For Sara Al Madani, a leading Emirati entrepreneur and media personality, Season 1 in the glittering world of Real Housewives of Dubai was a warm-up.
Reflecting on her journey in the first season, Sara discusses the initial challenge of adapting to the ever-present cameras, an experience that demanded a delicate balance between living naturally and being aware of the constant scrutiny. “It’s not easy to be sitting in front of a lot of cameras and a lot of people and just living your life normally,” she tells City Times in a chat. However, this experience gradually allowed her to open up more, shedding layers of guardedness and becoming “emotionally naked” before the audience.
One of Sara’s primary motivations for joining Real Housewives of Dubai was to challenge and transform stereotypes about Arab women. She notes that the show, while popular in the West, offers a significant platform to showcase the true essence of Middle Eastern women. “I wanted to fix that stereotype image they have of Arab women in the region,” she asserts. Through her participation, Sara aimed to highlight the openness, freedom, and strength of women in the Middle East, offering viewers a deeper understanding of her culture and background. “And I think I did that.”
Love, Sara says, has always been a central theme in her life. Despite facing the heartbreak of two failed marriages, her belief in the power of love remains unwavering. “Love is the language of all of us as spirits coming into this world,” she says. “I’m always looking for love.” Her openness about her personal life, including her desire to start a family and find a lasting relationship, formed a touching narrative thread in the previous season. Yet, amid her quest for love, she remains steadfast in her commitment to authenticity, striving to be the same person on and off camera. “The most important thing for me, be it season one or 20, is to be authentic to who I am and be myself, and to maintain that because some people do change in front of the camera,” she added. “It is a big responsibility because the world is listening to you and you have to impact them positively.”
In the second season, viewers will get a chance to look deeper into Sara’s personal life and understand her mentality. She often engages in talks surrounding mental health, education, and healing on the inside. “I hope a lot of people pick up some things that can help them or motivate them to look within themselves and grow mentally when it comes to their mental health, spirit and healing,” she said.
As a mother and successful businesswoman, Sara wears many hats, and manages to balance it all by rewiring her mindset. “You can be everything and anything you want,” she says, encouraging others to break free from conditioned limitations and explore the full spectrum of their abilities. Once a board member in the government and a speaker on finance, she now centres her efforts on teaching people how to heal and improve their lives from within. “Life is a reflection of who you are from the inside,” she believes, “and if who you are on the inside is a little bit broken, it affects everything. I teach people how to look inwards instead of outwards, that is what my main focus is on.”
But how does one do that, we asked. “A person’s personality is shaped from the age of one to eight,” she answered. “That’s where all the trauma is, that’s when a character is created and your subconscious mind catches all these files and creates things.” Sara highlights how unresolved childhood trauma can significantly impact one’s decisions and reactions in adulthood. “Healing that can take you a long way in life and that’s what I try to teach people every day,” she adds.
Looking to the future, Sara has adopted a philosophy of living in the present. She has moved away from setting rigid goals, which she finds can often lead to disappointment and a sense of failure. Instead, she focuses on continuous self-improvement, striving to be better each day than the day before. “The future and the past don’t exist,” she says, “But I can promise you one thing – every day I’m going to be better than the person I was yesterday. That’s my main focus right now.”
And that’s her advice to everyone out there – prioritise the present and let go of the obsession with future planning. By appreciating and living in the moment, Sara believes that one can lead a more fulfilling and authentic life, she says, “I really appreciate the present so much.”