We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sandy Cowen a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Sandy, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.
I’ve written three books from age 74 to 78; the book before those came ten years prior. All four of those books were triggered by a significant risk I took nearly 40-years ago. Making the choice I did, made it possible for me to become an expert in a field I knew nothing about before. Two of those books are on holistic healing, the first with impressive endorsements.
In retrospect, it’s crazy because I never considered myself a writer in my profession, but the impact of what happened after I took that first leap of faith changed my health, my life and compelled me to share that information with others. Now, at 80, I can honestly say that there’s something to the adage—no risk, no reward.
It wasn’t just my health that changed, my healing journey opened the door for another life changing experience that led to the two other books that followed. This is what started it all and the one choice I made that set a new path for my life that followed.
In my late 30’s, I was quite successful in the advertising and public relations business, was a community leader and had also built quite a name for myself, yet I wasn’t immune to adversity. It was at that time when my first major illness struck with a vengeance.
What caused that illness was the stress of running my own fast growing, undercapitalized business for eight years as a single mom with a lousy lifestyle. After years with countless other stressors, too, I developed the first of several chronic or life-threatening autoimmune diseases, rheumatoid arthritis. Of course, I found the very best rheumatologist to treat me but over 18-months, my condition really didn’t improve—my meds just kept getting stronger.
Being results-oriented in my professional life, I knew what I was doing wasn’t working and finally walked away. That was a huge risk for me because I had no idea what I’d do next. I had been submerged in the allopathic world all my life, was serving on the Board of Directors of a major hospital chain and a couple related healthcare entities and was totally ignorant about any other form of care. Still, I realized that what I was going wasn’t working since I was constantly in pain, immobile much of the day and it was becoming more difficult to run the business I’d built. That’s when I took the risk.
I jumped feet first into the world of natural and alternative medicine and amazingly I was led to the answers I needed and, in the process, learned about my body’s own healing power while I found wisdom from the most unexpected sources.
I kept this personal journey to myself but people who knew about my health struggles began asking questions about why I looked so good considering I was experiencing diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, leukemia, chronic allergies and psoriasis over those years. None were easy to disguise to those who knew me. Not long after, hyperthyroidism, neutropenia and leukemia for a second time, also popped up, but from those conditions I also recovered naturally.
My experiences and the amazing results I had compelled me to write my first book, a holistic healing handbook of sorts, not prescriptive but rather process oriented. I had become an expert in that process so years later, it wasn’t surprising that another book followed. After the Covid experience, my second book in that genre was published in 2023. That book helped empower individuals who had lost faith in the institution of medicine, were overcome by fear, and felt impotent over their own healthcare. That second book focused on prevention, how to access our body’s wisdom and how to navigate the overwhelming world that lies outside of conventional medicine to either add to their current treatments or replace them.
Not finished with risk taking in my life, those healing journeys opened the door to yet another risk I was about to take that has transformed me and my life in amazing ways.
The important lesson here is that risk taking is nothing more than embracing change. Change always brings new adventures and experiences that are often surprising! The results of my healing journey helped me stay healthy so I could age youthfully, have boundless energy, and continue to produce at a level even my younger friends envy. Today, I live in gratitude with a life that’s filled with peace and love. It shows.
So, dear friends, when faced with a choice to take a risk or not let the adrenalin flow and accept the challenge! Life is a great adventure if you do—and it’s certainly more fun than growing old with regrets and wondering, “what if ……”
Sandy, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
The initial risk with my healing journey opened the door to where I am today because I gained additional gifts in the process. Before I explain those gifts, let us glance back at my career history and how my life has evolved.
I was a professional in the advertising and public relations field. I was actually the first woman in Arizona to own a full-service advertising agency—a firm I founded in 1973 with no partners or investors and $3,000 I borrowed. It eventually became one of the leading agencies in Arizona and after decades, I became a national and international consultant helping position major corporations for dynamic markets. I retired in 2003, or so I thought.
During those years, I led a parallel life that I described earlier involving my health and the dramatic results of my healing journey that directly led to two of the books I’ve written. However, that journey produced another surprising gift which became the subject of two additional books and the current articles I write weekly on Substack.
How that gift developed was through the various healing disciplines I used to recover from the many health issues I faced. The most pressing of which was pain. To help mitigate that, I found that quieting my mind and learning to live in the present moment helped—especially at night when the painful attacks intensified. The quiet mind soon became a habit for me and soon I realized that when one’s mind is constantly still, it’s easy to hear the whispers.
For me, that gentle guidance soon gave way to messages from souls who were stuck in transition that I helped cross over. Then, direct messages from a variety of Ascended Masters, angels, guides and yes, even God came—and I wrote down each word, filing those messages away. Only a couple very close friends knew about that gift since craziness like that could have ruined my decades-long professional reputation. So, for 35-years, I kept everything to myself. I had become a reluctant medium.
Then, in 2018, my only child, my son, Jon, passed away, I heard Jon call out during his ascension and we stayed connected over the years as he shared his regrets, used the link between us to make amends and to dialogue with me soul to soul in a way we never could do when he was alive. Jon’s death was the catalyst for my second book in 2020, this time in the spiritual genre. Now, with my gift no longer a secret, I was out of the closet, so to speak.
I thought taking that risk would impact my impeccable reputation, but by that time I was semi-retired. Still, my personal reputation was excellent as well, so I had doubts. Surprisingly, it affected me very little. Instead of judging, people seemed curious and I guess because I’d always been a credible sort, they never doubted my gift at all. They just embraced it to varying degrees which was fine with me.
After the book about Jon and myself was published, many readers ordered multiple copies to give to friends and some read it two, three and four times because it reminded them of how close their loved ones really are, helped some eliminate their fear of dying and for others opened the possibility that an afterlife truly exists.
The way I have always used my gift is unusual, so I consider myself a nontraditional medium. I don’t refer to myself as a medium nor do I readings. I also never ask for any soul to come. Instead, I’m focused on being a spiritual scribe who dutifully writes down every word I hear, from souls who come to me voluntarily. Then not long after Jon’s book came out, hundreds of legendary souls began coming to me with messages they wanted to share—famous people that everyone knew from ancient times to contemporary celebrities and from all walks of life. So, I wrote a second book in the spiritual genre that was published in 2021.
As I mentioned before, three of my four books were written when I was 74 to 78. Now, for the past two years, I write weekly on Substack bringing the messages of the 400 iconic souls who have shared with me to date. My Substack is called The Soul Report.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
I’ve faced resilience throughout my life. The first quick example was my ability to change course and rebound from a host of illnesses that could have ended my life early or left me disabled in one way or another. The result of sticking with the path I chose—made it possible for me to not only heal myself but eventually help others heal in their lives too.
The second quick example is when my only child died. I barely had time to grieve because Jon and I stayed connected in the most extraordinary way and I embraced that new connection instead of grieving over no longer having his physical presence. It was through our ongoing dialogue that my first spiritual book came about which helped me heal and subsequently helped others face their grief easier, realize their loved ones weren’t that far away and helped mitigate their fear of death.
In both cases, instead of giving up, I faced the challenge by embracing what was presented to me and both times something miraculous happened as a result. I call that the Rubber Band Effect on which I’ve spoken to groups several times.
I’ve had numerous occasions where adversity could have defeated me but there was always a different way to manage it, sometimes by just refusing not to fail and soldering on. In all cases facing the challenge has alway ended up elevating me either professionally or personally in the long run. There is always growth that occurs when a person has the courage to hang in there until the issue is dealt with satisfactorily.
We always have a choice. It’s to become a victim or a victor. The big payoff comes with the latter.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
Pivoting in business or in life is always the path to success. The product life cycle illustrates that with its four stages: introduction, growth, maturity and decline.
If a person or leader of a company doesn’t pivot in response to the market during the maturity cycle and make the necessary changes, decline is inevitable. A business that wants continual growth has to learn to pivot when needed. That can’t happen without embracing change.
It’s the same with life. I’ve always lived by the old saying, grow or die. My life has pretty much been an example of continual growth. Without the changes I made in my healthcare, I would have died much too soon. Without being open to my son’s passing and embracing our new connection—instead of dismissing its signals— I’d have withered away from grief.
So for continued success in life or business, learning to pivot is a must.
Contact Info:
- Website: sandy@sandycowen.com
- Instagram: sandycowenauthor
- Facebook: Sandy Cowen-Author
- Other: Substack – The Soul Report – Sandy Cowen
