I first became connected with Shannon Keating through CU CHAARG, a national club with a chapter on the CU Boulder campus that centers around health and wellness. She came in to do a workshop with our chapter. She came in to show us a variety of different ways we could relieve stress, and I remember leaving that night feeling like a new person. We then became reconnected after she did another workshop with our chapter, this time over zoom right when the pandemic first began, to dive into each of our Human Design charts and help us navigate the specific ways we could each live fuller, happier lives. Each of these events I had with Shannon impacted me in ways I didn’t know they would, and she truly is a magical human.
So, when Shannon reached out to my roommate, who also had the same experiences with her in the past, about an opportunity to work with her on a project for young, college-aged women, I knew I had to be involved. Since working on that project and reconnecting with her after my time abroad, I have considered her a great mentor and someone in my life I look up to for the work she is putting out into the world.
The work Shannon does is “umbrella’d” under holistic life coach, and she specializes in working with adult women and teen girls in middle school, high school, and college. One of the ways to get a grasp on what she does is understanding that, in Shannon’s words, “the thing that threads everything together [in her work] is helping women and younger girls build a really loving, supportive, and empowering relationship with themselves, and then allowing that to trickle into all the other areas of their life.” When working with women, she aims to hold a safe, beautiful space for them to share any insecurities they’re experiencing, body image or self-love issues they’re having, things that they’re struggling with, etc., and makes sure they feel seen, heard, and loved, no matter what. After making sure they’ve been listened to and helping them realize there’s nothing wrong with them for feeling these things, she provides tools, resources, and different perspectives to assist in overcoming these challenges. These tools can range from journaling prompts, meditations, different mindset shifts, or exercises that can “really support them inside of their day to day life”.
Shannon offers her guidance and speaks from things she’s learned in her own life journey. She chose to work with this specific age group of women because high school and college is the time when she started to experience many of the issues her clients are seeking help for. Shannon shares that she “has a history of a couple eating disorders, depression and suicidal ideations, and then just naturally [had] low self-esteem and low confidence levels. [She] always was comparing [herself] to other women, feeling insecure about [her] body, and [had] a really massive inner critic. So a lot of these things are common threads for just women in general, [she] experienced.” She felt like everything had to be kept inside of her, and felt embarrassed and ashamed by these struggles with no outlet to express them. After graduating college, she took a step back and realized there was a lot of healing and inner self-work she needed to do. She also realized that a lot of the women she went to college with started to do the same, and they had all never talked about these issues they were all having. This is when Shannon thought “what if our younger generation had resources to lean on when they’re struggling outside of therapy because I think therapy is such a beautiful step and so important […], and I’m such a fan of seeing a therapist, but I feel like women need more modern tools and more of a community approach and more things that are really going to impact their life, their friendships, and their relationships.” So now, Shannon is becoming the one to share these modern tools with other young women who may be experiencing similar things she was, and help them realize it’s normal to feel this way, but here’s what to do about it.
This is why Shannon’s work is so important, in my opinion, because high school and college specifically can be a time that we as women struggle to truly find and love ourselves. I remember, in high school specifically, I was so self-conscious about a number of things on my body, I never felt like I was good enough, and I let my “inner critic” rule my life. And I know many young women can relate because we’re exposed to so many images, for example on social media, that portray one ideal lifestyle and one ideal “look”. This mindset carried into my college experience and being around the many beautiful, fit, and smart people that attend CU Boulder didn’t help, and I would often compare myself to those around me and make myself believe that I was not good enough. While these are still things I struggle with, I’ve also learned so much from just speaking and working with Shannon, and her practices are things I’ve tried to bring into my life to help with my own inner healing.
Shannon shares that “since [she] was younger, [she’s] always known that [she’s] here to help people, and that’s really narrowed down to help women and girls at a deep level. And [she] just [gets] a lot of fulfillment from deep connections, and being able to see that what [she] went through and the tools [she] was able to acquire and the shifts [she] was able to make within [herself] can also deeply affect somebody else”. Seeing the journey and evolution of the women that come to her, seeing the mindset shifts they make, and seeing them grow is so highly rewarding. Shannon has built many valuable connections with people through this practice and finds a lot of her purpose in helping these women transform their lives.
I asked Shannon for any advice or tips she can share for young college women in regards to navigating their inner critic, practicing self-love, or anything in the areas that she focuses on in her coaching. She mentions that: “the biggest thing that really helped [her] was [realizing] that you are not your inner critic. The voice in your head, the part of you that feels you’re not good enough, or judges you or your body, or doubts yourself, or worries, […] that isn’t you. You can actually separate yourself and create more space from that inner critic and that voice, and it’s very possible to shift that and strengthen a voice of love and an inner cheerleader and to truly become your own best friend. And to […] just actually, genuinely love yourself.” She feels that “if [she] could do that, then anyone could because [she] feels like [she’s] just gone through so many experiences where [she] really did not like [herself]. […] So know you’re not alone if you experience those things and know it’s so possible to have another experience where you genuinely feel good about who you are, you’re proud of who you are, you love yourself as you, and your worth is not attached to anything outside of you.” In terms of realizing that your worth is not defined by the things outside of you, Shannon shares that you need to remember that you’re not here to prove yourself to anyone else, and “how busy you are does not equate to how good enough you are. You’re good enough whether you need to relax, whether you’re getting good grades (or not getting good grades), you’re good enough no matter what your body looks like, you’re good enough no matter what.” Your worth is not attached to anything outside of just you being here.
This last point that Shannon makes about your worth not being attached to anything outside of you really hit home for me, and I’m sure many other college students, in general, can relate. It’s so easy to feel lazy and not good enough if I’m not being productive, but in reality, I need to recognize that it’s perfectly normal to need time to rest, and needing that time doesn’t make me any less of a good person. And this can carry over to anything. Just because my body may look different from the person next to me, or my grades aren’t as high doesn’t mean I am less worthy than them.
When clients work with Shannon, they have access to a number of different services and resources she provides, and they can choose a path that’s beneficial for them. She has a variety of free offerings that are open to everyone; this includes a podcast entitled “Unmasked and Open-Hearted”, guided meditations on the Insight Timer app, as well as meditations on her podcast, and there’s always the option to connect with her on social media where she shares many videos and insights. In terms of working with her one on one, she offers two types of offerings. One is more customized and involves a Human Design reading, a system she is certified in (I dive into this below) or an intuitive reading, and the other is more in-depth where clients work with Shannon every single week for an hour starting at three months, and she shares notes with you that contain meditations, journaling prompts, or new paths to try.
Human Design, as explained by Shannon, is a tool for getting to know your “energetic DNA” or your “authentic code”. It uses “ancient systems and modern sciences to show us a roadmap to being authentically you”. Shannon will do one-off Human Design readings with people to talk to them about “their strengths, their gifts, their personality traits, how their energy functions, and how to make decisions”. She wanted to bring in Human Design because she’s “really passionate about treating every single person as an individual, and recognizing that we’re all so unique. So, what works for [her] is most likely not always going to work for the person in front of [her].” Once she discovered Human Design and started digging deeper into it, Shannon realized that all of these challenges she had been facing with her mental and emotional health could all be seen, reflected, and explained by her chart. She feels it’s a valuable tool and a roadmap for everyone, and every person she’s done a reading for has felt like their chart and the things they learned from it deeply resonated with them. It’s a system that helps her customize her coaching to each and every client.
Speaking from experience, I had a brief Human Design reading with Shannon, and it was so eye-opening, and a little scary too. At the time of the reading, I had only met her one other time, and somehow she knew all these little things about me solely from reading my Human Design chart. What she spoke with me about resonated so deeply, and it helped me realize things about myself that I didn’t understand before, and I still revisit the tools she gave me if I’m having trouble making a decision or facing other challenges that arise in my life.
Amongst Shannon’s main work she does with clients, she’s also been pursuing a project we briefly started at the end of 2020. The project is called “babeZrising”, and it’s essentially a platform centered around the idea of providing a community for young, college-aged women to help them live their best, most authentic lives and embrace the ideas of self-love, navigating your inner critic, sisterhood, and empowering the Gen Z demographic of women. When we first started pulling this together, it was mainly online, and the focus was to provide resources and connect with other powerful women through social media. She is now taking this in a different route and working to turn it into something more tangible and transformational through the incorporation of in-person workshops, retreats, a potential app with resources like meditations or journaling prompts, and a plethora of other things. This is meant to connect women with each other and have access to tools that will help them rise up together and feel empowered in a healthy and grounded way. Shannon is hoping to have this launched out into the world by the middle of 2022.
If you’re feeling like Shannon is the energy you need in your life, and is someone you want to connect with now or in the future, she has plenty of places you can find her. Her Instagram account is a great place where she shares little videos or insights into things she’s overcoming in her own life; she also has her website or you can always reach out via her email, hello@shannonkeating.com. She also mentions you can direct message her on Instagram or through her website if that’s easier.
Just listening to the way Shannon speaks so passionately about the work she does is inspiring, and I will always be thankful we got connected. The work she does with her clients, and the many other free offerings she provides are so important, especially for our age demographic. It’s easy to get caught up in the negative thoughts we have about ourselves, and it takes time to heal from the mental and emotional health challenges many of us face on a day-to-day basis. Forming a healthy relationship with our bodies and minds is essential to feeling fulfilled, happy, and empowered in all the other areas of our lives, and these tools are a great place to start on that journey.