Shaun Steckler

This is my first post. I'm introducing my new AI automation business for the trades. We use AI technology to empower business owners who want to grow and scale their businesses.

The word toxic is the spiritual community's favorite way to avoid doing the real work If someone drains you, they're toxic. But as long as they’re the problem, you don’t have to take any responsibility. And that’s why you’ve been stuck in the same place for years.

When it all started, I spent months trying to explain what was shifting in me to people who had no idea of what I was talking about I thought if I found the right words they would get it. Now I understand that there are no right words. I stopped explaining and started protecting my energy instead. Eventually your results will do the talking.

Shadow work for high achievers comes with a twist Your shadow isn't saying "I'm not good enough." It's saying "I'm terrified of being ordinary." You overwork to avoid intimacy. You achieve to fill that void of not being good enough. . You succeed to avoid being judged. But the thing you're most afraid of isn't failure. It's having nothing left to prove and still being loveable. That's why successful people often have the messiest personal lives.

A woman came to me a few years ago who had been carrying hatred toward a former business partner for over a decade She had a file. Literally a digital folder with documented offenses. She wanted tools to process the anger. I didn't give her tools. I asked her one question. What quality in this person do you find the most offensive? She said without hesitating his complete lack of guilt. He does whatever serves him and feels nothing about the people it affects. I asked her when she had last allowed herself to make a decision that served her without apologizing for it. She started crying before she could answer. The decade-long hatred wasn't about him. It was about a version of self-permission she had never allowed herself to have. Six months later she told me the folder was gone. Not because she'd forgiven him. Because she'd finally stopped needing him to feel guilty for something she'd never given herself permission to do.

Guard your words and actions carefully. Not everything needs to be shared One day your silence will do your talking. Your actions will scream even louder. Create a good plan and pour your heart into it.

After 30+ years on this path, I've noticed that the people who resist your awakening the hardest are almost always the ones closest to waking up themselves. The friction isn't rejection. It's recognition. They can feel the shift in you and it's showing them everything they've been avoiding. The moment you stop needing people to understand your awakening is the moment it starts to take off. Not because their opinion stopped mattering. But because yours become #1.

For years I had someone in my life I genuinely couldn't stand He was filled with confidence to the point I called it arrogance. He was completely unbothered by other people's opinions. I thought he had a big ego. I had a detailed, well-reasoned case. I had replayed specific incidents enough times that the hatred felt entirely justified. Then in 2019 during an energy practice something surfaced that I wasn't expecting. A memory from childhood of being told that confidence was the same as showing off. That caring about your own needs was the same as being selfish. That indifference to other opinions was the same as not caring about people. Every quality I hated in that person was a quality that had been systematically shamed out of me before I was old enough to understand. The hatred wasn't about him. It never was. It was about me not living up to my greatest potential.

Unpopular opinion: Your family's spiritual beliefs are the biggest obstacle to your growth. I stayed Christian for 25 years because leaving meant disappointing everyone I loved. The day I finally broke free, my mom cried for 3 hours. My dad didn't speak to me for 6 months. And I lost 3 lifelong friendships. Best decision I ever made. Your soul doesn't need their permission to evolve. You need to be strong enough to walk away.

For years I carried a hatred toward someone in my life that I had fully justified I had evidence. I had a timeline. I had witnesses. The case was airtight. Now I understand that the more airtight the case, the more likely they're holding up a mirror I wasn't ready to look into. The evidence I was collecting was never really about them. It was about the wound they were pointing to that I didn’t know how to heal.

Most people who delay their transformation aren't blocked by their own resistance. They're blocked by their need for approval from people who aren't even awake yet. You can’t raise your frequency while spending all your energy justifying it to other people. They’ll never get. Keep moving. You’ll attract the ones that do.

After 30 years I've noticed that the people who carry the most hatred are almost always the ones closest to a major breakthrough. The hatred is a sure sign that your wound is making an appearance. And it’s offering you the opportunity to reach out and heal it. Most people never make the connection. They spend years managing the hatred , by avoiding the person, and building the case without ever asking what the emotion is actually pointing to. The most consistent pattern I've seen on this path is someone spending years convinced that a certain person in their life is the source of their suffering. They analyze that person with remarkable precision. They can describe every flaw and every reason the hatred is justified. What they almost never do is turn that same precision inward and ask why this person generates so much hostility. The answer is always more revealing.

Here's a great way to reprogram yourself. If you're not doing this, someone will do it for you.

Carl Jung got shadow work right, but modern spirituality butchered it. They turned deep psychological integration into feel-good affirmations, rainbows and kaleidoscopes. Real shadow work isn't sexy. It's not lighting candles and gratitude journaling. It's confronting the fact that you're terrified of your own power. Are you ready to have this conversation (with yourself)?

Living authentically comes with a cost that few are willing to pay. For me, the cost was: → Disappointed family members → Lost friendships → Uncomfortable conversations → Standing alone and isolated Most people won't take this on. They'd rather live in the same box and still have everybody like them. But here's the secret: You only have to make one payment (decision). The freedom that follows lasts forever.

Most people believe hatred is a sign that someone is wrong for them After 30 years on this path I'll tell you hatred is a sign that someone is showing you something you haven't been willing to face. The intensity of the feeling is pointing directly to your unhealed wound. Mild irritation is surface level. Genuine hatred is your unconscious mind tearing at something that has been buried for a very long time. You don't heal that by shattering the mirror. You heal by finally looking at what the mirror was trying to show you all along.

I am on the hero's journey. I have experienced many ups and downs. I'm not there yet, but through it all have remained resilient. Will keep you all posted on my progress.