All Episodes

February 23, 2024 40 mins
In this episode, join Samantha and Nicole for an incredible talk with Dr. Sandy Zanella, She's not just your regular doc—she's a mom, a mindfulness coach, and a yoga teacher specializing in families. We'll dive into her world, exploring how she helps parents and kids find their zen through yoga and mindfulness. From her award-winning children's book, "Happy Yogis," to her down-to-earth workshops, Dr. Zanella's all about bringing joy and resilience to families everywhere. So grab a cuppa and join us for an inspiring chat with Dr. Sandy Zanella!
Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Hello, lovely people. This isNicole and this is Samantha. With the
power of We, we are hereto switch it up and teach you about
business relationships and how to not onlysurvive, but make it in Los Angeles.
In each episode, we will havetop influential guests from the world of
real estate. We work hard,we stage hard, and we get it

(00:22):
done the power of we. Hey, Nicole, oh are you? I

(00:43):
am good? Except it's been raining. Oh and then and there goes my
phone. It's been raining. It'sI mean, we're not used to the
rain here, and I mean wegot our hair done for nothing. I
know, it's crazy. It's beena crazy time, but you know we
need that rain. I am soexcited about today's guests. What about you?

(01:03):
I know she's amazing. Introduced herso you know we always have these
I'm gonna cry these guests on thatyou know, we don't know that well.
And this one is like a sisterto me. She it's so crazy
because she actually helped so many people. So when I had Nicole, there

(01:25):
was no books, there was nothingto tell me. You just had to
figure it out. But this beautifulhuman doctor Sandy Zanella is a dedicated mother,
compassionate physician. She's a mindful coachand trauma informed family yoga teacher.
She is the author of an awardwinning children's book, Happy Yogis. But

(01:46):
not only that she has helped.She now lives in Dubai. And she
just got up and moved from Californiato Cabo to Dubai. And what does
she do. She actually continues tobelieve in her passion and just goes from
there and helps and does all thesecool things. So welcome, Sandy,

(02:07):
Thank you so much. I loveyou. I can't believe you're here.
I'm excited. It's so exciting.You've done so much since I met you.
I feel like you were like fivewhen I met you. Well,
you inspired me. You know thatyou inspired me and Nicole inspired me.
Like it. I almost cry toobecause I love you both, and I

(02:29):
really I mean, I tell youall the time. Your relationship mother daughter
is goals for me, Like mydaughter is young, and I always think,
like, I hope I'm going tohave this relationship when when Stella is
old. No, that's sweet,sweet, Well, I remember when you
were pregnant, and you know,I think what's really cool about you is

(02:53):
that you're open and you were opento learn. You weren't you a doctor?
Tell us a little bit about yourself. Yeah, So my background is
in medicine. I am a physicianand I was practicing before I get married
and I had my kids. Actually, when I met my husband, it's
actually how we met, right right. I was working at the Brain Research

(03:15):
Institute in U. C. LA. And we were doing research with
children in sleeping disorders and anxiety.And although I was not even married,
I knew that there had to besomething to change in the way they were
approaching it to mental health. Ididn't I had no idea about mindful as

(03:37):
yoga anything, but I knew theremust be something a more holistic approach,
which is so cool. When Iget pregnant with Stella, she's eight now,
I did yoga, prenai yoga becauseyou know, you remember we moved
to Miami and I didn't know anyone, especially in the moms, so I

(03:58):
wanted to be like someone who waslike me, like pregnant, and we
go through this journey together and thisteacher that the yoga teacher, she was
a doula, and she completely changedmy lifestyle, my mindset and I wanted
to be healthier, you know,and so that's how I shifted from western

(04:20):
medicine into a more integral and aholistic approach, especially in mental health.
Yeah. I mean, so forpeople who like don't know, what's the
difference between like western medicine and likethe holistic approach you're talking about. Yeah,
so it's it's more in integrative.So it takes not just the body

(04:43):
physical, which is like mostly whenyou were a doctor, I don't know,
in a hospital you get a medicineor and just yeah they just want
to still you up with medicine.Yeah. So this a holistic approach is
like body mind, so like everything, it's just not the physical body,
it's your whole as a whole.So it's it's spirituality, you know,

(05:06):
all the aspects of your body andof your being. So I really
love that approach because we're not justthis, you know, we're not just
matter. It's like it goes beyond. So I really I am happy with
what I do now. I lovemedicine still, but as you said,

(05:27):
like I'm so sad that a lotof times it's pills, pills, pills
everywhere, like prescriptions exactly, andthat's the problem right now. It's pills,
pills, pills, And you know, I always say like, why
don't they teach this in school?And then what do you call me one
day and you go, I'm goingto the school and I'm going to teach
meditation. I was like, damnit, this girl's good. Yeah,

(05:51):
I mean they should be doing thatevery single day, you know. I
mean the I mean in college,what Nicole went through. You were there
what she went through. There's nothere's nowhere for you to go. Yeah.
I remember when I was getting offdrugs. I think Sandy was there,
and you were like giving me likea cold compress and just things that
weren't like medicine, and it actuallyhelped way more than like like suboxin or

(06:15):
whatever they give you when you're gettingoff track. Actually you helped her detox
naturally and and I think that helpedyou come off it so much faster and
snap back into reality. Right.Yeah, I mean you have all these
like ginger shots and I don't evenknow what you were doing, but I
was like, just do it,please help me out whatever you know,

(06:36):
because again, nobody knows what todo. There's no books out there like
you. You should seriously be proudof yourself. Like there's so many young
moms they don't know what to doright, And I mean the older moms
they can give advice, but you'reactually out there writing books teaching mindfulness,
you know. I mean, Ican't imagine how many people come to you

(06:58):
and say, what do I do? What's the biggest question people ask you?
Yeah, how do I start?How do I connect with my children?
But let me just go back alittle bit too, what you were
saying when when we were with Nicolethat day, because I cannot I will
always remember this. Stella was tooprobably I don't know, like she was

(07:20):
a baby. She was definitely noteven talking. And I was telling sin
Semanta because you were so worried ofcourse as a mom, right, and
I remember telling you this is beautiful, like even though yes the situation is
not the best as a mom,but look at how Nicole came to you

(07:41):
instead of going I don't know somewhereelse. You know, I really want
to cry because this is something thatif my kids, because we cannot protect
our kids from making mistakes, thiswill happen. But my goal for as
a mom is like I want Stellaand I was under my kids to run
to me whenever are going to bein trouble, because they will be in

(08:01):
trouble. But I just wanted toacknowledge and you to know, and I
will always tell you this, likeI really want them to have this disconnection
with me and to say, likeI can go to my mom even if
if right. I think that's theone good thing I did is I always
communicated with them. I always wantedthem to come to me, for sure,

(08:24):
and even they wouldn't go to otherpeople, but they would come to
me, even if it was theworst thing and I would scream at them,
but they would come to me.I mean, thank god because you,
I mean, as a mother,you have so much intuition, right,
because there was always a level oflike understanding as like a human,
not just like a mom like scoldingyou. You always had like a level
of like like you've been through alot too, so you could understand what

(08:46):
we're going through. I can't believeI'm like borrowing the whole time because this
is like memories. But we've comeso far. Now. Look at her,
She's like a hotshot in my life. I mean she just did a
huge, huge, huge house yesterdaywith this famous Instagram. And remember I
was like, what the hell's Instagram? Like, you're I know, you're
famous at it. So I waslike, why do you do that?

(09:09):
And she was all over the placeyesterday and I'm like, wow, I'm
so proud of her. I mean, it's just incredible to watch the growth.
I mean, and if you're listeningout there, if you're struggling,
you don't know what the hell's gonnahappen to your life. Look at Nicole,
I mean this was this is inthree and a half years. Yeah,
she's at the top of her game. But it's because of like like

(09:31):
back to like the medicine, Likeinstead of doing the Western medicine and trying
to like drug myself to feel okay, I switched to like a holistic approach.
And I think that's what changed mylife. And why do you think
Sandy helped you? Because when whenyou Sandy was at our house, I
did not know what to do.I was just like, oh my god,
I remember it frozy. Do youremember when I came to the Panini
couse, I was like, I'mgonna be very transparent. I was like

(09:56):
overdosing on drugs. I had takenway too much outter all that time or
something, and I went to mymom and I'm like, I for some
reason, you you all were likeright across the street from my house.
Of course we were always were right, and I was like, I'm not
okay. I couldn't speak, Icouldn't like there was there's nothing in my
head, not like nothing was happening. I couldn't remember my name. And

(10:16):
Samantha goes, we need to takeyou to get brain vitamins. I know,
I literally went to CVS. Remember, I'm like, she needs like
brain vitaments. Yeah, but Iremember Sandy like when I went back to
your house and like she talked tome and I don't know what it was,
but I think you talked to meand more of like everything's going to
be okay. It's not. Itwasn't like a shaming thing like I think

(10:37):
most people shame you when you're likeoverdosing or like something bad is happening,
and there was no shame around it. You guys just made me feel like
I was gonna be okay. Andthat's like the biggest thing that I took
away from it, like I willbe okay, and like you guys were
all there to support me. Itwasn't like you have to go to rehab
or I'm sending you off. Likeyou like took care of me. And
yeah, there was like a containerfor you. Like I feel we we

(11:00):
both were like trying to be yourcalm. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Even the kids, even Davidate Dovidate, my crazy god brother. I call
him he's crazy, but he's likeso supportive, you know, they're like
so supportive. And it's like hewas just saying to me, you know
what, she's going to get throughthis, and then he goes into break.

(11:22):
He went into that's when you guysstarted doing the video. Remember she
was just came off drugs like twodays later and he's like, let's go,
We're gonna do a video and Iand that's the kind of person I
am, So I'm like, okay, we'll go into work mode. Yeah
you were. Yeah, you guystold me because I wasn't going to pass
my class. No, I waslike out of school. I was.
I was not good. But likeit's so important, like as you guys

(11:45):
talk about his parents, to likesupport your kids instead of just like scolding
them and sending them off, likeI think that's like everything. And I
think another thing that Sandy was teachingme is that, you know what,
just act like things are normal andlike we're getting her through and let's continue
to do life. So what happenswith these rehabs. And I'm sure a
lot of people get help in rehabs, but for me and my kids,

(12:07):
rehab was not the answer because wehad to continue life every single day,
right. We didn't have time tostop and get help for five weeks or
five months or whatever. We hadto actually live our life and do it
at the same time. And soI guess what you showed me is that
it could be in a calm wayand supportive way and we could do We

(12:28):
got this And that's really my motto. You see it in my in lead
Home Staging and Lead Mason. It'swe got this and we do you know,
we can do anything we set ourminds to. We don't have to
take a drug. You know whatI'm saying that it is I was able
to like explain it in a wayfrom like I think, from like a
medical approach, but also using thatholistic approach that made it like when you

(12:52):
put them together, it just isIt's different, right, Like it's not
like like when you go to rehabor something, it's like, oh,
here's a suboxin, so you getoff draw but it's another drug trying to
wean you off. But instead youwere like like explaining what was happening and
making me feel like, Okay,this is going to happen, but I'm
gonna be okay. And like Ithink when you connect like the body and
the mind, it just like itis way better exactly exactly, and remember

(13:16):
we're all doing meditation together. Yeah. Yeah, it was like it was
kind of like a family. Andwhen did you start to write this book?
The yeah, book, So thebook came when when during the pandemic.
I always wanted to write a book, and when my daughter was born,
I was like, yeah, I'mgoing to write a book about like
ABC's and fashion, and it's like, yeah, I had all the ideas,

(13:39):
right, But then of course Istarted practicing more like meditation and mindfulness
and yoga and the pandemic hit.We were all like in our houses and
a lot of people were writing tome and going back to your question,
Samantha, what is the number onequestion is that, like what where should
I start? How do I doit with my kids? And I was

(14:00):
doing soon yoga classes for free,like for people to just cope with the
anxiety. That's amazing for kids.And the feedbag was amazing. But everybody
they were asking for like an actualtool, you know that they could just
run into and use it. SoI was like, this is the time
to write a book. So Ifinished. I published twenty twenty one January

(14:26):
twenty twenty one, right, Iremember to Dubai and yeah, it's just
been amazing, like the feedback andeverybody loves it. I've been to schools
reading the book and it's just beautifulto see, like how is everybody accepts
the book like it has positive affirmation. So I know, Samantha, you're

(14:46):
huge on growth, mindset and affirmations. You do it with the girls at
work. I've been like to yourthe work and it's it's just for me.
It's I feel like it was aneed for me, Like I never
heard like you're beautiful, you arestrong. You know, nobody told me

(15:07):
that's amazing. I mean, honestly, can you believe like I never had
this book. I wish I wouldhave had this book. When you would
sit down and eat your little poopooplatter to give you the book to look
at. I mean, parents havethis book to you know, have them
sit and look because kids love tolook at books and they see all this
positive affirmation. And I think kidsare in their first like they pick up

(15:31):
everything like that, they take onthrough their whole life in the first like
I think it's like four years orsomething, six years year. So it's
so important that like you're changing likethat industry to make it more positive for
kids to like kind of put thatin their subconscious rather than like these random
stories. I know. But let'sjust talk about the Zanella family. They
are like the perfect looking family,right, and they always when they travel,

(15:54):
they have like the same shoes.I'm like, they're so damn cute
that I'm dressing me in for Nandain the same shoes. But we have
much I know, you guys alwayshave matching. So now for Nando is
like, oh do you want toget those shoes? We can be like
the Zanella's. But you know whatI love about your book. It's all
about your family. And for me, everything I do is about my family,

(16:18):
right, and as you know,so it's all about Brandon. You
know, doing well and doing iton his own, and Nicole working really
hard and you know, being apowerhouse like she is. And I see
this book, and you have yourbeautiful daughter. And of course Ali,
which is my little yummy. Ilove him. I used to sit him
on the side and give him pretzels. I was his favorite auntie. But

(16:42):
yeah, I mean, it's sucha great book, and I think I
think that if you're a mom,you need to really check this book out,
especially because we need to put alot more positive, you know,
affirmations, positive vibes into these kidsbecause there's so much going on with the
damn phone. They want to belooked like this. Even at two years

(17:04):
old, they're on the damn phone. That scares me. What do you
think about that? Yeah, no, I mean screen time it's terrible right
now. Especially, I mean there'sa research that shows that girls at thirteen
years old, they eighty percent ofthem they already want to change the way
they look their appearings. Wow,because of imagine, like thirteen years old

(17:27):
eighty percent, So it's huge.And why because of all these filters and
all these things. It's they don'taccept the way they see on the phone
and on the mirror, you know. So it's hard. It's hard to
navigate this with children. Of course, we cannot avoid using screens, right,

(17:49):
but I think using it in amindful way, like okay, if
you need to do some research foryour homework or something, yes, but
the best way is also us,you know, like I think you from
anti you must know, like inparenting, modeling is the way we teach
children, Like even if you tellthem get off your phone, like if
you're on your phone, then they'renot going to do it. So I

(18:11):
think it starts with us. It'sa good point. Yes, my mom
used to tell them at dinner,Harriet and my dad they would say,
there is no phones, no phones, no phones. I love that too.
In fact, when she has grandkids, when I have grandchidkids, I'm
gonna have my own rules you kids, trust me. I mean, they're

(18:33):
gonna have rules. They're not goingto be on the phone at all.
And by then you're going to havea book and it's going to all be
about how beautiful I am. Ican't wait for your next book. I
want these people. I want peopleto see that they're beautiful, no matter
if they're this way or shaped orcolor or whatever. You know, we
need to, like, you know, tell these girls. I mean I
even see it with my stylists.They're all so beautiful. And you know

(18:56):
what, I was thinking to myselfwhen I was planning a meeting the other
day, I was like, youknow what, I'm gonna start telling them
because I don't see that they seeit like I see it, you know,
because we are so hard on ourselves, right, you know, I'm
hard on myself. And then Igo, you know what, I'm fifty
five fucking years old and I lookhot period. Yeah in the story,

(19:18):
Yeah exactly. You know, Istarted accepting myself at fifty, and I
don't want Nicole to accept yourself atfifty. She's insane. She better accept
yourself now. Yeah, but Ithink it's really hard these days. I
mean, I don't know when youguys are growing up, but like in
my generation, like the influencers andeveryone, like there's a certain way that's

(19:41):
like beautiful and accepted and like ifyou don't really look like that. And
that was one of my problems Ihad in college, Like that's why I
developed an eating disorder, because it'sreally hard to like keep up with what
is on Instagram, and that's what'sscary for like your kids, you know,
and you want to hear the worstpart. When she went to school
in Arizona, every girl look thesame. They all look the same freak

(20:03):
to me. Out was like nice, I'm not even joking at that.
I wasn't healthy, you know.But everyone's competing with each other, and
like especially with the sorority culture,right, everyone's trying to get into the
top sorority. And if everyone inthat sorority is like blonde, like ninety
pounds, you're not going to getin unless you look like that, right,
So it's like very it's very muchlike that culture. Yeah, it's

(20:26):
not healthy at all. So Imean that's one of the things that I
really want to get out there.And you know, college is very difficult
for kids what I've watched my kidsgo through. I want people, my
parents to really be involved when theirkids go to school because it's not a
time to just drop them off andsay bye because they're just little babies.

(20:47):
Still, they need us like crazybecause there's all these craziness going on in
college, drug dealers, this thattrying to fit in, not knowing who
they are. They need us morethan ever because they're out of our house.
So that to me is so soimportant, you know, And that
starts at a young age, yeah, Nicole, earlier you start to build

(21:11):
this confidence and to build this connectionwith them, the better because they will
always need us. And if theyknow that they can come to us and
they know they're worthy. Because yeah, even as a mom, you know,
and I'm thirty eight, and Ido compare myself to other moms in
social media, you know, soit's always it's it's everyone, it's everyone.

(21:32):
By comparing and this it affects everyone. But I think it's up to
us to also like take responsibility andif there's a lack of self worth,
work on that because we don't knowwhat the other person is going through.
And yes, some people might bereally like just faking it everything, but

(21:53):
we cannot change everyone. It's betterto shield ourselves, shield our kids and
teach them there were then they're beautifulthe way they are, right exactly,
any approval from anyone, that's sotrue. I mean, I you know,
I think that this is a weirdthing to say, but I really
believe that I didn't know I wasgetting into staging, right, I didn't

(22:15):
know, I was going to bea big, huge stager and I was
going to open a store and allof that. It was just part of
me. It just, you know, became part of me. And I
can remember I like to give backto the Battered Women's Shelter and it was
pre pandemic and I said, youknow what, I'm going to stage these
units because these women just got offthe streets and I go, you know

(22:37):
what, do you want to comeand talk to them? And you came
and you didn't even know anything aboutit, and you like were talking to
these people that were so hurt inside, and I could see they really wanted
to hear. So it's like,you know what, people, we don't
even know who we're touching when we'retouching it. I know that, you

(23:00):
know. Ricardo came and I justdonated you know, like two hundred and
fifty thousand dollars worth of furniture tothem, and he remembered that and he
brought it up to me. SoI wanted to tell you, like,
you did it even when you didn'teven know you were doing it. Oh,
thank you. Yeah, you're right. Sometimes we don't even know and

(23:21):
even if if we can touch oneperson, right, because then there's a
ripple effect. This person is goingto be happy and then they're going to
share their happiness or their whatever they'regoing through, their feeling. And so
I think this is this is beautiful. I'm so grateful you you invited me
there. It was so I stillremember it was such a beautiful moment.
And also seeing you doing that,you know, seeing this part of you

(23:44):
because yeah, we know, Iknow the Samantha that like it's crazy,
Samantha likes to work exactly getting everythingdone. You know, You're like exactly
like David, my husband, andeverything done, nothing stops you. And
then like going to this place andreally like it's it's it's it's you know,

(24:07):
helping them and sharing your sort empoweringthem you with your words, you
know, and with your story andwhat you've been through like from zero to
to your company and your your podcastthen and you know, empowering your own
like team of well, you know, it's it's I think this is the

(24:30):
fun part. Honestly, I lovedoing this, you know why because I'm
like today We've I'm learning so muchabout you know, just different things than
just work, you know, andseeing like what we have been through,
Like I forget about this stuff withthe core. I try to anyway,
but it reminds me of like,you know what, everyone listen, there's

(24:52):
ups and downs in life, butyou can do this. We got this
right, and you surround yourself withamazing people and that's what's really going to
get us up to the top.You know. Of course we all want
to be successful. Of course weall want all these goals, but it's
it's the journey that we take.It's every single step that we need to

(25:15):
enjoy because you know what, lifeis short, right, So tell me
about Dubai. I mean, first, you moved to Cabo and make me
go all the way to your Miamia. Let's talk about Cabo. She moves
to Cabo and we are going likecamping and in Mexico, I remember the

(25:36):
cops were falling. Oh my god, it was nuts. He went from
Cabo rustic like camping life to Dubai. I mean, come on, it
couldn't be anything more opposite. Andthen you're like Nahani ranch, Yeah,
so tell us about Dubai. Youhave to come. I know, I
was so close in Paris. Iwas like Paris, I was there a

(25:59):
little long the show was amazing.I was thinking, God, I could
have cut this shortened and hopped overto Dubai. I definitely, I definitely
we are coming. We always saywe're coming. We're coming for sure.
But I mean it looks like what'sthe lifestyle. Yeah, it looks like
so Vegas times one hundred. Isit is like a big Vegas. Yeah,
it is like a big Vegas mixedwith Beverly heels. Uh huh.

(26:23):
But thank god, I don't getlike that cut up in the bling and
all these things because of course,like I'm a mom, so I also
like go to school, and Imade like normal moms, you know,
so I and what kind of schooldoes the kids go to? They go
to a British school, Like howcool is that they go to a British

(26:44):
Shit cool. Next time you're gonnasee them, they're gonna have like a
little British British accent. Oh mygod, I can't wait. I'm coming
just to go to the school.That's alious. Seller speaks like five languages
now yeah, yeah, yeah.They have Arabic, they have French and
English. The school is completely English. They're teachers all of them are British,

(27:07):
but they do have like once ortwice a week like French, and
of course at home we speak Italianand Spanish. But yeah, Dubai,
I love it. I mean,well, you're doing a lot of events.
Every time I turn around, you'redoing another event. That's what I
was going to do. The peoplereally love it. I mean are they
like excited? Do lots of peopleshow up? What is it like there?

(27:33):
Yes, they're very open to these. Like I did not know what
to expect, even from my book. I was like, what if they
are like this is WU, youknow, like and what is this religious
or something. No, they're veryopen because eighty percent of the population here
or no, I think it's ninetypercent. We are expats, so it's
Europeans or Americans or you know,from all over the world. Asia.

(27:57):
Yeah, like we're in Asia.It's Asia, but like you know,
Singapore or so everybody's traveled and everybodyis like very open minded. That's amazing.
The schools they follow, like ifit's an American school, they follow
American curriculum. If it's a BritishBritish curriculum, so they do all this.

(28:17):
They do have like wellness integration intheir curriculum. So this is where
I come from. Like they callme and I do workshops or I do
like book readings where I read thebook and I talk about a little bit
about mindfulness and you'll get to thekids. We do the posts and everything.
But I think they're very open.This is where I feel like it's
sometimes like it's La in a sensebecause they are very like healthy and they

(28:41):
woke the new things. Do youhave another event coming up? I just
did one today and yesterday and Ihave one on Monday. And what kind
of event is it for the book? Is it for mindfulness? So I
do yeah, exactly. So nowI'm doing circles for months, like mindful

(29:02):
circles, like a little ceremony andwe talk about like my motherhood struggles and
we do mindfulness and ventation, journaling, manifesting. That's amazing. You're definitely
coming to LA to do this.We do this when you're here. That's
incredible. Can you imagine having thatinstead of calling me, mom, come
get my kid. That's what Idid to my dad, Brandon, what's

(29:26):
not sleeping? Come get him?I can't sleep. But that's so that's
oh my god, that's incredible.So I know that a lot of times
you get DMed or whatever you wantto call it for. You know,
people have questions how do they geta hold of you? How do people
get ahold of you? They cancertainly send me a message on Instagram DM

(29:47):
me, but I also have myemail is linked on my on my bio,
my website, so you know,I'm I'm always open to explore,
and especially with families who they've neverdone yo own never never practiced mindfulness and
they want to start, and theydon't even know where to start or how
to do it. So it couldbe like something they have questions like is

(30:11):
there a lot of people that dothat? Call you about that? Yeah,
a lot of people. They don'tknow how to start, but they
want to start, especially seeing mymy stories. You know how I do
it with my kids, Like wepractice mindfulness every day, they meditate every
day. You know Stella she shesaid, yo, get teacher for kids.
She did her certification last year.Oh my god, this is unbelievable.

(30:34):
How does she It's oh my eightnow and she's doing mindset teachings.
Are you out of your mind?This is like the perfect family in Eli.
Last time I saw Alsundro. Hewas literally with this calculator showing me
like he's really good at math thewhole time. Yeah, the circular one,

(30:55):
Yeah, is so cute. Iknow. I mean that's that's a
huge, huge different way of raisingyour kids. And you know, and
how is how does that help theircommunication? Because I feel like kids have
a hard time communicating their pain.Yeah. Yeah, so mindfulness first of

(31:17):
all, it teaches you, liketo self awareness for kids especially. Yeah,
what I always tell parents is likechildren are naturally mindful. It's us
that we kind of like rob themthis because of course, I mean you
must remember, like when you werewalking with brother or Nicole, Like kids
they just stop and literally, ascheesy as it sounds, they do smell

(31:38):
the flower when they're walking, oryou know, they hold the rock and
they will see it and look atit and feel the weight on their hand.
Is it cold? And that's beenmindful? Just being present with what
you're doing right now. That's socool. Wait, I want you to
say that again because people don't reallyrealize that. Say that again. What

(32:00):
is what is it to be mindful? It's it's to be in the here
and now. Like of course thatdefinition is being in the present moment without
judging and your thoughts, being acceptingyour thoughts without judging, and without thinking
about the future or the past.But it's it's for me, the easiest
way to explain using your five senses, because when you use your fivecenses,

(32:23):
you're completely there. It's you're anchored, right. So the kids are like,
whatever they're doing, they are fullypresent with their five senses. Isn't
that incredible holding the rock and they'refeeling the temperature that's like touched. They're
like looking at it like you know, visual, so they could smell,

(32:43):
they could like everything, like theshape. So it's us, okay,
hurry up, we need to goto the doctor's appointment, or we have
like to catch the bus for schoolor whatever. It's us that we're always
rushing. And this is where theystop being press because they love it.
Every time I go to schools orI do the summer camps or anything,

(33:06):
they really enjoyed. Parents always asme, no, you know, my
kid, they will never sit down. And my child, he will never
sit down because he's a tornado.Right. But everybody thinks yoga or mindfulness
for children is the same as foradults, which is completely different. Like
the approach is playful. So it'sall about like music, it's all about
games, introducing mindfulness to games.You could use any type of game,

(33:30):
like even Jenga, you know,but if you're really like focusing and feeling
the wood on your hands and theweight like everything, you can make it
a mindfulness exercise. So it's allabout like playfulness, it's all about using
the resources you have at home alreadyand integrating this and understanding that it's just

(33:51):
that like sometimes as parents also likeit's hard to be a mom. You
know, you want to play,like I want to play doctor, I
want to play. You're tired.You have a lot of things to think
about and do, from dinner,at grocery shopping to paying bills. It's
hard to be present. But thatis so true. When you give them

(34:14):
at least ten minutes, This isall what they want, right, ten
minutes of your full attention. Putyour phone away ten minutes every day.
I guarantee that communication that you wereasking before, it's going to change because
they're going to know that they're worthy. First of all, the messages are
sending and I'm worthy that my momis living her phone away from me,

(34:35):
and I'm more important than her phonebecause nowadays kids, that reminds me like
when I was doing coaching with Brandon, when I first did it at twelve
years old. My kids have hadcoaching forever, and I said, Brandon,
what do you want? Do youwant to go to dinner? No,
Mom, I just want you tobe at home, make dinner and
just be here. And I neverforgot that. Yeah, yeah, and

(35:00):
this is what they need. Sometimeswe focus so much on giving them the
news and bringing them to Disneyland andall these things, and this is what
I always like. Me and David. You know David, he's like Papa.
Yeah, you guys know everywhere,don't kid yourself, but he always
because of him. Yeah, forhim, it's like always he needs he

(35:23):
needs to be going, going,and he's like me, yes, yes,
he cannot stage his home. Andthis is something that he's learning as
well, because sometimes I tell himwe don't need to go anywhere. You
can just stay home, you knowand play some board games or something or
I mean I'm just learning that.Do you guys remember I would never be
at home. I mean Camela wouldlaugh at me, I'm where are you?

(35:45):
I know, you're not home.I couldn't stay home and I didn't
know what it was. And I'vestaged eighteen of my own houses and they
looked perfect, but I still couldn'tstay home and tell my tell Fernando and
he loves to be home, andI just I think what I did was
I gave into it and I realized, you know what, this is what's
really important, being talking, cookingwhatever, taking walks. This is part

(36:08):
of the journey. But it tookme fifty something years. That's why that's
awesome that you're saying it now topeople, because people are so worried about
the next thing, the next thing, the next thing, like me,
you know, but once you startdoing it, I can tell you it
definitely calms your nervous system down,like I can. I that's such great

(36:30):
advice. I mean, yeah,wow, and your body gets used to
it, like I always tell Likethe moments that were with okay, I
know, I get it. We'reall busy, and some of them they
would say, I don't even havefifteen minutes to sit down, and I
tell them, okay, just whenyou wake up, as soon as you
wake up, just take three dbreadths. I'm not asking you for more,

(36:51):
and of course then eventually you feelbetter and you hopefully you will increase
that from one minute to five minutesto ten minutes. But the reason why
I asked them to do in themorning is because the highest levels of portisol
are when you wake up, ofcourse, because you go to from a
sleeping state to one awakened state.So this search of portisol, which is
like the what gives us, likethe adrenaline, it's high. So if

(37:16):
you wake up and you're already hereand then you you look at your phone
as soon as you wake then yourlevels are going higher and then go from
there during your day, it's gonnabe hard for you to come down.
That's why it's important to do itbefore. That's why it's important to not
get calls at sex Sam wake upme. I'd never do that, but

(37:39):
I think it's really important, likelike in the morning, to take that
time for yourself, especially if you'reworking a lot or whatever you're doing,
or if you have kids or anythingat all, but like taking that time
in the morning, because that's whenmy life coach taught me, like how
you wake up, it's kind oflike how your day will go. So
you wake up like stressed out andthe whole day is like what the fuck's
happening? Sorry to cut, butor if you wake up like okay,

(38:01):
I'm going to take this five minutesto just sit here and like everything's fine,
Like then you kind of like easeinto your day. Yeah, that's
that's very true. Well, Iknow for a fact, we're gonna have
no phones when you do have kids. At dinner time, we're gonna do
mindful time, and we're definitely doingmeditation. I already have a whole list,

(38:24):
but you already do it. Iknow I do it, but you
know it's you know, sometimes Iforget. I'm like, oh, I'll
meditate tomorrow, and then I'm likegoing on exactly what you said. I
wake up and I'm like out ofthe door, and you know, Fernanda
doesn't really like to meditate, andI'm like, and Kimilla says to me,
so what that's him. You getyour ass down, lay down and

(38:44):
meditate because you need to be thebest you. So even if you have
a partner, you got to doit yourself. You know, I meditate.
I like to meditate. I liketo fall asleep at night to a
sleeping, meditation and help. Andwhen I do, I sleep all the
way through the night. When Idon't, I wake up. It's the
craziest thing. It really works.While Sandy, you're amazing. Well,

(39:07):
I cannot believe we got to haveyou on. And where can we find
your book? Yeah, we're dying. So my book is on my website,
doctor Sandy's another dot com and atAmazon. Amazing. I have the
bilingual version English and Spanish and English. Oh that's that's really important. That's
great that you did both. Imean, so many people are going to

(39:30):
when you come out. I knowyou did a book signing at Barnes and
Noble hopefully and do another one whenyou come back out will really push you.
We're so excited. You're amazing.You're such an inspiration to so many
people, including Nicole. Yes,thank you so much. I mean,
I can't believe you are who youare and you got to come on here.

(39:52):
We love you. Keep doing whatyou're doing. Oh, thank you.
I love you and I'm so happyI was here. Yes, thank you
Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know
Dateline NBC

Dateline NBC

Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com

CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist

CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist

It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.