Sarah Jane Hayler is an inspiring Life Coach founder of Developing You who has been changing the life of thousands of human beings through the method called The Gift Practice. Sarah is also the author of The Gift: A Simple Daily Practice which is a guidebook that explains how easy it can be to change or improve your life through the implementation of simple daily practices. Sarah is also the Mother of two wonderful women who have been sharing The Gift Practice and it was through one of them, Freya Snelling, that I have come across to Sarah’s wonderful work and experience it first hand in Developing You sessions I did with Freya (and for which I am truly grateful).
In this interview Sarah shares with us her experience and how The Gift Practice and Developing You is empowering people and developing them to regain their natural happy state.
1 – What has drawn you into this line of work and empowering people?
When I was younger I felt like two different people, one who struggled at school and didn’t seem to fit in, and the other who was alive, passionate, wise and confident. I would swing between these two states and I knew I wanted to be in control of it, rather than having it control me. This began my love affair with personal development, and how the mind could literally change your state and change your life. I knew that I needed to share what I had learnt, so I could empower others to reach above and beyond their perceived potential, so they could also create the life they dared to dream about.
2 – Can you describe a little bit of The Gift Practice and Developing You and how it affects people’s lives?
We are literally living our life out of habit, and to make long lasting change we need to create new habits of thought, feelings and behaviours. We literally need to re-wire our brains if we are to live the life we want to live, and be the person we know we can be. In order to make these new habits we must practice the basics daily, always returning to our centre each morning. We must start the day as we mean to go on. And if life knocks us off our axis we need to know how to return to our centred state. The Gift practice does just that. It also enables you to set an intention each month, in line with what you want to achieve. Then practicing this intention will allow limiting negative beliefs to surface gradually, so you can deal with them. You are literally changing your mind and life, belief by belief, and you are expanding and growing from your centre outwards.
There is a method that underpins all learning, all manifestation and all growth. Most personal development books contain this information but it gets lost because there is so much other information they give you. You read a book or go on a course and feel totally inspired, like your life has been changed forever, but it doesn’t last. This is because you need to apply the knowledge and make it a habit, this way you grow continually. You have to take inspiration and apply it! And the difficult bit for people to grasp is that it is as simple as a daily practice, and an intention once a month, once you understanding exactly how it works.
Here is a testimonial that sums it up:
“Having used this practice for many years now, the change in my outlook and in my life is phenomenal. If I’d have known that something as simple as committing to a daily practice and setting monthly intentions would change my life this way I’d have done it years ago. All the areas I focussed on have shifted – from my relationships with loved ones, my career and earning potential, my health and wellbeing and also my spirituality and connectedness. There isn’t an area of my life that this practice didn’t transform. My only regret is that I didn’t know this in my teens…”
3 – Your book The Gift: A Simple Daily Practice is a reflection of the wonderful work you’ve been doing with people. Can you tell us a few words about this Gift of inspiration in a nutshell?
We are all ‘trying’ too hard. Life is not meant to be that complicated. We are all part of the same energy that creates worlds and we need to learn how to harness it. Once we have we can create anything we set our minds to. Everything in nature is moving and growing, and we are no different. Once we get in the flow of our lives there is nothing more to do than change direction. This does not mean we aren’t in control but actually we take control of the one thing we are meant to take control of, our mind.
4 – Can you share with Skin at Heart the main factors that empower people and how to achieve that state?
You have to want to be the best you possible, and live the life you want. You have to believe you can and then be committed to it. That has to come first, even when your current evidence seems to suggest something different. It can sound like a cliché, but you must move from ‘victim consciousness’ to ‘creator consciousness’. You are the creation and the creator, and once you truly tap into that you, are the most powerful creative ‘being’ in universe. Once you trust this, you will be in your best state, and then the fun really begins because you get to creator your world.
What is important is that you first return to a state of feeling grounded, centred and balanced, mentally, emotionally and physically. You want to remind yourself what it feels like to stand on your own two feet, but be fluid and alive. You need to do this each day, to connect to your centre and your divine power. This has to become a habit first. When you realise you are truly powerful then you know you are capable of creating whatever life and experience you choose, by changing one limiting belief at a time.
5 – From your experience, what are the main habits that contribute to a human being general wellness?
If people can connect to who they are, their true powerful nature which is divine, they then need to make a commitment to their own happiness and joy. Once they make joy their baseline and not ‘misery’, they then must value themselves enough to live in line with it. Most people accept misery as the baseline and occasionally ‘take a holiday’ and experience happiness and joy, but this approach is flawed. Once you have felt happy you then return to misery again, but if your baseline is joy and happiness you have a much better compass. You need to return to the commitment you made to being happy and joyful in your life, and let that guide you. If you are unhappy it is because you are living contrary to your divine nature, in thought, or deed or action. When you value yourself enough to be happy daily and create the life you want, you will do what it takes for you to feel well. That is wellness.
6 – People often complain about a lot of things and that’s merely a reflection of their own internal struggles or fragmentation. How can people attain inner peace and cultivate thar state of serenity and awareness in the daily life?
They must draw a line in the sand, and decide that they are the creator of their life, that the most important relationship they must cultivate is with themselves. They can feel challenged by other people and situations but they need to recognise it is just triggering something within them, so they have the opportunity to expand and grow. In a way they need to celebrate these moments that will bring greater awareness, and an opportunity for them to change their beliefs and therefore continue to transform their life.
People will attain inner peace from a simple practice, that connects them to their divine nature, and the power that resides within that. But because human beings want to achieve more, and that brings with it fear, doubt, anxiety etc they need to learn how to achieve what they want while remaining centred. They need to understand that challenges must come to knock them temporarily off their axis if they are to grow, but because they know how to return to inner peace each day they can detach from the drama.
7 – Any last words you would like to share with Skin at Heart’s readers?
Wake up tomorrow and say, “I value myself enough to…” and fill in the blank. Then each day for a month say this out loud every morning (make sure it’s out loud). Then take five minutes and sit quietly breathing in and out, before you go about your day. In the evening before bed write down at least three things you valued about yourself that day, if not more. Maybe you changed a negative thought to a positive one, or you did something for someone else, or you valued your awareness. Whatever you valued in yourself that day write down, and repeat this for a month, and be prepared to be surprised.
Skin at Heart is grateful to Sarah Hayler for the inspiring interview and for the wonderful work that Sarah has been doing.
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