Sarah Jenks is the mother to 3 rambunctious small humans. Life Coach, Emotional Eating Expert and Sacred Space Holder.c It’s so easy to lose ourselves in work, in motherhood, in our parents’ expectations, or our own outdated dreams. We’ve all had times when we’ve had to put our heads down – like when there’s a new baby or severe financial stress – when cutting off parts of ourselves is our only chance for survival. Sarah is here to guide you in coming back to life, not so you can be who you were before, but so you can take the broken pieces and create an even more incredible life and truly realize your fullest potential.
She founded Whole Woman, an online membership program for women seeking the answers to “Who am I? And why am I here?” — you can find out more about that at whole woman.me She also is the creator of Live More Weigh Less – the most popular Online Emotional Eating Program. Since 2009 her community of women seeking a more meaningful life has grown to almost 100K.
Why do you think so many people are waiting to live more? Why do you think we are conditioned to wait?
Sarah thinks many women have been indoctrinated with false facts in the culture they live in. The biggest of them is that women are told they will be happy if they are thin and that lie keeps a lot of women stuck in moving forward in their lives. It is a patriarchal tool to keep women quiet and to not speak or stand up for what they believe in. This is not based in truth because there are numerous other reasons to take care of your body rather than just to be thin to take care of it. To be thin as per the standards set by society is not possible for a lot of women and this keeps them from truly living their lives. Sarah’s work has taken an amazing trajectory, she started in the emotional eating area. One day she ate an entire bag of chocolate biscuits, only with 5 more remaining in the bag. She threw them in the trash but after some time fished them out of trash. She was twenty-five at that time. Sarah realized at that moment that it might be difficult for her to maintain a healthy diet for the rest of her life. Sarah realized that when she stopped obsessing over everything she ate and the way she looked, her life became boring. Soon she stopped craving for unhealthy food and it was a big transformation for her. Through this experience, she found spirituality and a whole new world opened for her.
How did you find spirituality?
She got an email from her friend when she was at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition to go to one of Gabriel Bernstein’s coaching program which was in her apartment. Sarah started to meditate after this session. Through these sessions, she started to learn about the priestess initiation path, divine feminine and the history of witches. It has been a great way for her to practice by not waiting on things.
How do you think you got to know yourself better?
Sarah started to figure out things she loved doing. She started to ask herself questions like what was fun for her. It’s a lot easier to start from the initial phase, to look out for things that make you happy and content. She started taking voice lessons again, she started going to dance classes. The second step for her was to look for actions or activities that she was doing in her life but were not aligned with her personality, her likes and dislikes. She realized she was being a performer in her work. She did a photo-shoot where she borrowed her friend’s convertible. She was trying to be someone she was not in reality. She used to believe if she would stop performing she would not succeed in her life. However, she realized that not being herself was a lot more painful than being broke.
How do you think being a mother changed you?
It changed her in ways she cannot even imagine. Motherhood has been hard and challenging for Sarah. Before becoming a mother, she had this belief system that all she really needed for happiness is a nice and caring husband, a house and a couple of kids. She used to think that when she would have kids she would want to retire and become a full-time mother. However, only after she became a mother, she felt quite the opposite of her beliefs. She felt guilty about it because she wanted to spend all the time with her children. This also helped her understand how she was different from her grandmother, her mother, a few of her friends and some other women that she admires. It has also forced her to be critical of how and with whom she spends her time.
How did motherhood affect your business?
It affected her a lot in her business. She tried to conduct her day to day business activities as usual after the birth of her son, but it was hard for her to manage her business and look after her son all at the same time. She would continuously transition from what she calls a ‘corporate Sarah’ to a ‘mother Sarah’ and vice versa.
Tell us about the story of how you found yourself your dream home.
It was almost two years ago when Sarah found herself in a place where she felt she would lose herself after having her kids. She did not want to be a hustler, but she did not want to be a full-time mom either. She couldn’t see a future for herself anymore and nothing excited her anymore. She worked with this woman named Katina Mercadante (http://www.katinamercadante.com). She did this exercise with her in which Sarah would tell her life story to her and they would together uncover what Katina called Sarah’s true core virtue. Sarah would then write down her plan in incredible detail of where she envisioned herself in the span of five years. Katina helped Sarah to reconnect with her true inner values. Sarah wrote this whole plan about what she wanted to do in her life in the coming years. She wrote about getting women together in person in New England to help them wake up the divine feminine. She wrote about this vision of women circling in big fields, dancing naked in the woods under the full moon. She wanted to build a yurt for herself in the woods. She wanted to have a stream running through her property. She had always imagined a long driveway with trees. Two weeks later, she found herself a farmhouse just outside of Boston. She looked it up online, she looked at the pictures and all of it matched exactly as Sarah had imagined. It was way over her budget though. Luckily the owner of the firm that was selling this property turned out to be Sarah’s high school therapist. She was the first person to help Sarah help her with body issues. One thing led to another and Sarah finally bought the house against the advice of all her family members which included her parents and grandparents.
How did you meet your husband?
They met in college in a history class. They were both very different persons back then. Sarah would do anything to please the people around her. She hosted all the parties. Her husband was a football player. They have both become very spiritual ever since.
What is your vision for women?
Her vision for women is to only think about who they are and to always think from that place. They should not feel the pressure to be someone different.
What is the best advice you have ever been given?
The best advice she has ever been given is from one of her mentor who said: “Sarah you are not the princess, you are the witch in the woods, you need to get comfortable with that.” This had a huge impact on how Sarah sees herself, on how she does her work. It took so much pressure off her as well.
How can we connect with you?
You can find more about Sarah’s work through the following website.
You can also visit her personal website through the following link.