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Writer's pictureHeather Schultz

Blogging By Faith 2.0


MacBook laptop computer sitting on rug
Blogging By Faith

Welcome to the official blog section of Shadow✨N✨Shine! This is the first blog post on my newly revamped website. If you’ve visited my website before, prior to 2023 it actually looked a lot different! When I launched Shadow✨N✨Shine in 2019 I originally designed my website purely with the intention to be a lifestyle blog. Little did I know shortly after that my own twin flame journey ❤️‍🔥 would eventually guide me in the direction of doing intuitive tarot readings for those seeking guidance online through YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and the like. Eventually that took my website in a new direction as well that would be better suited to provide for those needs. But just because my website got a makeover (which lets be real, doesn’t everyone do a redesign from time to time?) didn’t mean I didn’t want to eliminate the blog portion of my website altogether. I just wanted there to be more available than only the blog part alone.


I initially started Shadow✨N✨Shine by being hosted through Blue Host to utilize WordPress. I chose WordPress because that’s what all the other bloggers were using and they all highly recommended it, so I figured that many people couldn’t be wrong. And while yes, I was able to make a shiny, pretty, website out of it, truthfully WordPress’s platform, at least for me, was confusing AF! 🤔 I never updated it or changed things up because I felt I didn’t know what I was doing most of the time. 🤷‍♀️ Now if for some people they can nail it, awesome. 👍 It just wasn’t for me. Prior to WordPress I had a different website that I ran through Square Space. Even though I didn’t keep that one for the long term, I did understand Square Space better. One of the biggest issues I needed to address in my website makeover was having an automated payment system set up to accept payments and allow clients the ability to book a reading with me. Before the makeover I was handling it in a very archaic way, that required much more work from me in having clients email or direct message me their questions and PayPal or Venmo me their payment. I wanted to eliminate that process and replace it with something much more fine tuned for us all.


When I was considering switching web providers I was stuck back and forth between Wix and GoDaddy. I already had experience using GoDaddy to help out with one of the local metaphysical shops in the area and while Wix is still different from GoDaddy, I did find similarities between the two. I would say GoDaddy is a much more simplified version of what Wix offers. Anyways, I was running two different versions of Shadow✨N✨Shine on each web provider using their free trial versions before making a final decisions to see what I liked better. After hours upon hours of experimenting and designing I made my final decision and went with Wix, which is what Shadow✨N✨Shine runs on today. The next part made me the most nervous because I would have to transfer my domain from Blue Host to Wix and I had never done anything like that before. 😬 While it was intimidating, truthfully, as long as you follow the instructions and take your time in doing so, you’ll be just fine. Clearly the transfer worked, because here we are. 🤍

I’ve had this new and improved version of Shadow✨N✨Shine since the beginning of the year. Of course if you explore the newly redone, redesigned, revamped version of Shadow✨N✨Shine you will find my About Me section, an area to shop for readings, learn about readings, book an online session, this very blog, and hopefully even more yet to come soon! Also my socials are linked both above and below on all pages of my website, so there are always ways to connect with me on a variety of social platforms. So what can you expect from this version of Shadow✨N✨Shine’s blog? There will be some of the same, like from my previous blog. Stories straight out of my own life and my own experiences. But in this new version I do plan on incorporating more metaphysical and spiritual topics that I didn’t deep dive into in the previous version. This may be content on twin flames, spirit babies, astrology, spirit guides, awakening, crystals, mediumship, star seeds, intuition, and more! I am still very much a pop culture girly though and while I have no issue getting into deep topics, I also enjoy keeping things light and fun, so there will likely also be other posts more along the line of general lifestyle blogging style, which I love! 🩷 Truthfully a lifestyle blog is just a mashup of a bunch of different topics the blogger is passionate about, and in a lot of ways, that still describes me. 😊


Are all of my old blog posts from the WordPress version of Shadow✨N✨Shine gone? Yes and no. They’re presently not online, no. However, before the transfer took place I did copy and paste all of my old blog posts and saved them, so I may republish them here. Some truthfully will not see the light of day again, outside of my own personal documents, because they’re out of date for me on a personal level and don’t resonate with who I am today. I outgrew that version of myself and it might just not be worth wasting my breath on. There’s no need to share an expired version of myself. Some won’t be republished because they’re not only out of date with who I am, but with where we are in society as a whole. “70 Things To Do While In Quarantine” and “Halloween Ideas In A Pandemic” will likely not make a reappearance. While we are still very much in a pandemic, we’re not living like we’re in one anymore, so it wouldn’t be practically applicable. Now, if we’re ever back in quarantine again, I will republish “70 Things To Do While In Quarantine” ASAP! 😂 But until then, it’s just not necessary. This will make room for new blog posts.


For some though, they will have their opportunity to be resurrected! Below is my very first blog post every from February of 2019 on the Wordpress version of Shadow✨N✨Shine. While things have definitely changed since then, I thought it was only right to allow this piece to come out once again to sparkle like the star it is! 🌟 Truthfully, I’m not sure how often I will get around to publishing blog posts. I would love it if I was able to do it once a week, but I have a lot of other content I’m creating throughout the week on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. And that’s not including private readings for clients and work I’d also like to get done in creating some new oracle decks. Right now posting a collective pick-a-card reading on YouTube takes priority. But I will without a doubt do my best to keep up on the blog portion of things as best as possible. Without further ado, let’s time travel back in time four years to 2019 to the very first blog post from Shadow✨N✨Shine ever! 💖

 

A paved road marked 2019 driving into the mountains
2019
“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Step one: Launch a blog. Hello world!👋 Here I am! Welcome to Shadow✨N✨Shine! This is the maiden voyage, the very first blog post. 🎉 I think that makes it pretty special. Surely there will be many more blog posts yet to come after this one with so much incredible content, perhaps even better content, but no other post will outshine the OG post. For most people starting a blog isn’t a big deal. Most people look at it as a little hobby, something fun to do in one’s spare time on the side. For me though, it is oh so much more. Shadow✨N✨Shine was an idea I originally wanted to launch way back in 2016. Back then I didn’t have a name or anything for it, but I knew in my gut of all gut instincts I needed to start a blog. I love and enjoy so many things, fashion 👗, makeup 💄, pets 🐶, travel ✈️, pop culture, etc. I couldn’t think of just one thing to blog about, so I decided to go with the elusive lifestyle blogger route. The one route all the experts actually don’t recommend doing because it’s not “niche” enough. But you know what? I was never much of one to go with the norm anyway. I like the challenge of swimming upstream, forging my own path, and thinking outside the box. I’ve never been a get a four-year degree, 9-5 job, buy the house with the white picket fence type of person, so why start now? Not that there’s anything wrong with those things, because there’s totally not. If that’s your jam, awesome! You do you! I guess I just have more fun breaking molds than being in them. 😉


But wait, what happened? 🤔 I started this research and conceived this idea in 2016. Now it’s 2019. Why is Shadow✨N✨Shine just appearing now? Three years later. As they say, life happens when you’re making other plans, and that’s exactly what happened to me. Only about a month or so after deciding to begin a blog tragedy struck, and if you’ve been through them, you’ll know what I mean when I say two little words: Bed Bugs. 😱 Yes, those evil demon spawned bloodsuckers that pretty much destroy your life happened in my world. Now the bed bug saga is a whole other blog post in its own and that will come in due time. But my life was flipped upside down so much to the point of not having a place to live during that time with absolutely no help what so ever from my former slumlord. 😭 I was simply in pure survival mode the rest of 2016, so starting any new projects would have to go on the back burner. 2016 from what I remember was not a good year for a lot of people. So Shadow✨N✨Shine would not shine to see the light of day in 2016.


Life stabilized and improved in 2017 and 2018. Things returned to normal in the post bed bug trauma, and actually got better. But then something else happened. Something not as obvious as bed bugs, but also not good, and that was apathy. We all need recovery time after we go through something traumatic, and life was definitely good and better in 2017 and 2018, but things weren’t moving forward, at least not to it’s fullest capacity that it could. Sure, I traveled, went to concerts, had fun with friends, lived my best life with my dog, went to Disneyland 🏰 a lot, and grew and improved my dog walking business 🐶, but there was one goal, one dream, I still wasn’t investing in – my blog. I got comfortable. I settled into the everyday flow and continued to let Shadow✨N✨Shine sit on the back burner, even though now there was no reason or excuse to do so anymore. I think more of us find ourselves doing this more times than not in life. It’s so easy to go on autopilot and half the time we don’t even know we’re doing it! But we shouldn’t be living life just going through the motions. That’s not living! We should be living life intentionally. Intention found me over this past New Year’s 2019.


2023 commentary - Ironically, since 2020 (after this original blog post was written) I don't think any of us will be on autopilot or go back to "normal" ever again! I don't know about you guys, but I sure as all hell haven't experienced normal again. It's like now we're all constantly sitting on the edge of our seats!

Going into the brand new year my roommate and I parted ways. She decided Los Angeles was not for her anymore and moved back to her hometown in Oregon at the start of the year. But in her absence, I found myself in a new position to take care of business here in the city of angels differently than what I had been doing. I knew exactly what I needed to do. As my very wise and knowledgeable neighbor, Toni, told me, I was being given a moment of grace. She was right. I was being given an opportunity to do something new in the New Year. Three years later from its original conception, here we are, and Shadow✨N✨Shine is born! It’s easy to put things off, even things we care about and are passionate about because once we make that commitment, we actually have to work at it. And no matter how much we love something work is still work, and laziness will always look attractive in comparison to work. That could’ve been another underlying reason it took me as long as it did to get Shadow✨N✨Shine up and running. I knew once it was out there in the world, I couldn’t abandon it. Which I guess from that perspective it’s better to jump into something fully committed when you’re ready, rather than prematurely and only half-hearted.


Shadow✨N✨Shine isn’t just lifestyle, it’s about dreams, goals, and inspiration. One of the reasons I decided to be a lifestyle blogger (aside from my many assorted interests) is I honestly and truly believe speaking from your own life and your own experiences are the most fruitful and fulfilling route to go. It’s the best way to make an impact. Everyone has a story to share. Everyone has something unique and beautiful to benefit the world. This blog is my story and my contribution. We all will go through dark, difficult, and shadowy times in life. There’s just no avoiding it. But the hope is we will get stronger from those challenges and learn how to shine through them, not just overcome it, but also help others overcome their dark and shadowy valleys. Faith by definition is trust, confidence, and belief in something of which there is no proof. This blog means a lot to me. I’m declaring by faith it will be a blessing. If it reaches thousands or millions of people out there one day, that would be amazing, but if it helps even only one person that will mean the world. It only takes one after all. I’m not just saying this for myself either. I’m declaring faith for you too! Putting yourself out there is terrifying but too rewarding to miss out on! I’m sure you have dreams and goals you want to accomplish as well. Maybe you want to finish school? Travel somewhere you’ve never been? Land that dream job? Find your soulmate? Lose weight? Get out of debt? Whatever it is, I know you can do it! No matter how trivial or ginormous it may seem, it’s right within your reach. Just take that first step. This initial blog post is my first step. Now it’s your move. What will be your first step? Let’s help each other stay accountable in our journeys! What can you do today to make your dreams come true? I would love to hear from you! I’m so excited for your future! I know it’s going to be wonderfully bright full of sunshine and love! 💖🤗💖




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