Holistic hope from the other side of trauma and PTSD with Jason Sapp
Episode Links
In this episode we discuss...
- The health cost of PTSD
-The veteran cocktail
-How Jason overcame Diabetes
-Taking responsibility for your health
-Holistic approaches to health and wellness
-Holding on to hope
And so much more...
Jason Sapp’s Freedom Achievers
Savage Grace Coaching trauma release exercise programs
Soldiers marching
Transcript
The Work IN is brought to you by Savage Grace Coaching and Kinetic Grace Resilience. Personalized trauma release and resilience training that meets you where you are.
Ericka Thomas 0:00
Welcome back to the work in everyone. I'm your host Ericka and one of my goals on this podcast is to try to use these conversations to help normalize the experience of trauma so that people don't feel so alone in their experience. And so that when we encounter someone who has maybe a trauma story, or trauma history or maybe is struggling in that moment, we can hold space for them a little bit and maybe extend a little grace for what they are experiencing. And my guest today is a beautiful example of that and of how you he's using his own experience to help others. Jason Sapp is a retired Army sergeant and Iraq or combat veteran, and now a certified professional life coach and author, Jason guides people to more holistic alternative resources to wellness, with a focus on those that have struggled with physical, emotional and spiritual trauma. Jason learned how to face and then eliminate the darkness he acquired from childhood abuse and during his years in the service, through his transitional coaching programs, he's talking the talk after having walked a very long walk back to a healthier, happier life as a father, husband, son and friend. His aim is to give people solid tools, tips and techniques to move into the future with a renewed sense of hope to achieve their goals and dreams. Please welcome to the work in Jason SAP. Hey, Jason, thank you so much for being here today.
Jason Sapp 1:39
So excited to be here. Thank you so much for bringing me in.
Ericka Thomas 1:42
Absolutely. Okay, so we started this talk in the pre chat but I really want to share with people your backstory, what your experience was transitioning out of the military back into civilian life. And then what brought you to this more holistic Outlook with your own personal health and how you apply that for other people.
Jason Sapp 2:08
Perfect, thank you so much. Okay, so for me, we'll just kick off the story as I was getting out of the army. I think that's that's key. I was serving as a Calvary scout in in central Baghdad in 2006 Going into 2007 in our responsibilities were to essentially eliminate the insurgency there, right. And so I dealt with a lot of combat in Iraq. And I was returned back for my r&r to Germany where I was stationed. And upon returning there, through different medical exams and all the good stuff, they packaged things up nice and neat and decided to give me a medical discharge instead of returning me back to Baghdad to finish my tour of my unit. Post Traumatic Stress is is an expensive cost for the military. And so they did what they could to get me out before they would actually diagnose me with PTSD. So they gave me a diagnosis of panic disorder and kicked me out of the army with severance. And so that was a long battle because I had a plan career with the army was already in five years. I was I was a sergeant. So my goal was to go long term so that was a shocker for me. For one. The war itself was a shocker, the traumas that I was exposed to dead bodies and killings and just the things that are involved with four right and won't go into detail on that. Yes, at this point, but the traumas that I experienced and then having to come home, not only just just to come home because I was stationed in Germany, so all our stuff was in Germany, so we had to pack everything up from Germany. Move my my wife and our two daughters back to Texas, the whole thing was traumatic in and of itself and is expedited because the army was trying to get me out the door. And now I know why, of course they were trying to save costs on PTSD versus panic disorder, which is a significant difference. But point being getting back out of the army was a massive shift for me because you know, no longer doing the PT every day, right? I'm not hitting the gym. I was going to start at school tried to go to go to college for the first time out here. I was 30 years old just trying to restart life. And that was traumatic in and of itself dealing with so much of the PTSD from the war. And of course, the VA when I went to them it wasn't but a short period of time, the full diagnosis of PTSD, heart problems, the whole nine yards, hearing loss, you know, ringing in my ears from the explosions and IEDs the whole the whole gamut there. So that unfortunately led to a lot of struggles that I had, dealing with PTSD or the symptoms from PTSD is essentially the same with almost anybody with trauma, it just sometimes amplified depending on your experiences, right? And so the anxiety was high that the panic certainly was hitting nightmares and night terrors or at times were out, kick my wife in the middle of the night, you know, puncher, things of that nature, so she oftentimes would just go sleep with our daughter's just because it was painful to be in bed and I wouldn't even be conscious of it. Within three months of being home from the army, I was on about 16 different medications from the VA, which they have their own side effects, right. And when I started confronting the VA about hey, I'm not really liking this side effect makes me feel loopy or whatever the case may be. They're like Oh, no problem. I'll just put you on an island here. Let's swap this out. And you know, they did like six, eight weeks, you know, no real trial period to really understand what what a particular medication was doing or not doing. So that was a constant just changing up we call them better and cocktails. You know, the BH is constantly changing it up to find the right ones. And honestly, it just got to the point where I remember she was sitting with my psychiatrist there who was trying to manage the pills and, and I kind of got excited because at this period of time in my life, I never really challenged the medical industry never really thought differently from the traditional methods of our medical industry. And I kind of got excited, he's like, I'm going to give you an experimental medication. Here's an experiment that we're going to give you a try. The VA has been authorized to get this pharmaceutical try on veterans to see what the side effects look like. And at the time, I was like, oh, cool, you know, they think about me, they're caring about me. They're gonna try something experimental like you know, there's still hope or something, you know, like, that's just what were my mindset was, and unfortunately, that's not what the side effects were on this whole ordeal. Long story short, just battling with all of those struggles. I couldn't keep it up with school. My wife and I ended up separating we divorced. I was out of the army in August of oh seven divorce finalized in August of oh eight and unfortunately, it led to a deeper darker road for me, which led to an attempted suicide in October of 2008. Took about 200 and vn that of course is not healthy to do.
I woke up in the emergency room. My roommates had found me the next day. I was bleeding, vomit, breathing but unresponsive. So by the time they got me there, they were only able to pump about 78 of them out of me the rest of my body either threw up or digested and it was just a tough, tough situation. So long story short, coming out of that. My wife and I kind of got back together. We remarried in December of oh eight just we knew we needed each other to be able to get me out of that and kind of get on the positive side of life. And we didn't know what that would look like and it took years. It took a long time to get there. But one of the things I knew we needed to start ditching the pharmaceuticals right away. We had to try something else because the amount of side effects are still compounding with the fact that I'm still dealing with the trauma so the anxiety wasn't going away and the nightmares weren't going away. And of course, with daily ringing in my ears and the hearing loss like that's just a 24/7 constant battle of bringing up the trauma in my mind and the memories of everything that was going on. So transitioning out of that. We finally got to a point where I was almost done recall it. So I didn't have bad withdrawals. I was almost done, but about a year. And here I was in December 2010. And I go in did my normal lab work with the VA and it was actually the emergency room. doctor at the hospital, the VA hospital in temple Texas, called me at like 930 at night. He's like, hey, we need to get you to a hospital like right now your blood sugar levels are almost 600 You could literally collapse at any point like you need to get to the hospital and get some insulin and yet and I'm like I don't even know what you mean. And at the time I was actually getting a tattoo on my my room. My wedding band was so and he ended up asking the doc Hey, can I finish my tattoo for her? She's like, I don't advise it but you do you so I finished my tattoo and went to the hospital. And sure enough, my blood sugar's were so over 400 At that point at about 1030 That night, shorten that story up a little bit. There, battled with that for about a year, maybe even just a little bit more than a year. I was on two different types of insulin shots three times a day in my abdomen just to try to figure out how to get my insulin levels manage my blood sugar manage. I was on Metformin as well that still was just struggle struggling through that period I was able to wean off of all the pharmaceuticals for the site, psychological side of things, the mental health side, but then I was still struggling with this route and it wasn't really working. Even six months down the road. My blood sugar's were still 300 plus so doctors really couldn't figure it out. But eventually, towards the end of that first year, my numbers started decreasing to the point where the VA was okay with me starting to reduce the insulin amounts. Eventually.
Ericka Thomas 9:05
Can I ask you a quick question about that? I'm just curious. Did any of those doctors who were supervising the blood sugar and insulin did they advise you at all about any diet changes or any other lifestyle changes that would have supported your your recovery from from this?
Jason Sapp 9:28
I think that's a great question. And they have a program for obviously, those that end up getting diagnosed with diabetes to to work on the diet side, but honestly, it's a laughing joke to me because when I went through their program, it was like a three month program to help fix my diet. Essentially, it was just eat less red meat and less fried food that was about the end of it all and to watch your sugars that was essentially the summary of that program. And hopefully it's better now don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to bash the VA or anything of that nature, but that's what was presented to me at the time. And so I'd made those changes but it didn't really help you know, so I ditched the fried food but that doesn't change much when you're having a six pack to Dr peppers every day or whatever the case may be right they're not telling you the things that you really should be cutting out of your diet and really what you should be putting in so it wasn't a full picture. So to me it was enough for the VA to check a box off saying yeah, we're doing we're doing the diet side, but they that the end of the day that wasn't a focus for them.
Yeah, so. So after I got the insulin weighing down, everything looked okay, but then my numbers shot back up again. And so they put me back on the insulin again. And it was wasn't even a two month timeframe that I had offered the insulin altogether. I'm still on the Metformin which is a pill form. And I remember I was down at the San Antonio VA picking up my getting ready to pick up my my insulin from the pharmacy there at the VA hospital and I ran into a nice old lady that was there and she was picking up some prescriptions for her husband who was a veteran. And she asked me hey, what are you what are you? What are you here for and so I'm just getting my insulin. She's like, Why do you have diabetes? And nobody ever asked me that question before and I was like, Oh, just is what it is. You know, I don't know it. You know, that's what that's just where I'm at right now. And so Anyways, long story short, she shared with me a book that she encouraged me to read and of course, for me, I'm just in one ear and out the other. She encouraged me to do that by saying hey, this book is helping revolutionize people's way of overcoming diabetes. Okay, cool. You know how the story goes you know that just in one year not the other a couple months later just happened to be at Barnes and Noble. My daughter's a big readers are big avid readers. So we were buying some books for them. And lo and behold, here it was. It's called the blood sugar solution and it's by Dr. Mark Hyman, who's a functional medical doctor who approaches things from the more of a holistic side but yet still has the mind the medical side of it and can can show the science and the research behind it. And that's exactly what he did in that book. And it shocked me it completely shocked me on how the food industry doesn't really care about your health and the health industry doesn't really care about your food. And that was a perfect example with that question. In what was the VA doing with the diet side? It was enough to check the box off, right? And so I got the book that day, put it back on the shelf at home and didn't really pick it up for a few months. And finally, I had some free time, grab the book and I couldn't put it down. I was shocked at the research that we're talking 30 plus years of research that he coordinated from from verified universities across the world, just showing the issues that we have within our food industry, right and we need to fix our gut before we fix anything else and approach things from a medical side. So I went through that and kind of went through that plan. He kind of had a quasi plan for you to lay out and to start working with and I kind of just adopted it myself. So I started picking up a bunch of supplements that were recommended. Clean up the kitchen, my wife and I got some construction trash bags and literally trashed everything in our house and started from scratch. You know, the the organic side came into effect. You know, grass fed, you know, meats and things like that eventually came back into our diet. But cost was a huge factor too. We had no idea what we're walking into going from just regular store bought stuff to the organic side. So it was a gradual process but we started juicing doing protein shakes and meal replacement shakes just to jumpstart my health, see what we can do to get back on track as fast as we could. And we were super successful with it. And we can talk through supplements here in a minute and things of that nature. But essentially, by the start of 2012 I was over 300 pounds. I'm six three, so it's still relative, right? But even at that by October of 2012 When I saw my VA doctor again, I had lost 90 pounds. I was back to the same weight I was when I got out of the army. And my agency and blood sugar levels were completely normalized to the point where the doctor said hey, I can't technically diagnose you with diabetes anymore. And of course I can't tell you that you're cured but just continue doing what you're doing and call me if you need and I'm like done and then talk to that doctor again until we moved to another area and had to get a different doctor anyways with a BA so it's been an amazing journey in that realm. So that was really what kind of kick started things for me. You know, fixing my gut fixing the body and what we're putting in you know what junk in junk out right? So if you put good in, you're gonna get good out, same kind of concept. And so that started a long journey of really kind of restoring my body restoring my health, you know, dabbled in some amazing essential oils that really kind of helped me with my nightmare side of things and the anxiety side of things and really kind of saw things from a holistic perspective that nobody had ever shared with me before. So I was able to walk down this journey and I can confidently say it's been six years since I've had a wardrobe nightmare. Okay, we're trying to tighten our nightmares. And I've been diabetes free since 2012. So this is my 10th anniversary coming up here of being diabetes free. So it's been a phenomenal journey for me to then turn around and say, Well, how can I get back and so that's where the life coaching and all that good stuff came into perspective there?
Ericka Thomas 14:56
Yeah. Yeah, I mean, that is pretty incredible. And I did want to follow up a little because you I mean, you touched on it at the end, about kind of this side effect of really good healthy nutrition and getting that body connection back and how that affected your mental health. But how did that what was that process like? What I mean, it's not like an overnight like I'm gonna, you know, trash everything out of my pantry and eat organic and then the next day I'll feel better. What I mean it's, it's not like a pill. So how what was that process like, as far as the mental health side, especially, I mean, it can be so frustrating when you're dealing with the medical side of things and not seeing the results that you're looking for. And there's not really any answers to that. So can you can you shed some light on that for folks?
Jason Sapp 15:54
Yeah, certainly. There was actually a lot of small victories that can happen really fast when you make an adjustment to your diet. For me, I started sleeping a little bit better, right. I started to happen a little bit more energy during the day. Those are transformational when I'm having nightmares. Every single night and I'm getting maybe two hours of sleep but you know, you're not getting into REM at that point. So very low, lethargic all day long. So when I started putting all that good in, I did have those small victories that were very encouraging for me to just keep going. I knew that consistency would have been key that yes, there's no magic pill potion or nothing that's just gonna make this go away. And I can just be a different person tomorrow. So I knew that there was a lot of that that I needed to just endure through to see how that transformation would look. And because I was having these small victories on a consistent basis, I kept going with it and it encouraged me and he got to the point where to me I just had my regimen in I built out that regimen and I stuck with it. And that transformation was so tangible by the end of it all it that I was able to yes adapt what I did with my supplements, so I didn't need to take the same amounts in one sometimes in order to continue to maintain my health afterwards. So it was just a constant visual of what can I do today that will aid in my health and wellness versus detract from it or subtract from it even. And so when I approached it from a daily basis and the kissless and see what that it'll produce results all day long. So how that rolled out into dealing with PTSD and some of the symptoms with that is somewhat similar to what I was saying before. It helped me actually get a little bit more sleep, saw the nightmares started going down a little bit, even though they're still very, very frequent. Those were small victories for somebody that had already been battling with it for four years. Right. And so for me, that was that was just encouragement to just keep going. Aside from the energy during the day I started noticing the anxiety was decreasing during the day a little bit as well. And so again, just taking small victories and running with it and not getting discouraged by some of the setbacks when the panic attacks did still get or when the nightmare still did come. I didn't see those as is such negative. I just saw those. Okay, I've got still got some work to do. I'm going to I'm going to be consistent and persistent in my goals to overcome this and whatever that might take and whenever that might happen. I know from then on my life is going to be completely different. So if I could just get there, then I can continue moving and started doing something even more and bigger, better for my life. And so I would say that that was just kind of the biggest motivator was paying attention to my body and seeing where those small victories were and getting excited about that.
Ericka Thomas 18:27
Yeah, and it's so important to build up more awareness of what's going on in in your body and really notice it in the moment that hey, this is this is a little different than it was last time. And I wonder why that is. And your story really beautifully illustrates how you can replace those those nervous system responses that are sort of ingrained into the body when you're under prolonged stress and trauma. And what what is interesting to me is that you know, we want things to be fixed immediately, right? We want to just like when I'm feeling this way, I want to take something and then make that feeling go away. But when we're talking about like a stress response or nervous system response, whatever that anxiety or panic attack that's coming up that is a learned response from ages ago could have been like something from your childhood. So you're not going to be able to erase your history. So you just have to replace those those responses, which it sounds like that's what you were doing over that over that timeframe with you know, replacing all of this healthy food, healthy lifestyle choices. Every time you eat something differently than what you did before or drink something different. Like that affects everything in the body. So I really I think that was an amazing story and it should actually really bring a lot of hope to people that you don't have to take something out of a pill bottle to get what you're looking for. In fact, if you want it to last for longer, you have the ability to tap into that yourself.
Jason Sapp 20:21
Absolutely. That's exactly what Dr. Mark Hyman taught in his book and he's done of course, many other books since then. But there's the fact that our foods can literally turn on and turn off our genomes and our DNA sequencing, allowing us to create health or to create disease in our body. That was a no brainer to me like that's just a light bulb switch. If I just put good in, allow that food to actually provide the nutrients to turn those genes on and say well, yes, we like that. We're going to continue to create health here. Instead of putting all the bad that I used to put in that was turning on the genes in the DNA saying hey, no, this is going to create disease. My body was seeking to given me signals that I had no idea right? With diabetes, frequent urination is a factor. You're always thirsty, like there's so many warning signs our body gives us if we're not paying attention to our body. We may not know what's really deficient. So by again, kind of going at this from a big picture of put in as much good as you can allow your body to do what it's designed to do, which is heal itself and operate properly and go in and turn on those genes and those DNA sequences to create more health. It's a multiplying domino effect or exponential is a better word for that. That can catapult you to a completely healthy lifestyle. Eliminating nearly 100 pounds in weight. You know getting myself back to a place where I could run again, right you can actually exercise and did the gym and get back to my old beautiful army lifestyle in that in that regard was a huge transformation. It wouldn't have happened had I not just taking those daily steps and saying you know what, I don't know what these supplements are going to do the dots Dr. Mark Hyman said it's good. And I took that as a challenge and I ran with it and ran with it until I could see those tiny victories didn't it just motivated me to keep on going and that's just a no brainer, right there.
Ericka Thomas 22:04
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I think sometimes people get hung up on the, on this idea that you know, the doctor didn't tell them to do it or to take it that they can't do that they don't really know best, you know, like they don't know best what to put into their body.
Jason Sapp 22:24
I'm just gonna say that's that's super important right there because I think in our culture in our modern culture today, we have a problem with experts, okay? We depend on experts versus just getting the knowledge for ourselves. Like, you don't have to have a PhD to go figure out how your body works. Like I can go pick up some books and figure that out. That's exactly what I did. And so you see that on a massive scale across the board with the last few years you see this within business, you see this within financing, everybody's depending on that one expert to provide a solution when they really can't actually do that. Yeah, they have a lot of knowledge. They're gonna guide you, they're gonna provide some good stuff. There's a lot of good tools in the medical industry. I love medical industry for their trauma responses, right? We need them for the the accidents, we need them for the emergency issues and things like that. But at the end of the day, like we don't have to depend on that one doctor to say so we're not say so in order to get the facts from the situation.
Ericka Thomas 23:17
Right and, and an important thing to to note is that each and every human being is really really unique. We're all like snowflakes, hopefully not snowflakes, but we are like them in that how you respond to a certain combination of supplements. Jason is going to be different than how I respond to the same combination of supplements and same with every drug and so we have to be willing to kind of let ourselves try things and then if they don't work, it's okay to not do that anymore and try something different and maybe shift and try something new, something different for you and to take into account those differences from people and speaking speaking as a female I know you know, sometimes there's a lot of health advice out there but a lot of the tests and and and studies that back those things up are done on like 25 year old men. And so what works for 25 year old man does it work for 50 year old woman and vice versa, either, right? You know, you can you can shift it around. So you have to be a little bit savvy when you're taking in that. That health and wellness advice. It's really kind of tricky and sometimes overwhelming to find the right advice out there or the right information like what's the real story behind everything. So I love that you brought up Dr. Hammonds book. Are there any other resources that you would suggest for people like if they're really curious about what you know, what to look for, we touched on okay, what kind of symptoms maybe stand out? Yeah, certainly.
Jason Sapp 25:13
Well, there again, it's going to there's going to be lots of different resources depending on what is the specific issue that somebody might be dealing with. But what I can say for certain is even if you're not dealing with diabetes, the blood sugar solution is such a key book for us to understand because it gets us to wrap our mind around what it is that we are actually eating and what we need to be eating, whether you're skinny and not dealing with obesity, or if you're overweight and dealing with diabetes or not because Dr. Mark Hyman pointed out in his book that you could actually be both and still be unhealthy. Weight on the scale doesn't indicate health so it's important to understand what it is that we're putting in our body in order to see that output. And so it's important for us to look at that. So I'd say that's the foundational for us, for anybody that's looking at starting off on a journey and changing up their diet. I'd start there and of course, he's got a handful of other books that are phenomenal with that. He talks about the healthy fats in one book he talks about you know what kind of meats are good and another like he goes, he goes that direction. So any of his books I definitely would recommend in that regard. But like you said, with with everybody's body being different, again, the whole concept of turning to a quote unquote expert, they're still trying to write they have they may have some some factual in some experience that adds to that degree, right. But at the end of the day, you know, when a doctor goes out and wants to start his own business, what does he do? He goes into a practice, he is practicing medicine, right? No offense to anybody in the medical world, but you're you kind of go into a practice and you're, you're trying to figure out what's right for your patient to, you know, whether it's this pill or that thing or maybe a surgery here or whatever the case may be they're they're trying to figure it out. But the problem with the expert crisis that I'm talking about here is when so many people just abdicate their responsibility in that we as individuals should be just as responsible as we placed on our doctors to create health, that when we do that, we give up that authority that that responsibility for our own health, where all we do in that is just trusting whatever our doctor says and then you get stuck with well, what if what he does for you doesn't actually work?
Ericka Thomas 27:17
I love that. I love what you just said because it's so true. We do abdicate our own responsibility for health, as if someone else that you just get to talk to 10 for 10 minutes could know your body better than you. Yeah.
Jason Sapp 27:38
And that's it. That's why I felt about it when I got to it and we made that decision to start throwing everything away in our kitchen. It was liberating to take responsibility back and say, You know what, whether the doctors are right or wrong, I need to be responsible enough. To know what it is that I'm putting in my mouth. And if I can't make that decision, then I'm abdicating it to somebody else. And that applies across the board and in our world that goes to finance and business and all kinds of decisions, relationships and marriage. We can't abdicate what's supposed to be our responsibility to somebody else and expect the results that we want to want to have a life and so if we just take charge and do what we need to do to look out for our own best interests. involve the people that you need to if that means doctors great, bring in the doctors, bring in a life coach, bring in somebody holistic too, but get around and get all that information together and you make the best educated decision for yourself. And I encourage that with everybody you whether you're battling with cancer or not like don't get that second opinion, right? Like go go find out get the truth about the situation that you're faced with, so that you can then be armed with the right choices before you that you can make and take ownership of that and move forward in your life.
Ericka Thomas 28:47
Yeah, and I would just take a moment and just encourage people because if you are in a moment of crisis, a health crisis, that is like a low moment and it's not really you're not always at your best, you're not always at the in a place where you you really feel empowered to go get that second opinion or you know, to chase down all of the doctors that you want to try and all of these things so, so maybe find a friend or someone who can advocate for you because when you're in that crisis, it can be really really difficult. I mean, you're not in a good place. And so having some kind of someone to advocate for you to deal with the insurance to deal with all of the medical side and and so that you can focus on healing. So I would just throw that out there just in the moment,
Jason Sapp 30:04
I would even support that too with even with Dr. Mark Hyman mentioned in his blood sugar solution, but it's the fact that community can be a greater influence on our health than any hospital or medical system. The people that we put into our community and the circle of influence that that has can dramatically change. I've seen it with cancer patients. I've seen it with PTSD victims, like the whole nine yards. It's the community that you have around you, it's not to isolate yourself even more, right? But by building yourself up with those that are willing to be there with you hold you up and you need to be held up and encourage you to keep moving forward. That has a greater influence on our and our outcome than it does going to a doctor's depending on that result.
Ericka Thomas 30:43
Yeah, I'm so glad you brought that up. People are we are made to be in community we are made to be in connection with each other genetically and you know, in every way, we are definitely tribal beings and and you can watch people just kind of waste away in isolation. And it's one of the terrible outcomes from the last couple of years when we had so many people in isolation. In uncertainty. All of the ingredients for for terrible stress response was right there imposed on us for the last two years in the pandemic, so
Jason Sapp 31:25
Oh, absolutely. And I talked to a lot of veterans that were like, Oh, you guys are just getting used to isolationism. I'm used to this for 10 years of being after the war, you know, and so it's like, Wait, let's turn the whole conversation around guys. Like nobody should be isolating like that. Because at the end of the day, that just makes the situation harder.
Ericka Thomas 31:42
Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So, uh, you have written a couple books. Jason and CO written a couple books. Can you tell us a little bit about those?
Jason Sapp 31:54
Yeah, absolutely. So kind of kind of finishing my victory story that is, as I overcame all of those health obstacles in really kind of dealt with my trauma and that was a long journey. That involved again, just staying on that natural, holistic route. It worked amazing for me from the supplements to the oils to just who I had in my community who had in my corner. And so I in 2012, I went back to college. So from the time of my attempted suicide on October 8, I dropped out of college and so I spent that four years just trying to figure my life back out. So once I got on the other side of that in 2012, I started back in got my Bachelor's in business and and decided to continue with my education and ended up earning my master's in theological studies, both from Liberty University and that was transformative for me and when I completed my degree, I really didn't feel the calling, so to speak, to go into to be in a pastor or in the ministry and that nature, kind of the traditional church route, I guess you could say for that type of a degree. I really felt called to be in the life coach and I felt getting down into the nitty gritty and a dark world of what it was that I went through to help people kind of see the light in the darkness and find that out, though. And so ended up getting certified as a life coach in 2018. So in the midst of finishing my master's and going through my life coaching certification, co wrote a book with Ryan Watson, who kind of approaches things from the natural psychological perspective. And looking at how we can incorporate natural holistic remedies such as essential oils, it's called the Miracle of essential oils, specifically, but really kind of covers a whole broad spectrum from tapping and EMDR just a lot of those natural holistic rounds that are certainly available and produce amazing results for those that are that battling with trauma and PTSD. And so that was a great book that came out and 17 then and then turned around in the following year and released my book that I co wrote with my wife just to kind of give a deeper in depth storyline on what we went through, but more specifically on what we can do as individuals to really walk through the steps and I hate call them steps but a lot of people associate things when you when you go through a program. For me I call it phases of healing. So as you go through and you work through these phases of healing from trauma, it requires a lot of work to go through. So it's amazing to go through that and write that book out, you know, because you got to deal with fear, shame, grief, guilt, forgiveness and forgiveness, right. So I kind of walked people through on how to deal with all those topics. And it was amazing to have my wife command and she wrote her side of the story, which really helped create a lot of balance. So what I say it may not necessarily be what she saw. And so she was able to see that and write that into that book. And that's called fortitude. And so fortitude was a huge journey for us together as a couple, right? And see the opposite to that and kind of just partnering that with my life coaching programs that I've created since then, to really kind of help people really walk through each of those phases that it takes to get through onto the other side of trauma because I'm personal witness of it and a testimony of it like you can get on the other side of PTSD and trauma. It's a journey and it's it's sometimes not pretty and you may not know where you're at in the journey, but if you keep moving forward and know what you need to work on, that you'll get there to the other side and I've literally seen 1000s of people walk through with my coaching program. And seeing seeing that change and shift in their life for all the better.
Ericka Thomas 35:10
Yeah, and that is that is really amazing. Your story, your relationship story with your wife. I think that it's so helpful. Is there anything that you can share with military families military couples, who may be going through the same kinds of things right now, in some way? To kind of give them a little bit of guidance.
Jason Sapp 35:38
Yeah, perfect. First and foremost, the biggest factor for us as a couple was to never give up hope. And despite the fact that we did separate and divorce for a short period of time, we quickly realized the error of our ways in that and not everybody's going to make it granted. There's going to be a lot of folks that has been but I think traditionally the the veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have seen 65% divorce rate. And officers are even worse. I think they're at 5% divorce rate, at least in the army side of things. So there's going to be divorce involved, but when you look at it from a family perspective, and you look at it from a couple perspective, don't lose hope. For one there's a way you may not know what it is right now, but there's a way so don't lose sight of that you grab a hold of that as the one thing that you can get you can lean your hope into in order to create that path to get onto the other side. And to get connected community as you know, in the military, it's community to right. And so it's important to stay connected to a community of people that will be there to support each other. The veteran community is amazing. You know, for the first couple of years of getting out isolated from even the veteran community. I was kind of I had I kind of got the stigma side of mental health in the military. When I was discharged my unit kind of turned it back on me and so did their wives. To my wife. And so that was a very difficult season for both of us because we lost all of the friends that we had made and in the you know, with the buddies that I was basically fighting in insurgency with in Baghdad, alternative backs on me so I isolated I don't encourage that. I want you to get connected to a community of like minded veterans that can pour into you and support you and be there when you have those dark seasons because they're going to come and I'm sure they've already experienced it. So that's going to be absolutely critical to do that. And so, again, there's there's a there's a path and a way to get through this whether you choose to go down a pharmaceutical route or a combination of that was some holistic routes or goes straight, holistic, like there's a path that can create a better life for each and every one that's been through trauma been through the level of traumas that we've been through in combat. And then like likewise on the flip side of that for the wife side, and for the kids side, life doesn't have to always be that way either, you know, and so it's important for us to all the farms together as a community and really kind of see what that path looks like. I encourage you all to get connected to life coaches either through through me or whoever else that needs to be but get connected so that you can create that path for yourself.
Ericka Thomas 38:01
Beautifully said Jason, thank you so much for sharing that and I just want to thank you for being here. Before we wrap up I always ask my guests what their personal work in looks like. On a day to day basis. This podcast is called the work in and a work in is something you do just for yourself something that brings you joy or balance.
Jason Sapp 38:26
Oh goodness, there's there's lots of little things right. I like looking at those little things because they can mean so much, much like I had such small victories early on in my in my journey to wholeness again. Those small victories meant a lot to me. So it's the little things I love spending time with my family. Every day that I get back in from from being out in the communities and where I'm doing my work like it's great to just come home embrace my wife and embrace my daughters and we're about to enter a whole new season. My oldest is about to go to college in August. So this is going to be a whole new season for us in our family as well. But just staying rooted to that but ultimately my passion continues to draw from helping other people. I love doing the one on one coaching group coaching I love just getting involved with people and staying connected because I spent so many years isolated and withdrawn from from the world like to me reestablishing relationships and maintaining relationships and connections with people is so critical. I wish there was more hours in a day, you know, and I didn't used to look at life like that. I used to look at life like game length is day over, you know, like I can't I can't just be nighttime already or I can't the sun just come up already or whatever the case may be. So for me, there's just not enough hours in the day anymore. So I just lean on those things that really draw into my passion, which is my family and my work. So that's kind of where I'm at.
Ericka Thomas 39:41
That's awesome. That's awesome. So tell people if listeners wanted to get in touch with you. Where would they find you, Jason?
Jason Sapp 39:48
So I am all over social media. So you can find me on Instagram Facebook, Tik Tok. You can find me you can even just start straight from my website at Jason sap.com. That's probably the easiest way to start. I've got everything linked through there with my social medias too. So you don't have to try to go hunt and search for for me on those rounds. You can just click through straight from my website at Jason sap.com. So, j s o n s ap p.com. So that's the best way to get connected with me.
Ericka Thomas 40:15
Perfect. And I'll have that linked in the show notes for you. Is there anything coming up? Do you have any programs coming up?
Jason Sapp 40:23
Yes, I'm actually in the middle of working on my new program freed from trauma so that's going to be coming up so I want you guys to get connected to my website for sure to find that program. I'm going to actually do this program is more of a do it yourselfer type program. I've done them I've done a similar program like it in the past that was super successful. I did it in more of a group setting and I kind of just ran group after group after group. And one of the benefits I see to doing kind of a do it yourselfer is that so many people are super busy in life right now. And sometimes especially with trauma, you may find that you're two o'clock in the morning is your best time to watch something like that. And of course I'm not going to be able to do that for you in a live setting. So I'm excited about it. So I'm working on the recordings as we speak. So my goal is to get that launched sometime in May. So be sure to look out for that. And then I'll be doing some other workshops that will be live and in person in May going into June as well. So be sure to look at look me up on my website and follow the details there.
Ericka Thomas 41:20
Awesome. That sounds fantastic. Well, we'll definitely link to that stuff. Make sure that you guys check it out. And with that I will thank you so much Jason, for joining me on the podcast is wonderful speaking to you. And yeah, and thank you my curious listener. I will see you all next time. Hey, everyone Ericka here I wanted to pop back on real quick and invite you to a special free yoga for stress relief Class series that I am offering in the Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio area. We are going to be meeting on May 14 And June 25 at 9am at a beautiful facility called Aberlin Springs, the class is free. It's going to be roughly 75 minutes in length. And you'll get a full length, vinyasa flow class that is designed specifically to help reduce the symptoms of chronic stress and that includes anxiety, muscle tension, panic attacks, we're going to practice some really helpful breathing techniques, you'll get that mind body connection and towards the end along with an extended final relaxation that includes guided meditation, you'll get a chance to practice literally shaking off some of your stress, tension and trauma through that self induced tremor and trauma release. If you are interested in jumping in on this free class opportunity I want you to head over to savage Grace coaching.com right there on the homepage. You will see a button to register for this free class, click that button and then choose either may 14 or June 25 And let's connect. I hope you can make it thanks again everyone and I'll see you next time on the work in
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
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The Work IN is for fitness professionals and refugees from the body brand nation who are ready to make trauma informed instruction the gold standard of professionalism across the industry.
If you’re looking for a way to expand your professional credibility within your scope of practice and burnout proof your business with a deeper understanding of your own stress response. Learn how to shake off stress mentally, physically and emotionally and translate the language of stress for yourself and others. I’d love to connect!