Episode 216: I was born to be the cycle breaker with Sarah Grady

Meagan Skidmore (00:00.278)

It doesn’t exactly follow the flow. So welcome everyone to today’s episode of living beyond the shadow of doubt. I’m so thrilled to have my friend Sarah with me today, who I’ve only known maybe since the beginning of this year. Yeah. Yeah. January or January or February. And I already feel like I know you.

 

Sarah Grady (00:02.216)

Not a worry.

 

Sarah Grady (00:21.245)

Yeah, yeah, was February, I think.

 

Meagan Skidmore (00:30.222)

Quite, well I know you better than I know some people.

 

Sarah Grady (00:36.155)

Right?

 

Meagan Skidmore (00:38.638)

In a good way, in a very good way. So I just want to jump right in and give you the opportunity to share with our listeners a little about you, your background and where you’re from, maybe some of your upbringing, including your family, your faith of origin, your academic or professional path, your own path.

 

I know you have kids now, that kind of thing. So yeah, just share with us a little bit about your own background.

 

Sarah Grady (01:14.185)

My background is massive, but the important parts are I am Sarah Grady. Yeah, I was gonna say they are with me deeply. I am Sarah Grady and I am from Michigan. And I, my goodness, it’s such a big question to like, who am I? I am a mom, first and foremost. I feel like I was born.

 

Meagan Skidmore (01:17.006)

And you can include ancestors too.

 

Thank

 

Sarah Grady (01:43.708)

a mother. I’ve been mothering since I could walk basically. And that’s like my most sacred role that I’ve chosen. But through that role, I realized that it became my crutch. So I’m also just a soul having a wild human experience. And I let that be enough. I walk with others through transformation and

 

when their world is burning, I walk with them because I’ve been there. I burned my world to the ground, that my safe little cocoon, because I was raised very, I wouldn’t necessarily say traditionally, but I was raised in society terms of, you know, you go to work and you pay the bills and you take care of your kids and there’s all this sacrifice.

 

Meagan Skidmore (02:38.702)

Mm-hmm.

 

Sarah Grady (02:43.049)

And I dove headfirst into that. When I met my husband, he had a kiddo and I had my own kiddo. So we became a family of four instantly, and then we had two more. So I have four kiddos. And in a short seven years, I think we both went through a process that we had to go through to transform. And then I tried to walk away.

 

Meagan Skidmore (02:52.632)

Wow.

 

Meagan Skidmore (03:04.878)

with them.

 

Sarah Grady (03:09.329)

And thanks to my environment, thanks to COVID, which I never thought I would ever say, but thanks to all of those things, I was made to sit in it and not actually run. So my husband and I now have a relationship that I never thought was possible, a conscious, unconditional, loving relationship that I never had a mirror for in my life. And now I get to share that with the world and it’s just a blessing.

 

Meagan Skidmore (03:15.483)

You

 

Meagan Skidmore (03:26.808)

you

 

Meagan Skidmore (03:38.958)

Wow, what a great intro. And I’m looking forward to diving a little deeper. You said something that really piqued my interest. You have walked through the fire, essentially, is what you said. And you help others who are going through that burning as well. I want to talk about that, but let me ask you a little bit more about your background. You said you kind of had a…

 

Sarah Grady (03:41.097)

Thank you.

 

Sarah Grady (03:54.056)

Yes.

 

Meagan Skidmore (04:08.738)

what could be considered just your typical upbringing. I didn’t catch if that included any type of specific religion or practices or traditions that maybe your family shared and passed on.

 

Sarah Grady (04:21.203)

Connect.

 

Sarah Grady (04:26.171)

So.

 

I was raised without the church, but I always knew that my family believed in God. And my mom’s philosophy was the same as her dad. So her dad handed her the philosophy of, can talk to God in my home without having to go to church. So that’s how I was raised. We didn’t, but it wasn’t talked about a lot. And so when I did hear things shared about God, it was,

 

Meagan Skidmore (04:36.899)

Mm.

 

Meagan Skidmore (04:45.899)

Mm-hmm.

 

Meagan Skidmore (04:52.558)

Okay.

 

Sarah Grady (04:57.379)

usually in condemnation against others. And that always felt really uncomfortable in my soul. So I viewed myself as an ominous. I believed in all religions. I believed that they all were connected at the core and I believed in a higher power. I just didn’t know exactly what. So I just tried my best to be a good human each and every day. And I went to work. I took care of my kids.

 

Meagan Skidmore (05:22.84)

Hmm.

 

Sarah Grady (05:26.761)

I was a single mom for a while. And then when I met my husband, I became the typical stay at home mom. I gave up my career. I gave up my role in society to be home with my kids. And in that process, I realized that I was holding a lot of judgments against people that were holding judgments against my family.

 

and my children and my loved ones. And I dove into that to understand it. So I am a spiritualist. I believe that we are all connected at the core, that the life force that runs through me is the same life force that runs through every other living thing on this planet. And I feel blessed that I get to be a part of that. And I trust in life.

 

Meagan Skidmore (06:10.914)

No. No.

 

Meagan Skidmore (06:20.334)

Okay.

 

Meagan Skidmore (06:23.758)

You said you found yourself judging others for kind of how you felt judgment from them.

 

Sarah Grady (06:35.186)

Mm-hmm.

 

Meagan Skidmore (06:37.134)

What, like how did you come to that awareness? Or when do you first remember being able to step back from your own? And I’m assuming this was in regards to your spiritual slash faith slash religious area of your life.

 

Sarah Grady (06:56.562)

So to an extent, I have kiddos that are a part of communities that are not well received.

 

Meagan Skidmore (06:59.671)

Okay.

 

Meagan Skidmore (07:03.712)

Okay, so this wasn’t necessarily in reference to your earlier life. Okay.

 

Sarah Grady (07:08.708)

Yeah, I mean, it kind of was like I was raised that we let people be who they are in my home. But then other family members had very different feelings. I can remember, gosh, back when my oldest, who’s 18 now, when he was one years old or one year old, I had a family member ask me like they were very upset about something about the LGBT.

 

community and they had some very choice words to say and all I said was I don’t see anything wrong with it like I don’t understand why you’re so upset over this like let me understand and she asked me well how would you feel if your kid came home and said that they were gay and I said I would love them the same way I’ve loved them since they were born because I’m not in their bedroom I I’m not living their life they are

 

Meagan Skidmore (07:37.902)

Mm-hmm.

 

Sarah Grady (08:05.328)

and if they’re happy and full and free, that’s all I care about. And I don’t need to know how that looks like, they do. And the judgments don’t help. So then I noticed that I viewed things very differently and people would get very upset with me over how I was just accepting of other people being who they were meant to be and letting them. And so…

 

Meagan Skidmore (08:18.286)

Yeah.

 

Meagan Skidmore (08:29.454)

Wow.

 

Sarah Grady (08:34.136)

I started finding myself getting almost like a wall, like a wall built up around me because I felt like I needed to protect my kids and protect myself from these people that thought differently. But then I started realizing that that wasn’t serving us either because we’re all trying to keep ourselves divided. And yet the only reason that we’re all misunderstanding is because we’re trying to control everyone through our love.

 

And that I found out because I had to own my own fact that I was controlling my kids through my own love.

 

Meagan Skidmore (09:07.331)

Wow.

 

That’s really profound, that what you just said. We’re trying to control others with our love, which is essentially, it’s the antithesis of unconditional love.

 

Sarah Grady (09:12.68)

Thank you.

 

Sarah Grady (09:23.996)

Yeah. Yep. It’s love without moving all the way through. You know, it’s love with this death grip of I need to control this because if I don’t then something bad may happen on the other side. But we don’t leave space for what if something beautiful and magnificent is on the other side. And if it’s not, what if there’s a lesson that that

 

Meagan Skidmore (09:50.989)

home.

 

Sarah Grady (09:51.496)

person needed just like all my burning. I needed.

 

Meagan Skidmore (09:58.265)

Yeah, that’s really well said. And I think I have my guesses as to what contributed or helped you maintain that expansive viewpoint, a more open viewpoint when it came to differences in others. But you…

 

but you were saying how you noticed you were starting to judge others. So you meant more fast forward, present, more closer to present day with maybe judging the way others were judging others. And I get that. I know I have found myself in that space at times and it’s a wake up call. It’s a good one because that’s not the energy that I want to cultivate or maintain.

 

Sarah Grady (10:36.967)

Yeah.

 

Sarah Grady (10:43.58)

Yeah, I was, yeah.

 

Sarah Grady (10:52.699)

It is.

 

Sarah Grady (10:57.926)

Yeah, it’s exhausting.

 

Meagan Skidmore (10:59.35)

When it is, it is, and that’s not a magnet for what I’m trying to create either.

 

So, when you said that you are a spiritualist,

 

When would you say that you stepped into that or that type of a descriptor called to you or felt right? what is that? How does that play out in your life? And did any of your upbringing, you know, do you see it having contributed to steering you in that direction?

 

Sarah Grady (11:47.986)

So I would probably say in the last year is when I really started owning that side of myself. It was very recent because for, like I said, for a long time, I just pushed religion away. I pushed a lot of the ideologies away and I just stuck with what felt right for me and I just didn’t speak on it. I figured if I didn’t speak,

 

Meagan Skidmore (11:55.15)

So reset.

 

Sarah Grady (12:14.917)

then no one could yell at me and tell me how it was wrong. And so in the last year when I kind of just started really realizing that I love who I am and I understand who I am and what I’m bringing to the table. And I know that I’m imperfect and that I do things that are going to upset the status quo.

 

Meagan Skidmore (12:18.99)

Mm-hmm.

 

Meagan Skidmore (12:29.048)

you

 

Meagan Skidmore (12:35.267)

Sarah Grady (12:44.645)

And that’s okay. And I can hold that space with people. And when I truly stepped in and said, okay, I am a co-creator here. I am not this body. I am not this vessel. I am a soul that gets to play because how else do you describe a human that comes into this world just accepting of all that is until they

 

Meagan Skidmore (12:46.51)

you

 

Sarah Grady (13:14.471)

take that conditioning of what the world says, but knowing deep inside that it didn’t feel right, that none of these things that I had been handed felt like they fit who I was. So in order to understand, I had to understand me, and to understand me, I also had to understand them.

 

Meagan Skidmore (13:39.694)

Tell me more about what you just said. None of these things seem to fit that I had been handed. What specifically is coming to mind when you say that? What things?

 

Sarah Grady (13:52.872)

that there’s not enough that I needed to be dim. I needed to dim my light that I was too kind, that I was too sensitive. I felt too deeply. I loved too hard. And I get that one now, but the unconditional love that pours from me was never wrong. My ability

 

to see the beauty and even the darkest filled human being is a gift, not something to condemn me for. And when I owned that and I realized that that’s a part of my purpose, that’s when I started co-creating with the life force that flows through me and realizing that I was

 

doing nothing more than feeling into the life force of every other human and every other living thing around me. And that’s magnificent and beautiful. And there’s no other word that feels right other than spiritual because we’re all spirits, like we’re all energy and it’s a gift to play in it.

 

Meagan Skidmore (15:13.998)

Share with us what you are co-creating currently or within this past year that you really have stepped into this spiritual identity, the spiritualist identity.

 

Sarah Grady (15:29.297)

So I’m a big believer and my brain doesn’t know. My body does. And in the last five years and five months, which is important because that connects back to my ancestors and my entire family history, but it’s taken me that long in order to really reconnect with my soul.

 

and to purge my body of all these things that I was carrying, that I chose to carry. Even when I was a kid, I chose to take these things on because that’s what made me and my body feel safe. And it took five years and five months to really get clear. So now in this space, I just was guided that I’m building a garden.

 

Now it’s not a literal garden, however I do have one of those too. I am building a garden that is a community and it’s the unapologetic relationship garden. And the name may change because it’s still like I’m still playing in it and I’m still waiting for all the pieces to come to me because I believe that we receive when we’re ready to receive. And I don’t always have to know what it looks like.

 

I just get to play with the creation that I know is coming. And the core of this community is shining a mirror to others of what’s possible. That we don’t have to live in conditions anymore. That we can release the weight of the expectations that have kept us safe for centuries. And I get it. It played a purpose. It played a part.

 

Meagan Skidmore (17:05.058)

home.

 

Sarah Grady (17:22.737)

But we are in a time now that we get to purge and release and let go of all those things with love and step into a new world, one where we get to be who we are, where we get to shine love and light and love unconditionally as a whole self and not need to be chosen by anyone else.

 

Meagan Skidmore (17:31.811)

Mm-hmm.

 

Meagan Skidmore (17:46.446)

Mm-hmm.

 

Sarah Grady (17:50.979)

as long as we choose ourselves.

 

Meagan Skidmore (17:54.543)

So you’re speaking about what you’re creating, so I’m going to make the assumption that you have gone through some of these things that you’re talking about. The purging is what is coming to mind.

 

Sarah Grady (18:09.179)

here.

 

Meagan Skidmore (18:11.128)

So I have a two part question. Does that have to do with some of, you mentioned you had carried so much that had been passed down to you from your ancestors? Can you share with us if you feel comfortable about what it was you realized that you were carrying that wasn’t yours to carry? So that’s part one. And is that the purging that you’re talking about?

 

And then part two is what are you trying to create or what are you growing in your garden?

 

Sarah Grady (18:48.578)

Absolutely.

 

Meagan Skidmore (18:49.71)

Thank you.

 

Sarah Grady (18:52.076)

You helped me actually understand this when you walked me through that energetic connection inside that alchemy session was just, it was beautiful and it was such a gift. And I knew, I knew that I was carrying a lot from my past, but I also didn’t, like I thought I had purged quite a bit of it. Like I had all this compassion and I loved myself deeply. So I’m like, what is still there?

 

Meagan Skidmore (18:55.086)

you

 

Meagan Skidmore (19:01.282)

Mm-hmm.

 

Meagan Skidmore (19:05.549)

I remember.

 

Sarah Grady (19:22.542)

And you were the one that helped me realize that I came into this life as a cycle breaker. I was carrying in my DNA all of my ancestors pain. And it literally felt like a treasure box. Like it felt like a pirate’s treasure chest that was on my chest. And it was chained to my mouth.

 

Meagan Skidmore (19:45.806)

Right.

 

Meagan Skidmore (19:52.405)

All

 

Sarah Grady (19:52.877)

And it was so intense. And when I opened that box, I realized that when my ancestors hid away their pain, they hid away all these emotions because they weren’t safe to feel them because they were too busy surviving. They hid away their gifts. They hid away their beauty. And that’s what I meant about the five years, five months because

 

Meagan Skidmore (20:04.046)

Mm-hmm.

 

Sarah Grady (20:22.508)

If you take it back to when I was born, my oldest sister was 14. And when I was five, she had her first born. He was born five months and five, or five years and five months away from me. And then fast forward a little bit, she has

 

her last kiddo and I had my first, but her last kiddo was with a different partner. That kiddo was born five months to the day after my son was. And then her middle kiddo, when I had my first born with my husband, which was a new partner.

 

her firstborn and my firstborn with him were five months apart to the day. And my healing, my mental healing took five years. The purging from my body, which the last five months I had to face so many fears of death, of being sick with not being able to get medical attention.

 

Meagan Skidmore (21:26.211)

Mm-hmm.

 

Sarah Grady (21:41.029)

Like all these different pieces came in and I just leaned in hard with trust and faith that this is serving a purpose and I have everything that I need and my body will show me the way. And five years, five months to the day, my body’s healed. I have allowed my ancestors to have their gifts back. And so I

 

chose to be that cycle breaker. And funny story, fives are in numerology is change and transformation. So all of us first borns, we’re cycle breakers. And if you look at every single one of them, we’ve got some fire in us and we do things differently. And what a gift because we’re getting to release these things that our ancestors chose to keep themselves safe, which was necessary at that time.

 

Meagan Skidmore (22:29.582)

Oops, sorry about that.

 

Meagan Skidmore (22:38.786)

Yeah.

 

Sarah Grady (22:39.472)

but we’re in a time in life where those things are no longer serving us. We get to use our voices and the message that I want to share with the world, which I first have shared with my own children, which is shine your light, be authentically you, even when it’s hard. And no matter what comes, even if that leads to an earlier death, which

 

Obviously, we would all hate, but I would rather my kids full send in their life and live shorter than live 80 years in the same mundane, exhausted, miserable life that I see so many others walking right now. It’s not worth it.

 

Meagan Skidmore (23:30.51)

That’s such a beautiful, much healthier way to approach life, particularly life’s obstacles or challenges that are inevitably going to come up. A much more expansive way of viewing them. And so your children are really blessed and I’ll say lucky, but I don’t really think luck has a whole lot to do with it.

 

Sarah Grady (23:56.358)

Yeah, a whole lot of choice.

 

Meagan Skidmore (24:00.267)

Yeah, I loved how you, you said something to the effect you chose to be the cycle breaker. I mean, you felt called to that there was this time, this moment in some of these experiences you’ve been having. I think you said when we were meeting together, you you get connected. I’m supposed to be the one who breaks my link in this chain. I’ve had similar experiences.

 

Sarah Grady (24:08.954)

I did.

 

Sarah Grady (24:12.709)

they do.

 

Sarah Grady (24:17.317)

Mm-hmm.

 

Meagan Skidmore (24:30.221)

I get that.

 

But it’s really important to point out and to, I want to honor, you still had to choose to step into that.

 

Sarah Grady (24:39.919)

dead.

 

I did.

 

Meagan Skidmore (24:44.67)

and that’s huge. It’s huge because it’s

 

Sarah Grady (24:48.101)

I don’t do anything halfway.

 

Meagan Skidmore (24:54.298)

It’s not an easy.

 

Sarah Grady (24:57.379)

not. I, if you ask my family, I choose to do everything the hard way I always have. And I learned my lessons and I learned them deeply for it. And I’ve paved my own way. And it wasn’t always easy. But my goodness, when I look back, like I’ve lived an eventful life. And no, not all aspects were easy, but it was never boring.

 

Meagan Skidmore (25:04.259)

you

 

Meagan Skidmore (25:08.718)

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

 

Meagan Skidmore (25:27.566)

Yeah. So share with us, you and I are both in the JOA community, the Joan of Arc Publishing community. We’re both authors, writers. So you’re writing a book. I’d love to hear a little bit more about that. And also just your vision for the future, your future, the book that you’re bringing, that you’re birthing, like we like to say, bringing to the earth.

 

Sarah Grady (25:38.137)

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

 

Sarah Grady (25:42.798)

I am.

 

Meagan Skidmore (25:56.911)

Share with us about that part of your journey.

 

Sarah Grady (26:01.816)

Everything’s always so divinely timed and it just blows my mind every time it happens because I just got clarity on that in this last week. I’ve I’ve been you know this I know that you know this from experience. I’ve been living my book deeply. This book has changed me and I’m so grateful and I’m so blessed that I get to walk this and I’m grateful.

 

Meagan Skidmore (26:05.198)

Okay.

 

Meagan Skidmore (26:10.858)

Okay, perfect timing.

 

Meagan Skidmore (26:19.148)

Yes.

 

Sarah Grady (26:31.737)

that I had the strength to choose myself, even though in the beginning it looked like choosing my kids. And I’m grateful for that. I’m grateful that they walked me back home to myself. And that’s really what the book is. The tentative name, which I know is not going to be solidified till the end because that’s how I do everything, but it’s the language of unapologetic living, remembering

 

Meagan Skidmore (26:36.206)

Mm-hmm.

 

Meagan Skidmore (26:58.126)

you

 

Sarah Grady (26:59.691)

what we came here to earth knowing, which was how to love unapologetically and accepting life for what it is, remembering that we are life and life can’t be controlled. Life is messy and unpredictable and that’s a part of the beauty of it. But somewhere along the way we pick up these conditions and these things that we, these beliefs.

 

that we have to behave a certain way in order to survive or in order to be loved, in order to be chosen. And it all plays a purpose. It plays a part of the story until eventually along your path, which I like to say like the lifequakes come in, either life makes you learn the lesson or…

 

You you hit midlife and you start realizing like I have wasted so much time carrying what other people thought. And you start living for yourself then. And I like looked at that and was like, why? Why are we doing it this way? This is so silly.

 

Meagan Skidmore (28:03.854)

Love you. Love you.

 

Yeah, it’s so liberating to release all of that.

 

Sarah Grady (28:11.256)

It is. And that’s the message that I’ve handed to my kids is full send in this. And I’m a firm believer that our thoughts create our reality. When I took control over my thoughts and realizing like I was my own worst enemy, I loved everybody unconditionally and could see the good in them. And yet I was my own harshest critic. Like no one could say things worse to myself than I did.

 

Meagan Skidmore (28:33.326)

Mm-hmm.

 

Sarah Grady (28:40.933)

because I held myself to a very high standard, one that was impossible to reach. When I switched that mindset, everything in my life changed. So now I speak identity into my kids. I remind them that they can do hard things, that, yeah, it may not look like how you want it to look right now, but just find your next step forward. You’ve got this. You’ve always…

 

Meagan Skidmore (29:07.31)

Right.

 

Sarah Grady (29:09.209)

got this and I’m here as a support. I’m here as a guide, but you know the answer to your life better than anyone else can give you. Trust in that.

 

Meagan Skidmore (29:17.39)

trusting that intuition is so key. I’m so glad that you’re teaching that to them. And I always like to say, today is not forever.

 

Sarah Grady (29:22.37)

It is.

 

Sarah Grady (29:29.221)

Exactly.

 

Meagan Skidmore (29:30.648)

Yeah. So I always like to ask my guests, you know, I’ve recently, this year I re-imagined my podcast. I like to focus on the joy and the life and the bliss that comes on the other side of stepping into our autonomy, our spiritual autonomy, our spiritual sovereignty, claiming that path for ourselves.

 

Sarah Grady (29:32.069)

Exactly.

 

Sarah Grady (29:38.799)

I love that. Yeah.

 

Sarah Grady (29:54.189)

Yes.

 

Yeah.

 

Meagan Skidmore (29:59.213)

because it is ours. And so I’d love to hear you share with us what are some moments of joy, some life that you have experienced as you have done this for yourself, and that can be even maybe practices that you’ve introduced or whatever comes up for you.

 

Sarah Grady (30:00.814)

It is.

 

Sarah Grady (30:07.429)

Ugh.

 

Sarah Grady (30:23.928)

The first thing that came to my head when you asked was I had an experience actually just today. My oldest, sporadically over the last few months, he’s come to me a few times to ask for advice, which was pretty big. Back when he was 16, we were butting heads still, because I was still learning how

 

Meagan Skidmore (30:44.238)

Mm-hmm.

 

Sarah Grady (30:52.494)

to be this version of me, to not need to control everything. I didn’t have a model. So I was figuring it out alongside him. And when he was 16, I gave him his life back. said, kid, you’ve got this. I’m not gonna pressure you. If you don’t go to school, that’s you. If you don’t, like if you fail, that’s on you. I’m here to support you, never judge you. I got you. But I trust and have faith that you will figure it out.

 

Meagan Skidmore (30:54.808)

Mm-hmm.

 

Meagan Skidmore (30:58.883)

Yeah.

 

Sarah Grady (31:20.716)

And so the last few months have been interesting because now he’s coming to me and he’s asking me these things. And he had this experience where he got to connect with another individual openly and honestly and had a hard conversation that I know many adults that can’t even do.

 

Meagan Skidmore (31:43.511)

Wow.

 

Sarah Grady (31:44.779)

And I won’t share the specifics because that’s his life and his journey, but he, I’m just so proud of that. Like that to me is like the silent nod from the universe. Like that’s all I’ve asked for is let us create life together. Let me leave a legacy of energy behind. I don’t care about the, the material things.

 

Meagan Skidmore (31:49.484)

Yeah, you need, yeah.

 

Yeah.

 

Sarah Grady (32:14.36)

but my 18 year old can connect with another human being openly. That’s massive for me. That is a full win.

 

Meagan Skidmore (32:24.258)

That is, your 18 year old is definitely watching and learning.

 

Sarah Grady (32:30.104)

Well, I was 30 before I realized like, I’m an adult. If I wanna do something, I don’t have to ask permission. And it was wild to me that I never had that thought. Even being like so independent and like, I took care of my kid, like I did all these things, but I still always talk to somebody before I would make a decision. And usually the decision would mirror whatever they thought.

 

So at 30 years old, seven years ago is when I realized that and I was like, this is wild. I’m an adult and I am not owning it. This is crazy. Okay, no.

 

Meagan Skidmore (33:11.374)

Girl, I was much older than that.

 

There is this beautiful awakening happening, I believe, collectively, globally, and I am here for it.

 

Sarah Grady (33:18.584)

It is. It’s beautiful and insane.

 

Sarah Grady (33:25.74)

Yep. That so the other thing that you had said, that is the vision I have is I chose to do this sooner than what the world is doing now. Like we can look all around and see that things are changing. Things are transforming. Things are kind of blowing up. Blowing up happens in transformation. I’ve witnessed it in my own life and it’s never fun. But it brings awareness to so many things that are not working, that are no longer serving.

 

Meagan Skidmore (33:29.934)

Okay.

 

Meagan Skidmore (33:40.205)

Hello.

 

Sarah Grady (33:55.459)

And on the other side of that, like as people are walking through this journey, I do believe that’s why I chose to do this sooner. I chose to walk through that fire alone. I chose to not have a community that supported me and honestly most judged and told me how crazy I was. And I was like, yeah, full send it’s fine. But I did it so that I could be a mirror to others to show them like, you’re not crazy. It’s okay. We can get through this.

 

Meagan Skidmore (33:55.896)

Yeah.

 

Sarah Grady (34:25.878)

and you have all the power in you, you just have to take it back and claim it.

 

Meagan Skidmore (34:31.534)

I was talking to my daughter and her boyfriend the other day and we were talking about, yeah, the mayhem that’s going on. And he pointed out next year is our country’s 250th anniversary of its birth. And that is often kind of the point that…

 

Sarah Grady (34:39.811)

Yeah.

 

Sarah Grady (34:48.516)

huh. Yeah.

 

Meagan Skidmore (35:00.91)

What’s the word? Countries. Well, let’s just say the French and their society. The revolution happened at their 250th birthday. Yeah. Me either. And that’s a multiple of five. But yeah. Yeah.

 

Sarah Grady (35:14.392)

Did it. Okay. I didn’t know that.

 

That’s interesting. It is. It very much is.

 

Meagan Skidmore (35:30.636)

Lots going on. Such beautiful sentiments. Thank you for sharing those with us. My last question I ask all of my guests. It’s a reflection of the title of my podcast. You know, I grew up in a conservative faith and certainty was prized. It was kind of put on a pedestal really. And so I found in the beginnings, especially of my pivot in my faith journey is what I call it. It took me a while.

 

Sarah Grady (35:35.712)

Absolutely.

 

Okay.

 

Sarah Grady (35:49.721)

Yeah.

 

Meagan Skidmore (35:58.923)

But I realized I was resisting leaning into these questions and these doubts that were coming up because of the shame and the guilt and all of these bad feelings that I was having about myself that I was making it mean about myself. And so I took a phrase that is commonly used in conservative faiths, conservative religions. And that is to say, you know, I know something beyond the shadow of a doubt. I dropped the A.

 

Sarah Grady (36:03.684)

Mm-hmm.

 

Sarah Grady (36:10.094)

Right.

 

Yeah.

 

Meagan Skidmore (36:29.426)

And in the beginning, I called it Beyond the Shadow of Doubt. But again, I mentioned I wanted to start focusing more on the joy and the living that comes on the other side of maybe the other side of stepping into that unknown and that uncertainty that, yeah, it’s scary maybe in the beginning, but the rewards and the transformations and the alchemy that comes is just so beautiful.

 

Sarah Grady (36:37.368)

Right.

 

Sarah Grady (36:54.5)

Yeah.

 

Meagan Skidmore (36:55.39)

So my question for you after all of that explanation is what does living beyond the shadow of doubt mean to you?

 

Sarah Grady (36:57.568)

This is perfect.

 

Sarah Grady (37:06.433)

Ooh.

 

Sarah Grady (37:13.188)

I…

 

Sarah Grady (37:17.08)

Honestly, for me, it’s full faith and trust that life moves exactly the way that it needs to. And that’s mine. I know that everything has served its purpose for me. And I’m…

 

Meagan Skidmore (37:32.206)

That’s really good.

 

Sarah Grady (37:41.474)

beyond grateful and I know without a shadow of a doubt that if it hadn’t awoke the way that it did, it wouldn’t be who I am today. And I really, really love who I am today. And I love the beauty that’s in my life and I love the mess that’s in it. So yeah, life moves exactly the way that it needs to.

 

Meagan Skidmore (38:00.527)

love that. And your joy is emanating. It’s so obvious that you love your life. You love where you’re at. And it’s beautiful. Yeah, it really is. It is.

 

Sarah Grady (38:12.216)

Thank you. Such a gift. It doesn’t always feel that way sometimes, but even when it’s so fun to get to that moment and then you’re like, of course I’m doing this right now. Of course. And then you get to laugh and you get to laugh through the pain and just embrace it. Like I’m alive right now.

 

Meagan Skidmore (38:21.859)

Thank

 

Meagan Skidmore (38:27.895)

You

 

Yeah, totally do.

 

Meagan Skidmore (38:37.198)

Yeah, I feel that. Well, thank you so much for imparting your experience and wisdom. I have just a few for fun questions. I’m looking for one to two word answers. That’s it. Just for our listeners to get to know you a little bit more. Tell us your favorite book or a favorite book. Sometimes it’s hard to choose one. I get that.

 

Sarah Grady (38:44.651)

Okay. Okay, I’ll do my best.

 

Sarah Grady (38:54.448)

that is so hard.

 

Meagan Skidmore (38:59.298)

Just pick one of your faves.

 

Sarah Grady (39:00.36)

Ugh, I…

 

I gotta see it.

 

Meagan Skidmore (39:07.726)

You

 

Sarah Grady (39:08.831)

Okay, because I got I, I’m a responder. So sometimes it’s hard to respond when I’ve got all these books in my head. So a big one, the Gene Keys book, phenomenal, changed my world. I love that book. And then the the other one would be You Are a Badass by Jensen Serno. I listened to it on Audible and my gosh, that that book changed me. Yeah.

 

Meagan Skidmore (39:23.406)

Okay, there you go folks, go check it out.

 

Meagan Skidmore (39:30.932)

Mmm. Yeah, that’s a one too.

 

Yeah, that’s a good one too. Okay, next question. Are you an introvert or an extrovert?

 

Sarah Grady (39:41.783)

I am an extrovert for sure. But I do like solitude though as well.

 

Meagan Skidmore (39:44.864)

Okay, are you a night owl?

 

Meagan Skidmore (39:51.008)

needed, very needed. We all need some cocoon time. Are you a night owl or a morning lark?

 

Sarah Grady (39:53.986)

I love that.

 

Sarah Grady (39:58.977)

The first half of my life, night owl. And now I’m finding that I actually like early morning a little bit more, but it depends on the day.

 

Meagan Skidmore (40:02.242)

Mm-hmm.

 

Meagan Skidmore (40:09.582)

Yeah. Do you have a celebrity crush?

 

Sarah Grady (40:13.58)

I do not really.

 

Meagan Skidmore (40:16.0)

That’s fine, you don’t have to. What about a favorite artist?

 

Sarah Grady (40:17.111)

Yeah, I don’t.

 

Sarah Grady (40:22.115)

Ooh.

 

Sarah Grady (40:26.115)

Honestly, my kids and my niece.

 

Meagan Skidmore (40:32.706)

That’s great. I love that when people mention their family, Yeah, you’ll have to make sure and tell them you said that. Do you do still or carbonated water or diet soda or some other fun beverage?

 

Sarah Grady (40:33.091)

I love their art. Yeah. Yeah.

 

Sarah Grady (40:45.667)

not really anymore, but I do add minerals to my water. There, I don’t have them up here with me, but there’s, this company that gets minerals in this process that allows them to be, there’s no heavy metals and all these different things. It’s bioabsorb and it comes from the great lake in Utah, the great salt lake.

 

Meagan Skidmore (40:52.13)

How do you do that?

 

Meagan Skidmore (41:07.8)

That’s cool.

 

Meagan Skidmore (41:12.91)

Oh really? is it electrolytes? Okay. Okay. Got it.

 

Sarah Grady (41:13.403)

and I’ve heard really good things about it. it’s basically it’s so that it’s the natural minerals of the earth. So then you add it to your water. So then you get the minerals you’re actually supposed to be receiving. And I have found my energy came back. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

 

Meagan Skidmore (41:29.554)

Today’s water doesn’t give you that’s okay. That’s good to know I’m gonna look into that and then finally the furthest place that you have traveled

 

Sarah Grady (41:38.307)

Phoenix, Arizona, when I chose that full send moment.

 

Meagan Skidmore (41:42.285)

That’s fabulous. That was so great. perfect place to choose to travel. Well, tell folks who would like to connect with you, reach out or find out more about what you do. What is the best way for them to connect with you?

 

Sarah Grady (41:46.051)

Such a great time.

 

It was.

 

Sarah Grady (41:58.403)

Probably socials. So on both Facebook and Instagram, it’s at Sarah MF Grady. there I do have a yeah Sarah with an H and then I do have a website that is also sarahmfgrady.com

 

Meagan Skidmore (42:12.206)

Okay, start with an eight.

 

Meagan Skidmore (42:22.51)

Okay, all right.

 

Sarah Grady (42:22.903)

but I wanna say that you have to put the like HTTPS and all that in front of it, otherwise it doesn’t go right, yeah.

 

Meagan Skidmore (42:29.112)

Well, we’ll make sure and leave all of these links in the show notes so that folks don’t have to worry about it.

 

Sarah Grady (42:33.133)

But I do want to say that for your viewers, if they are able to get to that link, there is a free video series for Unapologetic Living that I have for everybody. So if they’re interested in just feeling that vibration, granted, this was me like six months ago, not the same version now, but it’s still a blessing and I loved making it and I would love to give that to your viewers.

 

Meagan Skidmore (42:38.306)

Uh-huh.

 

Meagan Skidmore (42:47.362)

Okay.

 

Meagan Skidmore (42:58.255)

I love it.

 

Meagan Skidmore (43:03.616)

Okay, I will leave all those links in the show notes. Sarah, it has been a pleasure. I’ve loved connecting with you and getting to know you a little bit more. So thank you for your time.

 

Sarah Grady (43:06.146)

Thank you.

 

Sarah Grady (43:10.561)

right back at you. You are such a blessing. Thank you so much for having me.

 

Meagan Skidmore (43:15.64)

you too.