Today we’d like to introduce you to Shayla Manee Dhingra.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My business started as a soul-healing mission to reignite my passion for life.
As a child, I had a grand imagination and interest in the arts. In elementary and middle school, I was in choir and adored singing. As I transitioned to high school, I always had my camera on hand snapping photographs of every moment – capturing the adventure, the beauty of moments shared with loved ones, and even my sister who was my model for many years.
I sold my first photograph in my junior year of high school and I kept feeling the pull for years to initiate a business. I remember putting together a Facebook group page in the early days of the platform and a website, launching many times with no clients. Yet the desire was always there, I just kept moving forward in the face of challenge.
I was always drawn to healing and helping the community – which is a huge part of my family’s values, so I thought my path was to study medicine. When I got to James Madison University as a pre-med student, I experienced depression, not finding joy in my area of study and I knew something needed to change.
My solace was found in all my studio art classes where I was creating for creation’s sake and feeling so free in my expression. During that time, I transitioned majors to pursue creativity in Media Arts & Design, focusing on graphic design, UX/UI design, and front-end development in the tech industry.
With this switch, I continued to take studio art classes where I could authentically create. It resparked my passions. I began painting intuitively, in complete abstraction, on topics that sparked inquisition and imagination. I can’t quite name the feeling of joy one feels when tuned into their passions so fully, but this painting class had me come alive. I was connecting with every artist in the community, I was joyous and vibrant. It was a powerful transition from depression and I was so thankful to feel like I was feeling excited about what I was creating in my life.
When I left school, I started working a career that was analytically focused. I stopped prioritizing creativity and I could feel myself reeling to a time when I didn’t feel like my fullest self. So I pulled back out my paintbrushes and decided all I wanted to do was be with myself in the joy of creation.
At this point, I was just posting photographs on Instagram for fun and I was excitedly playing with color, texture, and mixed media. I explored oil painting and loved the slow process of allowing the paint to dry, coming back after days with fresh eyes. Painting constantly taught me about my life philosophy – the journey is a work in progress and a masterpiece at the same time.
We hung my artwork in my parent’s home, and a friend wanted to purchase my work. I had always told myself passions when made into work could not be enjoyable – but I found out after that purchase, that it was possible for me to create a life where I was living my passion – and it didn’t come from a need to prove my worth through overworking and hustle.
I knew I wanted an art business that included photography and painting, as they always lit me up, but I didn’t know where to begin. The cookie cutter picture of a business where I would be grueling and hustling for hours to reach clients didn’t click for me but I thought that was the only way and I was overwhelmed on where to even begin.
My family, especially my mother, has always shared deep insights, philosophy, religious texts, and other teachings that describe that the mind creates reality. I felt pulled to seek out a coach who might share with me the way I can shape my reality to create a business where I didn’t feel pushed beyond my limits and felt eager to show up every day.
I found a community of soul-preneurs and healers, and decided to invest in myself and to work with them one on one and in group settings. They shared the ways they have grown successful businesses that are heart-centered and from divine feminine leadership.
This started my healing journey where I moved from overwhelmed and underplaying myself to feeling like the divine creator of my reality, owning my power of creating a business I love, finding my voice, learning what I really wanted to create, moving through trauma and unleashing my visions with certainty in the world.
I learned so much by being expanded by others who were doing it their way – so in the process, I have paved my own. I started my business 3 years ago and it has evolved so much as I have allowed myself to own who I am fully. I am my multi-passionate creative self, as a photographer, singer, songwriter, painter, healer, and much much more.
I love reminding people of their personal power and through creativity in workshops, in the art that I share, and in the music I write and sing. From working with clients in my Luxe Creatura creative workshops where we are cheese plate making, creating floral bouquets, sharing spoken word poetry, or even intuitive painting, I am able to share the healing power of creativity where we tune into presence, play and pleasure in our natural flow.
I have made synchronistic connections and built community through simply owning my voice bigger. I don’t feel like I am hustling or running after anyone, it is truly me just being me that has attracted all the collaborative components meant to help me create visions to life.
Music is and always has been a medium for feeling our deepest feelings and harmonizing with them. I started circulating songs I was writing and singing to myself with friends and was connected with Liquigetic. We put out our first single “I Go Crazy” in March 2022, to be followed up by more music soon.
I moved to Charleston in July of 2021, after driving through the city one day, and feeling there was a reason I was meant to be here and live by the beach. Of course as I was here, I met Reese Black, a musician, songwriter, and producer who I collaborated with on making more music.
Every meeting we ignited creativity and initiated a process of thought-provoking music making. We worked with Akil Barber, a talented audio engineer to put out our first single titled “Words For You”. This will soon be followed by our album “The Underpass”.
This was my transformation and how I alchemized my life experiences into a business I love today. Every single step of the way I am reminded of how blessed I am to know my inner power and my reminder to all is to tune inward, and listen to the volumes of wisdom within – all your next best steps remain there.
I am excited for the evolution of Shayla Manee, as a human, lover, and business- and what more is to come from here!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The journey is beautifully infinite in lessons. I have learned so much in the process of betting on myself.
I used to measure my success based on sales, numbers, and vanity metrics – I learned that success is celebrating every milestone of action taken based on the impulse of my intuition. From focusing on the creation for creation’s sake, I am always way more fulfilled in the process.
And in my joy, abundance, excitement, and awe – I have connected with many creatives, intuitive, lovers of the arts, and customers who have purchased from me. I continue to want to grow and I love doing it from a place of fullness.
I used to also worry a lot about judgment from others, being misunderstood, and shame myself due to past experiences of bullying and body shaming. I tuned into deep self-love and healing to see how when I honor myself, I honor everyone around me.
Honoring myself has looked like owning the standards I have for myself, in deep integrity, and speaking my truth to the world even when I wasn’t sure anyone got it.
Along the way, I had to part ways with certain relationships. There is so much duality in this world and people who choose to see reality differently – and I am expanded by the way they think but I also remind myself of my power to choose what I believe and continue to be around those who honor my flow.
A lot of the challenges I have faced came with asking for support. For a while, I didn’t feel supported by myself or anyone around me. When I started practicing gratitude at the beginning of my healing journey, I started seeing how beautiful life was supporting me.
Even in my painful, doubtful, fearful moments, I was being shown contrast for what I didn’t want so I could turn more clearly and move my energy in the direction of where I wanted to keep growing.
Many teachers, healers, coaches, friends, and family continue to remind me of this and I don’t ever believe it’s a mistake that in a world of nearly 8 billion, I have worked and been connected with world-class humans who are growing and living the life of their dreams.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am a self-branded multi-passionate intuitive healer, artist, and singer running my business titled “Shayla Manee”. I am proud of everything I have created along my journey.
When I first moved to Charleston, I joined the art market scene and shared my Winter 2022 abstract painting collection titled “Embrace The Shadows”. This body of work was created in Charleston as I healed through my own exploration of shadow work – discovering the depths of the emotional world within as a powerful teacher.
Where when we become aware of the emotions that are moving through us, we can soften and see them as guidance to our next best steps. The idea is around emotions being visitors to us, seeking us out to pay attention, and when we provide them company – to feel, to witness, to unmask themselves, they move on and we continue to build all we want in this world as they move along with us.
This shadow work was integral in me learning to use my emotions as a superpower in entrepreneurship, rather than attaching narratives to my emotions that would stop me from moving towards my goals.
I have many more art collections coming in the future and every single one has a focus on healing through creativity.
This is the throughline of my brand.
This comes through my music as well. “I Go Crazy” with Liquigetic was about themes of seeing someone through your lens, wanting them to be a certain way – having an expectation, putting them on a pedestal, and feeling like your mind is playing games on you as you imagine what could unfold with them. It is maddening and I believe a lot of us can resonate with this feeling.
“Words For You” with Reese Black started as an ode to waiting for someone to choose me, to want me as I wanted them. And the beauty of my healing work as I listened to the song more and more, I found it had to do with me choosing to wait.
I am not a victim of circumstance, I am a co-creator of my reality and that means I choose when I get to stop waiting and start saying yes to myself. And I have done that with every expanded move I keep making in my life, my business, all of it because I believe it’s all interconnected.
I am so excited to share my first album “The Underpass” where we explore more themes of love, emotion, and healing.
We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?
The pandemic was the initiation for me to begin truly looking inward. I ended a long-term relationship at the beginning, knowing I was meant to step into deeper self-love and self-leadership. I began working with coaches and healers online to start understanding my goals clearly and letting my intuition guide me to my next steps.
The alone time I had was a powerful healing portal where I moved through the trauma I had been hiding from for years. I also had the opportunity to move in with my grandmother and parents, deepening my gratitude for their support in my life while I worked through these challenges.
I loved sharing this journey online to hopefully remind people of the hope they can have towards what they desire, and that we don’t have to hold ourselves back anymore.
I learned that no matter the circumstances, no matter that we were quarantined inside and living completely different lives than we ever had, it taught me that we can continue to seek the light, find our joy in the simple pleasures, and find new ways to connect with one another.
Life will continue throwing us challenges no matter who we are, and beautifully, creativity thrives in challenge.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.shaylamanee.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shaylamanee
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shaylamanee
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6VbK8o2a9c
- SoundCloud: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/liquigeticshaylamanee/i-go-crazy
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5VpFmKahMW4jQ2Mi1jZ7pb?si=3Ifsx6y9RNihlbU04HVYWA
Image Credits
Shayla Manee https://www.shaylamanee.com/, Jimmy Rojas https://www.instagram.com/rojas.film/, Caroline Herring https://www.carolineherringphoto.com/, and Britany Lee https://britanyleephotography.com/
