Tina: [00:00:00] Hi everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Tina's Arena. Today I have on Sarah and she is here to tell us a story.

Sarah DeBlock: Thank you for having me, Tina.

My story is one of heartbroken having a really strong dream and promise to myself that I was gonna lead a happy, joyful life in my journey to finding and figuring out how to choose joy every day. and I wanna start by of bringing you to the pivotal moment, and then I'll go back to how it started, it really. I ended up at this moment in my life where I had constant burping, like for almost nine months. Could not figure out how to stop the burping. Really bad heartburn to the point where I could barely eat I ended up at a gastroenterologist like hospital bed to get endoscopy.

I remember wanting to be put to sleep 'cause that's how tired I was I don't think it was like [00:01:00] true rock bottom. I'm sure my health could have gotten much worse, but in that moment I was like, this is my rock bottom. like what happened that I'm like excited to be put to sleep 'cause I'm that tired. And so I. reverse a little, and really started from a decision on where to work after I graduated college. My husband and I are high school sweethearts. We went to the same college together and our goal was to really start our life outta school after college and live together. And my heart was telling me I wanted to go live in California. I already knew I loved yoga at the time and I thought all the best yoga teachers are in California. I love the beaches and the sun. It was the first time in my life that I like, truly heard my heart. I typically had just a hard time making decisions, but I truly heard this is where I wanna go and this is where I wanna be. So I had two job offers. One in [00:02:00] California and one in Houston. but if you looked at of like data and logistics and the known facts, 'cause there were a lot of unknowns, but if we looked at the known facts, the best opportunity for Ryan and I be together after college was to choose the job in Houston. And I had never really truly followed my heart in that way before.

Up to that point in life, I had always used logic I chose to go to the job in Houston thinking my number one goal was to be with my boyfriend at the time, future husband, and. Long story short, I won't get into all the details. I wrote a memoir, if you wanna hear all the details, but he ended up at UCLA in Los Angeles and I ended up in Houston. And heartbreaking to, start my life apart from this person that I had spent eight years with and who I love and wanted to be with. I think I spent a long time thinking that is why I was heartbroken, it was [00:03:00] really like not following my own heart and separating from myself. That also really contributed, and I always say that decision put a crack in my emotional shell. then there was series of many a life events that. Having that crack and being heartbroken just broke me more and more until I got physically sick and I didn't relate that those physical symptoms were connected until after that endoscopy when finally a doctor said, you have anxiety. You've been through an extraordinary amount of life changes and these are caused from that, like a physical illness. so it was really an awakening of like how connected our body, mind and thoughts. I really are. And ultimately that moment hearing that it was anxiety just led me to make a lot of changes in my life. at the same time, I had found a [00:04:00] yoga guru and a yoga teacher. And it was really through studying yoga that I was able to accept what had happened and accept where my life is find my way to choosing joy and living joyfully no matter, you know what the external circumstances.

Tina: Thank you for sharing that story, Sarah. You mentioned that you already had a love for yoga, so were you already doing yoga at that point or is that when you discovered yoga?

Sarah DeBlock: I discovered yoga in college And I share the moment really vividly in my book, but a roommate actually just said, Hey, do you wanna go do a yoga class? And I was like, yeah, why not? I need, some girl time and a break. And it was really stressful semester and I went to this yoga class. After that hour, I noticed my heart rate had gone back to normal and the semester had been so stressful that I had noticed my heart rate was escalated, like it had been escalated for a few weeks and I was [00:05:00] very aware that wasn't normal, but I didn't know how to really deal with the stress. And that hooked me. I was like, if one hour of this practice can reduce my heart rate that I haven't been able to do in a couple weeks, I need to know more. so I had just dipped my toe into yoga in college, but that experience made me wanna learn more. And so my goal was to find a really good yoga teacher out of college to be able to dive deeper and learn more about why that was so effective.

Tina: Can you take us through what it was like to come back to yourself and find your way again after that initial heartbreak?

Sarah DeBlock: It's one of those heartbreaks, which is really interesting because we didn't like separate, we're still together to this day. But our, I think our nervous system co-regulation and our. Just the intricacy of how we had woven our [00:06:00] lives together, that when we separated like that it felt like a part of my emotional blanket had been stripped from me or just like this huge support that I didn't even realize how much has supported me in my life was like suddenly gone. And so in a way I had to learn how to self-soothe. It was through yoga. So I started studying yoga in a lot more depth. And there's a couple things that stand out. The first was I had to move from my head to my heart and really get back into my body. I was leading a lot with my mind. I was leading a lot with stories like I've been left behind.

He's going to live my dream life in California, and I'm over here in Houston. So all those stories were just not helpful in my mind, and so getting back into my body to be able to feel what's really there and to feel the sadness and work with the sadness. And so I had to. Learn how to feel those emotions to be able to heal them and be with them. [00:07:00] I had to shift from victim mentality, and this was all things I learned through yoga, but shift from victim mentality and take real responsibility for where my life was, because at the end of the day, it was my decision on. Where I went and there was no one else to blame, right? And we create our own life. When we really take responsibility for our life is when we take our power back. And so that was a really big moment and a moment that helped me start, create the life I really wanted. 'cause a lot of the heartbreak?

was also from, I wasn't in right career... I wasn't, like my entire life was just not my dream.

And I had worked so hard through college to try to live this grand dream in life, and I was like way far away from it. so I was like, okay, how can I take responsibility? What steps are in front of me right now? And also finally seeing [00:08:00] that this was the best thing for me, that obstacles are for us and not done to us.

Because even though our relationship is incredible and, hope we're together for our whole life I needed to learn how to stand on my own. We had been together since we were 15 two. Have to go through that. We learned how to stand on our own and to be our own people and not rely on each other's like nervous system co-regulation.

And that just makes us so much stronger today. I couldn't see in the moment of heartbreak. I couldn't really see this is gonna make us stronger. This is gonna make us be able to be happier longer term 'cause we'll be stronger individuals. But once I could see that. I understood, okay. This is all part of the Divine Plan.

Tina: Where did your heart take you after your time in Houston?

Sarah DeBlock: Yeah. Actually, [00:09:00] I'm glad you asked that question because this was another really big life lesson for me . So I was not in my dream job, as I mentioned, which meant that It didn't seem necessary to have Ryan find a job in Houston after he graduated.

'cause that could have been, one step like, Hey, get a job where I live and then we'll be together. But it wasn't my dream job. So we thought we don't need to plan for Houston. And so it turned into whichever one of us finds a job that really matches us, like why don't we both move to that area? And he did get an offer in DC which is where we live now. That was really great for him. And at the time I didn't really know what I wanted my next job step to be, and I had this moment of. Am I to follow my heart or am I following my husband? Because I had been raised this [00:10:00] very strong independent woman, like my mom is a very strong woman and. we can use the word feminist if we want, but like I was definitely raised to make my decisions lead my life and I felt is this, not the correct way to live to follow my husband. And I think those thoughts also trickled in, 'cause my mom was always the lead career in my growing up.

Like she was moving up the corporate ladder. We even moved a few times for her job when I was young. And so this thought creeped in. And it was my yoga teacher who said over and over again to me are you following your heart? she said, if you love Ryan and you wanna be with Ryan, then is that following your heart? And it took me a long time to sit with that question and reflect on it to really realize what she was saying. And then at the end of the day, like following, our heart isn't always just following or the career. that following my husband to be with him could also be following my heart. And so [00:11:00] that was step one. then step two was listening back into my heart on what did it really want. And when I really listened to it, I heard a whisper that I wanted to open a yoga studio. But I hadn't really let it speak very loudly on that 'cause I was. Partly afraid of it. There was a lot of fear around taking that leap. And, but when I listened to it, it was like, my dream can be done anywhere. Like my dream isn't linked to a location and so it's okay to follow Ryan's job 'cause I'll still be able to do my dream and follow my heart in both directions. So it was, a little bit of a long answer, but, was a really big moment to have a different belief system on what does it really mean to follow my heart and who leads, who follows and all those old beliefs that were there.

Tina: It is a give and take to have a long-term relationship. Sometimes one person takes the lead, sometimes the [00:12:00] other, and I think that's a really great learning or. A great thing that you did because it's right for you and right for him, obviously. Based on where you're at today.

Sarah DeBlock: Yes.

Tina: So did you achieve your dream of opening your yoga studio?

Sarah DeBlock: I did, yes. It had been a dream for a long time and we had always talked about while he's getting his PhD, I will work. And then when he graduates, I would open my studio?

it was about a year and a half after he graduated that I really started looking seriously, at taking that step. And I did, face a lot of fear on. Really owning this new chapter of my life. And on the other side, I'm so glad I did it. It has been like such a rewarding journey and I'm very happy to be able to do that every day and [00:13:00] where I was at that first heartbreak, living in Houston at a job that wasn't best for me And feeling so far from my husband, and it ended up being five years.

I haven't mentioned that yet, but we were apart for five years, so there were so many days. That it felt like this will be forever. It was hard to even imagine. Being together again and to being where we are now is just amazing to reflect on, and I'm so grateful every day.

Tina: ? What's your next dream that you are working on?

Sarah DeBlock: Yes, I have several, but one that's in the works and almost complete is a guided journal on how to bring joy into your life. And that really has been my main focus. I made a promise to myself in middle school that I would be a happy adult. And so that has been something that's always been on my mind as I learn and as I grow.

And it came out of my memoir. So my memoir's called The Year of Sarah, when it launched, a lot of the readers said, oh, I'm making it the year of Nancy, or I'm making it the year of [00:14:00] Chris. And I started to realize. People were really trying to apply this to their life. And so the year review is a 12 month journal of little short story memoir for each month, and then journal questions, meditations or breath work or different activities that you're guided through more joy on?

Joy into your life.

That is based on the lessons from my memoir and the lessons from my own life. Yes.

Tina: We'll come back to your book in a second, but now I'm really curious as to what was the experience you had in middle school that made you create this promise to yourself?

Sarah DeBlock: Yeah, I made the promise in a specific moment, but I'm sure it was a culmination of many things ahead of that moment. But I remember being on Christmas break away from school. I think I was even at my grandma's house, like in a different state, and for some reason I had this overwhelming feeling of do I really have any friends or so like true friends? Deep friend [00:15:00] connections and I had this moment of feeling alone life and lost, I. Had this feeling that I needed to fake it till I make it. I was like, oh, if I want more friends, I'm just gonna go back to school and look like I'm really happy so that I attract more friends. in that moment of feeling that I told myself, I'm going to learn what it means to really be joyful in life, and felt like a mystery in that moment. But I made that promise to myself, and somehow I never forgot it. I've been living by that since.

Tina: I think it's a great, what do you call it, like philosophy or like life role to be a happy adult because. I used to really hate life myself. It just seemed like people live to work and work to [00:16:00] live, and it just made absolutely no sense to me. And so relating to like your life role, it's just I want to have a full life that's just not just work.

And maybe that's. Because of the privilege of the time that we were raised in that we can even be thinking about these things. But I think that's an awesome thing, an awesome value to live by.

Sarah DeBlock: It can really resonate with what you're saying. I've had that same feeling I don't want to just work to live. And that actually also a big part of the heartbreak that we're talking about in my life because I had a really hard time deciding what to major in, in college it felt like I was pinning myself to one thing and one thing only for the rest of my life.

And that really scared me. And then when I graduated college and wasn't fully in love with my job, like all that fear around am I gonna end up just living to work, was also playing out at the same time as being apart from my husband. [00:17:00] And so that added a lot to my emotional crack that I talk about in my field. And so I so relate to that and I also really want to overcome that. And I do think it is part. Privilege that we get to, but I always tell like my mom and also like I have a lot of clients who are like a generation ahead of me who will have conversations like this. And I always tell them it's because you worked so hard and gave your kids stability that our generation gets to. Have this goal and that, that's amazing that you gave us this ability be able to focus on that and not just how am I gonna feed my family? How am I gonna pay for the house? Like how lucky are we that they worked to be able to give us that gift?

Tina: My mom was an immigrant, when she was younger than I am, she moved to a completely new country, not knowing a single word of the language and building herself up [00:18:00] from that with my dad. And that's just crazy for me to think about. I, how do I do that? How would I do that?

Sarah DeBlock: Yeah, I agree. I'm always just like in awe of the people who can do that and. It just shows the resilience and the incredible nature of humans.

Tina: So back to your book, can you give us an example of a prompt or a breathing exercise or something from one day?

Sarah DeBlock: Yeah, absolutely. I'm trying to reflect on which one to share. But it, it does circle from starting with self-acceptance what is your heart desire, all the way back to self-love in, in month 12. And some examples could be that you'll be asked to repeat the mantra, I am enough in your head silently and writing it down. three different means to really run it through you. [00:19:00] There are also prompts where you will get to actually really dive into what is your heart asking for? And so those are some of my favorites, but there's a series of activities to ask yourself different questions and look at your values and what is top priority for you see what are you really seeking and looking for.

So it's a mix of. Exercises that are gonna help you get present and find joy right now, no matter what, 'cause that is inside of us. It's not based on the external. And at the same time, there's some exercises to help you shape Your life externally as well to match what you're feeling inside.

Tina: When does your book come out?.

Sarah DeBlock: It'll launch on Valentine's Day, February 14th, 2026, and it will be on Amazon and all the platforms. And that date is because, one, I think you should love yourself on Valentine's Day, and [00:20:00] also it's the one year anniversary of when I launched my memoir.

Tina: In your memoir, I think you mentioned it before, but it was called The Year of Sarah.

Sarah DeBlock: Yes. Yeah. Do you want me to ex explain what the title means?

Tina: Oh yeah. We loved that.

Sarah DeBlock: Okay, so the title is Words that My Yoga Guru said to me, I happened to be at her house at the time. I had just finished a retreat with her I was debating on whether to sign up for my teacher training program to teach yoga. My hesitation was that at the time I was convinced I was moving to LA at the fastest possible minute I thought, I won't be able to finish this program 'cause I'm gonna move to la. But luckily my heart spoke up and said, you need to do this. Like you need to get in yoga teacher training. And when I registered, she said, what a great gift to give yourself. I know that your life is nowhere near where you want it to be right now, and that you don't really wanna be here. [00:21:00] But if you're gonna be here for a year, make it the year of Sarah. And those words, make it the year of Sarah, like completely gave me a purpose and help, help me have enthusiasm for being there my year. So those are what the words mean.

Tina: I love that. I love the impact that our teachers can have on us, and most of the time they don't even have any clue.

And how beautiful that you are now a yoga teacher and sharing all of this wisdom with your students as well. Where can people find more about you, Sarah? If they want more information about your book or find your studio.

Sarah DeBlock: yes. On Instagram, it is Soma Yoga a LX. You can also find my website, soma yoga healing.com, and Soma is SOMA. Under the resource tab, there are some free meditations and a morning yoga [00:22:00] routine that you can access or contact me. Would love to hear from you. Email or text open to all communication, my book is on all online platforms. Amazon's probably the easiest place to find it. In case anyone's watching the video, maybe I could show them the cover. This is the cover, I had so much fun designing it with my publisher.

Tina: It's beautiful. Okay. Any final thoughts for our audience today.

Sarah DeBlock: I would love to just say that if your life doesn't look exactly how you want it to right now. To know that joy is within you and that it can be accessed and felt and that no matter where you're starting from, you can create the life you want. It might take time, it may not be overnight, believe that it's possible never uh, give up on that vision [00:23:00] and what you see for yourself.

Tina: Thank you so much for being on the podcast today, Sarah.

Sarah DeBlock: Me, Tina.