Simply Shan

Intrusive thoughts can be a really difficult component of mental health issues and can be exhausting to deal with. Intrusive thoughts are unwanted thoughts that can and will pop into your head at any time. They are often repetitive, with the same kind of thought coming up again and again, which can cause daily disturbance or distress. In our finale of season 2 of Simply Shan, we talk about what intrusive thoughts are and some tips you can use to work through them. 

Today, we are going to be talking about your relationship with others- particularly partnerships! We discuss five signs of a healthy relationship and 5 signs of an unhealthy relationship. Remember this, our relationships in life are often times direct reflections of our relationship to life. When we are learning how to love well, first we need to learn how to love ourselves well. 

Chakras and energy work has been around for thousands of year and is included in multiple religious and spiritual practices. And there is reason for it! Understand the energy within us and connecting to it allows us to meet a deeper version of ourselves. We speak on the root chakra, the very first chakra, located at the base of the spine. Root energy deals with how grounded we feel in life and if we do not feel grounded within ourselves how focusing on this chakra through meditation can bring our feeling of safety and stability back into balance.

In each individual, we are presented with both feminine and masculine energy. While every individual has one energy they engage with more, it is important to find balance and connection within both energies. We discuss what a healthy divine masculine and feminine is, and we recognize signs they are imbalanced and how we can find balance and begin to establish a relationship with both aspects of ourselves.

This week is all about the environment and some simple ways we can love her well! A lot of the time when making changes to improve our relationship with life around us we think it has to be these huge leaps, but there are simple easy around the house things we can do to be a friend to the world around us. We are life, and as life we should not only take but look to give. This episode is all about learning to love what is around us well, and that starts with the environment.

Dreams are one of the most confusing, exhilarating, and intuitive topics we could discuss so we are going to! We talk about how you can dream more if you struggle to dream at all, Western vs Eastern psychologies take on dreams, and the possible messages that are being delivered to you within your dreams. 

Building consistent confidence within yourself is a process and we are going to talk about it! Truly, I believe consistency in confidence stems from your roots being internally in tune with yourself and what you need as life. We talk about three internal tools you can practice to begin to grow confidence as well as three external physical tools you can practice to show confidence. 

Most people mistake the law of detachment from not caring in life or not trying, but it is so much more than that. We discuss the 6 principles of the law of detachment, and we talk about how the law of detachment allows us to move fluidly through life with adaptability and in a state of content. 

There are a lot of different roots of anxiety, and abandonment anxiety is a very common in individuals who have experienced:- growing up without secure attachment to caregiver-a past abrupt breakup- emotional neglect- a lack of safetyWe talk about physical indicators you may be having with abandonment anxiety and some coping tools we can use to work through this. I myself have experienced this, I know how difficult it can be and the first step to treating it is recognizing it. 

In this episode of Simply Shan, we are talking about embracing competition and how to have a healthy relationship with competition in an environment where it is heavily relevant. We are constantly competing in our lives whether for jobs, in sports, in hobbies, and more and depending on how we approach competition is what we will get out of it. We talk about the process of competition and finding internal value in it rather than searching for solely external results.

One of the key attributes listed among individuals with a high level of satisfaction in life and happiness is having a healthy community to support them. We talk about the differences of simply being within a group and actually being in a healthy community. Having a strong community in your life is so important for individual growth and for us to elevate to where we want to be we have to have the right support system in our lives to achieve that goal.

Dating is hard, and we sometimes make it harder! A lot of the advice we get in the early stages of dating is not helpful towards it being successful. There is an aspect of dating that requires a certain amount of vulnerability and maturity and often times the way we are in the early stages of dating causes us to fail in creating a safe environment for the relationship to flourish and be successful. Here is some of the dating advice you may have heard in your life that caused you to struggle within relationships and a better approach for each.

In this episode of Simply Shan, we are going to speak on working through difficult emotions rather than suppressing them. Whenever we have emotions such as fear, anger, sadness, irritation and others it is important to understand that is our bodies' way of communicating with us what it needs. Often times, we suppress those emotions so that we do not have to deal with them but in reality they do not go away when we do this. That energy stays within the body, and will only continue to build up as we continue to avoid them. We go through what each emotion we listed indicates and how instead of avoiding these feelings we can observe and work through them to create healthier emotional regulation.

I think when we first see the topic of this episode, the idea of being addicted to chaos seems wild. Who would want to have a chaotic life? Who would want to constantly be around dysfunction, it is actually more common than you'd think! Emotional addictions to chaos generally occur when people grow up in an environment where they were exposed to consistent stress, chaotic events, and emotional abandonment. We see this effect us in our adulthood with in our romantic relationships, our work life, and our overall emotional and mental health throughout our day. We discuss how an individual's childhood can influence this addiction, the signs we may be addicted to chaos, and how we can find comfort with being  in a calm environment.

This week on Simply Shan we are discussing reclaiming sensuality within yourself! We often mistake sensuality and sexuality, and while we can express aspects of our sensuality within our sexuality it is not and should not be the only way we connect within our sensuality in our lives. We discuss the concept of pleasure and how we can bring more pleasure into our lives, and maintaining a healthy sense of sensuality within our individual self.

Whether we are far into our journey in meditation or just starting a  common question we ask ourselves when beginning to navigate through meditation: Am I doing this right? To simply answer, if you are trying, you are! This week we discuss the benefits coming from meditation, forms of meditation that you can try to start you out through this journey, and we go on a meditation journey together with a 10 minute body scan meditation at the end. Enjoy:)Study mentioned in Podcast:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3423469/

Kelly McCarthy is a third generational shaman and she graces us with her wisdom on this week's episode of Simply Shan. Kelly is an expert in understanding energetic frequencies and how they impact the world whether consciously or unconsciously. She discusses her role as a spiritual guide in helping others understand their connection to the natural world and connect  to their truest state as many of us would call a spiritual awakening. 

Thinking about going vegan or vegetarian? Simply interested in knowing more about it? Well, here you go! Nuzair Nuwais come on and talks to us about what it is like to be a vegan, the benefits and the difficulties, and gives some advice for anyone looking to potentially try it out. We try to have a very real and honest discussion about our journeys to plant based diets, the good the bad and everything in between. Check it out :)

Suzanne Mun joins us on Simply Shan to speak on establishing personal boundaries in your life and some of the things you might be doing that cross your own boundaries. We discuss three ways we normally see people cross their own boundaries and how we can recognize this within our own lives. We also establish  the difficulty in establishing healthy relationships with others if we do not establish healthy boundaries with ourselves first.  

In life, we are constantly being exposed to new people and create friendships through the duration of our lifetimes. But some friendships are not meant to be carried through every season of our lives and some in fact may be hurting you more than helping you. @Letstalk.mentalhealth composed a list of signs it is time to end a friendship and I really valued the post and wanted to elaborate on it. In this episode, we talk about 7 signs it is time to end a friendship and why it is important to constantly analyze the friendships we have in our lives to make sure they are truly helping support your growth as a human being. 

When you are in the middle of a breakup and in the thick of healing, it can be really hard to work through all of your emotions and find clarity. It can be difficult to understand how to best take care of yourself, learn from this experience, and let the relationship go peacefully in general. We go through 7 questions you can ask yourself after a break up to begin the process of working through the turmoil of a relationship ending. I want to be clear, some of these questions do not apply to to victims of emotional or physical abuse within a relationship. But, in a relationship that does not consist in that nature, these question can be really informative for not only moving forward from a break up, but developing the relationship you have with yourself.

We often grow up in structured societies where cultural, familial, and social aspects influence what we often believe. We create constructs within ourselves based on what we are encourage to think is right. This episode discusses religion and spirituality in particular, how we can challenge our beliefs, and why we should do. We also discuss when supporting someone who has doubts about what they believe, how you can best support them.

We have all been there, whether it is a partner, a family member, or a friend we find ourselves giving loyalty to someone who is constantly crossing our boundaries. We talk about what toxic loyalty is, how to recognize it, and what to do regarding the relationship when we recognize we are being loyal to a fault. 

Do you ever look around at everything you own or want and see it owning you versus you owning it?We live in an incredibly consumeristic lifestyle, but more and more we are starting to see individuals start to pursue a minimalistic lifestyle. The idea that less is more reigns true for this specific way of life. I talk about my experience of becoming a minimalist, why there is value in it, and the changes you find happening when you pursue this ideal. 

We have all been there, we are in an argument with someone we care about and it is not going well. We aren't seeing eye to eye,  voices are being raised, and it feels as if this is a relationship ending fight. Whether it is with a partner, a friend, a sibling, or a parent it is so important to be able to communicate effectively when you have an issue with someone. More arguments then not can be settled peacefully if managed properly. Learning how to approach an issue or a crossed boundary in our interpersonal relationships is key on keeping them. Today, we discuss how you can approach tension or disagreements within our personal relationships and how we can actually grow from the disagreements that arise in our lives.

Pride is not the opposite of shame, but its source. True Humility is the only antidote to shame. I find it fitting that this episode is being released on my birthday because it has truly been a year of change. This episode was very difficult me, as I am very open and honest about my shortcomings and where I have fallen short within my journey and how I am working to change that. Accepting yourself for who you are is really hard, to look at your flaws and understand they are apart of you. I talk about my journey into accepting who I am, the false narrative I created about my life throughout college, and how I am working to mend those mistakes since. I truly hope, if you listen, you understand that there is light and darkness within us. And that is okay, we will never attain perfection. Do not let what is dark within you consume, accept it as a part of you, and work to change your heart towards it. 

This little one changed my heart in a lot of ways, and I only spent three days with her. We can learn so much from children, and their energy is magnetic. There is many lessons that I have come to learn spending time with children, and many of the things they do magnify joy and happiness within life. I came up with a list of 9 things I have learned from kids and been able to apply a lot of it to my adult life which has ultimately brought me a lot of joy, creativity, and happiness into my daily life. Hope you enjoy !

Spiritual, emotional, and physical health has to be a priority in our daily life. It is so important to reconnect to ourselves and the world around us everyday and a lot of the times we go about our day mindlessly and without any intent outside of going to work. Throughout the last year I would say, I have slowly begun to add intentional activities into my everyday routine where I focus on putting time into my health in some shape or form. This life is not meant to be focussed on tirelessly working, it is a journey we take on with ourselves to grow and find balance each and everyday. Here are the 9 habits you can incorporate in your everyday routine to start that journey.

In our lives, we are constantly asking the question "How can I be happier?" While happiness is a temporary feeling and cannot always be accessed, there is a way to find more internal satisfaction in every day life and that is through entering a constant state of flow. In this episode, we talk about what state of flow is, how we can enter it, and how we can maintain state of flow throughout our everyday lives. 

In this episode of Simply Shan, I sit down with a good friend and international student Lucas Mota. Lucas is from Spain, and we met while at the University of  West Georgia where he was playing golf for the university and I was coaching the softball program. We talk about Lucas' journey to coming to play golf and attend college in the States, how the process was for him to be able to come here, and some of the struggles he had while adjusting to being in a new country with an entirely different language. 

In this episode of Simply Shan, I sit down with a good friend and former Division 1 baseball player Collin Hopkins. Collin talks about his time growing up and in college being a minority playing  on a predominantly white sports team. We also dive into the current state of sports culture and discuss how sports itself can become a more inclusive environment rather than only a few select sports providing the opportunity to have a more diversely accepted atmosphere.

This week's episode is all about self analyzing OUR very own toxic traits. It is very easy to point the finger in life whenever something doesn't go our way,  or we have a falling out in a relationship of any form. Many times we simply decide it is the world, or it is the other person who is at fault and they are toxic. This is true, every individual has some form of toxicity in them, after all we are human. But instead of looking at what everyone else struggles at, this episode is all about identifying what we individually struggle at and how we can start to remove toxic traits from our lives.

In episode 4 of Simply Shan, we are talking about body image and the unattainable expectations society puts on us. Everybody has had that moment in their lives where they look in the mirror and do not like what is looking back at them. In today's culture, we are preconditioned to hide our "flaws" and natural bodies behind filters, editing, and surgery and we are constantly competing with others to reach this perfect standard the world around us has set. I look back on a moment where I was made to feel unconfident about my looks and discuss ways that we can work on becoming comfortable in our body and loving our body a little more each day. 

In this weeks episode of Simply Shan, we discuss the ever present mental health issue of anxiety. Anxiety can be an incredibly difficult and exhausting experience to go through and it can even stay for periods of months or even years. This week we are diving into what is happening within our lives and bodies to cause anxiety and some ways we can start to work through it.

In our second episode of Simply Shan, we dive into how to correctly chase after and pursue a goal. Everyone is capable of pursuing their dreams, but not everyone is willing to do what it takes to go after them. We touch on some ways people find themselves struggling to maintain consistency in going after what they want, and reveal the absolute DO's of pursuing your dreams. 

In our first episode of Simply Shan, we go through the issue of putting our self validation and worth in what we do rather than who we are. As a former college athlete, Shannon discusses her time at South Carolina playing softball and the struggle of stripping her identity away from her sport.  We also bring forth the idea of a self affirmation list to begin analyzing our worth in who we are and what we see in ourselves, versus what the world expects from us.