Episode 54 How you can align with your dream life and business from the inside-out with Dr. Shannon D. South

Mar 16, 2022

Is your intuition the voice of your soul and wise self? What are some traps that can stop you from moving forward in your life? How can visualization help you to overcome stressors in your life?

MEET DR. SHANNON D. SOUTH

Dr. Shannon D. South, aka the “Joy Doctor”, is an award-winning therapist, an Amazon best-selling author, and an inspirational speaker. Dr. Shannon is also the founder of the Ignite Your Life! and Grow Your Business by Growing You Breakthrough Programs!

In 1994, Dr. Shannon had a spiritual experience during meditation that healed her debilitating anxiety and depression permanently. Since this transformative experience, Dr. Shannon has helped thousands of clients connect to their most loving, abundant, and joy-filled selves. Her recent book, Grow Your Business by Growing You, is a roadmap to this unique, healing process.

For a free discovery call to see how Dr. Shannon can help align you with your highest potential, go to www.drshannonsouth.com. Connect with her on Facebook, Youtube, and LinkedIn.

Check out Dr. Shannon’s upcoming Spirit and Soul retreats.

IN THIS PODCAST:

  • Helping therapists align their dream lives and businesses (08:56)
  • Traps that can stop people from moving forward (15:20)
  • Your intuition is your soul’s calling (24:32)

Helping therapists align their dream lives and businesses

Studies show us that when we have an external focus of control, we have more anxiety and depression, so when we bring this in and become the solution and align with our real needs … when we align with [them] … we can tap into that flow better. (Dr. Shannon South)

You can tune yourself, like an instrument, to your needs and desires so that you are better able to care for yourself. This happens by working on your healing.

By focusing your control on your internal self you have more confidence, peace, and ability to cope with fluctuations in the external world.

Step into parts of [yourself] that are beyond the mind, [so that you] are not just all mental. (Dr. Shannon South)

Make use of visualization, meditation, breathwork, and many different modalities that help you to connect your physical body and your conscious mind. Have this unison and compassion between mental and physical instead of having your mind work against your body and your sensations.

Traps that can stop people from moving forward

There are different subconscious survival traps that people can fall into which keep them stuck in the past, blocking their attempts and progress at moving forward.

Some of them are:

  1. Perfectionism
  2. The not-enough trap
  3. The spiritual bypass and running after any quick solution
  4. Depression and burnout

Your intuition is your soul’s calling

Intuition is your soul [speaking] … that part of us that is longing [for] us to grow, that’s pulling us, luring us to the soul [to grow] towards our callings and our passion … and passion is the pipeline to the soul. (Dr. Shannon South)

Find your passions, because they are the bridges that can take you to the things that are nourishing for you.

Allow space for the things that are healing and nourishing to you once you find them. Schedule time for them in your days and weeks to improve your self-connection.

Connect With Me

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Rate, review, and subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spotify, and Google Podcasts.

Resources Mentioned And Useful Links:

BOOK | Dr. Shannon D. South – Grow Your Business by Growing You

BOOK | Bruce Lipton – The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter & Miracles

For a free discovery call to see how Dr. Shannon can help align you with your highest potential, go to www.drshannonsouth.com

Check out Dr. Shannon’s Webinars and Events

Connect with her on Facebook, Youtube, and LinkedIn.

Check out Dr. Shannon’s upcoming Spirit and Soul retreats

Empower yourself and discover more success in your practice with Linda Bonnar

Practice of the Practice Podcast Network

Transcript

[CHRIS McDONALD]

The Holistic Counseling Podcast is part of the Practice of the Practice network, a network of podcasts seeking to help you market and grow your business and yourself. To hear other podcasts like Behind the Bite, Full of Shift and Impact Driven Leader, go to www.practiceofthepractice.com/network.

Welcome to the Holistic Counseling Podcast, where you discover diverse wellness modalities, advice on growing your integrative practice, and grow confidence in being your unique self. I'm your host, Chris McDonald. I'm so glad you're here for the journey.

[CHRIS]

Welcome to today's episode of the Holistic Counseling Podcast. I'm your host, Chris McDonald. Hope you're doing well today. I have a very special guest for you, Dr. Shannon D South, I met through a holistic webinar I took. She shared so many amazing holistic practices that I'm going to ask her to share one of those with you today. So you are in for a real treat. It's very powerful. She's also here to discuss how you can align with your dream life and business from the inside out. She is also known as the joy doctor. She's an award-winning therapist and an Amazon best selling author, an inspirational speaker, an expert in the field of spirituality and healing trauma for over 25 years.

She knows how to assist people in finding success and joy naturally. She is the founder of Ignite Your Life and Business Programs and author of the most recent book, Grow Your Business by Growing You: A Spiritual Entrepreneurs Guide for Maximum Joy, Abundance, and Success. I could use that book. That sounds great. She is also an international trainer, teaching coaches, counselors, and healers, how to integrate spirit and soul into their practice for lasting and deep transformation for their clients. Welcome to the podcast, Dr. Shannon.

[DR. SHANNON D. SOUTH]

Thank you so much. I'm so honored to be here. This is a wonderful thing you're doing, and I'm thrilled to be a part of your vision. It makes me so happy.

[CHRIS]

Excellent. So can you tell my listeners a little bit more about yourself and your work?

[DR. SHANNON]

Absolutely. So as many of us that are in this field, we didn't always, we weren't always so joyful and fabulous feeling. In fact I grew up in a very dysfunctional family. I love my family, but they were, there were a lot of blank spots, like many of us in the healing industry and I had a lot of trauma. So by my twenties, I had a panic disorder. I couldn't drive. I couldn't sleep well. I didn't eat well. So I went to see a psychiatrist and the psychiatrist said here, he gave me several diagnosis, several pills later, do all this and you'll be feeling better. I was like, great, good, whatever.

So I did it. I took some medication, I was sleeping again, and I was so relieved. Well, years later I decided I really don't like the side effects of these medicines. I really, really want to feel natural joy. This is what I want from my clients, because I was getting my degree in psychology at the time and so I decided to go see a lady who specialized in meditation. While I walk in, she says to me have you ever meditated before? I said, no. She said, well, I'm going to let you stare at this candle for 20 minutes and I'll be back. I'm thinking, you've got to be kidding me.

Staring at the candle for 20 minutes? What in the world I'm paying for this? So she leaves, I start staring at this candle and I'm angry actually, if you want to know the truth. So I'm looking at the candle, look at the candle, look at the candle. As you know if you've meditated, the minutia can be just terrible, especially if you're an anxious person. So she comes back 20 minutes later and said, how did it go? I said, I don't know. I've never done this. She said, well, you're going to be fine. I want you to stare at this candle 20 minutes, morning and evening and keep it up and you're going to be better. I was like, whatever lady. She goes, that'll be 65 bucks.

[CHRIS]

That really made you mad?

[DR. SHANNON]

Oh, I was so mad, but I wanted to get better so bad. Can you believe I went home and did that thing?

[CHRIS]

Did you? Wow.

[DR. SHANNON]

I listened to her because I thought, well, she specialized in meditation. As mad as I am I'm going to try it. I did that. So months later, after doing that day and night, day and night, one day I decided I'm going to wean myself off these medications. I'm not recommending this at home by the way. I did it. I started weaning myself off and the panic symptoms returned. I had that tightness in my chest, the shortness of breath, I was just miserable. I was looking at the candle and I just screamed out. If there's anything out there, please help me. I can't stand it anymore. All of a sudden there was this like tsunami, like is the best way I can describe it to you, like tsunami, bath of joy and love.

It just like filled me. It came, I know it was a wow. It came from my head all the way to my toes. I just sat there and thought what in the world is going on and I never had a panic attack again. So years later, when I got inspired to go get my doctorate in spiritual psychology, I found out what that was called and they call it a peak experience. So this is available to any of us, you, me, anybody. We can do anything and we can have this opening. But we have to go through the minutiae first. I always tell my clients sometimes it feels like we're never getting anywhere and then we have this opening, this opening, this opening. Then I went on to teach people how to have those openings so they can become more of their true self, which is their authentic, powerful, whole self, which is what we all want, to feel more healthy and whole.

[CHRIS]

Yes, definitely.

[DR. SHANNON]

So it's just a wonderful journey. It's been a great journey to be here and I'm just thrilled to share some of this with your folks.

[CHRIS]

You're a great storyteller too.

[DR. SHANNON]

Aw, thank you. Well, it's a true story and it's exciting for me to share about it.

[CHRIS]

You mentioned the spiritual psychology. I've never heard of that there was an actual degree in this. Can you share what is spiritual psychology?

[DR. SHANNON]

Absolutely. So the spiritual people got together, the nuns, the monks, all these spiritual teachers, yogis, and they were having these healing experiences. Then the psychologists were having healing experiences and they got together and said let's pull the best from both of these worlds and see what we can bring into the mix. So the more prayer, meditative people, they knew a lot about energy and relationship and beingness and the psychology people knew a lot about the belief system and the emotions and the mind body brain stuff. So they brought all that together and that's how spiritual psychology was born. It really does bring the best of both worlds to the table so the client can truly heal from their deepest self up to their best wisest self. It's really, really inclusive and amazing.

[CHRIS]

It sounds like an amazing curriculum just right on for this podcast too. I was like in so many ways. Wow.

[DR. SHANNON]

Leave that out. Do we? We don't want to leave that out, these parts of us that ---

[CHRIS]

No

[DR. SHANNON]

That help us.

[CHRIS]

Yes because I know we've had another guest on who talked about spirituality. I think a lot of counselors therapists are afraid of that word for counseling and using that with them. But I just find it can be so, I don't know what the word is, connecting them to that can be so healing, isn't it?

[DR. SHANNON]

Oh, it totally is. I had a client one day. He is this young teen and he says to me, I don't have a spiritual self. I said that's okay. I said, let's see what you do do that is creative and brings you inspiration. He said, well, I'll play the guitar. I said, awesome. That's perfect. I said, well, where does that creativity come from? He said, I don't know. I said interesting. I said, interesting, because you're getting information from somewhere that's inspiring these songs. He said, yes. I said, can we just call that your wisest self, your most highest spiritual self? He said, sure. So we used that in the process and it blew him wide open. It was amazing. He'd seen himself like a Ted Bundy sorts. Like he hated himself. By the end of the session, he was seeing himself in a more accurate creative, positive light. It was a massive shift. His mother told me later what a major shift it made in him just for that opening and that breakthrough to really connect with that part of him. That was so amazing.

[CHRIS]

I love that too, how just that one small thing that you can do or say to him that just opened him up.

[DR. SHANNON]

Absolutely. And realigning him with that part of himself, I think is the key. That alignment, because we get so aligned with so much crapola, excuse my language, but yes, we line up with so much crap, so much of our past, so many distractions that get in our way. I call them your subconscious survival traps. I actually created a quiz on that because we lose ourselves in those. But the good news is they can help us. Like fire starter, they can help us to move towards that better version of ourselves. So when we learn to break free from those, we can really do it. We can get better. We can align with that part of us that is really creative and spontaneous and self-actualized?

[CHRIS]

I know that you help therapists and counselors and have businesses and we're going to move on to that. So what do you do to help them align? I know you mentioned that you help them align their dream life and business from the inside out. So what exactly?

[DR. SHANNON]

Well, a lot of people I talk to, they're tired of dreaming. They want to actually become it. They're like, I'm sick of dreaming about this. I do all these things and they don't come together or I do them and they come together halfway and I really want to become these things. I want more abundance, I want more joy, I want more success. I want more love. So it's an inside, outside job. Studies show us when we have an external focus of control, we have more anxiety and depression. So when we bring this in and become the solution and align with our real needs, it's what I help my people do, align with their deeper, real needs.

Sometimes we're lost thinking we need this and we're trying to get it in a different way that doesn't really work. So when we find those deeper, real needs, like a need for, let's say safety and love and trust in the universe, when we align with that and become that need, we are able to tap into that flow better. It's like an instrument. We tune ourselves, it's an attunement process and it's very powerful. We do it by healing. We do it through our healing work. Like we are doing, like the work you do, like the work I do. We help them heal from the inside out and then they become that abundance. They become that joy and they become that love. It's really powerful.

[CHRIS]

Because I think, yes, I read right on one of your websites there about, so let's say something's going wrong in your business externally. So you move people towards the internal, well what's going on with you?

[DR. SHANNON]

Absolutely. So let's say, obviously it's your relationship to what is not, what is, that's the problem and the solution. So let's say they're having, they can't get clients or they are feeling a black or they're in this place of scarcity or fear. We want to align them with trust and vision and strength and love and power empowerment so that they step into those dreams and become them. It's really that simple, but it's not right. We know that ---

[CHRIS]

There's isn't.

[DR. SHANNON]

There's work there to be done. We know there's emotions. We know there's belief systems. We know there's subconscious traps that get in the way. We know this, don't we?

[CHRIS]

Absolutely. There's so much that can get in the way, and especially therapists, I think overthink a lot of us are more type A. I know I am, that really overthink and that perfectionism comes in and we want things a certain way. I know I've done this too, just try to, okay, let me see who else can I talk to about this to help with this issue of my business? Or what else can I research? Or let me find another cause.

[DR. SHANNON]

Absolutely. That not enough stuff.

[CHRIS]

Not enough.

[DR. SHANNON]

That's never enough. Not enough. It's actually, the truth is we've got it all, but we have to align with it and that's really the truth. It doesn't mean we won't have external support. We need support, and both, but that inner alignment, even if we have the external support, we can't fully receive it. People can say, I love you all day long or you're so amazing. If you can't take it in there's no cells to your body that are soaking it in. So that, opening is what's so, ---

[CHRIS]

Same with the affirmations if we're not aligning with it.

[DR. SHANNON]

Bruce Lipton talks about that in his book, The Biology of Belief. He said until we're in alignment with our belief systems, we won't have the destiny that we want. We will just keep working against ourselves unknowingly. It's not like we're doing this consciously. But our subconscious mind has a ton of power. So we've got to find ways to get to that deeper part of ourselves to allow, and that's something you and I talked about earlier that visualization piece. Is to really step into parts of us that are beyond the mind, that are not just all mental and to bring those in.

[CHRIS]

Yes, for sure. No, I totally agree with that. And I think a lot of people don't do that. So what do you do if you're not aligned? If you're like, I realize I'm not and just keep pushing against the wall here. I'm not getting anywhere.

[DR. SHANNON]

Absolutely. Well, I meditate every day and that has saved my life. I mean, I couldn't even tell you how much that saved me.

[CHRIS]

I hear you.

[DR. SHANNON]

I can heal the alignment. I meditated for 20 years. So I finally am at a place where I feel that alignment. I feel the grounding of that. I feel the opening of that and the creativity and the energy that comes from that. It's like really recharging and really reinvigorating. So I'm grateful for that. In a clean way, it doesn't feel buzzy and anxious like caffeine would. It's a calm way. It's a calm alignment. I know you do, you're a yoga teacher. You know what I'm talking about?

[CHRIS]

Oh yes.

[DR. SHANNON]

So it's a beautiful thing. Then the other thing I do is I work with the repetition. I call it repetition compulsion, those parts of us that come up over and over again that want our attention, that need our healing. I work with those things within me and within my clients, the subconscious survival trap. So let's say fear. We've all had a lot of fear this last many years and what's it doing to us and how is it really constricting us from really opening to our next level of potential?

So I had some fear come up this year and I really dove deep into that. I healed a piece of me that was frozen, that I didn't even realize was in there. That was really in my way of feeling more love. Boy, it was powerful, powerful shift after that. It changed the landscape of everything that I did. It wasn't, it changed my business. It changed the landscape of my relationships. It changed the landscape of how I see myself. So really when we grab those pieces inside that have split off from our true nature and really bring them home and up level them for a lack of a better word, we do realign, we realign. It's all there.

[CHRIS]

I guess you mentioned some of the traps that stop us from moving forward. So is there some other ones that you know about?

[DR. SHANNON]

Oh yes. Well, I've identified seven primary ones and it's funny, you mentioned perfectionism earlier because when I'm doing these trainings, I've just done, I just did two trainings on your seven subconscious survival traps and perfectionist, there's a lot of people that said they identify as perfectionist.

[CHRIS]

I came out on your quizzes.

[DR. SHANNON]

I love it.

[CHRIS]

That's why I brought that up.

[DR. SHANNON]

So without exposing all your woundedness, be honest about that. But perfectionist always has a shame based relationship. It's like that part that doesn't feel quite good enough. And we all have that in us. We all have that part that's like, if I could always do better or be more, get it just right. That part is tricky, isn't it? Because it shows up in so many ways and it can be a strength and a weakness. It can be something that really helps us like put together things in such a beautiful way. I mean, I want a perfectionist, who's a surgeon, don't you? I mean ---

[CHRIS]

That's true.

[DR. SHANNON]

I want a perfectionist who's like my accountant I want them to get those things, catch those little details but when it comes to deeper healing, it's much harder. The perfectionist can really get in the way, because it's not in either or right. It's not black and white and there's not a, it's a good enough, it's not just, there's not a place to land where we're going to, the bars always has to be too high for the perfectionist, right?

[CHRIS]

Yes. Unrealistic and expectations.

[DR. SHANNON]

And it's exhausting. That's right. So fear was my primary trap because I had panic disorder from the past. I could really get caught up in some fears and it would change faces. It'd be fear about my body or fear about the COVID or fear about the this or fear about the that. These things become tricky, little suckers but when we really identify how they operate in our energy, we can truly work with them and catch them right away so then we can realign. That's the beauty. So good for you for identifying that. Then once you sense that part of you give it a lot of love. Always say thank our survival traps. They've gotten us this far and we appreciate it. We really made it.

[CHRIS]

Absolutely embracing it.

[DR. SHANNON]

Yes, they've helped you survive. They've helped me survive. I'm really grateful for them and that's one way through them as well, is by honoring them. When we truly honor how we've survived, then we love ourselves enough to move to the next level as well.

[CHRIS]

So what were some of the other ones?

[DR. SHANNON]

Oh yes. So we've got the not enough trap, which is like the black hole. I call it, it's never enough, never enough. That's just always putting things in us. This kind of it's never enough attention. It's never enough money. It's never enough stimulation. It's never enough. That one has a really hard time being content. Just that sense of content is really, really hard. There's one called the spiritual bypass, which is where we are in denial. We run after any bright, shiny object syndrome. It's like, well this will fix it. This will fix it. This will fix it. Or we get involved in these conspiracy ideas that really distract us from what's really going on deep within. So that's a spiritual bypass and that trap usually doesn't want to do the harder work. They just want to stay on what's easy and light and adrenal, it's almost like an adrenaline addiction of sorts.

[CHRIS]

Okay.

[DR. SHANNON]

It's they're relating to spiritual principles, whether it's anything, it could be astrology, it could be politics, it could be the Bible, it could be anything. They're relating to spiritual principles in a way that's disempowering them as opposed to truly helping them psychologically.

[CHRIS]

That's a good point. I don't, most people don't really say anything about that, but I think that's true. It can be disempowering yourself looking at it that way.

[DR. SHANNON]

Yes. God will bring me my mate or God will take care of my business. There's a grain of truth in that, but we also have to empower ourselves to take the steps and be the person that can receive that?

[CHRIS]

Yes.

[DR. SHANNON]

So we get lost in that the spiritual bypass trap does. Then some of the other traps are the depression and burnout trap. I've seen a lot of that this year and that can be related to grief and loss, but it can also be related to too much anxiety, which then creates depression. It's like we burn ourselves south from so much anxiety, then we're just depressed. We're just worn to a frazzle.

[CHRIS]

Yes. And lots of, I know lots of listeners have that issue.

[DR. SHANNON]

Absolutely. That's a big one for counselors and coaches and healers right now with all we've been through. The key in that one, of course is self love, deep, deep nurturing of our soul. That depression trap is about overdoing or either underdoing and feeling too worthless. What does our soul really need to recover? That's really, that's that one. There's soul musings, whether it's music or nature or time to write or jump or play, or just have time by the ocean. What is your soul? That's really the key to that one.

[CHRIS]

That's a powerful question in itself.

[DR. SHANNON]

Isn't it?

[CHRIS]

That would be great to use with clients. I do a lot of journaling with clients and ask them to write at home and sometimes I give them prompts. I think that would be awesome for clients to even think about.

[DR. SHANNON]

Yes, it's true. Because we usually answer the questions. What does your mind need or what does my fear need before reacting to our inner world? But what does your soul need? What does your knowing want? Well, I know I really want, I had a gal come in and she said, I just want to sit down and have a tea party with my inner child. I was like, well, do it. She sat down and bought a tea set, literally, I'm not even kidding you and had a tea party in her den with herself. It made her cry. She cried and cried and she said, I feel so connected to myself after that.

[CHRIS]

That's amazing.

[DR. SHANNON]

Isn't that amazing? Something that seems like mentally is I don't have time for that. That's so stupid. What the heck is that about? It nourished her beyond any reasonable things she could have used.

[CHRIS]

So it's really listening and doing that.

[DR. SHANNON]

Yes, those deep soul callings. It could be parts of you that are trying to get the needs met so you feel more whole. Like she nurtured that part of her inner child that was so traumatized. It couldn't sit down and just have a little tea party. That's all it wanted to do.

[CHRIS]

Exactly.

[DR. SHANNON]

So we really do have the answers within us.

[CHRIS]

What about people who don't like the word soul? I know I have one client particular that just makes her uncomfortable, has a bad association with religious context. So do you say it in a different way or how would you use that differently?

[DR. SHANNON]

Yes, well, Dr. Carl Young called it your Capital S Self. I like to call it your wise self, DBT, like that, your wise self. But the number one thing when they researched in spiritual psychology, the process I teach is called the inner counselor and ---

[CHRIS]

Oh, isn't that a cool name?

[DR. SHANNON]

Yes, the inner counselor. So the process, when I teach that process, when they researched names for that word, people like the words "your spiritual self" the most. Isn't that interesting?

[CHRIS]

Yes.

[DR. SHANNON]

So I was saying your spiritual self and then that can really mean anything to someone. That can mean whatever that means to them. Like sometimes, I ask people to call in their spiritual self and they see their grandmother who's passed over or like their animal will show up. That's the most loving thing in their life, is like their kitty cat or a dog that's passed on will show up and it represents the most spiritual thing they know, the most loving thing they know.

[CHRIS]

That's beautiful. But it's really tying into what they believe and you're not pushing anything on them.

[DR. SHANNON]

Absolutely not. Then that breaks them open. That's what we want, breaking them open to that love and that joy and that abundance within is the most important part.

[CHRIS]

I like those different words for soul and just seeing, I guess, seeing what they connect with, if they don't like the word soul.

[DR. SHANNON]

It's so personal, it's such a personal journey and we want to really attune with their language. That's a super valuable skill in therapy too as we work with people.

[CHRIS]

Yes. You mentioned that you do a lot of meditation. How often do you meditate?

[DR. SHANNON]

I meditate at least once a day and sometimes twice. I also do yoga and prayer. I use all of those wonderful things. And I love time in nature. That's a big one for me. I also write poetry. There's a lot of things that nourish my soul? So making time for that, that's like really important for me. When I'm having these new insights, I'll sit down and write a poem about it. I don't really do a lot with my poetry except it's just personally for me to really enjoy

[CHRIS]

That's the beauty of it, isn't it?

[DR. SHANNON]

That's right. That's right.

[CHRIS]

Yes, just to do it, to take that time for yourself, if that nourishes your soul.

[DR. SHANNON]

It really is. I remember when I was really doing some deep inner child work and I had this big bin in my closet and all these like crayons and markers and writing utensils and paints and all this stuff and toys were in there. I would, when I would feel like it and create the space for it, I would open up that container and I would just see what I was drawn towards. I would sit with that and do it. Like the client that did the tea party, for example, and boy was so nourishing. So nourishing.

[CHRIS]

Yes because I'm just thinking about too with the intuition, if this is all connected to the wise self or wise mind and intuition and listening to that.

[DR. SHANNON]

It absolutely is. Intuition is your soul. I love that definition of soul that says it's like that part of us that's longing, that's longing us to grow, that's pulling us, that growing of the soul, growing towards our callings, growing towards our passion, that definition of passion that says passion is the pipeline to the soul.

[CHRIS]

Beautiful.

[DR. SHANNON]

So finding the passion and then what we're passionate about will take us to the next thing that will nourish us. It's a, win-win really for ourselves.

[CHRIS]

Yes.

[DR. SHANNON]

Which is cool, isn't it? Like we follow our passions.

[CHRIS]

Oh yes.

[DR. SHANNON]

So it's meant to be nourishing for us as well. Not just others.

[CHRIS]

I love what you said too, that you allow space for it because I think a lot of us know this. I know art healing or music, but when do you allow yourself the time?

[DR. SHANNON]

Absolutely. That's why doing this deeper inner healing creates enough self connection. So then you value and have the energy to make the space. It's like water space. It's like tipping the water over to the other side. You get more parts of you for that than against it.

[CHRIS]

Yes.

[DR. SHANNON]

Trauma splits us off from that. So if we have more trauma, it's pulling away for the healing. So then we can tip towards the other. It's this back and forth expansion and contraction process, don't you think?

[CHRIS]

I think so. Definitely. I know we talked about visualization a little bit before I hit record. You did an awesome visualization exercise in the training about using the stressful image versus a common image. I don't know the name for it, but it was really good. I've used it with my clients. I love it. Can you share with my listeners how does that work?

[DR. SHANNON]

Absolutely. I'd be happy to take you through a short version of that. So do you want to do it right now or do you want ---

[CHRIS]

Yes, let's do it.

[DR. SHANNON]

Let's do it. Let's do it. So everybody feel free just to close your eyes.

[CHRIS]

If you're not driving, of course.

[DR. SHANNON]

That's right, not driving. Don't want any accidents. Pull over to the side, please. Get a nice little place to stop. Taking some long, deep breaths into your nose, out through your mouth, really grounding, just grounding down into these beautiful roots into the ground, all the support. Then reaching up to the heavens, just breathing up, Opening up. Good. Two more deep breaths, breathing in, breathing out. Inviting in your spiritual self or whatever that means to you to be with you as we do this process. You may feel it in your heart. You may just get a sense of it. You may see something, whatever that is for you. You may just feel peaceful. Just imagine something that is creating stress for you right now. Something that may be stressful, that's a dilemma that you're in or that feels like you'd like to feel differently about it. Just thinking about that stressor.

What are the thoughts you have about that stressor. Then noticing any feelings around that stressor. Then noticing in your body, where do you feel those feelings? Where are those feelings primarily around that stress pattern? Whether it's your gut, your heart, the back of your neck, just noticing how the mind, body connects. It's very powerful that way. As you're imagining that stressor, way to ask that stressor, how is it helping you survive? Do you have any idea? You may not know. Just being curious. Curiosity is everything. How is it helping you survive?

I want you to imagine, if you had like just a moment, you could just pull that up and out of your body, that stressful feeling, the belief, the experience, and just let it take a shape or a color. What does that stressor look like? What does it look like? Engaging your spiritual self, if that were to have a color or a shape and just noticing that, noticing the color or shape of that stress pattern or stressor. Again, as you see it, how does it feel? Any other things you notice about it before we work with it? Then this may be counterintuitive, but I want you to do it anyway.

Way to thank that stressor for coming. Just thank it. Thank you for being there so that we can see it. Whether you know how it's helping you or not, I want you to thank it for helping you survive. Our system is doing the best that it can. I promise. I promise. Thank you for helping you survive somehow, some way. It may just be that it's just getting your attention, that something feels off.

[DR. SHANNON]

Let's ask it. Is it willing to try something new? What if you were to get creative instead of stressed about this? What would happen? Is it willing to try, just ask it. Is it willing to try something new? It may say no way Jose, and that's fine. Or it may say absolutely. Or it may say, I don't know. I don't know. What is it? You're just noticing. Then if you weren't stressed out, what do you really need instead? What is your real need? What would be the opposite of that stressor? Would it be trust? Would it be wisdom, clarity, would it be peace? Would it be love? Would it be joy? What do you really need instead? Would it be self love? Let's ask your spiritual self to bring you an image of that new need, that real need, what you really need instead, whether it's peace or love or joy or clarity or safety or trust. What would that look like? What color would that be or image? What do you see as your real need? What would that look like? Let that pop up in your mind's eye.

Noticing what that feels like, how does that feel to have that need met, to be that. How does it feel to be that new way instead? The new brain, old brain, new brain. The new brain way. How does that feel? If you didn't see anything ask one more time. If you were to draw your real need on a piece of paper, piece or love or joy or safety or clarity or solution or creative solution, what would that look like? What would that feel like? What are the thoughts around that new way? What do you know about that? Really feel it, really feel it, your felt sense is your intuitive guide. Really feel it. That felt sense, how this new way feels. You're relieved. Are you hopeful? Are you curious? Then I want you to ask this new way. Is it willing to help you instead of the old stress way so that you can really, really step into this new way in your life. Really become it. Is it willing to help you in your spiritual self. Ask it for help. Ask. It's there for you.

If you want to put these two up side by side, the new way, the old way and watch that new vision, that new picture, that new image that's alive now within you, absorbs and transforms that old way and creates something new. Watch that happen, imagining. They can just integrate together and create a new way, releasing. We're not getting rid of the old way. We're just upgrading it, upgrading it to your new spiritual self way. Now notice what happens. If they stay side by side, that's okay. If they come together and make a new picture, that's okay, not a right or wrong here, just allowing and aligning with this new way and then letting go.

Let's breathe it in. I want you to breathe in these new feelings, the new thoughts, and I want you to see how that feels in your body. Breathe it in all the way down into your toes, especially into that area where you felt the old stress pattern into your tummy, into your heart, breathing this peace, this love, this joy, this trust, whatever the new way is all down into your body. Breathing it in and out with that old, in with the new, out with the old, in with the new and out with the old. And last but not least, this new way has some advice for you. It wants you to know something about the stress pattern. What does it want you to know? What does this part want you to know about that stressor? What's a new perspective?

Then take a mental note, take a physical note, take an emotional note on that. Thank that advice for coming and then notice how you want it to help you. Give it some homework. How do you want it to help you this week so you'll know that this part's in charge instead of that old way. Ask it to help you in some way this week. Like I want to feel peaceful when this comes up or I want to be able to shift towards peace quickly or whatever that is for you. I want to be able to shift towards that trust and creativity instead of stress around this. Help me with that. Good. Setting your intention for this new way to be in charge, thanking yourself, thanking your spiritual self and as you feel ready, just gently and slowly coming back to our call. How are you doing over there?

[CHRIS]

That was wonderful.

[DR. SHANNON]

Great, great.

[CHRIS]

Very soothing.

[DR. SHANNON]

Good. Thank you for letting me ---

[CHRIS]

Can I tell you my images?

[DR. SHANNON]

I would love it. Please share.

[CHRIS]

Oh, the first one was stressful image, was it's just been, I've been overwhelmed. We're recording this in the new year, so there's just been a bunch of things piled up with a new year, of course, and trying to get things together. Very stressful. So I just pictured this gray and white stress, like yarn, tied together knots, all to bundle together. Did you ever have a yarn before that? But ugly gray, ugly colors. Then the more peaceful image was like, I don't know why these birds kept coming in my ---

[DR. SHANNON]

I love that, birds of freedom.

[CHRIS]

Yes, but that was it. So I thought about the birds were coming up and just flying that freedom. I saw myself just standing there with my arms just wide open just accepting. The birds coming and unwinding.

[DR. SHANNON]

Oh, the knot

[CHRIS]

The knots and the stress.

[DR. SHANNON]

Love it.

[CHRIS]

I'm very visual.

[DR. SHANNON]

Oh, you did an amazing job. Well, you know Einstein said imagination was more powerful than anything, more powerful than our rational mind. So good work my friend. That was awesome.

[CHRIS]

Yes. Thank you. That's my goal. I've been working on my intuition too, and really tapping into that.

[DR. SHANNON]

So what you've done is you've allowed yourself to connect to that creative collective unconscious and let that help you. Good job.

[CHRIS]

That's available for everybody.

[DR. SHANNON]

That's available for everyone every time the constriction gets back into that expansion.

[CHRIS]

I hope you, as listeners were able to try that as well. I would love to hear your experience too. You can always shoot me a line too at chris@holisticcounselingpodcast.com. I'd love to hear it. I think it's such a powerful thing. And to try with clients too. I think it's easy enough to learn how to do that.

[DR. SHANNON]

I mean, why wouldn't we want to connect with our capital S self. I mean, that's just there.

[CHRIS]

Yes, for sure. Well, thank you for sharing that. That was really ---

[DR. SHANNON]

If people want to learn more about that process, I have a longer one. That's the inner counselor, is a more longer intensive version of that, that gets to those really, really deep, deep, deep patterns, and really shifts them in such a massive way. I mean, people feel a shift in their body. They feel a shift in their face. They feel a shift in their thinking and it just creates so much ease. When they research this work, they find a decrease in anxiety, depression, and an increase in self actualization in three to six sessions.

[CHRIS]

My goodness.

[DR. SHANNON]

So it's as effective if not more so than EMDR even so. And EMDR is considered energy psychology holistic approach. Did you know that?

[CHRIS]

No. Well, I figured with brain, I do brain spar, so I figured that is too.

[DR. SHANNON]

So these are all great techniques, but inner counselor is definitely my favorite .

[CHRIS]

Where was the inner counselor? Was that something that you do?

[DR. SHANNON]

Yes. That's the one I teach through where I got my doctorate in spiritual psychology and that's the one I do the retreat on in April.

[CHRIS]

Oh, okay. So tell us about the retreat.

[DR. SHANNON]

Yes. So it's called how to integrate spirit and soul into your practice. I teach professionals like you to use the inner counselor process to really help people connect their mind, body, and spirit and align it with their spiritual self and overcome these deeper subconscious traps that they get stuck in so they can really step forward like we've been talking about into becoming and being, like that part of you that feels free and like the bird.

[CHRIS]

Yes.

[DR. SHANNON]

Being that person more and more and more. And it's powerful when we can continue to just step into that part of ourselves, it really is. It changes everything. So that's what I teach for a two day immersion in April coming up

[CHRIS]

That's near Asheville, North Carolina?

[DR. SHANNON]

You know, we're trying to decide because of all the variance of the COVID and this and that. We're trying to online or in person, but the details are at soulbasedpractice.com if anybody wants to look at that. I've got the details there, for sure.

[CHRIS]

Nice. Is there any other links that you wanted to share so people can find you?

[DR. SHANNON]

Oh yes. So if people are interested in getting an introduction to the inner counselors, instead of coming to the retreat, they could, I have some pre-recorded webinars. So if you want to go to my events page on drshannonsouth.com, there's a link to different trainings coming up one, but there's a mind, body, spirit psychotherapy training that your folks would be interested in.

[CHRIS]

You got me interested too.

[DR. SHANNON]

It's coming up in April before the retreat and that would give people a taste of that, but there's also a prerecorded version of that. If you click underneath the events page and then go to the link that says, I believe it's the very first events link that it's underneath. There's a bunch of events lined up and then there's "Ho here to sign up." It's underneath that. At the bottom of that page, there's a prerecorded mind, body, spirit psychotherapy webinar on that website. It's called addiction professionals where you can get CEUs and we have that recorded there.

[CHRIS]

Perfect. That sounds awesome.

[DR. SHANNON]

It's very [crosstalk].

[CHRIS]

I appreciate you coming on the Holistic Counseling Podcast.

[DR. SHANNON]

I'm so honored to be here.

[CHRIS]

This was great. I'm really sure that this is something that a lot of listeners are going to be interested in your practice and all your offerings.

[DR. SHANNON]

Thank you so much. Well, I'm just thrilled that we found each other. I love to leave people with a quote, do you have time for a quote?

[CHRIS]

Yep. Go ahead.

[DR. SHANNON]

It's an Amanda Gorman quote. She's a poet who I just love. She said there is always light if we are only brave enough to see it, if we are only brave enough to be it.

[CHRIS]

Lovely. Mic drop

[DR. SHANNON]

Boom.

[CHRIS]

Yes.

[DR. SHANNON]

So let's be brave here. Let's do it.

[CHRIS]

Yes, let's do it. I want to thank my listeners for tuning in as well, and I invite you to come join my Facebook group, the Holistic Counseling and Self-Care Group, where you'll gain support, connection, and more resources on adding holistic practices personally and professionally. Don't forget to rate and review so I can continue to reach more holistic counselors.

This is Chris McDonald sending each one of you much light and love. Till next time, take care.

Thank you for listening and supporting the Holistic Counseling Podcast. If you are loving this podcast, please share with your colleagues so we can continue to grow our holistic community.

Also, are you ready to take the next step to create an integrative counseling practice? I invite you to sign up for my free nine-part email course Becoming a Holistic Counselor. In my Becoming a Holistic Counselor course, you'll get tips for adding integrative care into your practice, what training you need and don't, and the know-how to attract your ideal holistic clients. If this sounds like the direction you are headed, sign up at holisticcounselingpodcast.com. This podcast is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regards to the subject matter covered. It is given with the understanding that neither the host, the publisher or the guests are rendering legal, accounting, clinical, or any other professional information. If you want a professional, you should find one.

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