FASHIONISTA AWAKENING: HEALING THE INDUSTRY
BY: Colleen McCann · Fashion + Beauty, Healing, Magazine
Two years ago, stylist-turned-shaman Colleen McCann stepped out of the mystical closet—and found herself healing the leading names in fashion & beauty. From skin deep to soul deep, it was time for a fashionista awakening!
It’s been two years since I said adieu to the fashion industry and entered the atmosphere of the spiritual realm. My initial intention when I defected and started my business, Style Rituals, was to use my fashionista roots and my spiritual know-how to realign the energetic and visual bodies of my clients … little did I know that I would be doing ALL my healing work within the creative wig-wam I had called home for 15 years.
I was totally having a Michael Corleone moment. They pulled me back in, and to my delight it unfolded in the most sparkly and unexpected way!
Common topics that surfaced in Intuitive Crystal Readings amongst the fashion mavens were boys, ageing, business strategies, industry bullshit, body image, embracing your girl-bossness and wearing your ‘Power Color’ (as personally chosen by my Spirit Guides).
Enter cosmic jolt of epic proportions …
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One day, I came to my client’s Manhattan apartment and was greeted at the door with a smile, Pamplemousse La Croix (YAY, my favorite!), and the following statement: “I’m so glad you’re here. We need to talk. I’ve got what you’ve got.” Slightly confused, I looked at the almond milk chai tea latte I was carrying in my hand. She laughed and said, “Ummmm no, like the third-eye stuff. I need your help as it’s affecting my work and my health.” (Insert the wide-eyed, looks-like-you-just-saw-a-ghost Emoij because that was 100% my face!)
And then came more. Lots more. One-by-one, my fashion industry brethern started coming out of the mystical closet with me as a sacred witness. Surrounded by an army of Tarot cards and crystals, we would sit pow-wow style on the floor and embark on a magical throw-rug ride of epic proportions.
As a fashion stylist, I’ve seen more tits backstage than a bouncer at a strip club. However, my clients were now emotionally, mentally and energetically stripping down way past their Agent Provocateur knickers. How naked did we get together? NAKED AF!
My clients wanted guidance and understanding about how to walk around in the world with strong intuition. How could they know things before they happened? Welcome to the land of premonitions! Why would they walk into a boardroom and sense things about someone having never met them before? Yes, that puts you into Empath territory. And my personal favorite—tips n’ tricks on how to keep your shit together when you see dead people hanging out backstage at Fashion Week. True story. Real question.
It was evident my work was getting as layer-y as MILK’s Birthday Cake. I was being called to dive deeper than healing peoples’ wardrobes with a Closet Cleanse, or guiding them on trend directions with an Intuitive Business Building Session. It looked like I had been officially nominated to help my kin awaken to their own intuitive gifts, and perhaps heal aspects of our industry that needed a bit of a makeover in the process. Okay then. I rolled up my 100% silk Equipment sleeves and got to work.
As word spread on fashion island about my mystical lessons, my business grew like wildfire—by what I like to call the Gynecologist principle. You want to go to your BFF’s Gyno right? You trust who she trusts with your innermost workings and, of course, whether or not you should try out this whole Rose Quartz Crystal Yoni egg thing. (Yes ladies, this is the final frontier when it comes to working with crystals).
Then it spread to our larger creative community. Think film makers, beauty executives, art directors, lifestyle bloggers, models, PR girls, hair stylists, make-up artists, copy-writers, photographers, producers, authors, mixed-media artists and musicians. My creatively charged coven just got a whole lot bigger, and the container I was holding for healing, teaching, and awakening was more priceless than any jar of $200 under-eye cream.
There were several common threads woven into client sessions. These “creative industry refugees” were looking at other career avenues, as they were feeling tired, unappreciated and burned out. I heard the resounding echo that the industry felt soulless. Could tapping into their own intuition, getting an energy healing, and building a personal spiritual practice possibly help revive their creative juices—and the industries they were already in? Yes!
Through energy work and Shamanic healing you can heal mentally, physically, and emotionally. The experience can help increase focus and clarity, silence anxiety and depression, curb addictions, build confidence, increase communication skills, produce sounder sleep, help you make better life choices, release body issues, and heal relationship traumas.
For my clients, this meant getting back to being creators: thought-leaders with big picture ideas that would bring lasting change and meaning, remembering what it really means to embody and promote beauty, and, most importantly, reignite their passion. Skin-deep creativity wasn’t going to cut it anymore.
And this crew was, like, totally up to it!
Why can creative-types turn on the sixth sense so easily? Let’s look at the facts. Creatives are naturally right-brained, which is why we gravitate towards artistic endeavors. We get described as the following: emotional, sensorial, visionaries, free-thinkers. In Shamanism, when we want to “tap-in” in to our intuition or have a chit-chat with our Spirit Guides, we also work with the right side or what’s known as the ‘wisdom side’ of the brain.
And P.S. having met with many creative thought-leaders through my spiritual work, I can personally confirm that all highly successful people have a devout spiritual practice.
The implications of this creative “awakening”? BIG! One of the most common questions I have received from editors since day one is, “What’s up with the spirituality trend”? My answer. Spirituality isn’t a trend.
Now I’m going to get all Woowoo JuJu with you for a minute.
There is a paradigm shift happening within the collective consciousness on our planet. I know, WTF does that mean? Basically, as a people we are shifting our energy, thoughts, actions, words, and feelings to a higher vibration, so that we can embody a better existence for ourselves and the world around us. Part of the current shift includes learning how to tap into an unseen force, using spiritual practice, the occult, mysticism, and ancient wisdom traditions like Shamanism.
When something lives in the collective consciousness, it does have the ability to spread like a trend. Influencers have adopted the idea and spread the message that the “status quo” isn’t good enough, and that there is more out there for all of us. People are unearthing and remembering ancient wisdom traditions to heal and live a better life because it works. We have just gotten so wrapped up in our fast paced, technology driven lives that we forgot about how simple it all can be.
If I were to name this trend board I would call it “Ancient Future”—and say that health and wellness may be the fashion and beauty industries’ best and most timeless accessory moving forward. What we’ve been working with up to now only goes skin deep, and we need to go soul deep.
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Colleen McCann is a fashion stylist turned Shamanic Practitioner with practices in NYC & LA. She realigns the energetic with the visual through Intuitive Crystal Readings, Shamanic Hands-On-Healing, and Feng Shui Space Balancing. Make sure to follow her on Instagram, and pick up one of her new Energy Healing Kits and Medicine Bags on Goop to jumpstart your cleanse!
