Passion Struck with John R. Miles - Keila Shaheen on How to Heal the Self Through Shadow Work | EP 634
Episode Date: July 8, 2025In this raw and powerful conversation, Keila Shaheen—author of the bestselling Shadow Work Journal—joins John R. Miles to explore what it really takes to heal. They unpack how shadow work... reveals the hidden parts of ourselves that still seek protection, how journaling becomes a tool for self-trust, and why real transformation starts with emotional honesty. Whether you’re navigating burnout, identity shifts, or emotional triggers, this episode offers a roadmap to healing, integration, and inner peace.Visit this link for the full show notes.Go Deeper: The Ignited LifeIf this episode stirred something in you, The Ignited Life is where the transformation continues. Each week, I share behind-the-scenes insights, science-backed tools, and personal reflections to help you turn intention into action.Subscribe🔗 and get the companion resources delivered straight to your inbox.Catch more of Keila Shaheen: https://www.instagram.com/keilashaheen/If you liked the show, please leave us a review—it only takes a moment and helps us reach more people! Don’t forget to include your Twitter or Instagram handle so we can thank you personally.How to Connect with John:Connect with John on Twitter at @John_RMilesFollow him on Instagram at @John_R_MilesSubscribe to our main YouTube Channel and to our YouTube Clips ChannelFor more insights and resources, visit John’s websiteSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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Coming up next on Passion Struck.
You know, if we can allow ourselves to sit with the question marks and sit in the open-ended answers
and come up with our truths and hear our narratives.
There's so much healing that can happen
throughout that process.
And it's simply by drawing your attention back to yourself
because a lot of things are rooted in the self
and there's so much potential for change when we are able to
channel our willpower and go through that process one-on-one with the self.
Welcome to Passion Struck. Hi, I'm your host John R. Miles and on the show we decipher the secrets,
tips and guidance of the world's most inspiring people and turned their wisdom into practical advice
for you and those around you.
Our mission is to help you unlock the power
of intentionality so that you can become
the best version of yourself.
If you're new to the show,
I offer advice and answer listener questions on Fridays.
We have long form interviews the rest of the week
with guests ranging from astronauts
to authors, CEOs, creators, innovators, scientists, military leaders, visionaries, and athletes. Now,
let's go out there and become Passion Struck. Welcome to Passion Struck, episode 634. I'm
your host, John Miles, and this is the podcast where intention meets impact, where
we ignite change from the inside out so that you can live with greater purpose, deeper
meaning and a life that's truly passion struck.
This month, we've launched a brand new series, The Power to Change, a collection of conversations
exploring what it really takes to evolve, not just in your habits or routines,
but in your identity, your beliefs, and the invisible narratives that shape who you are
becoming. In episode 632, I sat down with Karen Salmanson, whose new book, Your To Die For Life,
challenged us to live each day with joy and intention before our story runs out of
pages. And in episode 631, Dr. Bob Rosen unpacked how real transformation
requires loosening the grip of ego and reconnecting to who we truly are beneath
the roles we play. Last Friday I launched our Power to Change series with a solo
episode on how to become the you that feels true. Because
sometimes the smallest shifts unlock the deepest change. And to go even deeper
we've created a collection of curated starter packs at the ignitedlife.net
slash playlist. These themed playlists are your on-ramp to the show featuring
episodes on topics like The Inner Voice, The
Space Where You Matter, The Art of Emotional Intelligence, The Rise of Her, Mental Fitness,
How We Change, The Psychology of Success, and The Best of Passionstruck.
Whether you're here to evolve your mindset deep in your purpose or build emotional mastery,
there's a playlist to help you get started. Now in today's episode we go even further inward. My guest is Kayla
Shaheen, best-selling author of the Shadow Work Journal, founder of the Zenful Note
app and a trailblazer in emotional healing and spiritual integration for
the digital generation. At just 24, Kayla's work has resonated
with over a million people. But what's more compelling than the numbers is the
story behind them. A journey from personal crisis to public healing. She
didn't wait to be perfect, she chose to be present. Because that's the truth
about change. It doesn't begin with clarity, it begins with courage. In
today's episode we explore what
shadow work really is and how your darkest emotions hold your greatest gifts. The neuroscience behind
glimmers and how micro moments of joy can rewire your nervous system. How Kayla built a healing
movement by embracing vulnerability in the digital age and how technology can become a tool for
presence, not just
distraction. Whether you're navigating heartbreak burnout or just the quiet
ache of living misaligned, this conversation is a map for coming home to
yourself. So let's dive in. Here's my conversation with Kayla Shaheen. Thank
you for choosing Passionstruck and choosing me to be your host and guide on
your journey to creating an intentional life. Now, let that journey begin.
I am so excited today to have Kayla Sheikhin, JoMe on Passion Struck. Welcome, Kayla. How are
you today? Hi, John. Thanks for having me. I'm doing great. You and I were just chatting about
Austin, one of my favorite cities.
And I understand you used to live in Bee Caves and that's where I lived.
And my sister lived there too, a great area.
And one of my favorite things to do there, in addition to going around town
lake, where there's so many hiking trails off the beaten track, that if you get
where they are, it makes for some amazing canvases around the mountainside, or I should say hillsides there.
Have you discovered many of those?
Yes.
That was one of the reasons I moved out into the hills.
It's so walkable and filled with forest and nature. was always an important part of my process to get through thinking and pondering.
And it's beautiful what nature can do
and it's integrated into your life.
So I spent a little bit over a year in Bee Cave
and now I moved to different kind of forests and Elgin.
So just hopping the trees out here.
I'll tell you, one of the things I know I would tell people
who are not from Austin and they couldn't believe it
is where I lived, I was maybe seven, eight miles
from downtown and I would tell them
we had lots of wildlife.
In addition to raccoons and stuff like that,
we had like mountain lions and bunnies everywhere,
deer everywhere.
It felt like I was out in nature, even being that close.
I think that's something people don't understand about Austin,
but many people just experience the downtown area
and don't get to travel a little bit beyond it.
That's one of the big reasons why a lot of people move out here
is that you do have that balance of the city life
and activities and music and
everything and entertainment, but you can also balance that out with the nature that the Austin
scenery provides. It's truly beautiful. Well, and the reason I'm bringing all this up is for me,
going out into nature is a way for me to practice mindfulness. And I know for anyone, being outdoors
is one of the best ways that we can experience
the sensation of awe.
And I know a lot of people use these outside journeys
as a way to then go back,
and whether they use a diary or a journal,
use that as a way to document their feelings.
And I'm opening this up because you are the author
of The Shadow Work Journal,
a guide to integrate and transcend your shadows.
Congratulations on writing that.
Thank you.
I was prepping for this and I listened to the episode that you did with Ryan
Holliday, who has been a guest on my show.
And I was listening to how he opened your interview up because he was
talking about platinum records.
And he said a platinum record basically means you sell a
million copies of a record.
And I think we all know for an author, hitting a million books sold is extremely
rare and I think much harder than probably selling a million album covers.
But in your case, you self-published this journal and similar to another person who's been on the
podcast, Joseph Nguyen, it suddenly took off and sold over a million copies, which is just unbelievable.
What do you credit that massive spike to?
Is it the content of the book?
Is it the way that you marketed it on social media?
How did it find its way into so many people's hands?
So if we backtrack a couple of years ago,
I created the Shadow Work Journal
out of a profound personal crisis.
I was just graduating college during the midst of COVID
and questioning who I was in the world and my identity
and the values that I bring into society
and trying to find my purpose and my voice.
And a year after I graduated,
I still hadn't truly found my path,
but I knew that there was something deeply personal,
like an inner flame inside of me that needed to be tended.
So I started journaling and it became my outlet.
And that's how I found my inner compass,
the compass that I was trying to make mold of for so long.
And through journaling,
I was led to this concept of shadow work.
And shadow work is the process of becoming aware
of the parts of yourself that are suppressed
or that you deny or that you choose to ignore
often because it was too painful
or too uncomfortable to face or socially acceptable.
So as I journaled and as I became aware
of these parts of myself that were important to cultivate
and to find the direction of my purpose in this life, I started writing
out prompts for myself and going through different themes and starting to do shadow work without
knowing exactly what it was. I started making sense of it as I learned and as I wrote and
journaled. After that whole inner exploration, I started nine to five, I found my footing and continued writing.
And at one point I looked back at all of my journal entries and I saw how much it helped me shape and craft who I was and make sense of the pain and the confusion that I was feeling during those times.
And I saw how it could turn into some workbooks. So that's what I started doing.
I woke up 5 a.m.
in the mornings before work and I started incorporating prompts and organizing
everything, all the practices that I did personally into a guided workbook.
And then I started sharing it online and I've always been a creator at heart and
artist at heart and making videos was something I was also passionate about and
lost track of time doing.
So there's a lot of factors that allowed the Shadow Work Journal to resonate and
reach so many people.
that allowed the Shadow Work Journal to resonate and reach so many people. One being social media. Social media is how we reach aligned audiences.
And when I started, it was more of my personal playground.
So one of the things that I wanted to incorporate more in my life was creation, artistry, and self-expression.
And I started the Zenful Note account on social media
to do just that.
And through the account, I started sharing my work
and pages of the journal.
And over time, it picked up.
And at one point, I guess right place, right time,
one of my videos did very well
and started reaching new audiences.
And from there, it snowballed.
It wasn't even from my personal account, but from other creator accounts that saw my video
and they got curious and they were like, can I try this journal?
I want to talk about it.
I want to see what my experience is.
So a lot of the common things people would say is 20 pages in and I'm already tearing up and
I went through this journal and it's helped me break through
So many truths and it's helped me
in ways that
20 years of therapy hasn't been able to help me. So it was it provided this alternative
route and alternative practice for people to take into their personal lives, into their private lives,
to set up a space for themselves and a guided process to really pool from within and be brutally, compassionately honest with themselves. And that allowed an incredible amount of people
to awaken to their shadow selves.
And when you are able to confront
those hidden aspects of yourself,
you are then able to accept and integrate them
into your life.
And that can create a whole new sense of freedom
and direction in your life,
which I personally experienced
from doing that inner work and journaling and shadow work.
There were so many factors.
And one of them is luck.
I wasn't really strategizing for the success to happen.
I was really following my heart and sharing my voice and truth
and the right people heard and responded in their own ways.
So it was a very beautiful journey.
I first heard of shadow work through studying Carl Ung.
I know when he was talking about it,
he really referred to this concept of the shadow self.
You expressed it correctly.
It's the unconscious parts of ourselves we repress like you were talking about or disown.
How did his work influence your own discovery
of shadow work?
Is that how you came across it?
So I was studying psychology
and I grew up in a very spiritual household.
So naturally I was drawn to Carl Jung's works
and his ideologies of how psychology intersects
with the spirit and your personality
and how he makes sense of our purpose
and our soul in this world.
So I really appreciated the overlap perspective
that he offered that in traditional education, we don't often learn
about or explore. So that's why I was very drawn to his work.
And yeah, I think a lot of people a lot of people resonate
with that because we're spiritual beings and there's the
whole other side of ourselves that's not tangible.
and there's the whole other side of ourselves that's not tangible.
For those who don't understand what this concept is,
can you explain exactly what is shadow work
and how someone beyond what we gave a high level overview
of what it helps someone to do when they embrace it.
So as I mentioned, shadow work is the process of becoming aware of the parts of yourself that you hide or deny or repress for many different reasons. And this kind of work matters because
these unacknowledged parts still operate behind the scenes and beneath the surface.
And they shape our patterns,
they shape and affect our relationships,
and they influence our self image, how we perceive ourselves.
So when we bring light to our shadow self,
we can create the sense of freedom,
we can create more room for choice
versus control, those shadow aspects can have that control. And then by accepting and integrating
your shadows, you can achieve the sense of wholeness in who you are, because you're able
to see the full spectrum of your being. And when you have that level of awareness of yourself,
you can move through the world and show up
and speak from the truest parts of who you are,
not from the masks that you wear in society.
So it's very beautiful work.
A lot of it is digging deep and understanding your wounds and the reasons
for your behaviors in life, looking at different cycles and patterns that continue to show
up in your life and really taking a pause and questioning. A big part of this practice
that started for me personally was the questions.
If we can allow ourselves to sit with the question marks
and sit in the open-ended answers
and come up with our truths and hear our narratives,
there's so much healing that can happen
throughout that process.
And it's simply by drawing your attention back to yourself
because a lot of things are rooted in the self
and there's so much potential for change
when we are able to channel our willpower
and go through that process one-on-one with the self.
So I was preparing for this.
I've heard you tell a personal story that you share
of discovering this new part of your life.
And I think we all have defining moments
that shape who we become,
but it was the way you describe it is you went from looking
at the outside into your life to beginning
to understand your true inner awareness and having this kind of reawakening to your true
authenticity.
I hope I'm getting that correctly, but I was hoping you might share this because I think
there are a lot of young people like yourself, and I've got
two kids who are 21 and 27, who are going through this themselves, that are going out
in the world and they're feeling like they're being conformed to someone that they're not,
which is what you were talking about with wearing the mask, and then learning how to
remove that
and becoming who you're supposed to be.
Yeah, it's a lifelong journey.
It doesn't happen overnight or throughout one season of life.
I think it's important for anyone in any stage of life,
whether they're young or midlife or older in age,
to have those introspective periods and reevaluate and shift where needed.
And for me, it made sense after college, that's naturally the path.
You have to create it for yourself.
It's the first time you're spat out into the world and now you have to make sense of it.
But for me personally, I came from a place of confusion on what are my strengths? What, where does my personality fit in? Does it fit into the corporate world? Do I need to do more independent work? And a lot of those truths where I'm a creative, I work well independently. I value finding meaning and making meaning of things and having space
and time to reflect and write and read and internalize, but also to help people through
my work and my creations, whether it's through writing or technology or art. So those were all things that I pinpointed
and identified for myself.
And that can look different for so many people.
It's a great exercise to understand
how you wanna show up in the world
and the life that you wanna create for yourself.
So one of the things Carl Jung believed
is that the shadow wasn't just negative
that it actually held hidden gifts.
Do you find that people that you've interacted with who've used your journal are often surprised by what's in their shadow?
Yes, and that's a great point. There's a term, Dr. Connie, she mentors me and we write together and she uses the term shadow gold. So a lot of the
things that we repress in ourselves could be hidden talents, they could be strengths,
it could be attributes in our personality that we were told to shut out or quiet down.
You could be a talented musician and over time you were told that you need to be in a career that
was more acceptable in society and that could help you sustain a more balanced, stable lifestyle.
But in that following the societal mold, you lost or abandoned your musical side. So there's, you can reclaim so many aspects of yourself
that are considered gold and that make you truly unique.
I completely agree with that.
And I think sometimes we tend to run away
from those things that make us unique
because oftentimes it makes us feel different
from the people that we're
used to surrounding ourselves with.
Did you ever find that yourself?
That some of those things that brought out your most unique nature were different than
the people you were with?
So you weren't exposing them as much or was that not something you went through?
Yes, definitely. I played the flute in middle school and high school and then a little bit
in college and it was a very big part of my heart and a big part of who I was and in my voice.
So after I graduated that was buried into my shadow and I ignored it and every time I would
listen to classical music, I'd
flinch a little bit and get that yearning in my heart of, oh, I wish that I was still
playing and performing. And I went through that process of coming face to face with my
flute and opening the case after years and years of avoiding it because of maybe judgment and shame
that I had for not pursuing that passion.
And I started playing it during another period
of healing and shadow work.
And it was one of the ways that I would learn to express
and feel through the music.
Yeah, there's definitely aspects of all of us
that we can chip away, but it's important not to forget and know that it
never truly goes away. It's just faded and you can put a
magnifying glass there and recover those aspects of who
you are.
One of the things I talk about the most on this podcast, and
I've recently written a couple books about it, is our fundamental need to matter.
And I think we have these epidemics that are occurring
around the world of loneliness, hopelessness,
more people burned out, facing depression, burnout,
than we ever had before.
And when I started to look at it,
I realized that in my opinion, they're not unrelated.
I think they're interrelated.
And they're all a crisis of invisibility
that so many people are feeling.
Do you see that to yourself?
Absolutely.
I think one of why do people wake up every day?
It's because they want to live for something.
And we are here to create meaning for our lives and to bring meaning into other people's
lives.
Sometimes a lot of people can feel lost and alone and unseen.
And it's a very relevant issue in our society. And I think everyone is on that
personal journey of finding what matters to them and bringing that matter and meaning
to the people around them. Community is a huge aspect in that. Without community, we
wouldn't be able to share and amplify what matters to us. And it's important to focus on community as well when
you're thinking about what matters to you. Because at the end of the day, if you figure things out
for yourself, but you are still stuck in a room and showing up for you, that can be fulfilling,
but it can, there's room for expansion in that connection and
being able to share your purpose and the things that matter to you with other people.
It's just like fire and light. You can share it with other people and sharing, you can
enlighten others and create more visibility,
to experience the world around you and to shape it as well.
I have to ask, Kayla, are you a Swiftie?
Taylor Swift.
Yeah.
I used to be like when I was little,
I would sing her songs and burst out all the lyrics.
Yeah, she's an incredible artist.
Her albums are so potent and full of symbolism.
The reason I brought her up is I'm releasing a solo episode
tomorrow about Taylor Swift, and I'm doing a series this month
that I called The Connected Life.
And really it's all about the art of communication.
But I'm trying to lean in on some examples of people who connect with others in a profound way.
And to me, Taylor Swift does this almost better than anyone because
beyond her lyrics, there's an element of her where, whether it's through
the 22 hat moments or how she brings people into her home to listen to new songs, she's starting to pilot or how she reaches out other people that I think is a master class
in intentional leadership that she does.
But the reason I bring her up is,
I also think through her lyrics,
it's almost like she's journaling her thoughts.
And over the course of her career,
we've seen her mature from the young teenager
writing her initial songs to the more deeply self-aware
songs that she does now.
Do you see that too when you look at her?
Absolutely.
It's beautiful to see the evolution of someone else's
inner worlds and development through music
and through lyrics. And essentially it is documentation, you're documenting your feelings
and creating myths and stories out of personal parts of your life in order to connect with others. And she's done a beautiful job of storytelling
through her lyrics, through the way that she composes
her albums and shares her story and her heart
with other people.
And it just shows how something deeply personal
and intimate in your own worlds can resonate with an entire world.
So the individual experiences we have can be truly universal when we share them.
I brought her up because a lot of people talk about journaling,
and I know some people see the power in it,
other people it doesn't impact on that way.
But since what we're really talking about today is a journal, why do you think journaling has such
a power to unlock the parts of ourselves we tend to avoid or suppress over other mechanisms that
people might use? Journaling has been one of the most powerful ways that I've processed my own shadows and
created clarity in my life. And I think it's because that act of physically writing allows
you to slow down and to pause and to witness yourself, witness parts of yourself that feel unseen or unheard.
And it creates distance between you
and the story that you're living.
And when you're witnessing yourself,
you can be completely open and honest with yourself,
with compassion.
I think that's a very important part
of this process of shadow work and honesty is regardless
of what comes out, having compassion and grace to observe
to become your own observer. So for me, journaling became a
mirror of sorts where I could see what was really there, what
was trying to bubble up and and to not judge, but to try to understand
those aspects of myself.
And some people love the physical nature of paper and pen.
It's been with us for so long,
and there's something somatic about that experience.
It's an exercise.
And we grow up school, taking notes, taking tests, doing everything
for the mind, but having that practice to develop and exercise our hearts is important
too.
But yeah, journaling is an incredible and accessible practice that anyone can incorporate into their lives.
And if it's not as accessible, I know some people are like, I'm not a journaler.
I don't like carrying books around.
There are digital tools for journaling too.
So I created the Zenful Note app because I saw a need for a digital space to document
and do that in a reflection.
So that's another option too. You can even speak and voice record your thoughts out loud. And
that's also a form of journaling. So journaling can go beyond pen and paper. It can look like
so many different things. And I want to talk more about the app here in a second. I just wanted to
stick on this journaling thought just for one more second.
I think you brought up a good thing is, is there different ways to do it?
But do you think there's a difference between the traditional ways we think of journaling
and what I would describe as the way you recommend, which is intentional healing, shadow journaling.
Is there a difference there?
Definitely.
You can have open-ended journaling.
So just channeling that stream of consciousness
and using a blank page.
And I have different journals
for different kinds of journaling.
So for example, this one is my just open-ended stream of consciousness journal.
There's no guide or anything. It's just a blank slate.
And I could write about what I'm experiencing, what I'm sensing.
It's just a brain dump. And then there's the more intentional healing journaling
where it's more geared towards the self
and helping process or overcome certain aspects of life
that are weighing down on us.
And that's where the shadow work journaling comes in.
And then there's also more of the planner journaling, where we want to plan our day and accomplish our goals and clarify and chase our dreams. So there's also that aspect of journaling where it's more future oriented. So I would say those are the three main pillars of journaling that I've explored personally. There's a myriad of other kinds.
I've been wanting to get into dream journaling recently.
So that's another form.
One of the things that journal does
is it gives readers a number of prompts
that are rooted in therapeutic techniques.
And I wanted to ask, how did you curate and test
which exercises to include?
And how did you discover if they would work
in this expanded edition that you've done?
So there's three different parts
in the Shadow Work Journal.
There's the part one, which is more educational
and more of a read into
the background of shadow work and what you're really getting into. And then part two are
exercises and there's mirror work, there's fill in the blank prompts, there are simple
somatic exercises where you use your breath or your body. And so there's a variety of different ways
that you can do shadow work, even outside of the journal
and just using the journal as a guide.
And then the third part is the prompt section,
and that's more of the journal aspect of the journal.
And there you're answering questions based on different themes,
whether it's your inner child, your inner teen,
exploring the self, exploring your personality,
your purpose, your dreams, your shadow gold.
So I started pulling, like I mentioned before,
from my personal journaling writing and laid it all out.
Like they were scrapbooks and started putting together in a linear fashion,
in a workbook fashion, a format that felt clear and effective.
And there's no one right way to use the shadow work journal.
Just hold onto it when you feel like you need to create a space for yourself to process
something heavy or
to bring something to light that you're curious about. You could do that by starting with a prompt
or an exercise or just simply reading the introductory section and starting to create
that intention of self-exploration. But I also worked with some therapists as guides
to further refine the prompts and the messaging and add self
care tips to the second version of the Shadow Work Journal. So
yeah, there's a lot of expanded parts from the original self
published one that you can find in the Shadow Work Journal.
that you can find in the shadow work journal.
Let's now switch to Zenful Note. And one of the things that I've covered with a lot of experts on this show is how social media can clash with our nervous system. How do you envision
Zenful Note functioning differently from traditional wellness apps that might help people
differently from traditional wellness apps that might help people deal with that clash with their nervous system.
Social media is basically designed to hijack our attention and spike our dopamine and keep you consuming. So it's like we are feeding our minds junk food every time we open up a social media app, depending on where your attention goes on the apps.
And over time that dysregulates the nervous system and we become overstimulated
and disconnected from ourselves,
from our present awareness and from meaning because we're overwhelmed with so
many personalities and other people making
meaning of this and that and sharing so much. It's a dump, a waterfall of just information.
It bounces off of us. It's like we consume it and we flood ourselves with it, but it
sticks around and it lives in our psyches and we don't even know. So with Zenful Note, my entire journey as a writer
and as a founder has been about creating spaces
and resources where people can safely meet their inner world
and connect with themselves
and come back to their own present awareness
and take back their control as humans.
We often feel so out of control, but we do have the capability to reclaim
that agency that we have in our lives. So after the success of the Shadow Work Journal, I
started getting comments and DMs, people asking for a digital version for a PDF.
And I didn't necessarily want to create a PDF because there were so many fakes
coming out and a lot of people, just a lot of copyright issues that I was facing. But there was
still a big need for this to be integrated into our technology, into the digital world and for
community.
So that's when I started building out the Zenful Note app a little bit over a year ago.
And it has grown immensely.
We haven't been marketing as much, but over the past year we've garnered over 140,000 users in the app. And a lot of people use the app in tandem with the journal.
If they need to check in their emotions and track things digitally,
it has a lot more resources.
That's amazing.
Thanks.
So one of the things I heard while researching you
was this term digital mindfulness, which is something we don't often hear.
How do you define it and why is it so urgent right now?
So mindful technology, I think we speak about technology and how it hijacks our nervous
system, our attention.
And I think we resort to the solutions, like separating ourselves from our phones and just
eliminating technology from our lives. But I think at this point, it's not realistic to do that.
Our worlds are so interconnected with technology. So we have to learn how to work with the monster
that we created here. And mindful tech isn't about abandoning technology, but changing the way that we engage with technology. So with the Zenful
Note app that helps people pause and reflect and regulate and check in with can come down to the relationship that we decide to shape with it.
So my hope is to pave the way for people to learn how to reshape their relationship with their devices
so that it feeds their souls and not their egos and their addictions and dopamine.
It can feed your meaning and your purpose and be a resource in your personal life
versus something that's going to constantly distract you.
One of the things that a lot of people do is they end up focusing on triggers. And one of the
things you focus on is glimmers. So how can people identify and track their glimmers and
maybe you should explain what they are and not just focus on the triggers that they have
in their lives?
Part of doing shadow work is paying attention, noting down those very powerful moments that overwhelm you,
which those are triggers, the heavy emotions,
the spikes in our nervous system.
And glimmers are the opposite.
Of triggers, dysregulate our nervous system,
and glimmers regulate them.
So by tracking both, we can begin
to map our inner emotional
landscape and see what activates us, what spikes us, but also what soothes us, what
calms us, what brings us back into the present moment. So glimmer tracking and trigger tracking
are tools in the Zenful Note app, which I personally love to use. And I see glimmer tracking as a different take
on a gratitude practice.
Sitting down and writing out 10 things you're grateful for
is a beautiful way to look at the bright side
and build more gratitude in your life.
But sometimes it can be overwhelming
during a period of crisis or during a dark night of the soul. So glimmers are very
somatic, I feel like. They could be as simple as noting down the way you feel in the morning when
it's raining to interacting with a stranger in the streets and having a meaningful conversation that was unexpected or unplanned.
They're very simple moments in our lives that calm and ground
us and bring us back to the present.
So I love offering glimmer tracking as a new perspective
to creating more abundance in your life in a way that's
very simple and not too much of a stretch.
One of the things I think so many of us do is we end up judging ourselves so much that
we cause ourselves to not take action on the very things that would help us improve so
many areas of our lives.
What practices do you help people take to observe without judgment
and to help them reinforce that mindset in every day of their life?
That's a very important aspect to integrate into this work. So much of this work is learning how to go from
judgment and shame to observation and grace, and to watch your emotions rise and fall without
immediately labeling them as good or bad. And one way as part of the practice that this can be done is to identify
those shadow selves and give them a character. So knowing who those shadow characters are
and seeing them as part of you and engaging in dialogue with them. So a lot of the times
there's an inner critic. And so when we identify a wound or a trigger and we start doing the
shadow work, we'll start criticizing ourselves or that
inner judge will come up. So knowing that there's this
inner critic side to you that's starting to speak and facing
that aspect of your shadow as well, and meeting that with compassion,
and trying to understand even the judgment voice,
the critic voice is part of doing this work.
It's really interesting how one path in our healing
can lead to many other paths.
We tend to create our own blockages a lot of the times,
but it all comes down to that awareness
and openness to dialogue and understand even the inner critic or the inner judge.
You have joined a small group of authors who have had books that have sold a million copies.
sold a million copies. Ryan Holiday, Adam Grant, Susan Cain, Malcolm Gladwell,
like I mentioned, Joseph Wynn, Mark Manson
are the people that come to mind when I think about this.
And I wanted to ask, who are one or two
of your favorite authors that you love to read that have influenced you?
Joseph Campbell.
The Power of Myth.
Yes, it's beautiful. There's one more. The Artist's Way, Julia Cameron.
I have not read that one, but I'll have to check it out. It's a great workbook.
It definitely inspired me in terms of formatting and putting thought into practice.
Julia Cameron is great and obviously Carl Jung as well.
I wanted to close with this question.
If someone's just beginning their journey of journaling, what's one thing you hope that
they'll take away from your work?
I always say shadow work isn't about fixing yourself.
It's about finally seeing yourself fully.
And that's where the real healing starts,
is when we stop chipping away
and trying to sculpt a different picture of ourselves
and pick up the pieces that fell and put it back together.
So I hope through journaling and through this practice of self-reflection,
people don't feel the need to pull away but to come back into themselves and reclaim every aspect of who they are with compassion
and lead a fuller life filled with purpose
based on that new found sense of self.
It's beautiful work, it's potent work, it's hard work,
but it's very rewarding, yeah.
And Kayla, if people wanted to learn more
about you and your work,
where's the best
place to direct them to go?
You can find my website, kayla Shaheen.com.
I'm also on Instagram and TikTok.
You can find a lot of educational videos that I create on Zenful Note, but I also post my
personal work and writing on my Kayla Shaheen handle as well. And I also for a deeper
dive into the topic of shadow work, have a sub stack where I explore shadow work and
different themes and areas of life and engage in these dialogues and write about them with
Dr. Connie Zweig. So it's a great space if you want to just dive deeper and learn more
about the subject. And you can also download the Zenfono app in the app store. And I'd love to share
a link with you if you have a caption that you want to share it in. You can offer a couple months
free for your viewers. We'd love to give that to the listeners here as a token of appreciation.
Those are all the channels that I'm on
and I'm pretty active on social media,
so you can find me there.
We'll make sure we put all those in the show notes.
And Kayla, thank you so much for joining us
and congratulations again on all your success.
I appreciate it.
Thanks for the conversation.
That was Kayla Shaheen.
And what a powerful reminder that the most meaningful change doesn't
happen when we fix ourselves. It happens when we finally face ourselves. Here's what I hope
you carry with you. The parts you've hidden aren't your flaws. They're your invitations.
Growth doesn't mean becoming someone else. It means returning to who you were before
the world told you to shrink. And healing doesn't begin with the answers. It begins with better questions.
If today's episode spoke to you, I'd be honored if you leave a five-star review or
share it with someone on their own healing journey. Your voice helps new listeners find
this movement and it means more than you know. To explore Kayla's work, including the Shadow Work Journal, her substack with Dr. Connie's
wig and the Zenful Note app, visit KaylaShehene.com or all links are in today's show notes at
passionstruck.com.
Don't forget, this month's Power to Change series continues over at theignitedlife.net
where I'm sharing journaling tools, identity shift frameworks, and emotional mastery guides
based on these episodes.
And next on Passion Struck, I sit down with Christopher Connors,
bestselling author and leadership coach to discuss how emotional intelligence
fuels transformation and why it's the number one skill
for building a life of integrity, resilience, and inner strength.
I define self-awareness really as knowing the content
of your character.
And you start to shift from there to recognizing
and perceiving how others see you
and then processing and reflecting on those thoughts.
But no question about it, really in the end
where you come full circle is being able to get feedback
from people that you trust.
And the key word there being trust. It's not always gonna be the people that you trust. And the key word there being trust,
it's not always going to be the people that you like.
It might sometimes come from people
that you may not yet have a relationship with.
But if you truly know that they're
going to shoot you straight.
Until then, don't just know your truth, live it.
Because transformation isn't something you wait for,
it's something you choose.
Live life, passion strive.