There is something just so powerful about meeting a woman who has quietly and courageously rewritten her story. Career change – relationship change – mindset change. It is something many women want to do for themselves but often don’t know where to start or worry that they don’t have the energy, bravery or resources to actually make it happen. Thank goodness for people like Sandi White who can help us take the leap because life is too short to stay stuck in a rut that isn’t serving us, right?!
Through her business, Breath & Beyond, Sandi isn’t just offering wellness services — she’s building a safe, supportive community where women can finally stop putting themselves last and start coming home to who they truly are. If you’ve been looking for inspiration to make a change in your life or want help getting started, you’ve landed in exactly the right place! We hope you enjoy our interview with this inspiring businesswoman and champion for women’s wellbeing.
To find out all about Sandi’s online or in-person services, visit the Breath and Beyond website here.
Online & In-Person in Rochedale South Queensland
1:1 Sessions & Customised Programs
Yin Breathwork Facilitator
Meditation & Moon Circles
Sandi White’s journey into the wellness space began more than two decades ago in a place far removed from where she works today.
When asked what those early days looked like, Sandi shared, “I discovered yoga 25 years ago, when I was living in London. I had a really beautiful yoga teacher who was just soft, kind, and gentle, and it was very different from the life that I was living at that point in time, which was working in a corporate bank for one of the biggest banks in the world in a very stressful environment as an accountant. And she basically gave me permission to rest into yoga and go and have a bath after my yoga class so she gave me permission to rest. So that sparked my interest and then I loved yoga from then. I’ve always been interested in personal development and as the kids were getting older, I decided to study meditation and become a meditation teacher. During COVID, I did my meditation teacher training, and I just loved the world that it opened up to me and I’ve been learning and growing ever since then.”
Building businesses wasn’t entirely new territory for Sandi. Before Breath & Beyond came to life, she had already embraced entrepreneurship through her photography business.
“I think it’s always been there. As I’ve gotten to know myself more and more, I realise that I do have a lot of creative ideas, and it’s just about having the right people in your life really, to support you with that creativity and also backing yourself with that creativity as well. My father was an entrepreneur, so I think there was some permission there.”
What began as a personal passion for Sandi has since evolved into a community built around connection and support for women.
Reflecting on what encouraged her to take that leap, she says, “I think for me, Breath & Beyond grew a desire to help people. I feel like I had gained a lot of wisdom and I just really wanted to pass that on. Just really sit in supportive spaces for people, for women to be heard.”
Sandi wrote, “I thought putting myself last was just my role in life as a Mum and a wife. I was wrong.”
She explored how she shifted emotionally and mentally to realise that and when she realised she wanted to help women conquer this.
“I think it’s societal pressure. A lot of what I think about is a lot of women are taught from a young age that we are the nurturers, the givers, we’re praised for giving, we’re praised for being selfless, we’re praised for almost playing small, not being too loud, not to be too outspoken, not being too opinionated and I think it’s not true. I think we’ve been told a lie. I think in my experience, I have been better in my life and better in my relationships, and I’m actually looking after myself because there were a lot of times I wasn’t, where I was looking after my children, when I was just completely depleted, and that would make me cross. I’d be angry, short tempered, not the human that I wanted to show up in the world and it doesn’t have to be like that.”
Owning and leading businesses as a woman in this society is both challenging and deeply fulfilling. For Sandi, she explores what it means to her personally, “I absolutely love it. Absolutely love the creative freedom. I love the people that I get to meet and work with. I love how brave it makes me. You know, because it’s not easy to put yourself out there a lot of the time and I just love the reward, too. I mean, when I can be with someone and sit with someone and just hear their troubles. If I can make that even 1% easier for someone else, I feel like I’ve really done a good job.”
Sandi shares parenting of her three boys while running three businesses.
Motherhood has shaped the way Sandi has run her businesses.
Balance looks different for everyone, and Sandi shared what it realistically means in her own life.
“I think you just have to be quite disciplined. I think you have to, for me, what works transitioning from work to home life. I just internally say to myself, okay, I’m transitioning to time with the boys now or I’m transitioning to relaxation. I think it’s also about not trying to stop thoughts and be different to how you are as well. Like, it’s taken me a lot of years to accept that I just have ideas coming out all the time and to be okay with that. I have an idea book and I just write it all out, it’s a brain dump. Learning to say to myself, okay, great idea, you’ve put that in your book, you can come back to it in a couple of weeks. For me, lists, compartmentalising, and accepting yourself for who you are. I think when you want to try and change yourself to be other than you are, that’s when you cause yourself a lot of grief. Learning to be okay with that.”
Alongside Breath & Beyond, Sandi runs her photography business, Sandi White Photography. When asked how the two businesses differ, she says, “I think they’re both about people and relationships. You know, with my photography business, I have a lot of regular customers, so they come back annually for their Christmas photos and I just love that short little interaction that I have with them yearly, seeing their kids grow, hearing about their year. It’s the same with Breath and Beyond. I do a lot of sitting, listening and holding space for people and teaching people they don’t need to be fixed, they need to accept themselves for how they are. I feel like my role is to kind of show them some tools to come back to their true selves, their true essence, their true nature, which is always there. It’s just often clouded by societal pressures and some lenses, past stories, that sort of thing.”
While both businesses centre around connection, Sandi says Breath & Beyond and her photography work fulfill different parts of her creatively and emotionally.
“It’s really, it’s a really deep space for me. It’s interesting, those two businesses I’ve started out as passions. I absolutely love photography. I love that moment when I know that I’ve captured the shot or how I see them or how I want to capture them. It’s a click that kind of happens inside me tha I know that I’ve captured it. It’s similar to Breath and Beyond.
I love sitting in a circle with women. I love supporting women.
I love teaching as well. I didn’t know that about myself for a long time, but I love teaching. They just fulfill me in a space of giving back a little bit as well. Breath and beyond doesn’t make me huge amounts of money, but I still show up for it because I love the community that I’m building, it’s a connection.”
Seeing women transform through her work is one of the most rewarding aspects of Sandi’s journey. When asked about what it means to her directly, Sandi said “I’m kind of proud. It often has nothing to do with me. Like, I’m just the guide.
I just love seeing women return back to their true essence and finding themselves again.
It’s very easy to get lost, especially in this very modern, busy, rushing world when we just don’t stop and we don’t listen. And that’s all that’s required.”
When asked what kind of impact she hopes Breath & Beyond will have on women long term, Sandi says, “I really hope that Breath and Beyond builds a community. A safe, supportive, non judgemental, and loving community, where women of all types just sit and hold space and support each other and accept each other for the unique and magnificent and amazing humans that we all are. We’re all different, and that’s the beauty of it. Long term, I love seeing my women turn up and starting to build relationships with each other. The power of sitting and listening to one another, that is the magic. A safe space to be heard.”
Sandi shares an overview of the services Breath and Beyond offer, designed to support women in reconnecting with themselves.
“I think some people can be a little bit scared. Perhaps like Woo Woo. I’ve even had my parents say to me, are you getting into a cult? I think there’s a little bit of negativity sometimes around these spaces. I like to think that I hold really safe spaces for people, to just be who they are. For example, if you turned up to one of my breathwork sessions, we would do a short introductory meet and greet and perhaps share some tea or cacao together, which helps to open the hearts. Then I would teach you how to breathe, which basically just helps you get connected to your unconscious self. We’d go on the sound journey, I would play with sound bowls and you would meditate. Afterwards, if you feel called to, we have a little sharing circle, but there’s no pressure at all to share afterwards.
It’s the same with moon circles too, we meet once a month under the full moon. We sit outside, in the winter months, we sit around the fire, and we talk a little bit about the energetics of the moon at that time. If people want to share what’s happened in their lives over the previous month, they can do, it’s a safe supportive space again. We’ll do some meditation and breathwork and sometimes I do some sound healing again at the end. Sound healing is a really beautiful experience where you can go into your own little place into your own little world and it just helps to integrate.
To integrate everything that we’ve talked about, things that you may have shared, wounds that you healed. It’s all about supporting your nervous system. To help your nervous system go back to a space where it’s not in flight or fight mode anymore.
My number one goal in all of my sessions is to help everybody get out of the fight or flight and back into their real natural state and relax their nervous system. From there, change just happens.. It’s perfect.”
When asked if Sandi could go back to the day you started and give yourself one piece of advice, knowing what you know now, what would it be?
“I don’t think I’d change anything. That’s part of the fun, really, is learning as you go.
I think that my number one piece of advice would probably be to just start. You’re never going to have all your ducks lined up in a row.
You’re never going to have everything perfect. If you decide after a few months, a year or whatever, that you don’t want to do it anymore, then just stop. Try something else, pivot. At least you know, you’ve answered that question that would forever be eating away at you. What if I had started this business? What if I had done this? What if I hadn’t done this? There’s certainly ways that you can do it in non-risky manners as well, like start it as a side hustle so that you don’t have to give up your day job. It’s not for everyone, but I definitely believe in having a go, Don’t be afraid. Don’t let fear stop you, because our minds can be our number one haters. Also just the people around you too. Everybody, especially people that love you, will want to try and keep you safe and they might not want you to take risks, but I think taking risks is fun and we should do it more.”
To find out all about Sandi’s online or in-person services, visit the Breath and Beyond website here.
Online & In-Person in Rochedale South Queensland
1:1 Sessions & Customised Programs
Yin Breathwork Facilitator
Meditation & Moon Circles
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