Keila Shaheen on How to Heal the Self Through Shadow Work

What if the key to your healing wasn’t out there, but buried within the very parts of yourself you’ve been taught to hide? In this powerful episode, John R. Miles sits down with Keila Shaheen, best-selling author of The Book of Shadow Work: Unlock the True You: The Must-Have Guide to Inner Healing and Authenticity. Keila has helped over a million people around the world reconnect with their deepest truth through shadow work—a transformative process of facing the unseen, repressed, and forgotten parts of ourselves.

In this intimate conversation, she opens up about her own healing journey, the power of intentional journaling, and why self-compassion—not self-perfection—is the path to real change. Whether you’re just beginning your inner work or looking to deepen it, this episode offers a rare and grounding invitation to come back home to yourself.

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How Shadow Work Can Transform Your Inner World

In this soul-stirring conversation, Keila Shaheen returns to Passion Struck to explore the deeper layers of healing through shadow work, following the viral success of her earlier release, The Shadow Work Journal: A Guide to Integrate and Transcend Your Shadows. With John R. Miles, Keila unpacks how unacknowledged emotions, forgotten dreams, and unconscious patterns shape the lives we live—and how journaling can offer a bridge back to authenticity.

Together, they discuss the role of somatic awareness, the importance of digital mindfulness, and how her app Zenfulnote is helping a new generation reconnect with themselves in a chaotic digital age. This isn’t just a conversation—it’s an invitation to look inward with courage, compassion, and clarity.

In This Episode You’ll Learn:

• Shadow work demystified: Keila breaks down the concept of shadow work and why it’s essential for understanding our triggers, patterns, and hidden emotional wounds.
• The power of journaling: Why the act of writing can slow down your nervous system, create clarity, and act as a mirror for self-awareness.
• From shame to self-compassion: How identifying your inner critic and reframing it with grace can lead to profound emotional shifts.
• Digital mindfulness redefined: How Keila’s Zenfulnote app helps counteract the dysregulation caused by social media and offers a grounded, intentional space for reflection.
• Glimmers vs. triggers: Why small, joyful moments (“glimmers”) can be just as powerful as identifying trauma when it comes to healing.
• Creativity as medicine: How Keila rediscovered her voice through music—and why buried passions often hold the key to inner peace.

WHY IS THIS EPISODE A MUST-LISTEN?

If you’ve ever felt disconnected, overwhelmed, or like you’re living a version of yourself that doesn’t feel true, this episode will resonate deeply. Keila Shaheen doesn’t just speak about healing; she embodies it. With honesty and vulnerability, she shares insights that will help you peel back the layers of who you’ve been told to be—and guide you toward the freedom of who you truly are. Whether you’re new to shadow work or ready to go deeper, this episode offers both the tools and the inspiration to begin.

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How Keila Shaheen is Redefining Digital Wellness with Zenfulnote

Let’s face it—social media isn’t just part of our lives anymore, it is our lives. We’re scrolling before breakfast, doom-clicking during lunch, and using it as a lullaby before bed. But here’s the thing Keila Shaheen wants us to think about: What is all of that really doing to our nervous system? And more importantly, how can we take back control?

In this episode, Keila opens up about how platforms like Instagram and TikTok—yes, even the ones that helped her bestselling books The Shadow Work Journal and The Book of Shadow Work explode—can also leave us feeling overstimulated, disconnected, and emotionally drained. It’s a tricky paradox. These platforms connect us, but they can also pull us away from ourselves.

That’s exactly why she created Zenfulnote—a digital sanctuary to meet your inner world inside the same device that often overwhelms it. Instead of endless swiping, Zenfulnote encourages mindful check-ins, emotional tracking, and guided prompts inspired by her journals. Think of it as a space to breathe, reflect, and reconnect in a world that rarely gives you time to pause.

Keila calls it “digital mindfulness”—and it’s not about deleting your apps or tossing your phone in a drawer. It’s about reshaping your relationship with technology. Instead of letting your phone dictate your emotional state, Zenfulnote helps you lead the conversation with your own emotions, your own healing, and your own truth.

So the next time you catch yourself in an endless scroll, maybe ask: What would happen if I turned inward instead? Zenfulnote isn’t just an app. It’s a reminder that your well-being can coexist with the digital world—if you’re intentional about it.

Thanks, Keila Shaheen

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RESOURCES FROM THE SHOW WITH KEILA SHAHEEN

Please note that some of the links on this page (books, movies, music, etc.) lead to affiliate programs for which The Passion Struck podcast receives compensation. It’s just one of the ways we keep the lights on around here. Thank you so much for being so supportive!

1. Keila Shaheen’s Website
2. Keila Shaheen’s Instagram
3. Karen Salmansohn’s Substack
4. Buy Keila Shaheen Books ‘The Book of Shadow Work’ and ‘The Shadow Work Journal‘
5. APA’s recognition of mattering as critical to child mental health
6. Passion Struck Core Value System: https://passionstruck.com/the-passion-struck-core-belief-system/
7. Listen to Passion Struck’s interviews with New York Times bestselling authors Gretchen Rubin and Seth Godin.
8. Check out Passion Struck’s Episode Starter Packs on Spotify or Passion Struck starter packs to get started with the podcast.

About Today’s Guest, Keila Shaheen

Keila Shaheen is a bestselling author, speaker, and founder of the transformative wellness platform, Zenfulnote. She rose to global recognition with her breakout book The Shadow Work Journal: A Guide to Integrate and Transcend Your Shadows, which has sold over a million copies and sparked a viral movement of self-healing across TikTok and beyond. Her latest release, The Book of Shadow Work: Unlock the True You, continues her mission of guiding people toward radical self-awareness, inner peace, and emotional transformation.

Keila’s work blends behavioral therapy, mindfulness, and depth psychology, informed by her studies in cognitive-behavioral therapy and her ongoing Master’s in Depth Psychology and Creativity. She’s also a certified sound healer and musical artist, performing under the name Sombrella—an artistic tribute to the beauty found within the shadow self.

Through her writing, music, and the Zenfulnote app, Keila is on a mission to make mental wellness accessible, engaging, and deeply personal. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Forbes, Good Morning America, Billboard, and more. As a NAMI ambassador, she continues to champion tools that help people reclaim their wholeness—online and offline.

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