right, yeah, so that's going to be the. That's the landing page. Hope for heroes. I do have a coaching platform because if there are people who are really like I'm ready to get going, I know I need something. I need to do this resilience program. I do have a signature program. That's a three-part resilience program and that's on my personal site called sarajlife, so my middle name is J, it's super simple. You can connect with me there when it comes to more personalized coaching.

Speaker 2: 48:28

Okay, yeah, it's S-A-R-A-J, correct.

Speaker 3: 48:32

Yep, no, h S-A-R-A-Jlife. Okay, yeah, it's S A R A J, correct. Yep, no, h S A R A J dot life.

Speaker 2: 48:36

Okay, awesome, and I'll be sure to add the Facebook group link to the show notes and your website to the show notes. Is there anything else you want to share about what's going on in your world? Like coming up.

Speaker 3: 48:49

I do. I mean one thing that I really. I mean I feel like I want to give credit where credit is due and there's a little bit more to the story than just the acronym I had and, again, like you can do so much on your own, but there's certain things you just can't do on your own and one of those things was a neuromuscular resetting that I was able to go through. I was connected to this brilliant trauma-informed physician that I want to give credit to and that's Dr Troy Spurrell of Synapse Health and Healing, which is right here in Eagan, dakota County, egan, minnesota. He has had people flown to him from Germany that were going through things that no one else could figure out and he is a brilliant, brilliant mind of functional medicine. I want to make sure that the people know there are really amazing functional medicine health professionals out there that know how to get to the underlying root of whatever disease process is happening and actually get you on a path to healing.

Speaker 2: 50:09

Yes, because I'm very passionate about that. Right, like there's so many. There's so many people out there that are so passionate about this and I think, again, getting the word out um is so important to like help flip the script in the system, to help come up. You know, sharing the parallel systems are out there because they're springing up and they're springing up faster.

Speaker 3: 50:35

Yeah, I would. And the other. The other person I want to give credit to is is David Schmidt. He is the inventor of the X39 patch, which is a phototherapy that can be used to harness the power of light and reactivate our own stem cells from within our body. So that's probably going to have to be part two. But that was part of my healing process as well was phototherapy that literally like reawakened my brain. Within six weeks I felt like I went from like cobwebs in my brain to like firing on all cylinders and feeling that like clarity that I hadn't experienced in a long time. So that's powerful and very, very affordable, accessible, easy for anyone to do and, um, it's like literally being able to flip the body into a state of healing, um, with a very, very simple method awesome.

Speaker 2: 51:42

Well, I can get some information from you, and we can link that in the show notes as well too, if you'd like yeah, awesome yeah, as we close up for today, I would love to to chat longer, but we'll have to, like I said, we'll have to have you back for an update. You know, as I said earlier, I do this for the one. I'd love for you to think of that one person and share any words of encouragement or wisdom that you could speak over them, and then would you pray us out today.

Speaker 3: 52:10

I would. You know that's a perfect ending, as I'm thinking about you know, the one person that just feels like everything is hopeless and there's just no way out. There's always an anchor of hope, and it starts with just changing that thought. There is hope. And put your focus on the source of that hope and peace, which is Jesus. It really is so. If you don't know him, ask him into your heart. And if you do and you're still there, there's a song I want you to look up and play. It's called Oxygen. It's by Stephanie Gretzinger, it's S-T-E-F-F-A-N-Y and her last name is G-R-E-T-Z-I-N-G-E-R.

Speaker 3: 53:18

That music, music, is so healing and it literally, it literally just starts with the changing of one thought and change everything yes and and reach out and ask, ask for help, get out of that place, literally get out of that place. Open the door and walk out and get out of that place. Go out in nature, find something to change.

Speaker 2: 53:44

Yes, yes would you pray us out today I just feel such a peace over.

Speaker 3: 53:56

I feel like whoever's listening to this is getting deliverance, so yes, yes, okay, um, and, by the way, if you're in that place, go to hope for heroes. You can find me there. You can send me a private message If you need to talk. I will be there for you.

Speaker 3: 54:13

So, father God, thank you for this time, thank you for this message that you have entrusted me to deliver, thank you for Kristen, for giving us the platform to get it out there. Like I said to her earlier, this is my stone, this is my stone that I'm casting, that's going to dismantle the fear that is crippling our great men and women that have served us to be able to empower them to come back to life, to get back on purpose, get back on mission. And I just so pray that this message reaches far and wide whoever needs to hear it and gives them that hope for today that they needed to be able to take that next step forward. So, thank you for the sacrifice, ultimately, that you made in order to give us the power that is within us, that literally runs through our veins because of the sacrifice you made for us, and that we get to multiply that hope and healing and purpose together. That all points back to you. So to you be the glory in Jesus name. Amen.

Speaker 2: 55:37

Amen. Well, I'm going to close with our anchoring verse over hope, unlocked it's. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing so that, by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope. And don't you guys just love the hope thread here? So, sarah, thank you so much for being a brave voice. Who's setting so many free? Like I said, we'd love to have you back on for an update later. Otherwise, I appreciate you being on today and I'll be back with another episode next week. Thanks, listeners.

Speaker 3: 56:08

Amazing. Thank you so much. Can't wait to be back.