Your beliefs create your reality. To change your life, you must look at the mind.
Faith is freedom from fear.
Your purpose is personal expansion.
Everyone is on their own journey.
Nature heals and food is medicine.
Today, more than ever, wellness is at the forefront of societal discussions. From mental health to physical well-being, women are making significant strides in bringing about change, introducing innovative solutions, and setting new standards. Despite facing unique challenges, they break barriers, inspire communities, and are reshaping the very definition of health and wellness. In this series called women in wellness we are talking to women doctors, nurses, nutritionists, therapists, fitness trainers, researchers, health experts, coaches, and other wellness professionals to share their stories and insights. As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Shannon Kaiser.
Shannon Kaiser is a world-renowned spiritual and self-love teacher, speaker, and acclaimed empowerment coach; a bestselling author of six books on the psychology of happiness and fulfillment including The Self-Love Experiment, named number one of the “20 Self-Love Books That Will Lift You Up” by Oprah magazine; and the designer and creator of two other oracle decks and two mantra decks. She guides people to awaken and align to their true selves so they can live their highest potential. Shannon’s signature teaching is transformative, bridging spiritual and ancient wisdom with modern practical wisdom. Her self-inquiry and personal transformation books, programs, social media channels, and viral reels have reached up to 22 million people a month. She’s been named among the “Top 100 Women to Watch in Wellness” by mindbodygreen, “your go-to happiness booster” by Health magazine, and “one of the freshest voices in mental health and wellness” by Chicken Soup for the Woman’s Soul.
Her new deck Guidance from Gaia Oracle releases this October 2024. Connect with her on social media @ShannonKaiserWrites and her websites www.PlayWithTheWorld.com and www.RadicalBodyLovewithShannon.com.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?
Itwas in 2011 that I first learned about the concept of spirit animals. I was attending a Mind, Body, Spirit conference, and the speaker was a clairvoyant, someone who can see images and spirits beyond what we normally see. She kept looking over at me, almost as if she was distracted. Finally, she stopped her talk midsentence and said, “My darling, did you know that you have a deer with you, and it has a message?” She continued, “The deer wants you to pay attention to your natural abilities and trust your intuition more — stop second-guessing yourself!”
Full-body goose bumps raced through my core, and I finally felt a moment of reprieve.
At that time in my life, to say I was struggling was an understatement. I had just left my soul-suffocating corporate career in advertising, I knew I wanted to be a career author and was working on publishing my first book, Find Your Happy. Yet I was still in transition. I had been diagnosed with clinical depression and was recovering from drug addiction and eating disorders. I felt like I was at rock bottom, but this animal messenger came to me at the most divine time, to invite me to pay attention to my inner nudges and open myself to new possibilities. It was time to trust myself and everything shifted for the better. Ever since then, connecting with Gaia and spirit animals as my guides has been regular practice for my life and business.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about a mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
On my journey, I was so inspired by my first spirit animal experience that this exploration led me to work with shamans, including my first journey with Amy Leigh Mercree (who wrote the foreword to my Guidance from Gaia Oracle deck and guidebook). In this first journey with her, I felt unsure of the process and had a hard time trusting. A big mistake was thinking there was some big outcome, a fix, something to help me get unstuck, that one thing, magic elixir, I was working towards, and I had a hard time trusting myself or the process, but now I realize it is all part of the journey. And as the Chinese proverb says, “the journey is the reward.” I’ve learned there is no “there” to get to, it is all important. I now lead my life and business by not looking for an answer or fix, but to instead explore the possibilities of the journey and unfolding. I choose to live in the present and now see that the fix I longed for, the answers are already within me, and the tools I tap into on the outside are all added layers, but not the answer. Trust now comes from within.
Let’s jump to our main focus. When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?
I randomly met a reader the other day who shared that she read one of my first books, and it was the catalyst for her awakening. She found self-empowerment and decided to choose herself and leave unhealthy relationships and patterns behind. She said, “I love the way you move through life.” Referring to my move to Mexico, where I lived for almost a year and the choices I make from my heart overhead. I make choices that seem to go against the grain and mass approval and share them on my social media, newsletter, blog, and in books. We chatted for a bit, and I shared I don’t know how to live any other way. When it feels right in my heart, I know I must honor and trust the internal pull. Fear is there, but it never stops me.
I share this story because fear is what blocks human consciousness the most, fear of rejection, fear of not being good enough, not being accepted, not ever getting what we want, or being seen for who we are, fear of shining and being in our power then losing everything, fear that our life will never change, etc., but we “act” like this isn’t the case, and we all keep these fears hidden. Many put on masks to try to compensate for these insecurities. We try to manipulate the world on the outside to get what they want on the inside, but this is all false versions of ourselves, leaving a big disconnect within, as it grows even larger, and we are trapped in a silent war within our own self. We go against who we truly are and settle into an unhealthy, uncomfortable anxious avoidant life, all pretending everything is good, but secretly dying a little bit every day on the inside.
I decided I didn’t want to live that way. What was required was radical honesty with myself and my interactions with others, along with self-compassion and self-respect. When you love and respect yourself, you make choices that align with your values, and when you make choices that are in alignment with who you are, you are naturally healthier and healthier. It all starts with our choice to choose to be in integrity and alignment with our true self. So, the biggest impact we have in the world is when we choose love over fear, and this must always start with our own self, loving ourselves first and making choices that help us feel happy and healthy. And in this love consciousness, we uplift, help, and inspire those around us.
Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey towards better wellbeing?
- Connect to Gaia daily. Nature heals and guides us.
- Our thoughts create our results, meaning our mental health is directly related to our physical conditions of our body. Our mental health directly influences our physical health, and we can heal ourselves by starting in the mind.
- Your value and worth is not tied to anything or anyone. You are enough as you are. When you give yourself love, everything transforms.
- How you feel is more important than how your life looks..
- We have more power than we’ve been told. Food is medicine, and we can heal ourselves with intention, love, and daily care.
If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?
Trust your self more. Stop giving your power away to the outside world, or other people. Trust your intuition. ALWAYS. You can take this FREE intuition quiz on my website here: https://www.playwiththeworld.com/you-calling-quiz-start/
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?
- Your beliefs create your reality. To change your life, you must look at the mind.
- Faith is freedom from fear.
- Your purpose is personal expansion.
- Everyone is on their own journey.
- Nature heals and food is medicine.
Sustainability, veganism, mental health, and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?
Although all of these are important to me and pillars of my own wellness focus and lifestyle, I am most passionate about mental health as it has directly impacted my journey, and without a mental health practice or focus on self-awareness and growth, all the other pillars fall apart.
What is the best way for our readers to further follow your work online?
Please connect with me on social media: https://www.instagram.com/shannonkaiserwrites/
Or check out my websites:
Wellness website: https://radicalbodylovewithshannon.com/
Personal growth website: https://www.playwiththeworld.com/home/
Some responses are adapted and excerpted from Guidance from Gaia Oracle, published by Beyond Words Oct 8, 2024. Available online and in stores at participating retailers.
Thank you for these fantastic insights! We wish you continued success and good health.
About the Interviewer: Wanda Malhotra is a wellness entrepreneur, lifestyle journalist, and the CEO of Crunchy Mama Box, a mission-driven platform promoting conscious living. CMB empowers individuals with educational resources and vetted products to help them make informed choices. Passionate about social causes like environmental preservation and animal welfare, Wanda writes about clean beauty, wellness, nutrition, social impact and sustainability, simplifying wellness with curated resources. Join Wanda and the Crunchy Mama Box community in embracing a healthier, more sustainable lifestyle at CrunchyMamaBox.com .
