Sarah Woodard Listened to Her 'Spirit Team' to Create Spark Consciousness

“I knew I wasn’t happy where I was,” says Sarah Woodard, founder of the nature-focused self-help website Spark Consciousness. Originally from New England, Woodard is a certified shamanic practitioner, reiki master, activist, educator, speaker and author. She moved to the Denver area in April 2022, and through this effort, believes she’s discovered her “life purpose.”

“I had never been west of New York, and so I moved out here having never seen the area,” says Woodard. She recalls the cross-country drive in a fifteen-foot U-Haul, particularly one I-70 segment in Kansas “where you go around this curve, and then boom — there’s the Rocky Mountains.”

Seeing that sight assured Woodard, who says she immediately thought, “This is where I’m supposed to be.

“A lot of people would say that [moving across the country] was a super-spontaneous thing to do," she continues. "It wasn’t. It was a lot of inner work, connecting with my spirit team to figure out where I was supposed to go.”

Woodard clarifies that what she refers to as her “spirit team,” others may call “God,” “the universe” and so forth. “We get these messages from our spirit guides, and when [we] don’t listen, the messages get louder and louder," she says. "They make it impossible for you to ignore.”
One message she continued to receive was: “You need to expand your view.” She recalls, “I went into what I call ‘chrysalis mode,’” which she describes as “quietness and listening.”

“Spark Consciousness grew out of that,” says Woodard. The online business, which launched last year, publishes instructional videos that aim to help viewers navigate big life changes, instill self-confidence and, most important, find peace by living in alignment with nature. All ideas shared in the videos are personally written and developed by Woodard, though she outsources certain components, such as video editing.

She explains that her goal in creating Spark Consciousness is to help people acknowledge that “nature isn’t just a thing we go to to escape. Nature is a part of our lives and helps us figure out who we are, why we’re here and what we’re supposed to do.” And while the website's target audience is “young Millennial women," Woodard adds that her content resonates with “anyone who’s in [a] phase of life where they’re trying to figure out their values, their purpose and who they are. That can happen at any age.”

While you can download free videos from the site, Spark Consciousness is also launching an exclusive online course on March 7. Woodard says the eight-part video series, for which there is currently a waitlist, offers “information about aspects of life on this planet and how we currently interact with it versus what we could do differently.” She says the course also demonstrates how such aspects are “all tied together, and how we are tied into it.” Topics include wildlife, food choices, waste management, working with the earth’s resources and self-care, among others.

The course costs $1,500, but you can receive 50 percent off with an email subscription; according to the website, “10 percent of every dollar goes to support charitable causes helping make the world a more compassionate place.” Woodard explains that charitable organizations vary monthly and are selected based on need. In general, she says that charities selected comprise "environmental organizations, animal rescues, or farm sanctuaries."

“When you learn more, your values change. My goal with this course is that people will learn something and go, ‘I didn’t know that. And now that I know that, I don’t know if I’m comfortable with it,’” Woodward says. “As you define those values, you start to figure out, ‘I want to change this.’ That becomes your purpose.

“It all comes back to that knowledge of how all life is connected,” she continues. “If every person on this planet understood how all life is connected, we would be living in a much different, more harmonious, more compassionate, more sustainable way.”

Woodard speaks on similar topics in her podcast Give a F*k, which released its first episode in November 2022. “The podcast offers knowledge bombs and cool things I come across,” says Woodard. “Hopefully, [topics will] spark people’s interest to be like, ‘I never really thought about the fact that I could connect with nature in that way, or communicate in that way. I’m going to give that a try.’” Recent episodes discuss communicating with nature through vibrations, mushrooms' role in the ecosystem, and ways to find an outdoor space that uniquely fits your needs.

Simultaneously, Woodard is working on publishing an online magazine that focuses on others' self-development and experiences in nature. “I felt like there needed to be a place for people to share their stories, too," she says. "We all learn differently. We need to hear things in different ways.”

Find more information at sparkconsciousness.net.