416 Nervous System Regulation, Intuition & the Art of Human Connection with Sarah McCready of Illuminated Joy

**Episode 416:** Rain or Shine Podcast
**Guest:** Sara McCready, Founder Illuminated Joy

From Shy Village Girl to Connection Queen: Nervous System Healing & the Art of Illuminated Joy with Sarah McCready

Episode 415: Rain or Shine Podcast
Guest: Jen Govier, Founder of HUX Underwear

Quick Summary

Sarah McCready, founder of Illuminated Joy, joins host Kelsey for a rich conversation about what it truly means to operate from a place of peace rather than hustle. From charming the village grump as a five-year-old to building a thriving mentorship business after 20+ years in corporate financial services, Sarah shares the real story behind her business name, why nervous system regulation is the missing piece for most entrepreneurs, and how the simple act of genuine human curiosity can become your most powerful business superpower.

In This Episode:

How Sarah and Kelsey met in a café — and why that moment perfectly captures Sarah's gift for connection
The origin story of Illuminated Joy, from red light therapy and Reiki to a transformational mentorship for women
What "the dark night of the soul" taught Sarah about healing, patterns, and creating a new life
Why thinking beyond the five senses is no longer "woo" — and what science now says about nervous system regulation
How hustle culture keeps us stuck in a primal state and disconnected from our intuition
Simple, accessible nature-based practices for entrepreneurs who feel stalled or burned out
The surprising reason most people don't connect others — and how to build this as a skill
Why getting outside (rain or shine!) is one of the most neuroscientifically sound things you can do for your business

Watch The Youtube Video

Key Takeaways:

Your nervous system drives 90% of your reactions. If you're not learning to regulate it, you're unknowingly operating from fear and stress rather than clarity and creativity.
Entrepreneurship is the biggest personal development journey you will ever go on. Unresolved wounds, limiting beliefs, and past patterns will surface — and that's actually an invitation to heal.
Nature is not optional — it's regulatory. Getting outdoors, breathing fresh air, and moving your body recalibrates your nervous system and literally brings both brain hemispheres online.
Genuine connection starts with curiosity about others, not yourself. Shifting the spotlight from yourself to the person in front of you is the foundational practice of meaningful networking.
Start with one small thing and do it for a month. Whether it's a daily walk, deep breathing, or attending one event — momentum builds from commitment to consistency.

Memorable Quotes:

"Those that shine the brightest have experienced a lot of dark — and I am no exception to that rule."
— Sarah McCready
"When we are in that stuck or stalled place, trying to create a whole new habit that hasn't been familiar to you isn't going to fly. Your body and your mind will resist it. The biggest thing you can do is just get out in nature."
— Sarah McCready
"The only way you can tap into that inner knowing consciously is to give yourself space and silence and time to reflect inward."
— Sarah McCready

Resources & People Mentioned:

Sara’s Instagram:@illuminatedjoy
LinkedIn:S a rah McCre ady
Sara’s Facebook:Sarah McCready
Sara’s Website:illuminatedjoy.com
Kelsey’s Website:KelseyReidl.com
Kelsey’s Instagram:@KelseyReidl
3 Easy Techniques to Inner Calm (Free resource from Sarah): https://www.illuminatedjoy.com/3easytechniquestointernalcalm
GUSS — Sarah's acronym for God, Universe, Source, Spirit (the language of your inner knowing, however you name it)

About the Guest

Sarah McCready is the founder of Illuminated Joy, a transformational mentorship practice for women. After 20+ years in corporate financial services and a personal healing journey through what she calls "the dark night of the soul," Sarah combined her early work with red light therapy and Reiki into a powerful six-month, one-to-one mentorship program focused on nervous system regulation, subconscious healing, and authentic connection. She is known for her extraordinary ability to see people, build bridges between them, and help women move from survival mode to a life of purpose, peace, and joy.

Kelsey: Sarah, welcome to the Rain or Shine podcast. I'm so excited to have you here. We actually have a funny origin story. A few years back, I walked into a local healthy café, just expecting to sit there, have a coffee, eat a salad — and then this glowing woman sits down beside me and strikes up a conversation. You were just the most genuine, kind, and authentic person. I don't always immediately become friends with strangers, but you gave me your contact info, we followed each other on Instagram, and from that moment we've circled each other's orbits, supported each other, worked together, and you've invited me to your events. I'm really excited to dissect some of the superpowers that I think are so natural to you. Thank you for being here.
Sarah: Thank you, Kelsey. I actually blame Freddy for our meeting — blame and thank him. He was being a matchmaker that day.
Kelsey: He was! That really is who you are, isn't it? It felt authentic because it's genuinely who you are.
Sarah: Absolutely. I've always been curious about people and their stories. I think so many of my connections have been built because I genuinely want to know who you are and what your story is. I love humans. I love to know where they're at and what they're exploring, and saying hello has always been my way of connecting with others.
I notice that in this day and age — and we're recording this in 2026 — a lot of people have the opposite energy. They're walking around shoulders hunched, on their phone, very closed off. Not curious at all.
Kelsey: That's exactly what I'd contrast you with — you're open, bright-eyed, curious, paying attention to the world. Is that something that comes naturally to you, or did you cultivate it as a skill to make friends, build relationships, and grow a business? When do you remember that skill being developed in yourself?
Sarah: I've actually been reflecting on this a lot in preparation for our conversation today. Years ago, I had developed a story that I was shy. I was at dinner with a girlfriend — probably over ten years ago — and I shared this with her. She immediately pushed back: "I think you need to check that story, because I don't see that at all." I was surprised, because at the time I was experiencing a lot of social anxiety and had just consciously started attending networking events through the corporate world, around 2012 to 2014.
So I went to my mom and asked her if I had been shy as a little girl. She started laughing hysterically. She said we had lived in a literal village when I was growing up, and that I had charmed the village grump. I would walk the streets, say hello to all the neighbors, and go visit them by myself — at four and five years old.
So the short answer is: I think a lot of this is natural. It's part of my personality and character. I came into the world with this curiosity about connecting with other humans, getting to know them, and bringing light into the world.
Kelsey: And today you have a business called Illuminated Joy. Is there any connection to your joyful ability to illuminate even the town grump? Take us back — where did that name come from?
Sarah: It's a really fun origin story. There's an expression that says those who shine the brightest have experienced a lot of dark — and I am no exception to that rule. There have been many years of darkness and many things I've moved through, both personally and professionally.
I was in corporate financial services for over 20 years, in a high-stress, male-dominated environment. Personally, I experienced four specific long-term toxic relationships. It was through the breakdown of the fourth and final one that I moved through the darkest chapter of my life — what they call the dark night of the soul. I went inward and began to examine why a particular pattern kept repeating, and how I could shift out of a victim status. I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. I was ready to heal it, resolve it, dissolve it, and create a new life and a new way of relating to others.
That emotional, mental, and physical healing journey brought about Illuminated Joy.
About ten years ago, I ventured out to create my first business in the aesthetics industry, using what is now known as red light therapy. I had been introduced to red light and infrared light back in 2016 and invested in a system. I began using it on clients for facials and physical body healing — all while still working in corporate. Then in 2019, I began using the lights more extensively alongside Reiki energy work.
One day, a client told me she was going to put my name in her phone under "lights and joy, because that's what I feel after a session with you." In May of 2020, when I left corporate and needed to name the business, that story came back to me immediately. "Lights and Joy" resonated, but it didn't quite roll off the tongue. So I played with the words, consulted a dictionary and thesaurus, and landed on Illuminated Joy — lights became illuminated, and there we are.
Kelsey: I had no idea red light therapy was part of your past and that you were such an early adopter! How has the business evolved from 2020 to today? Who do you help, and what do you offer?
Sarah: Illuminated Joy was originally going to be Reiki and light therapy, full stop. But as I worked with clients, it became abundantly clear that something much deeper was happening in every session. It was Reiki and conversation. Then I realized it was coaching, mentorship, transformation, and expansion.
Because 2020 brought lockdowns, I couldn't see clients in person for much of 2020 and 2021. In 2021, I recognized that I needed to become an online business or there simply wouldn't be a business in another year or two. I began creating a mentorship program based on the patterns I was seeing in client conversations. Each person's experience was slightly different, but there was enormous commonality among them.
In 2022, I launched that mentorship program and began serving clients through Reiki and/or mentorship. By the end of 2022, I closed my private Reiki practice and shifted to mentorship exclusively. Today, I offer a six-month, one-to-one mentorship program for women, alongside workshops and masterclasses. I'm also beginning to explore a group program as the business continues to evolve.
Kelsey: One of the themes in your mentorship is thinking beyond the five senses — whether in entrepreneurship, leadership, motherhood, or high performance. Why do you think this conversation about leaning into energetics and intuition is one that women specifically are open to exploring right now, especially as we try to operate at our best in an overstimulating world?
Sarah: There has been so much shift just in the last year around this conversation, and it's an exciting time. Seven years ago, this wasn't talked about. It was dismissed as "woo," or considered spirituality that wasn't for most people — because we live so much in our heads that we don't recognize there's more than our five senses. Culturally and societally, we just deal with what's in front of us.
What I've noticed changing is that there is now far more talk about nervous system regulation, and how it is a vital component to optimal performance — whether you're a high performer, a mompreneur, just starting out, or further along. If you're not learning about your nervous system and how it drives roughly 90% of your reactions, you're going to be swept up into high-stake emotions that cause nervous system dysregulation.
There is now more science behind the mind-body connection, behind the spiritual or faith-based aspects of life, and how all of it ties into the nervous system and the subconscious mind. We're at a point in history where the global health crisis created enormous collective trauma. In its wake, online entrepreneurship has grown exponentially.
What people don't know going into entrepreneurship is that it is the biggest personal development journey you will ever go on. In corporate life, operating within set parameters of a 9-to-5, there is no awareness of how much your hidden beliefs, unresolved wounds, triggers, childhood challenges, grief, or past hurts come into play when you start your own business.
Add to that a 24/7 hustle culture where everything is accessible — shopping, food, entertainment, social media — and you are always in one of two states: a powerful state or a primal state. The primal state is nervous system dysregulation. In that state, you never have the opportunity to go within. You're always focused outward, moving to the next thing, never absorbing what's happening around you or within you.
When 2020 arrived, the world shut down and everyone was forced to go inside — literally and figuratively. People were suddenly confronted with themselves, and for many it became an existential crisis. A large contingent of the population had never even considered moving inward. That sudden confrontation with self is dysregulating to the nervous system.
We had been covering it up with busy, busy, busy — go, go, go. Thinking beyond the five senses is really about tapping into that inner knowing. And the only way to do that consciously is to give yourself space, silence, and time to reflect inward.
When the nervous system is constantly hijacked by hustle culture, the body is flooded with cortisol. That causes brain fog, that wired-and-tired feeling, and an inability to settle. When you begin to calm your nervous system — when you take time for yourself, fill your cup first, and look honestly at things from the past that have impacted you — you give your mind, body, and soul the opportunity to hear your intuition. Some people call it their higher self, some call it God, universe, or source. I sometimes use the acronym GUSS.
The nervous system and what lies beyond our five senses are becoming a critical conversation in our time because the sudden stop of 2020 caused people to recognize something that has been talked about for thousands of years: that we can operate from a place of peace and ease, and that we actually feel better when we take even 30 minutes or an hour a day for ourselves.
Kelsey: So for the entrepreneur who's hearing all of this and thinking, "This sounds great, but I'm so busy I don't have time to sit quietly with myself" — what are some simple daily practices they could begin with to start connecting to that inner knowing? Because I hear you saying there's a direct link between nervous system regulation and business growth.
Sarah: When we're stuck or stalled, it's hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. And trying to create a whole new habit that's completely unfamiliar to you isn't going to work — your body and mind will resist it. So the biggest baby step you can take is to begin getting out in nature.
Getting outside is something I've advocated for since the beginning of my business. I know you prioritize this too, Kelsey — whether it's walking the trails or biking. There's actually a scientific reason we're drawn to it. Trees emit negative ions into the air, and inhaling them helps regulate your breath and your nervous system, bringing in calm.
As a starting point, make a commitment to get outside on the trail — daily would be excellent, but even once or twice a week is a start. Getting your feet in the grass is powerful too, though for those of us in a four-season climate, that's not always possible. Research now shows that even listening to birdsong in the winter, or putting your hands in the soil of an indoor plant, can create that regulating effect. The key is to pick one thing and commit to it for a month. Build momentum from there.
It's all about getting back in your body — walking the trail, feet in the grass, hands in the dirt, or simply stepping outside and inhaling fresh air rather than staying inside your four walls.
If you truly cannot get outside, start with your breath. Take a deep inhalation — deeper than you normally would — and draw it down into your belly. We are shallow breathers. Hustle culture actually contributes to shallow breathing, and shallow breathing creates a stress response in the body, fueling the very cycle you're trying to break. When you intentionally breathe deeply, pushing your belly out like a balloon, you shift your state. It can help you break through a funk, gain a new perspective on a work problem, or find the words you've been searching for in a difficult relationship.
And when you combine that with changing your location — getting out of your four walls — you're also changing your brain. Movement itself is powerful: the right-left-right-left rhythm of your footfall recalibrates the brain, bringing both hemispheres online together.
Kelsey: It's amazing — all these things we intuitively do, or that doctors have always told us to do, and you're explaining the actual physiology and biochemistry behind them. It's not woo. It's just how we reconnect to who we really are.
Sarah: Exactly. And that's such an exciting part of where this conversation is now.
Kelsey: Before we wrap up, I want to come back to something that runs through everything you do — the thread of connection. When I think of you, connection is the word that immediately comes to mind. Even when you started mentoring, you spotted common threads between clients. When I see you at events, your brain is firing in this way of — who in this room should know whom? So few people do this. Why do you think most people don't see the world as interconnected and don't make these generous acts of connection?
Sarah: Thank you — I truly appreciate that. And honestly, I didn't fully realize that's what I was doing until you pointed it out a couple of months ago.
I think what stops most people is insecurity. We're always so worried about ourselves: what we're saying, how we look, whether we sound professional. And that self-focus leaves no room to wonder about the person in front of you.
For me, it's always been about approaching people human to human. I'm always looking to find out about you rather than wondering what's in it for me. A core value of mine has always been service. In corporate — including 13 years at a large pension plan — I found deep joy in being in service to the pensioners. When I opened Illuminated Joy, that same orientation carried through.
What I've also come to realize is that I retain a vast amount of information from the people I meet. I can meet someone three years ago, then meet someone today, and recognize that these two people should meet because they have similar stories, complementary businesses, or could support each other in some meaningful way. There's a kind of ongoing database in my brain. It comes out organically and intuitively.
In terms of how to build this as a practice — it really is about setting the intention to get to know even just one person. And I want to say: even though I've attended events with a few hundred people in the room, I typically only connect meaningfully with one or two. I'm not looking to collect ten contacts. That has never been my approach.
Kelsey: I love that. The most profound reframe for me is that we don't connect people because we're thinking about ourselves — we have the spotlight on ourselves. What would shift if instead we picked up the flashlight and went into the room asking, "Who can I shine this light on? How can I serve them?" Treating people as humans, looking for synergies, and being okay when there aren't any. And yes, sometimes an introduction doesn't work out perfectly — but most of the time it does, and it's beautiful. It keeps you top of mind, it builds your web of relationships, and it is genuinely one of the great soft skills in business.
Sarah: It absolutely is. And I want to affirm — it can feel anxiety-inducing, and that's completely understandable. I felt that too. Fifteen or twenty years ago, I intentionally started attending business networking events and I was not comfortable. It took a lot to get in the room, and a lot to stay in the room once I got there. But after the first half hour, things always settled down, and I was always glad I went. It is a practice, and it is a muscle you will have to build — and you have to choose to build it intentionally.
Kelsey: Absolutely. Well, Sarah, this has been such a joy — a light and joy, an illuminated joy. Where can people connect with you to learn more about your programs, your offerings, and the work you do?
Sarah: Thank you! You can find me on LinkedIn under Sarah McCready, on Instagram at illuminatedjoy, and on Facebook as Sarah McCready. My website — which Kelsey so beautifully designed — is illuminatedjoy.com.
Kelsey: Thank you so much, Sarah. We wish you all of the best.

416 Nervous System Regulation, Intuition & the Art of Human Connection with Sarah McCready of Illuminated Joy