Tami Simon: Welcome to Insights at the Edge produced by Sounds True. My name’s Tami Simon. I’m the founder of Sounds True. I’d love to take a moment to introduce you to the new Sounds True Foundation. The Sounds True Foundation is dedicated to creating a wiser and kinder world by making transformation education widely available. We want everyone to have access to transformational tools such as mindfulness, emotional awareness, and self-compassion, regardless of financial, social, or physical challenges. The Sounds True Foundation is a nonprofit dedicated to providing these transformational tools to communities in need, including at-risk youth, prisoners, veterans, and those in developing countries. If you’d like to learn more or feel inspired to become a supporter, please visit SoundsTrueFoundation.org.
In this episode of Insights at the Edge, my guest is Shannon Kaiser. Shannon is the bestselling author of five books on the psychology of happiness and fulfillment. As a life coach, international speaker, and retreat leader, she helps people align with their true selves so that we can achieve our highest potential. She’s been named among the “100 Women to Watch in Wellness” by mindbodygreen. With Sounds True, Shannon is releasing a new book, Return to You: 11 Spiritual Lessons for Unshakable Inner Peace, and also a new card deck, Unshakable Inner Peace Oracle Cards, that include images, oracular sayings, and questions we can work with in meditation. In this conversation with Shannon, she pulls not one, but two oracle cards, helps us understand their meaning and how to apply them in our life. But most importantly, we talk about how we can learn from contrast and find clarity in contrast so that we can have an embrace of all the parts of us that don’t feel at peace, along with anchoring in a deep inner light and a discovery of what is unshakable inner peace. Is it even possible? Here’s a very brave conversation with Shannon Kaiser.
Shannon, it’s great to be with you and to be talking about your new book Return to You. Welcome.
Shannon Kaiser: Thank you. It’s so good to be here with you.
TS: You start the book off in a curious way by talking about a full-on anxiety attack that you had. Even though at the point that you were starting the writing of this book, you were already a successful spiritual teacher and writer. I wonder if you can start us there. Were you surprised? “I thought I was beyond this. I mean, what’s happening?”
SK: It’s so interesting, because I think we get into this work and we do this spirituality; but when we open up to our spiritual awakening, we often think, “I should be past this.” For me personally, I was on book tour for my last book, which is all about joy, seeking happiness. I came back to the hotel one night after one of the speaking events, and it was this overwhelming, debilitating panic attack. I didn’t realize at first, until I broke out into a cold sweat and I started hyperventilating. I was like, “Oh my gosh, this is a panic attack.”
My ego was going crazy. It was full on manifestation of my mind saying, “Who do you think you are to be in joy to teach people about this? The world is in suffering.” It was just this catastrophic head space of “You’re not doing enough. And you’re never going to be able to make this last.”
I asked myself, “Why, anxiety? Why now?” This was in 2019 in the fall. My mind was saying this is all going to go away. I went inward, and I really felt this panic. I said, “I got to call the doctor.” As I was dialing my doctor—now I do believe there’s very good times where our doctors can help. They’ve helped me in my life in the past, but this time was different. This time, it was like a force field came over me and literally stopped me from completing the call. It’s my inner voice, my higher power. It felt like angels, the universal source, God, saying, “You can’t fix an internal spiritual situation with an outside physical solution. This is a path of an inner journey you’re on.”
For the next several months, I went on this inner journey to really understand what true peace is. We can’t really know peace if we don’t know the opposite. That was the path I was on. I was suffering through anxiety. I really started to learn what inner peace really is. Through the tools, through my spiritual practice.
Flash forward to 2020. March 2020, the world fell into a huge catastrophic pandemic. I was scheduled to go on a large speaking tour. All of a sudden, within days, every single thing fell through the cracks, if you will, for my career. My ego jumped at the chance to say, “Look, everything really is going away.” I caught myself in that very moment and said, “No, absolutely not. I know how to be in peace. I know how to navigate this.” That’s kind of what birthed the book, that six-month period.
TS: When you mentioned a force field came over you as you were picking up the phone to call your doctor, I thought that was really interesting. Tell me more what that felt like, and then how you knew you were supposed to put the phone down.
SK: Yeah, I feel we often have these guidances that come to us, synchronicities. For me, this moment was the most loving presence I could ever imagine. I had only felt it to this degree one other time in my life, back in 2009, when I was in a different career. I was suffering from anxiety then, but also my doctor diagnosed me with clinical depression in 2009. At that time, there was an energy that came over me and said, “Shannon, follow your heart.”
Flash forward eight years ahead, a few years ago now, eight years, I was having anxiety after teaching people well about happiness. But it felt like a loving presence. To me, I talk about it in the book. It’s your higher self. It’s source energy. It’s the benevolent energy of love that is available to us at all times. I think it’s waiting for us. It wants us to reach out, but a lot of times we’re so in our head and stuck in the humanness, and our thinking, overthinking, that we can’t access it. So, I tapped into it, and it basically stepped in to help save my life.
TS: In the book, you talk about different spiritual lessons that you want to highlight on this journey of returning to you. One of them, lesson three, is, “If you don’t go within, you go without.” And you’re pointing to how we all have this opportunity, instead of looking outside of ourselves—especially when we’re having a challenge, when we often look outside ourselves for answers—we can go inwards. And you talk about how there are different intuitive styles. I’m thinking of this right now, because you mentioned how you heard a voice. I think some of us have that experience of hearing a voice. And other people are like, “I’ve never heard a voice in my life, but other things have happened to me.” So, talk about these different intuitive styles that you’ve identified and how we can come to identify our own intuitive style.
SK: Yes. I found that listening to our intuition is one of the most important processes that we can do. And that’s what this process does, to help you develop your own intuitive gift. You nailed it. That’s what I share. Everybody’s intuition talks to them in a different way. I do hear—and I am an audio learner, that is, clairaudient, which is an intuitive way. It taps into your true sense that is heightened for you. And they call them the clairs. […] If you’re listening and you’re thinking, “What’s my intuitive sense?” I like to just ask the question—when you watch a movie, what do you say after? As you’re watching the movie, you’re enjoying it. But when you tell a friend about it, how do you report that experience to someone? Or do you think about, “Wow, this soundtrack was so good”? And maybe your music library is loaded with really good music soundtracks or you’re playing the song in your head. Or do you think, “Wow, the visuals, the cinematography, the art direction, the outfits they were wearing.” Do you kind of remember that the most? Or do you remember the storyline and the experience of what the characters went through? All of these are clues to how our intuition will talk to us.
If you pay attention to—and I talk through this deeper in the book—but if you pay attention to maybe the music, you are an audio learner, but clairaudient is going to be your intuition-heightened sense. Of course, I feel we do have a little bit of all of them. But the more you understand which one is yours, the more you can work with it. And if you see the beautiful outfits, then that’s clair[voyant]. You see, and you see in your mind’s eye. Maybe visions come to you. Maybe you see pictures and that’s your intuition giving you guidance, but also your higher self, your angels, your guides, all of that coming in. I go through deeper [in the book]. There’s also a clair where you just have a knowing.
It’s a fun way to kind of look at the world, but also get more in touch with who you really are and the knowing that is available. I call it our innate wisdom.
TS: That’s the claircognizant. Then there was one final clair you mentioned, and I just want to offer it to our listeners, clairsentient, a feeling sense. How would I know if I was watching a movie, if I was a clairsentient type?
SK: Yes. The clairsentient is if you have the emotions during the movie perhaps, you think about the emotional experience. You’re sharing it with a friend and maybe you cried at the end, and that’s kind of, “It was so good.” And you talk about the experiences you had from an emotional standpoint.
TS: Then the claircognizant person in terms of the movie, just to build this out.
SK: Yes. The claircognizant is the knowing. It’s the knowing. Of all the intuitions, this is the one that is the most dismissed. I also have some of this one too, because you just have a knowing. So all of them will overlap in the movie, if this is yours. But the knowing is another way to know is if you’re watching a movie and you share it with a friend. It’s so good. You just kind of report that they have to see it. “Just trust me on it.”
TS: Okay. Let’s talk to that person, Shannon, who says, “I suffer from anxiety. Maybe not full-blown anxiety attacks, but I have a kind of low-grade anxiety in my life. I’ve been looking outside for solutions, trying to look inside. I don’t know if I have any of these clear capacities in me. They’re certainly not very developed.” How can you help someone in that situation who’s not quite sure how to work with their anxiety?
SK: Yeah. I feel we’re living in a time now where anxiety is pumped up. And you even look at the statistics. Anxiety is happening full blown across the globe. And anxiety often happens when we have a fear of the future, or a fear of the unknown. As you know, we’ve been living in this time right now where that’s just amplified. I even start the book with this quote by Stephen Richards, where I say, “Our level of love or our level of fear determines the state of our reality.” I think if we just set into that for a moment, we can see where we’re living our life from. If we’re choosing fear more, even at an unconscious level, because we want to feel protected. We’re trying to protect those around us. We’re wanting safety. Fear is in the driver’s seat, then our anxiety is most often going to be ramped up. And what we can do just to start, is be aware of where we’re looking. And even Ram Dass talks a lot about where are you making your choices from?
If we’re making our choices from love, there is more peace available to us. There’s more peace in the moment, and we start practicing more mindfulness. That’s actually one of the very first things I did, is I realized I was making a lot of choices at that moment because was stepping into, and this is even pre-COVID culture. I was making a lot of choices from a place of fear. “What’s going to happen if I don’t do this?” A fear of the unknown and trying to protect the future. I shifted into a foundation of love, making my choices from a place of expansiveness, connected to my inner heart, my light. How you know is, are you in your head or your heart? The head is usually the overthinker, the analyzer, the kind of fear-based part of us. Our heart is the one that has that knowing, that gentleness. It’s available to us all at any time. But we just start tweaking our daily routine from shifting from fear into love.
TS: Okay. Let me ask you a question about that Shannon, that might be a little challenging. But sometimes when I hear people talk about shifting from fear into love, I think, “But the fear’s real.” It’s there. And we don’t want to bypass it in any way. We don’t want to be inauthentic about our experience and brainwash ourselves into a love state when we’re actually afraid. We’re afraid of the uncertainties in the world. We’re afraid of climate change. You teach a practice called alchemizing fear. So how do we alchemize it, so that we’re not bypassing it?
SK: Yes, yes. I truly believe that when we look at our fear, go straight into it, we can start to recognize that it is not here to hurt us. It’s here to protect us. I have a quote that I share in the start of the process, which is, “Anxiety is not here to limit us, but free us from a life that no longer aligns.” When we start to—when I say shift, it’s about realizing the things we are going through are not here to harm us, but actually help us step forward. When we kind of adopt and take on that mindset, we can shift into the alchemizing process.
There’s a whole process that alchemizing fear is about recognizing again, your fear is here for a reason, because it’s showing you what is most important to you. Where we are putting our point of attraction if we’re focusing from that place of fear, it’s OK. And what you want to do is step into—if you think about a tornado, it’s very destructive, and it’s going very fast, and it’s kind of like this turbulent energy. But in the center, the very center of that tornado, everything is happening outside of itself. This alchemizing fear process is where you literally—and I’ll take you through part of it right now (there’s the full meditation of course in the book). As we step forward, you imagine this fear. And pinpoint, what is the fear? “I’m going to lose everything.” And that was the fear that started my anxiety process. Is it a fear that the world’s going to end? There are so many fears right now.
You identify, and then you step into it and identify—“Where does that live in my body? Where do you start to feel that energy?” Of course, you can imagine white light coming in, golden white light as you do this process, because you know you are safe. But then you step straight into the tornado, if you will.
The tornado is just the energy of fear. It’s just the worries. It’s just the concerns. It’s the anxiety, but you are standing straight in the middle of it. As you do this, you place your hands on your heart and you repeat, “I am safe, I am secure.” It’s a process. As we do this, we start to dismantle and bring in that energy as it slowly slows down, as it goes around us. And as it goes around us, you can start to continue to know that you are safe, and you are secure, and you’re connected to the love that you are in this moment. And what you will start to see, the more you do this process, is that that energy, just the way the storm settles, it just kind of falls down and just ends and closes down.
TS: Let me ask you a further question about this, Shannon, because, as I’m listening to you, I think the step of stepping right into the center of the tornado could be quite anxiety-provoking for someone if they didn’t have good anchoring in this feeling of being safe. What increases the anchoring and safety for us?
SK: It’s this awareness and the knowing that we are connected to everyone, of course, but also this energy of love. And that’s really what the process is of unshakable inner peace. It’s knowing that peace is available to you by connecting to the love, the higher power, the signs, and synchronicities we see. Often, whether you call them spirit guides or your higher self—I like to call it your innate wisdom—your innate self is guiding you. So, what you know is you want to feel better. What you know is you truly want to live from a place of love. It’s not like any of us really enjoy hanging out in fear. You’re giving yourself permission to step into what might feel scary but knowing that you’re protected. In that protection you have all the courage in the world. Because our true protection comes from love, light, source, God. Whatever you identify with, it’s this benevolent love energy. That is what gives you the oomph, if you will, to kind of move forward.
TS: How can you help listeners amplify, make bigger that sense of feeling in our hearts and connected with love? I mean, it may sound simplistic as I’m saying it, but you mentioned many of us are up in our heads and we’re conjuring up all of these possibilities of this and that could go wrong. And now we’re stepping into the center of the tornado, but we need to be anchored in this feeling of love. I’m thinking to myself, “Well, how do we turn that up inside?” How do you do that?
SK: This is beautiful because this is the daily practice. I do believe that practice is so important for us. And the practice looks different for every single person. It really does come back to what works for you. Some people will amplify the love that is available to them through different modalities, like oracle cards, or journaling, or just meditating each morning. For me, it’s a mantra. It’s a simple mantra such as “I am safe. I am protected.” I often will lean on tools like A Course in Miracles. That’s something that helped me through my anxiety. Interesting enough, I was led to it when I was kind of having this one day—there was this doomsday scrolling episode. I was just going through all the ways the world’s going to end. My anxiety was so overbearing. I logged off of social media feeling plummeted with my energy, and I was exhausted. Of course, I was like, “Oh my gosh. There’s no hope. There’s no hope.”
Interesting enough, my inner guide kicked in and I heard the voice—because clairaudient is how my intuition talks to me and my guides—and said, “Go to your bookshelf.” I walked over to my bookshelf, and my eyes went straight to the big, blue book A Course in Miracles. I opened the book. The passage I opened was, “I can choose to see peace instead of this.” Simple, it was highlighted. Just in repeating that, I started to feel a sense of peace come over me. It was like a warm bath just bathing me of good energy. So that became my mantra moving forward when I started to look out into the world.
What’s happening is the outside world is going to keep being chaotic. When we’re looking out there, it will pull our energy. It will keep us stuck in fear. It will keep us in exhaustion. It’s the inner world. So, you have mantras such as “I can choose peace instead of this”; it bridges that. It brings you back to what is real, the moment, and the light within you.
TS: When you say something like “I am safe, I am protected,” and you feel that, do you ever hear another voice inside of you that says, “No, you’re not, blah, blah, blah”? If so, how do you work with that other voice that’s contradicting the mantra you’re saying?
SK: Yes, exactly. I do this in my life coaching practice with people because this is part of being human. I talk about in the book as well. The lesson number one is we live in a school called planet Earth. That means that we are living in contrast almost all the time. Even the Dao teaching talks about in Buddha and Ram Dass, lots of the spiritual teachers talk about to really know something, you must know the opposite. I trusted that I was having these panic attacks and anxiety because, well, what is the opposite? Inner peace. I could not truly know inner peace if I was living in that opposite.
A lot of times this voice will come in as a contrasting kind of tool if you will. But really what it is, is our ego. If we’ve been living our life from this place of our mind and ego for so long, the ego’s role is protection. It wants to protect you and prepare you. It’s going to say, “No, you’re not.” Because if it lets its guard down and then something happens to you—[this is] another way to kind of recognize our ego is there to protect us. It would not be doing its job. If we can kind of take a step back or I like to say step out, almost like a bird’s eye view. And you just kind of look at it and realize—where’s the voice coming from? Is it coming from your head or your heart? We don’t have to dismiss it. I am not one to spiritual bypass or dismiss at all. You allow it to be there. I was able to move through and heal my anxiety, and enter into peace, and fully write the book, of course, by allowing both to exist—but just knowing where I want to live from versus listen. The fear’s going to be there, but you don’t have to listen to it. Instead, you can listen to the loving voice that comes from your heart or your inner self if you will.
TS: You mentioned this first lesson that you offer in Return to You: “We are in a school called planet Earth.” I wonder how having that orientation that our life is like being in a school, how has that changed the way you look at things, particularly challenging situations?
SK: It has been one of the most important lessons for me in really understanding that I truly believe we’re here on planet Earth, all of us—this is a master school of spiritual evolution, if you will. Every soul that is here and everybody is on this process of learning more about love as we enter into this world that is a lot of times very unloving. It’s about how to navigate through that to return to the truth, which is really the love that is available to us. And that’s really what Return to You is all about. It’s about removing yourself from the things that are kind of piled on top of you, that aren’t really aligned.
From this place of “we are in a school called planet Earth,” it helped me through my anxiety. It’s helped me through my practice. It’s one of these ideas that whatever you’re going through right now, you just ask yourself if maybe you’re struggling or you’re in a very difficult situation, you just pause for a moment. You can either meditate on it or journal on it or just ask yourself, “What is the opposite of this?” to really know that you are on your way to learning what the opposite may be. And it’s a path. We are all in the journey together. The Chinese proverb is “The journey is the reward.” We think we need to be happy all the time or the state of peace. It’s not about being Zen. It’s not that at all. The contrast is what really brings us clarity. And we can start to look at it as a process to help us live a richer and more rewarding life.
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Now help me understand this notion that it’s the contrast that brings clarity.
SK: Yes.
TS: Because I could just say, “Look, there are these two voices inside of me that are battling it out. Where’s the clarity?”
SK: Yes. Yes. And that’s it. When we’re in it, it is so hard. It’s kind of like when you’re in a storm and fog, you can’t really see your way through it. But when you get through it to the other side, you have so much clarity. That’s what I mean. When we’re deep in the contrast, it’s often a chance, and the universe is giving us an opportunity to know what we don’t want. I’m smiling because it’s interesting. Because when we kind of apply this, a lot of times we’re living through what we don’t want. We’ve heard before, where you focus your energy—your energy goes where intention goes. Where you’re putting your energy is often going to manifest the outcome. If we’re getting a lot of what we don’t want, a lot of the times it’s because we’re focusing so much on it. We want to shift back into, “Well, what is it I do want?” In the lesson “We live in a school called planet Earth” I talk about how if you’re not really liking the lesson that you’re living—and that’s what I did for myself. I’m like, “I don’t want to live in anxiety for the rest of my life. This is not what I signed up for.” I like saying “what I signed up for” because it takes us from kind of a victim consciousness of “the world’s happening to me, I have no control” to creator consciousness of “I am going to create the story. I am in charge of my life to a degree. I’m going to do the parts I can at least right now.” And it’s getting you back into the activation mindset.
From there we start to shift. I think that’s a good first kind of process to recognize that the clarity comes through realizing you’re not as helpless or offtrack.
TS: I wonder if you could give me a specific example of a contrasting situation you found yourself in recently and how it brought clarity.
SK: It’s interesting, because for me personally, as I was writing the book, there’s this process where obviously I think a lot of us are living through times where there’s a lot of contention, even with people in our family, with beliefs and ideas, and we’re starting to kind of pull away from some people or see people in a different light. There was this time as I was writing the book, where there was a lot of contention within the family. Politics were happening. I had friends who voted for one person. I and the family voted a different way. It was so interesting because that was extreme contrast. I remember I was on a text chain during the 2020 election. Very contentious time in America. I’m not very into politics, but this was an important time because it showed contrast so fully in front of me. I was on a text chain with both. We had kind of the right and left, if you will. What I noticed is both were coming at it from a place of they’re right and the other is wrong.
I saw this as contrast because both of them felt, in that way, that both groups thought they were right and the other was wrong. In this experience, they were pushing against each other. There was a side conversation I was having with my brother. It was getting a little bit heated. He stopped and he said, “Shannon, my love for you is far greater than any disagreement or any belief we ever have.” In that moment, I realized that we were in such a conflict and contrast, but love can prevail and reach over. I’ve used that many times since then. I’ve identified that truly the contrast was happening so it could give me clarity that there is another choice here. I can choose love, or I can keep festering in the fact that they don’t agree. That’s not really the place any of us want to be.
We take a step again. Step one, you take a moment to recognize, what is the contrast here? “Well, this was a disagreement. This was a belief that my way is right, your way is wrong.” Step two is to take the bird’s eye view. Just take a step back and look. Look outside of yourself. Step three is choose love. What would love do in the situation or what would a more compassionate version of me do? There you have just an example of how we can move forward with more compassion for everyone right now.
TS: Shannon, let me ask you a question that I think is part of our conversation right here already. That person who experiences a contrast between that inner sense of confidence and light and connection with source, and then a whole lot of fear and unsettledness and distress and concern about the time we’re living in, and how it’s affecting lots of people in the world and how they feel that so that they see this contrast in their own experience, how could they work with it to find some kind of clarity?
SK: This is important, because I feel a lot of us are actually going through this right now. We are living in some such a time of duality. But also, we’re shifting into what is called the age of Aquarius or I like to call it the age of intuition. The reason I bring that up is because our intuition is actually the strongest superpower that we have right now. That’s why getting in touch with that inner voice—and I think I’m seeing this in my coaching practice, and with friends and family. Ask yourself, “Has my intuition been kind of giving me more nudges lately?” There’s been kind of this surge of inner energy.
How we can realize we’re moving forward is by listening to that intuition and then actually honoring it. We’ve been living in kind of a time in a world where we ignore it. I know I did for many years, and that caused clinical depression, and eating disorders, and even drug addictions because I was ignoring my true innate self and my inner wisdom that said, “You don’t want to be living your life in this way.”
It really is about getting in touch with yourself and recognizing that it’s okay. I think what happens is we tend to tell ourselves that we should be further along, or we should have this figured out, or “I’m spiritual and it should look a different way.” But all of that is what our fear is telling us in the inner voice, that you’re not good enough. What we have to recognize is we’re all right where we need to be. None of us are broken. We’re doing the best we can. From that place, you start to bring in more love. It is about self-love, and it is about knowing that you’re showing up each day the best you can. That in itself is the true power forward.
TS: Interestingly, I don’t know if I’ve ever heard anyone refer to the age of Aquarius as the age of intuition.
You mentioned that you feel this surge of energy in you moving you forward right here at this time. Can you tell me more about that, what that feels like and what you feel it’s asking of you?
SK: Yes. I talk about this too in the book, that our purpose is personal expansion. I truly, this is one of the lessons that I think all of us are recognizing right now. I have a lot of people that will come to me and want to do and understand “What is my life purpose?” And when I first left advertising, I was like, “What is my life purpose?” We tend to think it’s a career. We tend to think it’s the things we do. The positions we hold in society, or “I’m a mom,” or “I’m a brother.” It’s these focuses. But none of that is truly who your purpose or what your purpose is. We are here to expand and grow. When you adopt that mindset, you start to open up and almost shift into more exciting opportunities, but also recognize that you have gifts and skills that are available to you.
For me, I am a creator. I realized part of my anxiety, interesting enough—before I started writing this book I had left advertising; I was a graphic designer and art director. I hadn’t created for several years. During these moments of me having the panic attacks before I started to kind of put the tools into practice, I was in meditation one day. My inner voice again said, “You need to create. You’re not creating.” I sat down and I started to get back into digital collaging. I started making these little designs. Lo and behold, it turned into these many pictures. I printed them out, and it was my own Oracle deck. It was Unshakable Inner Peace. My inner voice and meditation said, “You need to turn this into an oracle deck for people.” I’m so glad that deck, Unshakable Inner Peace, is out in the world with you, Sounds True.
The process, what I’m sharing here, is the creator in me moved me forward. I truly believe all of us have these aspects. Now you might be thinking, “I’m not a creator,” but I truly believe we all are creators as human beings. We pop out babies. We are creators. Creating doesn’t necessarily have to be writing a book or designing something. It’s how are you creating your day to align to who you truly are? How are you creating each moment to be more loving and compassionate and having beautiful conversations with another person? Being present, showing up for your community. These are always, we create powerful and aligned days.
TS: I think it’s our moment Shannon to pull a card from the Unshakable Inner Peace Oracle Deck. Go ahead, pull a card and tell us what it says.
SK: OK, I will shuffle. The card that comes to me, the one I opened up. Wonderful. I’m laughing because it’s number 19. It’s this woman who is being flooded by the light. If you go back to where we were in the alchemizing fear, meditation, this is exactly the card that aligns to that. She has so much golden white light around her, and the actual beautiful message is: “Eliminate distractions. Stop shining light on things you are not.” There’s always a question at the bottom. And it says, “How can you reclaim your personal power?
I’m not going to open up the booklet right now, but there is a booklet that goes with this. This card is all about the reason right now that you’re feeling stressed, overwhelmed, maybe worried, is because you’re focusing on things that are pulling at your attention. It’s time to return into the light that is available to you within. Stop giving your attention to the things that are making you feel bad. And as it says, “Stop shining light on things you’re not. Return to you and reclaim your power.”
TS: Let me ask you a question. I’m just going to go for it. This sense of being bathed in inner light, how do you experience that? From the inside out, from the outside in, both, all of your cells vibrating with light—what’s your experience?
SK: All of that. Yeah. I love that. In fact, it comes differently at different times. Again, I feel we are all on our own journey and it’s important to identify what feels good. But for me, I often will imagine a white, almost a golden ball, a sun over you, like a sun, a golden ball of rays, above you. As it pours into you, kind of from the top of your head—we can all do this right now together. Close your eyes if you wish. Imagine every cell within your body activating, lighting up, coming alive, full force in its optimal power to help you be optimal in your experience as you move forward. As you do this, you can even shine this out. Your whole body becomes activated and white lights pours out of you. And you can send that out to anyone you wish. I like to and often will send it out to every single person on the planet. I will wrap the whole planet in white, golden light. This is a powerful meditation we can do at any time to help us kind of get out of the process of feeling stuck right now. There you go. You feel that.
This is actually one of the steps that I think is the most important for us is to turn your frustration and turn your resistance into assistance. This is one of the most important processes that helped me with my anxiety.
TS: Tell me what you mean turn your resistance into assistance.
SK: For a while I was so hopeless, and I was having my panic attacks. For example, I live just outside of Portland, Oregon. There were wildfires here, and this is a very wet climate. We don’t really get that ever. I’ve lived here for many years. When we were having wildfires, the sky was blood orange. We had the worst air quality in the world for several days in a row. It was very traumatic. I had friends that were displaced from their homes, others that lost their homes. You can imagine that that’s going to ensue panic for some. For me, I was starting to feel panicked. I was walking around my house pacing, and I realized that this panic is not serving anyone, this hopelessness. Instead, what can I do?
I was resisting what was happening. OK. “There’re wildfires. Do I have control over that? No, I really don’t.” So, I realized I was resisting and kind of thinking that life should look a different way, but here’s what life’s giving us. I needed to stop resisting it. So then I said, “How can I help?” And immediately I felt lighter in my body. I started to go into an activation mindset. I walked around my house. I started to grab toiletries that hadn’t been used. I put care packages together. I started a fundraiser to help for those homes. It’s one of those things where you become an active participant, to be solution-focused instead of festering in the problem. That is truly—even today with what we’re seeing in the world—this activation mindset is one of the number one tools that kept me in a state of calm and peace.
TS: OK. I want to ask you another—I’m so happy Shannon, that you don’t mind my questions that—
SK: I love them.
TS: —seem challenging, that you’re fine with it. I really appreciate that. Not everyone rolls so well. But this whole notion of Unshakable Inner Peace. Part of me is like, “Come on. Is that aspirational? I get that we get to visit a type of unshakable inner peace, but do we really get to live there? I mean, really? Humans like us?” It’s a phrase that’s obviously very important to you. How do you see it?
SK: Yes. Unshakeable inner peace is the path forward. I love that you’re asking these questions because I think it’s very important, because it’s so important. Because a lot of us are living in a space of saying, “Yeah, is that even possible?” When I say unshakeable inner peace, it’s not about living Zen, like Buddha all the time, every single moment of the day. It’s about being aware that you can connect to the light that is available to you at any moment of the day. That light is this benevolent force of loving energy that is available to us, creative source energy, God, higher power, goddess—whatever you identify with, it’s something bigger than yourself. As you tap into that, you realize it is within you because you’re created from it.
To give you an example, here I am teaching this work. I’ve been doing this for over a decade now. I have been teaching people how to be happy and find joy for about years. Then the anxiety hit. And it hit so hard that I was having panic attacks. But it led me to a deeper awareness of self and my teaching. It led to this book, and the card deck, and all of these things.
What I have learned on my journey is it’s not about expectations or thinking that life needs to look a certain way. It really is about showing up as fully as you can in each moment, not from a place of “I have to try,” but “I just have to be.” So, unshakeable inner peace is possible.
What was interesting for me, as I was writing this book, I was practicing the tools. But I actually was starting to get migraines. I was diagnosed with chronic migraines, complex migraines. They kind of represent stroke symptoms. I didn’t know it at the time. I went to the emergency room, and they told me, they said, “We think you’re having a stroke.” I knew in my heart perhaps I wasn’t, but I thought, “Wow, I’m here.” And that is definitely not going to bring you peace, but I practiced. They said, “We’re going to keep you overnight. We’re going to run some tests.” It wasn’t until the next morning when they said, “You have complex migraines.” Interesting enough throughout that whole inner kind of 24-hour period of being in the emergency room, I practiced the tools that are available to us. What that means is, I recognized in my mind, I said, “Okay, we’re in a school called planet Earth.” So, here I am on a bed. Not sure if I am having a stroke, but “you realize what is it available to us?”
I went to lesson number four in my mind, and I said, “Faith is freedom from fear.” What does that mean? For me, it means that there is something bigger that is at play here. I’m going to put all my trust into the faith that I’m exactly where I need to be right now. There is no mistake. I’m not going to lean into fear because that’s not going to help the energy. If I start to go to panic, then that’s going to block me from the possibility of moving through this in a more graceful way. And faith helped me truly. I got the lesson available to me. I think that’s available to all of us.
Unshakable inner peace is something available to us at all the time when we stop thinking, it needs to look like Buddha under the tree. It looks like showing up in your life the best you can.
TS: When you say you got the lesson that you think was needed, what was that lesson?
SK: Yes. It’s interesting, because this for me—I truly believe that everyone is on their own journey and our souls truly have seasons. I was resisting again in life the lesson for me. I talk about this in the book. We can’t control the world outside of us, but we can control what happens inside of us. Part of what put me into the emergency room in the hospital was my anxious mindset of “the world is so hateful and there’s so much contention, and I don’t understand why people are fighting.” It was eating me alive. It put me into a place where I felt like the universe and God were saying, “Pause. You don’t have to worry about all of that out there. Focus on what you can do today.” And that’s what really led to me really writing the book. It was a turning point for me. I call them pivotal moments. I think we all have pivotal moments in our life where there’s kind of an awakening that happens. I am thankful for going into the emergency room, believe it or not.
TS: Do you feel free now of complex migraines? Is it still happening? Is it not happening?
SK: Yes, it’s a diagnosis for me. And there’s a lot of different reasons they happen. I have a plan now. I was having them at least three to five days a week for six weeks. I would wake up one morning and I couldn’t see. One day the whole left side of my body was numb. It was interesting, because these things are very terrifying. I was like, “I’m only 40 years old. I’m not sure what’s happening.”
TS: “I’m writing a book on unshakable inner peace while I’m suffering from complex migraines.” That seems like a lot.
SK: Yes. It’s interesting, because as I went deeper into the process in learning about what complex migraines are, at that time they had diagnosed it because of stress. I realized, “Well, I’m not stressed with my work. I love what I do. It doesn’t feel like I work. I’m not stressed with my clients. I’m stressed with the world out there. It is so catastrophic.” We’re always going through something when we’re in this pandemic. I had to grasp control of that.
I still suffer from migraines, but now it’s physical. There’s a lot of things happening, whether it’s hormones, even when the weather changes. We’re working together with the doctor to diagnose when they happen. But I have a plan. When they happen, I have these emergency pills that help it. I have gone to maybe two a month now. That’s it. Maybe one a month, actually over the past couple months.
TS: Right. But, Shannon, I want to understand this a little more clearly, because I think many people right now, with the war in the Ukraine and with so many things that are happening that feel that we don’t have direct control, even if we’re activated inside, even if we’re doing our part, there’s a sense of tremendous not-feeling-at-peace with what’s happening. So, help us, what you’ve learned from your process about finding that peace inside when there’s so much war, destruction, and suffering outside.
SK: It’s exactly true. It’s interesting, because that was eating me alive. I kind of started to return to the tools. As I went deeper into it, I recognized that we have more power than we’ve been giving ourselves credit for. Again, you’re looking outside. As long as we’re looking out there, it’s going to keep being crazy.
What it means is returning back to inside of you, because that’s where our true world is. We have to start on the inside. And for me, it really did look like “What am I resisting? But also, what can I accept that I haven’t been?”
Even the serenity prayer—I went through a 12-step meeting several years ago—”God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” These are the things that helped me […]. But it really does come back to understanding why we’re here. I think a lot of us kind of just wake up, and go through the day, and just try to make it through the day. This is kind of a surviving mode.
I believe we are here to thrive. We truly are, even in the world’s condition. So, when we start to take steps forward into “How can I be the best version of me today and what does that look like?” For me, it’s more loving. For me, it’s “How can I be more compassionate towards those I don’t understand?” It’s not about going out and just being a hustler and all that. That’s not where I’m getting at. It’s about just being more aware of how you make a difference and choosing compassion and love in each moment.
TS: All right. Let’s pick another Unshakable Inner Peace Oracle card.
SK: Excellent. We get double. This is really good. This is one of my favorites. You can’t see the picture, but card number three, for anyone who has the deck. It’s a beautiful woman who is standing on what almost represents the Sedona Red Rocks or Utah Mohave Desert. She’s standing on the edge of a cliff, looking out, and in front of her is what looks to be at least 100 different doors and windows. There’s a huge skylight above. I’m sharing this image because it is very full of possibilities, of opportunities, and expansive energy. She’s in a stance of wonder. It says, “You cannot make a mistake. There are infinite possibilities available to you. Where is your heart guiding you?” Beautiful.
TS: OK, Shannon. I’ll just speak personally here for a moment and see what you have to say. I’m someone who’s both guided by my heart, but I have a pretty active mind, skeptical mind, questioning mind, searching mind. What would you say is helpful in terms of having our heart be in the lead instead of our mind being in the lead?
SK: Yes, I feel like you’re my soul sister here, because I tend to overthink as well. But I think what this is, is the philosophical side of us, the passionate side of us. The one that loves to learn. The part of us that just really wants to understand life. When we look at it in that way, it’s actually very exciting, because we can see that it’s not harming us. It’s not hurting us. I like to know about things that I didn’t know before. I often say let’s commit to unlearning the things we’ve learned and be open-minded. And that brings us to our heart—being open-minded also being open-hearted. When you start to take that idea and living from your heart forward—now, I will balance. I don’t think we should all be running around only living from our heart. It’s not about leaving your head and the fear behind. It’s about bringing them together in a balanced state from this place. We really start to feel more grace. We start to feel more joy. We start to feel more peace. Does that help?
TS: It does. I wonder, can we end with a meditation? A meditation for, in this moment, feeling unshakable inner peace together.
SK: I would love that. Yeah. In fact, I will pull one of my favorite meditations from the actual process in the book. It’s a prayer for peace: “I detach from anything that seeks to separate, anything that says ‘us versus them,’ anything that says ‘my way or the highway,’ anything that seeks to destroy, condemn, shame, or blame. Instead, I choose unity. I choose kindness. I choose compassion, and I choose love, for I am love.”
TS: Very beautiful. I’ve been speaking with Shannon Kaiser. She’s the author of a new book with Sounds True, Return to You: Spiritual Lessons for Unshakable Inner Peace. She’s also created a new Unshakable Inner Peace Oracle Deck. Shannon, thank you so much. Thank you so much for your generosity of spirit. Thank you.
SK: Thank you.
TS: Thank you for listening to Insights at the Edge. You can read a full transcript of today’s interview at SoundsTrue.com/podcast. If you’re interested, hit the Subscribe button in your podcast app. Also, if you feel inspired, head to iTunes and leave Insights at the Edge a review. I love getting your feedback, being in connection with you, and learning how we can continue to evolve and improve our program. Working together, I believe we can create a kinder and wiser world. SoundsTrue.com: waking up the world.
