You can know beauty standards are unrealistic. You can know social media is filtered. You can even think, “This shouldn’t bother me.” And still — it does. That doesn’t mean anything is wrong with you. It means your body is responding before your thoughts catch up. Think of your inner world like an iceberg. Above the surface is your conscious mind — logic, reasoning, understanding. Below the surface is your subconscious mind, where emotional meaning lives. That’s where your system learned, early on, what mattered, what got approval, and what felt safe. Your nervous system is how all of that shows up day to day. So when you scroll, look in the mirror, or see a photo, your nervous system reacts first. Thoughts come later. That’s why women say: - “I don’t know why this is bothering me.” - “I feel silly caring about this.” - “I should be past this by now.” Nothing is wrong with you. Your system has absorbed the same messages for years — youth matters, beauty equals value, aging needs managing. Repetition shapes the subconscious, whether we agree with it or not. Intelligent Beauty works at that deeper level — helping loosen old subconscious stories your body learned, so reactions don’t feel so automatic. And when that pressure eases, many women notice something else happening too: they’re less critical, more accepting, and a little more at ease with themselves. -Shannon

If you’re here, something about aging, beauty, or how you feel in your own skin has probably been weighing on you more than you expected. You might have caught yourself thinking: - “I don’t know why this is bothering me.” - “Nothing is actually wrong, so why does it feel like this?” - “I should be past this by now.” This space isn’t about fixing any of that. It's about slowing things down, understanding what’s actually going on, and learning how to be on your own side again. There’s no pressure to introduce yourself. No expectation to share. You can read, listen, or just look around. That’s enough. Welcome to the Intelligent Beauty Era. — Shannon

I didn’t come to this work because I felt confident about aging.I came to it because somewhere along the way — after years of taking care of everyone else — I stopped recognizing myself. I spent almost 30 years as an RN in the hospital. Three decades of long shifts, adrenaline, grief, pressure, and caring for people during the hardest moments of their lives. I knew how to hold it all together. I knew how to be strong. But eventually, my own body whispered what I had ignored: “I’m burnt out.” During that season, I found EFT. Not because I was looking for a new tool, but because I needed something — anything — to help me feel human again. And tapping was the first thing that made my nervous system finally exhale. It helped me heal in ways traditional self-care never touched. Years later, at 50, I opened Willow Organic Spa — something I’m deeply proud of . But entering the beauty world in midlife brought up emotions I was not prepared for. After years of being behind a mask during the pandemic, I hadn’t truly seen my face in so long. And on the opening day of the spa, someone took a photo of me. I looked at it and felt this unexpected, honest thought: “When did I get so old?” Not in a self-hating way, more in a tender, surprised, caught-off-guard way. And then came the guilt —because my mom died at 42. And here I was, 50, getting the years she didn’t… and still struggling with how I felt about my reflection. It wasn’t vanit, it was vulnerability. A moment of realizing that aging doesn’t just happen on the outside —it happens emotionally, in our nervous system, in all the quiet places nobody sees. So I came back to EFT. Not as a burnout tool this time, but as a way to soften beauty pressure, comparison, and the complicated feelings of being a midlife woman in the beauty industry. And as I worked with clients in my spa, I started to see the same emotional patterns in them: the comparison, the pressure, the “I should be okay with this,” the guilt for feeling anything at all.

This community is designed to feel supportive, calm, and easy to navigate — not overwhelming. Start here so this stays simple. This community is meant to support you, not give you something else to manage. A few things that help: - Most of this space is audio. Listening is enough. - There’s no right order and no timeline. - Posting is optional. Being quiet is fine. - This isn’t therapy or 1:1 support. Many women begin with Becoming Intelligent Beauty in the Classroom, but you don’t need to start there if something else feels more relevant. The goal here isn’t self-improvement, it's feeling more steady, less at war with yourself, and over time, falling back into a kinder relationship with who you are. Use this space in a way that fits your real life. — Shannon