Rising Through Resilience: Leah Shoman On The Five Things You Can Do To Become More Resilient

An Interview With Savio P. Clemente

Now it is time to disconnect. Although we want to remain connected with friends, family and loved ones through these difficult times, there is a point where too much connection over the internet is overwhelming for the mind body and spirit. It’s prudent to disconnect from social media platforms and the information overload we are receiving. I would recommend not looking at your electronic devices for at least 1–2 hours before going to bed as well as taking thirty minutes to an hour, if possible, right when you awaken in order ensure a peaceful, calm, and neutral start to your day. It’s also a great idea to cleanse these devices with cleansing crystals, such as selenite, as they can harbor old energies some of which that are not yours and they should be released and removed daily to improve your own personal vibrational frequency.

Resilience has been described as the ability to withstand adversity and bounce back from difficult life events. Times are not easy now. How do we develop greater resilience to withstand the challenges that keep being thrown at us? In this interview series, we are talking to mental health experts, authors, resilience experts, coaches, and business leaders who can talk about how we can develop greater resilience to improve our lives.

As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Leah Shoman.

Leah Shoman is a published author, an intuitive crystal healer, light language healer and a channel. She owns Dark Moon Crystals, where she procures a wide variety of unique and sought-after crystals that are sourced ethically from around the globe. Leah also creates tarot and oracle decks to help harness your intuition.

Thank you so much for joining us! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your backstory?

Thank you so much for having me! I am an author spiritual healer, crystal guardian and creator of divination tools. These gifts have always been innate within me; however, they became more prominent and developed after experiencing spiritual awakenings and overcoming trauma in childhood and relationships. I have dedicated my life’s purpose into transmuting this trauma not only for myself but for other’s as well.

Can you share with us the most interesting story from your career? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘take aways’ you learned from that?

The most interesting story of my career would honestly be the entire last year and half. I developed my spiritual channeling gifts further which has helped not only myself, but so many others shift emotions, stagnate energy, perspectives, and mindsets. The most important lessons I’ve learned were about my own personal power and how it was dimmed in the past, not only by my own self-limiting thought processes, but by other’s who saw this power within me and were scared by it. I learned to really set healthy boundaries and become grounded in my belief systems.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

My company Dark Moon Crystals stands out for the simple fact that it is my life’s purpose and soul mission. I welcome all to seek knowledge, to ask questions, to feel seen and supported, no matter where they are in their journey at any given time. I want everyone to feel safe coming to me with questions or to gain insight and learn about all things crystals, divination and healing.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

I would say not one person but multiple people who I am grateful for that have helped me along the way. These people also include the ones who taught me very hard lessons, that at the time, I didn’t want to learn. I’m grateful for all the experiences, the ups and downs, the trials and tribulations and I’m sure there will be more to come, but that makes success so much greater in my eyes.

Ok thank you for all that. Now let’s shift to the main focus of this interview. We would like to explore and flesh out the trait of resilience. How would you define resilience? What do you believe are the characteristics or traits of resilient people?

I would define resilience as the way you handle obstacles put on your path and how you come out the other side from those experiences. Resilience is the trait that allows you to recognize that the challenging situation you are being presented with isn’t happening to you, rather it is happening for you to learn valuable lessons.

To me, obstacles are preparation for greater accomplishments, and as some might see failure, well as them failing, I view it as a learning experience. In my personal experience, I have learned more from my failures and hardships than any of my greatest achievements. Within these obstacles, failures and hardships you can learn how to be more balanced, become stronger mentally and you become further equipped to handle and navigate any forthcoming roadblocks in the future.

Courage is often likened to resilience. In your opinion how is courage both similar and different to resilience?

I believe courage and resilience are similar at times as it can require a bit of courage to come out the other side of a tough situation. The way resilience and courage differentiate to me is that you don’t need to be courageous to be a human being that can bounce back from adversity; all you require is a shift in your perspective and mindset.

When you think of resilience, which person comes to mind? Can you explain why you chose that person?

When I think of resilience my great grandmother comes to mind. She had the most unbelievable and difficult life living in the jungle of Belize. She had lost everything she had — from finding her mother murdered, to being separated from her siblings and from having her own child ripped away and taken from her after falling pregnant from sexual abuse. My great grandmother couldn’t read or write, she barely had any money to her name and even after all she had gone through, she would still quite literally give you, a stranger, the shoes from her feet. Everyone that knew my great grandmother can attest that she was an actual angel on this Earth, and she always left someone better than she found them and never turned away anyone in need. She overcame everything thrown at her and instead of letting it destroy her, so rose above it all like the beautiful being of pure love that she was.

Has there ever been a time that someone told you something was impossible, but you did it anyway? Can you share the story with us?

Yes, there has been many times where someone has told me many things would have been impossible but being the person that I am at my core, I took that as a challenge to be overcome as I don’t like to feed into a fear mentality. If you tell me I can’t do something, I will do it and exceed expectations. Don’t get me wrong, some of these situations have been more difficult to others, but I never let anything stop me from manifesting my dreams into a tangible reality or acknowledge the notion that something isn’t obtainable or possible.

Did you have a time in your life where you had one of your greatest setbacks, but you bounced back from it stronger than ever? Can you share that story with us?

Yes, one large setback that I faced 3 years ago in the beginning stages of my small business. I had a supplier that had stolen and misappropriated a large sum of money that was meant to produce one of my special projects. There were many people who had already supported this project monetarily through a crowd-funding service, and I wasn’t going to allow this to ruin it. Instead, I used the last bit of money I had to have it produced with another supplier. At the time, this had shattered my world that someone could be so untrustworthy and hinder another small business in this regard, but in the end, I completed the project and learned that nothing will get in the way of my purpose and passion.

How have you cultivated resilience throughout your life? Did you have any experiences growing up that have contributed to building your resiliency? Can you share a story?

I had quite a tumultuous childhood as well as my teenage years and into my 20s where I experienced a lot of traumas such as physical, mental and emotional abuse as well as sexual abuse. It has taken a lot of time and inner work for me to move past these experiences and to truly understand and know that what has happened to me doesn’t define me. Rather, it has taught me how to take those experiences for what they were. I believe we come to this Earth with a soul journey and to learn certain lessons. For me, in this lifetime, these were the lessons I needed to learn for me to expand, evolve and experience true growth.

For example, in one previous relationship, I had been intentionally isolated from everyone I knew, I was worn down and berated daily. I was told I wasn’t good enough, that no one could want or love me if I left them, that I was less-then. I was controlled in every possible way down to what I could watch and what clothes I could wear. Things would escalate and then fights became more physical and I obtained more injuries; I would have my privacy violated. I eventually became a shell of myself and knew that the way these altercations were going one of us would end up dead, and I knew it would be me. After many attempts to leave and returning out of fear, I finally left for good and never looked back. I made a promise that I would never allow someone to make me question myself or take away my power ever again. This was one of many similar experiences I’ve had, but the difference for this being the last time was the recognition of the pattern of behavior of the people I was attracting.

Resilience is like a muscle that can be strengthened. In your opinion, what are 5 steps that someone can take to become more resilient? Please share a story or an example for each.

5 steps someone can take to become more resilient would be grounding your energy, movement, disconnection, meditation and practicing compassion.

Let’s start with grounding your energy, as this step is a base for the other methods. With the pandemic and lockdowns being extremely harsh globally, especially currently where I live, we are very limited with where we are allowed to go and what we can do, so it’s become quite difficult to be stuck inside all day and night. Grounding your energy is the best way to keep your body in stasis and balanced and not in fight or flight mode that can feel like chaotic, nervous and/or anxious energy. Grounding your energy means to get in connection with Earth and nature to receive those harmonious vibrational frequencies. This can be done simply by putting your feet on the ground, standing in sunshine, and simply going for a walk. If you don’t have access to any of these modalities, try opening a window to let in fresh air.

Next to acknowledge is movement, as movement is a beautiful medicine. Your body requires a way to transmute stagnant energy within itself, whether it be feelings of anxiety depression anger etc, you need to move your body to release and shift these frequencies for a higher vibration to experience different and lighter emotions. This can be done in so many simple ways such as jumping, yoga, shaking old energy off, dancing, walking, running or in any way you feel comfortable with practicing movement.

Now it is time to disconnect. Although we want to remain connected with friends, family and loved ones through these difficult times, there is a point where too much connection over the internet is overwhelming for the mind body and spirit. It’s prudent to disconnect from social media platforms and the information overload we are receiving. I would recommend not looking at your electronic devices for at least 1–2 hours before going to bed as well as taking thirty minutes to an hour, if possible, right when you awaken in order ensure a peaceful, calm, and neutral start to your day. It’s also a great idea to cleanse these devices with cleansing crystals, such as selenite, as they can harbour old energies some of which that are not yours and they should be released and removed daily to improve your own personal vibrational frequency.

Mediation is another powerful modality that helps you shift your mindset and perspective on any situation; the key to being a resilient being. Whilst in meditation you can look inward, slow your thoughts, and let the distractions fade away which allows you to remain in a relaxed state. In this relaxed state, you can bring your mind back to the present moment and truly identify the thought and behavioural patterns that typically would trigger or send you spiralling. Meditation increases the trust within yourself, to know that you can get through every and any challenging situation you may encounter.

Lastly, practice compassion. Chaotic, frantic, and anxious energy has been running rampant globally and compassion is needed on all fronts. Recognition that your path will not be, nor is the same as another’s and that each and every one of us is here to serve our own soul’s purpose. Instead of feeling hate or anger when faced with adversity or things we don’t understand, send love and kindness as we are all in this together. This practice can not only expand your frame of mind, but you can lift other’s up and take them along your journey of resilience as well.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

If I could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most of amount of people, it would be a movement of healing and transformation. How this could be achieved is teaching the many on how to look inward and acknowledge their shadows and any traumas, hurt, grievances etc. that they have repressed and not dealt with. These repressions can hinder us from building relationships, they can hinder us emotionally, but they can also manifest as ailments in your physical form. As we’ve all heard in one form or another, hurt people hurt people, and wouldn’t it be beautiful thing if instead of harboring pain, resentment, guilt and grief, we can live lighter and happier and acknowledge that what happened to us in the past doesn’t have to dictate our future?

We are blessed that some very prominent leaders read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them :-)

I would say Eckhart Tolle, as the Power of Now was just a pivotal book that really jump started a lot of awakenings for me.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

Readers can see my work on my website www.shopdarkmooncrystals.com and find me on social media Instagram @darkmoon_crystals.

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!