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

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

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

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

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

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



Study mentioned in Podcast:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3423469/

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

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

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

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