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I'm a certified Heart Math Practitioner where I use innovative technology to create consistent heart & brain coherence. Along with using unique techniques to help you stay in coherence on a day-to-day basis. These coherence techniques have shown to improve focus, sleep, your body's immune system, and emotional balance to make it easier to handle stressful situations. They have also shown to reduce anxiety, depression, and fatigue. From 25 years of research, Heart Math Institute has found that these practices have helped people with anxiety, depression, sport performance, chronic illnesses, ADHD, PTSD and many other physical or mental illnesses.  

If you'd like to schedule a session, please visit:  https://betteryourculture.com/heart-math-services and scroll to the bottom of the page to pick the session that best fits your needs.

For FREE consultations, please call/text at 702-888-0946 or e-mail me at betteryourculture@gmail.com. If you'd like to learn more about Heart Math and the science behind it, you can visit their website: www.heartmath.com.

My Story

Hey! My name is Shannon Wall and I'm originally from Sacramento, CA, but currently live in Henderson, NV and have been for about 6 years now.  I grew up pretty broke with my mom as a preschool teacher while she was going to college trying to support 6 kids. I'm the youngest out of the 6 and my older siblings were mostly out of the house by the time I came along so it was mainly just me and my brother. He's a year older than me. We grew up on food stamps, had to get clothes/food donated to us from  different organizations when we were really pinching pennies, and moved over 20 times in my life because my mom was either switching jobs or couldn't afford the rent. 

There are 3 very important moments that happened in my life that really changed my perspective on everything. One of the places we lived while my brother and I were in Junior High was my aunt's small "Chateau" in the winter time, which is another word for a shed with carpet. There was no restroom, no AC or heater, no sink, no separate rooms...nothing. We had to use a portable heater to stay warm and burden my aunt's family every time we needed to use the restroom, change, use the kitchen to cook, etc. I felt like a peasant. It was my mom, my brother, and I sleeping in this thing on air mattresses with all our stuff filling the floor because we had nowhere else to put everything. My brother was going around telling all his friends how we lived. I remember one of his friends asked me "Is it true you guys are living in a shed?" and I lied saying "No I don't know what he's talking about." because I was extremely embarrassed of our situation. But now looking back, I admire how he had no shame of how we lived. It was hard for me to accept and tell people because I'd get bullied when I was a kid for the cheap clothes I wore so it was a way to protect myself when I lied about it.

I'm not talking about these things for pity, but to help people understand why I do the things that I do. Another pretty traumatic thing that happened when I was 16 was my brother getting diagnosed with schizophrenia. Before this happened, I was pretty jealous of my brother because he was outgoing, popular, and the class clown that people love. I was extremely shy and only hung out with my close group of friends. The day he started seeing and hearing things, I remember hoping it was just drugs instead his mental state because I didn't want to think I would lose my brother. That's what it felt like then, that he would never go back to his silly/funny, outgoing self. It's weird to think this person you knew your whole life completely changes on you within an instance. This is normally what happens with people who get diagnosed with schizophrenia. They go through a "switch", which usually happens between the ages of 17-30 where he becomes a completely different person seeing, hearing things, and becoming paranoid of everything and everyone. 

That morning, he thought my mom poisoned his bacon and was saying how the cheetah on the T.V. was trying to talk to him. He went through years of going in and out of the mental hospitals, being arrested multiple times, trying tons of different medications, losing all his friends because they didn't want to "deal" with him including myself, which I still feel guilty for. It's hard to comprehend and deal with someone like that at 16 when I was still trying to figure myself out. He had to go through years of people calling him "crazy" when he couldn't help what was going on. Schizophrenia was such a newer mental illness that people were getting diagnosed with at the time that it made it that much harder to find the right medicine for him. There was one time he broke off a sharp piece of our ceramic plates and threatened to hurt me because he didn't believe I was really his sister. I started crying and kept telling him over and over "What are you talking about?? I am!" trying to convince him I was his sister until he finally calmed down. I could go on and on about all the traumatic events that happened for years before he finally found the right medicine. Going through this together with my mom and him helped our relationship so much  though because we were focusing on him getting better instead of fighting all the time like we use to. Our relationship with each other before he was diagnosed was pretty terrible. We'd constantly yell at each other and we were entitled little teenagers that needed a lesson. This was our lesson to gain resilience, humility, and gratitude in this life. 

Side note, my mom was diagnosed with bipolar disorder so mental illness ran in our family. Also, our dad wasn't around a lot because he was dealing with his own trauma as a child and became an alcoholic from it.  Many events led up to my brother making the "switch". For example, finding a tape recorder and hearing our dad drunk admitting to very vulgar things that happened to him when he was little. Also, our parents constantly yelling and throwing things at each other  when we were kids, which led to them separating when we were 4 and 5.  You don't realize how not having a healthy father figure in your life can really affect you until you start having problems in your relationships as you get older. Being in a healthier environment with healthier parents would have been an easier route to take in this life for both of us, but I don't think we would have learned nearly as many lessons.  And I would have never had the passion to help people with mental illness as much as I do or gained as much compassion and understanding for people who are dealing with mental illness. It's also easier to sense who's had trauma and help them heal when you've also had to heal from it yourself.

The third thing that changed my life was when I dropped out of college and moved in with my brother thinking I could help him. I kept getting calls from my mom in college telling me he was back in the mental hospital again and I'd find myself crying every time I'd get that call. It's weird to think someone you grew up with your whole life all of a sudden being someone you don't even recognize anymore. I ended up getting a job at a place that I hated working to pay the bills while I was living in a little apartment with him in a pretty sketchy neighborhood. I wanted to be that positive influence in his life to keep him on track, but all it did was bring me down since I couldn't do anything to help him. I fell into a deep depression where I constantly had thoughts of suicide, which is kind of ironic because at the same time I wanted to start my own business that had to do with helping people. I know that sounds completely nuts, but I wasn't in the right mind at all.

Life threw me for a loop. At age 20, I was shown all the reasons I wasn't ready to help people at that time. It's obvious to everyone reading this except for myself at that time that I wasn't ready especially for how young I was. The day that I was having the deep suicidal thoughts I thought I should probably go for a walk outside and get some fresh air. Little did I know, I'd be meeting the lady that changed my life forever feeding on one of the worst moments of my life. I was walking around the shopping center across from our apartment and this lady in her mid-40s, skinny, and tan in a white dress came up to me and says "Do I know you?" and I said "No I don't think so". She says "I'm getting a strong energy from you and you need to stop having those bad thoughts you're having." By the way, I was really good at hiding my emotions and pretending everything's great so I was really confused how she knew what was going on in my head. I said "What?" She said "You need to stop having those bad thoughts about yourself. God is looking out for you and I'm your angel here to help you." All of a sudden, I start bawling in the middle of the shopping center with this stranger because I felt like she was speaking to my soul and I NEVER cry in public or at least tried my best not to, but I couldn't help myself. I couldn't hide my pain any longer.

She pulled me to the side where there was a small table and chairs she took me to sit down. She kept saying "Calm down, stop crying please...everything's going to be OK. I'm your angel here to help you." while she's looking around hoping not to make a scene. That should have been my first red flag with this lady, but I was so depressed, vulnerable, and intrigued that I was willing to do anything to get out of the mental state that I was in. And I did. In one month, I was able to accumulate about $6,000 for her because she promised all these amazing things in my life that she never followed through on including helping me with my business. By the way, before I got the money for her, I had $0 in my bank, no credit, and already $30,000 in debt from a University that I didn't even finish. But I went to every cash advance place you could think of in the city, did some money laundering for some people online to make extra money, borrowed money from friends & family, and did other things that I'm extremely ashamed of. It led me to lie to a lot of people I love because I was so desperate to get the things she promised me to "live a better life". I ruined a lot of relationships, owed a ton of people money, getting kicked out of our apartment, and went through severe emotional stress not being able to pay my other bills after stupidly quitting my job on top of all that. I was kind of in a manic state doing everything I could to get something I desired so much to only be disappointed. Kind of the feeling you get when someone's addicted to gambling is the only thing I can think of to compare it to. It was the worst year of my life, but it was a lesson I seriously needed. 

Turns out, the con artist scammed a lot more people before me for a lot more money and I ended up reporting her also, but I don't know if they ever found her because she disappeared after I stopped giving her money. And I was left with a horrible credit with all the loans I couldn't pay back, a hurt ego, disgusted of myself, people not trusting me anymore, and ended up changing my phone number because of all the creditors that kept calling me since I had to let all those loans go to collections. This affected my life years later in good and bad ways.

This message ended up being a lot longer than I thought it'd be, but I think it's important. I'm 28 now and I don't think depression ever goes away completely, but there's definitely healthier ways to cope with it. I've read every self-help and business book you can think of, meditate almost every day, and try to do things that keep me in a positive mindset like exercise, eating healthier, and surrounding myself with people who help me grow. Also, cannabis helps me a lot when I get really bad anxiety, but I wouldn't recommend it for everyone because it affects different people differently. I strive every day to be better than I was yesterday and have strong values I live by now that keep me in line with my goals so I don't go off track. I've been able to finally pay off all my bad debt and finally starting my career with something I truly love to do.

I'm far from perfect and still learning all the lessons I need to learn in this life. But I'll always strive to learn, grow, and stay true to myself. My purpose now is to continue to help and grow with people who want to grow with me. 

Peace & Love, 

Shannon Wall