Sabina Sandoval - Free to Be Me Drum Circle

What if purpose isn’t something you “figure out”… but something you lock into, like a rhythm you can feel in your bones? In this episode, Sabina Sandoval, founder of the Free To Be Me Drum Circle, shares a life forged through music, survival, service, and what she calls “the pocket”: that grounded, shared beat where self-consciousness dissolves and spirit shows up, no membership card required.

Sabina takes us from foster care and early rock-and-roll obsession to an injury that forced reinvention, into drum circles with teens at risk, special needs communities, seniors with memory loss, and even prisons, where rhythm becomes a doorway back to the real self. This conversation is raw, practical, funny in places, and deeply human.

👇 Chapters / Timecodes

00:00 The “pocket”: many rhythms, one shared beat

01:38 Zenka Caro introduces Sabina and why this episode hits the heart

02:31 Foster care, early music imprint, and falling in love with rhythm

03:42 Returning to her mother, seeing the drum kit, “the universe dances with you”

05:31 A drum set becomes the tool that changes everything

06:27 First all-female band at 16, The Troubadour, and the early music grind

07:06 Working in a domestic violence shelter, injury, surrender, and forced reinvention

09:12 A homeless man’s prophecy: “You’ll be playing with the people now”

10:32 Learning hand drumming, being “reinvented” into Free To Be Me

11:37 Teens at risk, the first big drum delivery, and the program taking off

13:23 Bringing drumming into schools and after-school enrichment

14:11 Special needs communities, unlikely bridges, and “the only program that brought them together”

15:26 How private gigs funded the philanthropy (and why she avoided the admin maze)

16:30 “Tribe of Angels” + heavy hitters: building a circle that holds beginners safely

18:11 Drumming in a men’s prison: 60 inmates, one rhythm, real humanity showing up

20:09 A boundary moment, and the instant lesson in “one love”

21:10 200 drums and the power of becoming a “hand drummer”

23:05 “Pocket is life”: staying steady while life tries to throw you off

23:33 The bully vs spirit kid game: confidence training in rhythm form

27:18 What happens in the circle: fear drops, judgment drops, celebration rises

29:07 The heartbeat memory: why rhythm feels like home

31:10 Special needs and seniors: when rhythm wakes up memory and joy

32:20 The “out of pocket” moment in Sedona, and how community pulls someone back in

34:10 The real mission: not “rock star cool” but helping others through the gift

38:04 Why people don’t find purpose: self-consciousness, distraction, and not investigating

42:22 Practical advice: ask at night, serve/volunteer, try what you’ve never tried

43:33 Sabina’s story of surviving the unthinkable, and the strength behind the work

46:03 What people feel from her purpose: joy, laughter, love, and belonging

47:17 If most people lived in purpose: creativity, collaboration, and a world that can’t be stopped

50:03 Closing: “I’m still young… I’m here to help and be helped”

🪘 Key themes you’ll feel in this episode

“The pocket” as a real-world skill: regulation, confidence, coherence, community

Rhythm as medicine for shame, fear, isolation, and disconnection

Purpose as proof: lived experience, not theory

🔗 Follow Sabina's Work: https://sabinadrums.wixsite.com/free2bmedrumcircle

📌 Connect / Learn more

If you want to bring a Free To Be Me-style drum circle to your community, retreat, school, or facility, drop a comment and we’ll point you in the right direction.

#AwakenYourPurpose #DrumCircle #Purpose #CommunityHealing #Rhythm #FlowState #LightNet

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Awaken Your Purpose Podcast: Conversations with visionaries building a new paradigm of purpose, freedom, and collective evolution.

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