Fear, Intuition & Energy: Connecting the Dots (Sandi Serling) - Episode 229

If you’ve ever felt like fear is running the show, this episode is going to hit home in the best way. For many of us, fear shows up everywhere. In our decisions, in our relationships, in those quiet moments when we’re asking ourselves, “Am I doing this right?” or “What if I get it wrong?”

But, what if fear isn’t actually the enemy? What if it’s…a guide?

Today, we’re sitting down with Sandi Serling, the host of the podcast Fear Unzipped, who has spent years exploring the science, the energy, and the deeper meaning behind fear, and how it shapes the way we live our lives.

Sandi’s journey started with anxiety and sensitivity she didn’t fully understand at the time, only to discover later that what felt like fear was actually something much deeper -- intuition, awareness, and the ability to tune into energy.

Now, she’s blending neuroscience and metaphysics in a way that makes you go, wait…this  makes sense.

In this conversation, we’re talking about:

• What fear really is (and what it’s trying to tell you)
• How to shift your relationship with anxiety instead of fighting it
• The connection between your brain, your energy, and your intuition
• How to start loosening fear’s grip so you can actually hear your own inner wisdom

Because maybe fear isn’t here to stop you…maybe it’s here to wake you up.

MORE WITH SANDI SERLING

• Visit fearunzipped.com + listen to the Fear Unzipped podcast.
• Instagram: @fearunzipped
• Facebook
• YouTube: @fearunzipped
• LinkedIn

Visit seekingcentercommunity.com for more with Robyn + Karen and many of the guides on Seeking Center: The Podcast. You'll get access to live weekly sessions, intuitive guidance, daily inspiration, and a space to share your journey with like-minded people who just get it.

You can also follow Seeking Center on Instagram @theseekingcenter.

Transcript

Robyn: [00:00:00] I'm Robyn Miller Brecker and I'm Karen Loenser. Welcome to Seeking Center, the podcast. Join us each week as we have the conversations and we, through the spiritual and holistic clutter for you, we'll boil it down to what you need to know now, we're all about total wellness, which to us needs building a healthy life.

Karen: On a physical, mental, and spiritual level, we'll talk to the trailblazers who'll introduce you to the practices, products, and experiences that may be just what you need to hear about to transform your life. If you're listening to this, it's no accident. Think of this as your seeking center and your place to seek your center.

Robyn: And for the best wellness and spiritual practitioners, experts, products, experiences, and inspo, visit theseekingcenter. com. 

 Robyn: If you've ever felt like fear is running the show, this episode is going to hit home in the best way. Because, let's be honest, fear shows up everywhere in our decisions, in our relationships, in those quiet moments when we're asking ourselves, [00:01:00] am I doing this right? Or What if I get it wrong? But what if fear isn't actually the enemy?

What if it's a guide? Today we're sitting down with Sandi Serling, the host of the podcast, fear Unzipped, who has spent years exploring the science, the energy, and the deeper meaning behind fear and how it shapes the way we live our lives. Sandi's journey started with anxiety and sensitivity.

She didn't fully understand at the time only to discover later that what felt like fear was actually something much deeper. Intuition awareness and the ability to tune into energy. Now she's blending neuroscience and metaphysics in a way that makes you go, wait, this actually makes sense. In this conversation we're talking about what fear really is, and what it's trying to tell you.

How to shift your relationship with anxiety instead of fighting it. The connection between your brain, your energy, and your intuition, And how to start loosening fear's grip so you can actually hear your own inner wisdom, because maybe fear isn't here to stop you. [00:02:00] Maybe it's here to wake you up.

Let's dive in. Hi Sandi. Hi Karen. 

Sandi: Hi Sandi. Hi Robyn. Hi Karen. Oh, it's so great to be with you too. It's such an honor. Thank you for having me. 

Karen: Oh, we are so thrilled too. I am particularly excited because fear is a subject that we talk about a lot, but the way you approach it, it was an aha for me.

I never thought of fear as almost being , your friend and like an intuitive voice. So let's start with fear being a companion in your life. How did you find this relationship with fear?

Sandi: Oh, fear, it's been my companion for so long. Anxiety, fear, all my life, ever since I was a little, in fact I can remember, which might sound really odd, was the anxiety my mom felt when I was in her womb and my mom. Was a beautiful, person, but she's raising three kids.

My father was traveling the world and I could pick up. On anxiety then. So all my [00:03:00] life I felt fear. Something was gonna happen. The other shoe was going to drop. I was so scared in kindergarten, sitting out on the bench. I didn't wanna go in. It's the unknown. I was so scared of the unknown. But later in life.

I found out, and this didn't happen until my fifties, that I found out, wait a minute, that wasn't my anxiety and that wasn't my fear. I was speaking up on the fear of everybody else. So as a little child, I was speaking to people on the other side, but I didn't think that was weird. I just thought that's what that was and I didn't understand it.

I had no clue what that was, but I had people that would be talking to me that had passed and were on the other side. I was very comfortable, for a fearful person. That's kind of strange. I never told anybody, and then later in life I kind of let that go by the wayside. How we do, as we get older, our intuition gets pushed aside.

We start thinking [00:04:00] we're a little crazy and we're picking up on something. I remember adults saying to me let's say I was eight years old, the adults would say something to me and I'm going, wait a minute. That's not what I'm picking up on. I don't think they're telling me the truth, but they're the adult and I'm the little kid.

So of course they're right. Later in life I learned These little bits of information I was getting were accurate and that's what I try to get out there is when that intuition comes in and it's strong and you know, and we can talk about what is intuition? Listen to it because you're not crazy.

 picking up on information that is coming into you that we all have the ability to receive. Nobody is special here. Nobody gets more than somebody else, like they're special. We all have this ability. 

 Robyn: Wow. I mean, there's a lot to unpack. 

Karen: I was just gonna say, I literally was gonna say the same thing you just said so much.

 Robyn: let's go back to the fact that you were [00:05:00] talking to. Deceased loved ones on the other side or spirit. and you weren't scared and you didn't tell anybody. So how did that come to be at what age did you start recognizing that? 

Sandi: it's so strange, you guys. I was the most fearful child.

I mean, terrified child of everything. And it was three levels in our home. I'd go in the basement, which was, it was a beautiful sitting area, but then there was another room that was dark and my dad kept his tools in there. You know, it was just a room you just wouldn't really go into.

I'd be drawn to going in there. I'm getting chills telling you this story. And my mom had all her like winter clothes down And so there was a rack and I would spread the rack and I would start talking to, and they weren't really loved ones. but just 

 Robyn: whatever spirit was there, 

Sandi: whatever was there, but I wasn't.

Really cognizant of it, if that makes any sense at all. it felt safe. I liked being around these beings. They made me feel [00:06:00] good, and then I'd close the clothes. 

Karen: Wow. 

Sandi: I go upstairs, but I didn't remember that, I really got amnesia from that as I got older, maybe 10, 11, 12 and I didn't really even remember that until I was in my.

 Probably late forties, 

Karen: you said 

You were very fearful as a child. I find that very interesting. 

Sandi: It doesn't make sense. 

Karen: Yeah, that that didn't scare you at all. 

Sandi: But what I wanna share and I realize that now more than ever, I've always felt more comfortable in the ether, which to me, feels more real than what we're doing now.

'cause this world's scary. There's a lot of scary people. There's a lot of dogma. They're out to make you scared. We're living in a world right now that wants to make you fearful, but in that world, they did not make me feel fearful. They made me feel loved and secure and safe.

I didn't understand it. Karen, and Robyn, I did [00:07:00] not know what it was, but. Yeah. And so when I was living on this planet, I was terrified. 

 Robyn: So how did you remember? Talking to the spirits when you were younger. And then how did you also recognize that you were also carrying fear from the womb? 

Sandi: Well that came in when I started doing some work on my brain.

I really wanted to learn how my brain worked. what happened was my parents were quite ill. They were older, and they ended up dying four months apart. Mm-hmm. And these are two of the most beautiful people I have ever known and just gorgeous humans in my life. And I feel so honored that they were my parents.

But knowing that I was going to be losing them, you could tell the trajectory. I thought, I'm so depressed. I have a beautiful family. I have children, I have a husband. But I was so depressed and I thought, I need to figure out how my brain works. So I met a man who was a neuroscientist, and I said, look, I do pr.

[00:08:00] So if you teach me what you know about neuroscience. Then I'll do your PR for you. And he had this, program, brainwave optimization is what it was called. Maybe some of your listeners know of it and they put these electrodes on your head and they show you videos and they stimulate you. And so.

Your brain will go in all different places as you're watching. So some is positive, some is negative. 

Marker

Sandi: And then they told me afterwards when they read my data, I was one of the most anxious people they had ever encountered. Wow. there was another man that was a little bit more anxious and he really wore it on his face, you know, through stress and wrinkles.

And, and I, I didn't want that 'cause I am vain in that regard. 

 Robyn: Fair enough. 

Sandi: I mean, truly. so I started learning and as I started learning how the brain works, [00:09:00] my metaphysical side, my intuition came in like a tidal wave. because I loosened my grip on anxiety and fear

and that's when my intuition came flooding in. And then I would started remembering the beings in the basement, my mother's womb. And then I had that validated through, somebody who. again, I did brainwave optimization and she said, do you remember having anxiety in your mom's room?

I said, yes, yes. So to me that was, a validation. 

 Robyn: Yes. Wow. 

Sandi: Once you calm your brain, it is magical what comes in. 

You are gonna be talking, connecting, being guided. You will always have a team on your side. 

 Robyn: What was happening to your brain on anxiety?

Sandi: Well, my brain on anxiety was, I got triggered constantly. Trick trigger, trigger a smell, something somebody said. So what would happen is I would start [00:10:00] flooding. That's a termed psychology. like my whole body would flood and go into paralysis. I never had panic attacks, which is really interesting.

I never had that. But your heart starts racing. Your palms get sweaty. Your breathing is very, very shallow. So you're in what's called sympathetic. Nervous system, which is fight, flight, freeze. 

 And your brain is going, oh, you're in danger. Even though you're not, 99% of the time So it's going to put you in protective mode. And protective mode is watch, watch, look, look. You know, be careful. Just, and then when people would talk to me like you could be having conversation with me. I'd be pretending like I'm listening, but in my head I'm going, oh my God. Oh my God, that thing that happened.

Oh my God. You know? And it is not a way to live. It's just not. And finally, When my parents were dying and finally did pass, I said, I'm not living like this anymore. I would rather die. I've seen the people on the other side. They're doing great. I [00:11:00] would rather die. And so that's when I calmed my nervous system.

Everything shifted. 

Karen: how did you do it? Were there specific tools that you utilized for that? 

Sandi: The way I did it was one I realized I wasn't crazy. That's the first thing. So you learn about the brain. The brain, is it Rick Hanson that says the brain is Velcro for negativity and Teflon for positivity.

So if I were to say to both of you, oh, I think you two are two of the smartest women that I ever met. you're amazing, you're beautiful, whatever. But then I might say, Robyn, but you said something the other day that was really strange. It didn't make sense. What are you gonna pick up on? Not the hundred people that said how smart you are, but the one thing that somebody said that you went, oh no.

Oh no, maybe I wasn't making sense. Maybe I da da da da. You know, we go down a rabbit hole. So you wanna prevent yourself from [00:12:00] going down that rabbit hole. I went down so many rabbit holes, you guys, I've dug to the center of the earth and like 

 Robyn: I can understand. And I think so many people do.

Yes. 

Sandi: So many of us do. The thing that also was a dichotomy was I jumped out of an airplane, I ride a motorcycle, I did things in my PR firm. I did things that were really kind of out there. And so the other thing I wanna say is that anxiety and a little bit of fear. Is a good thing. It drives you. It can't control you.

So when I would get anxious before doing something, it was excitement, it was anxiety, but it didn't drive me. It didn't paralyze me. When you get into paralysis, your body's nervous system starts changing. That's when we know we need to shift, and there are ways to do that. 

Karen: Well it's almost that fear.

There's like a fine line with [00:13:00] fear. Is what you're saying, right? Like it can be a guide, it can be a messenger, but then you let it play too big of a role. Mm-hmm. And and speak too loud. Then it overtakes you. 

Sandi: That's exactly right. It can be a messenger of watch out. You know, maybe taking that job is not a great idea if you start getting all this feeling of anxiety over it.

 Again, if you wallow in it, that's when we get paralyzed. And I've been there. I used to live in that space. I don't know how I got anything done. 

Karen: I mean, to look at you now, it's so hard to imagine, and also in your career, in being in PR of. you almost had to really wear a mask because your role was to step forward in confidence hundred percent and convince everybody of whatever the message was that you were trying to share a market with other people.

Sandi: I was good at my craft, but I have to tell you, I have, and I worked on a lot of TV sets and I used to say to my husband or my friends. I should get the Academy Award because I [00:14:00] am the world's greatest actor. Go, and I'm confident I know what I'm talking about inside. I'm going, Ooh, I don't know. I don't really do I did on a certain level.

I certainly did know, but that anxiety would take over and I'd would question myself. Hmm. 

 Robyn: So then, and speaking of fear, speaking to us, how do you know if it's fear or intuition? What this question, what's the 

Sandi: difference? I love that question too, so much. It's so distinct. When fear comes in, you're gonna get that nervous system's gonna start, oh my, stu, you know, my gut feels weird.

You know that, gut feeling. you're gonna start feeling anxious. You're gonna start criticizing yourself. You're going to make some judgment. Oh, I think it's a good idea, but, oh. Can I do that? I don't know. I know she could do that, but can I do that? I don't know. When intuition comes in, it's so beautiful.

It comes in like a whisper and it'll give you the idea. It'll say like the way my [00:15:00] podcast came in it, you're gonna do this podcast. It's called Fear and zip da da da da. And it goes through It completely left me. I didn't feel anxious about it at the moment. When I started thinking about it, I said, no, I'm not.

when I went into my left brain and I started thinking, and no, I'm not gonna do that. But when the whisper comes in and we get them all day long, just listen. and the things we don't listen and listening requires some quiet sometimes. when are we quiet? We're racing, we're clicking through things and I don't mean you have to sit in meditation and be extremely quiet, but just sit for a moment, take a deep breath, and just see what comes in it.

Don't force it, it's just gonna come in. 

You know, both of you have experienced it. 

 Robyn: Yes, 

Karen: Another question that we have that I think is really, If fear is actually a friend in a way. Mm-hmm. Right. What do we do with it? [00:16:00] Like, how do we befriend our fear?

How did you befriend yours, Sandi? 

Sandi: Well it's another really good question. first of all, when you start getting fearful, your amygdala, which is your alert system, hijacks your body and you go into high alert. So what I do now, and I really recommend this to anybody listening, when I start getting that anxiety or that, oh my god moment, I'll go, isn't that interesting?

Isn't that interesting? That thought that I thought I got rid of five years ago is now coming in, and I learned that from my guest, Suzanne giesemann, who's just a brilliant, everything, she's a, a spiritual leader and one of the top in the world. But she said what she does is she stops and she goes, isn't that interesting?

So when you do that, you're outside your mind. You're like a third person coming in. And I always recommend being that third person going, huh, where'd that come from? That's it, softens it. It [00:17:00] literally will soften that feeling. And the other thing that I do when I feel it coming in is I am a real. A big believer In breathing, deep breathing and changing. Sympathetic to parasympathetic. I breathe in four, I hold for four. I breathe out for six, and then I hold for four. It will shift do it 3, 4, 5 times. It absolutely will shift. It'll get you back to a place of flow. Because remember that 99% of the fear and anxiety we're feeling is not our own.

 And so stop and go, oh, where's that coming from? and lots of times there is something, it's trying to tell you something. Being in that person's presence makes you uncomfortable. Well, maybe you shouldn't be in that person's presence. Or when you walk in a room and you go, I wanna be in this person's bubble, like your bubble, the two of you.

I wanna be in your bubble. It feels nurturing and safe and beautiful and loving. I might walk in a room and [00:18:00] feel somebody that feels scary to me. 

I don't have a rationale for that. It's energy. It's energy, and we're all reading it. I have radar out there and my little fear radar or my anxiety radar is saying, you know, you probably don't wanna get in conversation with that person or go into business with that person or have that person on your guest on your podcast.

You, you guys know, 

 Robyn: we do. You can tell right away. To your point about reading energy, when did you recognize. That you were picking up on other people's energy did somebody help you understand that? 

Sandi: I believe it really happened when I started getting into my brain and understanding where my brain was going and realizing, wait a minute, I'm not anxious.

this isn't bothering me, but I can read other people really well, and if they're really close to me, I. Then I take it on, you have headache, I'm gonna have your headache. you're anxious, I'm gonna have your anxiety. Well, now I have a nice protective thing where I won't allow [00:19:00] my body to do that. I talk to my guides.

I don't allow that to happen in my world. So once you can calm that nervous system down a bit, you're gonna get so much information and you're going to realize it's very comforting to know that a lot of this stuff you're feeling is not you. Yeah, especially right now in the world, we're picking up on the collective.

You know, we are mostly, I think, really loving, caring, beautiful people beings. And we want all that for everybody. We want safety for everyone. but there are powers that be, that try to make you feel unsafe. So it's really important right now, more than ever. That you ground yourself, you hug a tree, you do the things that are totally 

 Robyn: yes.

Sandi: and I'm, a big tree hugger. I talk to rocks. Rocks talk back to me. I used to be embarrassed by it, and it's, nature, which is a beautiful place to go to ground is absolutely authentic. None of us are purely a [00:20:00] hundred percent authentic because we are gonna have a little bit of ego going, I'm right there, you know, I've got something going.

 but nature has nothing to prove to us. Wild animals have nothing to prove to us, you know, to them and or to us. So they're very authentic. So when you're in that authentic space and it wraps, its energy around you. It's so calming. That's why it's so calming to hear the ocean. It's so calming.

Dog. A tree. 

Karen: What was it about the science that drew you? did it make you feel more comfortable that it could be explained in a more tangible way? What, drew you into that? 

Sandi: I needed the science because. To me, it's the way for my brain to understand. But also if I wanna explain it to other people, most people aren't going to come in and go, okay, there's science behind it.

I get it. But if I come in and go, you know your loved one, just talk to me and said they love it. When you wear your red sweater, [00:21:00] they're gonna go, oh my God, you're weird. You know? I mean more people now. Are accepting it. It's so becoming mainstream. And what's really cool is that I've had neuroscientists on consciousness, people, people that bridge both sides, that now neuroscientist researchers.

Are talking about visualization intuition. Dr. Tara Swart, who is a neuroscientist, her husband passed away a few years ago and he is communicating with her now. So she is talking about that. I know. Chills, right? Chills. So when that bridge crosses over, 'cause I believe there's so much valuable information in science and there's so much valuable information in ancient wisdom.

when you bring the two together, there are therapists now that are psychiatrists, but they're combining both. And they reach out to me and I say, well then you're. gonna [00:22:00] be incredible for your, patients because I believe both are necessary. 

 Robyn: We agree. 

Sandi: because we live on the earth, 

 Robyn: correct?

Yes. And if you can find those that really do bridge both, 

Sandi: yes. 

 Robyn: You're treating all sides of you. In this lifetime. 

Sandi: I also feel it's dangerous if you get too far on either side. Yes. So if you're spiritual all the time and you're always in the you're living on earth. it's very important.

You're grounded and your information that comes in is not going to be really accurate because you're too far in a different space. Finding balance and neutrality is really important. 

Karen: Well, and I think that so many healers, like doctors, nurses, therapists, they're intuitive anyway, right?

Mm-hmm. Whether they wanna say they are or not, that's part of who they are. It's part of what they do to treat people. Mm-hmm. And so I think this idea of giving them. This [00:23:00] opportunity to see the science and how it bridges both worlds. How they can do their job, actually even better in some ways if they lean into their feelings, their intuition, and partnering those two worlds together.

It's like you were saying, they're gonna be able to make people better and then feel better about What they're doing. 

Sandi: It's so true. And then what's going to happen is that person or patient or client is going to bring in their own team of, you know, experts around them that are in, that are in the ether, but they're grounded with it and 

 it's really so beautiful. People say, well, how do you know they're talking to you? and you know this, both of you know this, For one thing, when they're talking to you, it's always love. 

Laughing: Yes. 

Sandi: and the other is like I always say, just Start listening to these words of wisdom. And if it's one word that comes and it's two words. I had a rock, I was in the desert and I was hiking this rock I go to [00:24:00] every day and I hug it, and I kiss it, and I wrap my arms around it. It's huge. It's a boulder. It's huge. And I heard it say so clearly. Loosen your grip.

 Not on the rock, because I was going through trying to figure out a bunch of things in my life and it just said, loosen your grip. And I said, wait, that didn't come from me. ' cause I wasn't really thinking about that at the time. That definitely came from that rock. And I thanked it the next day.

I went back, I kissed it, I thanked it, and I did a post about it because we just need to listen. 

 Robyn: yeah. and you'd be surprised where these messages can come from the fact that rock can deliver that message, that tree, that bird, you know, it's like. Until you try, like, don't knock it till you try it.

It's, 

Sandi: yeah. Don't knock and, or the sign on the bus that's going by. Exactly. That's those are the ones that I find. 

 Robyn: It's so true. 

Sandi: Really, really unbelievable. And you [00:25:00] can't make it up. 

 Robyn: You cannot. I mean, I have to tell you, I was at a doctor's appointment with my daughter this morning and she was, feeling anxious and fearful about the appointment.

We walked through these doors and I didn't notice it, but she looks over and the number of the door was our number in life. we have certain numbers in life that we follow. So it's those things, right? It's like, oh, I'm supposed to be here right now and this is my validation. and these signs and messages come. When you most need them and when you least expect it, It's a little bit of both. 

Sandi: It's the other thing, when you try to force it, it's harder to get that it's helpful to be in a space of just openness and groundedness and, peace.

And then they start coming in and it could come in from a stranger. 

Karen: Yes. 

Sandi: it's so much fun. That part to me is wildly fun. It makes life on this planet so, so exciting. 

Karen: it's like the world kind of wants to come up and meet you where you are. if you're [00:26:00] open enough to see the signs right, like those are the times when you need.

the signs the most in a way. And if you're open to receiving, they're all around. I love that example you just gave Robyn. 'cause I think that people do get so caught in the fear they can't get out of their own way in a way they can't get caught. Get out of that spiral of the doom and gloom.

So, 

Sandi: and 

Karen: it 

Sandi: does, it snaps you out of it? It does, 

Karen: yeah. 

Sandi: that's why I see, you know, the breathing or I do tapping. I don't know if you guys tap. Yeah. And I don't say it, but like, if I'm in traffic and I have to get to an appointment, I just tap here and it calms my nervous system or jumping jacks or laughing out loud, just laughing.

And there's absolutely no reason to be laughing. But you're laughing and you look ridiculous. But it shifts. your brain. So your brain is saying, oh, you're fine, you're fine. And then it can be open to receiving because you wanna receive. It's really, you're missing out on so many beautiful [00:27:00] messages if you don't receive.

 Robyn: Going back to the science for a moment, I do wanna talk about neuroplasticity. Because that's something that you can speak about. And I feel like people have heard that term more and more lately, but they don't know what that means or how it can help them. 

Sandi: So neuroplasticity, and I'm an armchair neuroscientist, remember that, you know, I'm not, I didn't go to school.

but I did so much studying on this. So it used to be the thought that when you are a certain age, and it was, I think it was 12, I could be wrong about that, that your brain It's developed. You can't change it. It's the way it is. But scientists later found out that our brain is constantly changing We can change our genes. That's epigenetics. We can change the genes. That's why we can heal ourselves. And so since your brain is always changing, you can be 99, a hundred and 110, and you can still change patterns. Which is a very [00:28:00] comfortable, wonderful thing to know. 'cause you don't have to be set in your ways if you have a fear about something.

You can absolutely shift it. 

And it requires creating a new neural pathway. It requires, habitually doing, you know, over and over and over. When something comes in, you notice it, you create this new neural pathway, and all of a sudden you're going to find that fear loosens dramatically and you're not scared of it anymore.

 I can tell you guys that. When I was, after this message came in to do the podcast, I was terrified. I was completely terrified, and I used to work behind the camera. I had celebrities. They were in front of the camera. Perfect. you do your thing. I'm back here. I'm so happy. Well, I was so scared.

I was even scared about the Zoom links and sending the Zoom links to people and it was true fear because it was new. It was new. And the other thing I wanna share is. The brain [00:29:00] has we come in with two fears. The fear of falling in, the fear of loud noises. Those are real. It also comes with the fear of the unknown, where the growth happens.

 So all of us have grown so much by what you're doing with Seeking Center in your podcasts and me with my podcast. But I was terrified and I. Took a leap of faith because I got so many signs that came in. Oh, my phone just says one, one, one right now. 

Karen: I love that. 

Sandi: Okay. There's a sign. There's a sign. Yeah.

And 

I just happened to glance over. but I got so many signs. That I couldn't ignore doing my podcast and there was fear. I'm gonna have to get over it. And you know, when you do it the first time it's not fearful. It's fantastic. 

 Robyn: So true. 

Sandi: And every day, and I recommend this too. I say I'm proud of myself every single day.

I'm so proud of myself that I overcame that fear and [00:30:00] that I am talking to you and I've met beautiful people. We should be very proud of ourselves rather than, putting ourselves down. 

Karen: So in a way, what you're saying is you can look at fear as an invitation. Right, 

Sandi: exactly.

It's exactly, it's an invitation. There's another kind of fear that when somebody breaks into your home, I mean, that's a totally different kind of fear. 

 Actually, what happens when that happens? your prefrontal cortex when you're just in fear, like, I'm scared to do a podcast. The amygdala takes over.

But when a fear of danger, like somebody break into your home, you are still working from your prefrontal cortex and the amygdala because It's trying to figure out how do you get through that? Like maybe you call 9 1 1, you hide in a cloud, you do whatever that is. But the other fear I'm talking about, which is what is with us a lot of the time that's your friend saying, okay.

I'm pointing this [00:31:00] out to you, let's examine it a little. 

And let's take some deep breaths and let's see how we get to the other side of it, because there's always a way to get to the other side. 

 Robyn: That's huge, honestly. And speaking of your podcast, let's talk about your podcast. you said that that came through as a whisper and then you made it happen and you overcame this fear.

So. Talk a little bit about fear unzipped and what kind of conversations you have and How that's fulfilling a purpose for you as well as many others. It's helping them see their purpose, 

Karen: and I'd love to hear what the whisper sounded like when you first heard it. 

Sandi: Okay. I will tell you I was hiking and I hike in these beautiful, mountains in California, and I heard just like this.

 You're going to be doing a podcast and it's going to be called Fear Unzipped. I remember that whisper came through and I remembered it. It was just so out of left field. I [00:32:00] had no intention of ever doing a podcast, and, and I remember saying. To the ethers, my guides. Well, no, I'm not. And I remember saying, and I'm not putting fear in the title because that's scary and that is gonna make people fearful.

 And they said, you're transmuting. Fear. Fear. It's just a word. People have an energetic attachment to it, but it's just a word. Just like cop podcast. I mean, it's just a word. And so It came in so clear and I thought I was still very, very much on the fence. Then I keep walking. I'm the only one on the trail, and this woman walks by with this man.

I can't, I didn't make this up and I took a picture. She's wearing a t-shirt that says Fearless and big letters and the signs will come in. That clear to you? That clear? And I stopped her and I said. Oh my God. I just got this message. I sounded like a crazy person. 

Laughing: [00:33:00] That's amazing. 

Sandi: But I told her I'm supposed to do a podcast, supposed to be about fear.

She goes, oh my gosh, that's the best topic. I went through a divorce last year and I was so fearful and blah, blah, blah. She's telling me this whole story. So that happened that day. Then I went in my backyard and I said, okay. you beings, you beautiful friends of mine, team of mine. I want to find an orange feather and I wanna find it today.

If I am supposed to do this podcast, I wanted to give them an impossible task. here, I live in Oregon and I'm in the backyard and it's really beautiful. We have a lot of wildlife and I'm walking around and I'm sort of guided. I'm not making this up. This is actually true. I walk around the back of our fire pit and there is a northern flickers tail feather.

It is orange. And I posted, all this on my, Instagram because another, that was another sign I still didn't buy in completely. The last sign that it was a sealed deal [00:34:00] is I'm in Lee Harris's portal. You know Lee Harris? he channels a group called the ZI like him a lot. feels very authentic.

So I'm in his portal and you can ask questions and there are thousands of people on that. Well, he chose my question to answer and it was, I wanna do a podcast, but I'm terrified. There are a gazillion podcasts out there. Why would anybody want to listen to my podcast? He chose that question and he said, you have to do it because people will find you.

You are a magnet for certain people and they will find you. And then the Zs came in who he channels and also confirmed you have to do that podcast. And I said, I'm in. I'm doing it. 

 Robyn: Wow. 

Sandi: And it wasn't easy. And I'm glad I didn't know what was down the road from me because there's no way I would've done it.

So, 

Karen: Wow. What a great story. and why? Fear unzipped. 

Sandi: Okay, so it's called Fear Unzipped because I lived in so much fear all my life and so [00:35:00] much just live in fear and we're just, we're unzipping it. we're unzipping that the mask, it's coming off and you'll see that it's nothing to be scared of.

In fact, Suzanne giesemann, when she was on my podcast. She said that morning her guides came to her and showed her this image of, she asked for something out of the ordinary for her and they showed her this image of a devil, but it was like kind of a cartoon devil, and she's walking. She didn't understand at the time she's walking and the devil has this big zipper and they said, aren't you afraid of me? And she says, no, you look like a costume. And she unzipped it and it was just, it was nothing. Wow. And she goes, Sandi, that's what they were telling me about Fear Unzipped. That we are all just unzipping that. 

 Robyn: Oh, I love that visual. 

Sandi: I couldn't believe it when she said it because those synchronicities, they just, you're gonna see, they happen over and over and over again.

 And the people in my [00:36:00] space, and I think it's exactly the same for you. My guides told me, Sandi, when you do the podcast, you're gonna get healed, your guests will get healed, and the whole community will be healed. It's a healing space. it has nothing to do with me. It's not. Your practice has nothing really to do, just with you guys specifically.

It's the space that you're creating. That's right. 

And it's about resonance. They always say it's about resonance and not numbers, because we're living in a numbers game 

 Robyn: Yes. Yeah. 

Sandi: I have to remind myself that. 

Karen: Oh, I love that. I mean, think about even just what you were just saying about people who are listening and their ability to let go.

Of fear as a result of hearing your podcast. I'm just thinking about how many times fear stops us from doing the things that we're here to do. Right. 

Sandi: the other thing, Karen, that I was thinking of yesterday, it came into me. We have a fear of our own power. terrified of our power.

And so the brain [00:37:00] likes consistency. They like what is normal, what your regular routine. But if you wanna go on stage and tell the world, you know something, you're gonna feel fear. Because it's the unknown and it's now the time because the energies are shifting so much for all of us to step into our power, no matter how scary it is, because you're so supported.

If you go in with integrity, with authenticity and love, you absolutely cannot go wrong. 

Karen: Well, and it's just like you were saying at the very beginning, you had this career where you had to almost put on this mask of 

Yeah. 

Karen: Knowing everything, and I, can only imagine how many people are so inspired by the fact that you came forth with your fear and said, Hey, I'm just like everybody else.

I'm a afraid of, many, many things and that, I don't know, it just provides a, safe space for other people to share theirs as well. 

Sandi: I think we all have fear and I'm a work in progress. I will always be a work in [00:38:00] progress. It's going to the gym. I'm never fully cooked, you know, and I think that's important.

And one thing I noticed when I worked in Hollywood, I worked with some very attractive people, some very successful people. Some people that you thought they must be living the dream and every one of them had some sort of that almost would paralyze them at times. So. It's really important that we don't look at somebody else and go, oh, they've got it all together because.

 We don't, I know I'm not including myself in that, but nobody really has it all together and we're just trying to find our way. 

 Robyn: Yeah. You know, Karen and I, there's many a day that we look at each other and we'll start our day and be like, I don't know how we're doing this.

I don't, I don't know how to do this. And then we remind ourselves that nobody knows what they're doing. You know what I mean? 

Sandi: all faking it till we make it. Yes. But the one thing I think is really important is you're coming with [00:39:00] love, you're coming with integrity, and you're coming with authenticity.

People feel that they know that. And ego has to step, it has to step back. And if you're in this for the numbers or you're in it for the sponsors, going to, stop the growth and all that's gonna come, just as more people. Wanna be in your bubble the way that I wanna be in your bubble, and 

 Robyn: vice versa.

Sandi: Yeah. Well, and I also we're on it together 

 Robyn: and I wanted to ask too, when we talk about that fear of the unknown 

Which I really believe most people have, how do you suggest somebody deals with that? Really, I mean, that fear of, Not knowing what's gonna happen in a day, I think you gave some really good techniques during this whole conversation.

Do you always suggest it comes back to the breath, or are there other rituals that you. Suggest 

Sandi: it can do [00:40:00] whatever resonates with you. But I also believe in tiny steps. So a friend of mine says, when I was just losing my mind over what I was doing, he says, inch by inch, it's a cinch And so if let's say you have the fear of this giant task you have in front of you on that day, and we've all been there.

I will take a deep breath. I will be doing jumping jacks, and I will go outside and do something, and then I'll go, I'm gonna take a tiny bite out of it, a tiny bite of moving me in the right direction. What's really interesting is you take a tiny bite, you take a bigger bite, a bigger bite, and all of a sudden it's kind of fun and you're really enjoying what you're doing.

Yeah, and it's. overwhelm comes in is when we try to do everything all at once. 

 And it's not gonna work. We can't do everything all at once. we've got a lot on our plate. 

In your family, in your work life, in your day-to-day, you know, things that you [00:41:00] have to get done. So my recommendation, if there's fear in the unknown, dip your toe in it just.

Give it a little, try. What I did was I went on, I practiced on Zoom. 

 nobody's on the other side, but I practiced when I got my motorcycle. I would get up at six in the morning on Sundays and just ride in parking lots. Before I got on the freeway or anything, just nobody was around. Nobody could make fun of me.

Nobody could see that. I wasn't sure what I was doing. But put yourself in a safe spot. A safe place to grow. The unknown brings growth. It's where creativity, it's where flow. It's where the magic happens. We don't wanna always live life in safety. it's not fun. That way. 

Karen: and reminding yourself that every step of your life is unknown really.

And look how far you've come already through the unknown and made it. 

Sandi: It's so true. And that's why I really hope everybody. [00:42:00] Pats himself on the back for any little thing, like if you're paralyzed and you can't get outta bed in the morning because of grief, like you're paralyzed by grief.

 If you put your feet on the ground and you actually stand up, I call that climbing Mount Everest, and so don't look for the big giant. things look for the little things that every inch by inch, it's a cinch. 

 Robyn: that's so true. 

Sandi: It's really important, and we feel grief in so many different ways.

 It's not just loss. there's so many different ways that we do feel grief. 

Karen: I have one other question before we end. 

 We've talked about the difference between fear and intuition. 

 How would you say you can work with them together? 

Sandi: Well, recognize them, first of all, recognize them.

 The difference in both of them. Fear's. Not gonna come and say, you better do this today, or you're not gonna be able to do this. That would be fear. But you know what it's also telling you is. You know what? [00:43:00] If you don't do it, somebody else is going to do that. that's what I learned, that if I don't do the podcast, somebody else is definitely gonna do it.

 And so Why don't I do it? So you are getting a message in that. Do you see that message that you got? And then intuition will support you and say maybe this is the first step. You do this one thing. 

 Robyn: and that case, let's say it's your podcast, it may be connecting to somebody else who is in the podcast world who gives you some pointer, kind of like you're guided.

I think the more you can be open intuition, if you can listen, you'll also recognize the guidance that comes in. 

Sandi: YI did that when I was trying to find certain guests that of high integrity guests, and I got an intuitive message to reach out to somebody. That person connected me to Beth Grossman, who we both know and love.

Karen: Yeah, 

Sandi: has changed my life in this space. She introduced us [00:44:00] to each other and so that was just a little whisper that came in contact. This one person, this one person contacted Beth and this beautiful relationship developed. 

 Robyn: Yes. 

Sandi: So it doesn't have to be fireworks coming at their whispers. I know.

 Robyn: It's true. I think the more people can hear that and not get so caught up in the, Whether it's the money that you have to throw at something Yeah. Or the amount of people that you have to know. I think that inch by inch like that is so important. Yeah.

It's small steps. Yes. Up adding up. And when you are coming from that place of authenticity and integrity, all things are possible. no matter what you're trying to do. 

Sandi: So true. And the other thing that I wanted to say is some people will hear this and go, wait a minute, you get all these intuitive messages.

 I don't get any, my guides don't talk to me. They're Oh. I promise you they do. Find some quiet space and start trusting in the process. That [00:45:00] word trust it. It, I can see it in front of me all the time. T-R-U-S-T. Trust that the message you're getting is truly from your guides, from your loved ones.

 angels on earth, angels on this planet that, you know, it will happen. Just trust in that process and don't try to force, because forcing does kind of create a stop sign. 

Karen: yes. Well, and it's like finding those moments when you can let all of those thoughts out of your mind. Like you said, going for the walk in nature, in the shower, maybe when you're driving, those are when.

There's those opportunities for those intuitive Yes, 

 Robyn: very much 

Karen: because you're just, you're allowing your mind just to be a blank slate and open. 

Sandi: When you allow one in, then others can follow. 

 That's the way the, your loved ones wanna connect. They wanna connect, but 

 You know, they're trying to find a way in.

 Robyn: Totally, and I'm, I love that you shared what [00:46:00] Suzanne Giesemann shared with you because now I can't get that visual of the animated devil that unzips, and there's nothing there representing fear, like that's huge. I mean, that's something that I think now we will all continue to pass on to others. Think about it this way, Yeah. And that's the whole point of these conversations, right? Is to help others heal. And different aspects of what we talked about, whether it's neuroplasticity or that visual are gonna resonate with people and hopefully help them handle their fear in a better way after listening, 

Sandi: And we're all healing together.

We are. I 

 Robyn: mean, we sure are. 

Sandi: We're all healing together. So it's not like anybody's an expert in this. No, we're we're just all holding hands and jumping in together, which I, think is really beautiful. 

Karen: so inspiring, Sandi, and I know anybody who's been listening to this is gonna walk away even.

It's like Robyn said, just one little tidbit of, how to walk through fear. it's gonna help [00:47:00] so many. So thank you for being here. 

 Robyn: Yeah. Thank you for following the whisper. 

Sandi: I absolutely followed the whisper. And thank you. I, adore you too. I think you have the most gorgeous energy and I'm so honored to be in this space of seeking Center.

I love that. Thank you. 

 Robyn: it back at you. This has been so, I can't wait. There's several people that I know right away that I want to listen to this, 

and I think 

everybody listening, you need to listen to Sandi's podcast, fear Unzipped. You can find out more by visiting fear unzipped.com. You can also listen to Fear Unzip wherever you listen to your podcast, 

Sandi: on my website , You can, send in your email and I have a free giveaway for a guide, and it's my guide.

It's what I do to connect to my guides and to connect to loved ones. And it's sort of a step by step on how to do it. 

 Robyn: definitely sign up for that. And thank you. I think this will be the first of many conversations, Sandi. 

Sandi: Oh yeah. I hope so. Thank you. I just loved it.

Sending lots of love.