Sometimes the abilities that come most naturally to us can feel like some of the least valuable. We may not feel that they can be rewarded in the corporate world, or we don’t recognize them as uniquely creative or expressive. Spiritual teacher Liana Shanti has observed this mindset repeatedly throughout her work with clients worldwide, noting that the talents people possess most effortlessly are frequently the ones they dismiss as insignificant.
“The things that are innate to us, the things that we are gifted with, we don’t value,” says Shanti. Her teaching methodology focuses on helping people recognize capabilities they’ve overlooked their entire lives.
The External Validation Trap
Someone who naturally provides emotional support to others might view this ability as unremarkable. Another person with an intuitive understanding of complex systems dismisses this talent as “just how I think.” Innate gifts become invisible precisely because they require less effort to shine through, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t valuable.
Liana Shanti traces devaluation to systemic conditioning that prioritizes external achievement over internal wisdom. “We have been taught to dishonor our true gifts in favor of outward validation,” she says.
Her own experience illustrates the dynamic. During her career as a corporate attorney in New York City, colleagues frequently sought her guidance on personal matters. Her secretary eventually gave her a sign reading “the doctor is in” as both a joke and recognition of the pattern.
“I had many people who would come through my office for guidance and spiritual advice,” Liana Shanti recalled. “I never really knew how people knew to come to me for that, but they just would.”
Despite positive feedback from those she helped, she viewed these interactions as peripheral to her “real” work on multibillion-dollar mergers and acquisitions. The abilities that came naturally held less value compared to the external markers of legal success.
The Comparison Problem
Devaluation intensifies when people compare their natural abilities to others’ developed skills. Someone might recognize a gift for musical healing but immediately think, “I’m not as good as that person,” upon seeing a more trained musician, shutting down exploration before it begins.
“They’ll start comparing themselves with other people,” Shanti observes. “All of that just shuts people down and they just keep those gifts hidden.”
Online communities on platforms like reddit frequently discuss this comparison trap, with people sharing experiences of dismissing their natural abilities while pursuing skills and jobs that feel more “legitimate.”
Shanti works with clients to identify patterns, often revealing gifts they never recognized.
“I’ll say to them: did you know you have this gift of musical healing or do you know that you can work with crystals or did you know you have energy healing capabilities,” she says. “A lot of the time they have no clue.”
Other times, clients possess vague awareness but lack confidence. “They’ll say I kind of know but I didn’t really think I was good enough to do that,” she continues.
Cultural Imbalance
Shanti situates individual devaluation within broader cultural patterns. She describes an “imbalance between the divine masculine and the divine feminine” that affects everyone regardless of gender.
Her view is that overvaluing external achievement, linear thinking, and measurable outcomes while undervaluing intuition, relational abilities, and qualities that resist quantification creates harm across society.
“It’s not just harming women, it’s harming everyone,” she says.
Educational systems can exemplify the pattern. Students receive grades for acquired knowledge but no recognition for natural wisdom.
“It’s not seen as valuable to sit and listen to someone share their problems,” Shanti says. “It’s not valuable to motivate someone to go out and achieve their best life. Those are just things that you do on the side.”
Uncovering Rather Than Acquiring
Central to Shanti’s approach is the distinction between uncovering existing gifts and acquiring new capabilities. She maintains that people arrive on earth already possessing everything needed for their authentic work.
“You came to this earth with all of the gifts you already needed to do the work that you came here to do,” she tells clients. “It’s a matter of uncovering that.”
Her perspective reverses conventional personal development approaches that focus on building skills through external programs and certifications. The uncovering process involves removing layers of conditioning that obscure natural abilities.
“By the time we reach adulthood it’s a matter of peeling back the layers that have covered up and clouded our perception because we can’t even see our truth,” she says.
The Worthiness Question
Beneath the devaluation of natural gifts, Shanti identifies a deeper issue of perceived unworthiness.
“The vast majority of people living on the planet today do not believe they’re worthy of bliss and total unconditional love,” she says. “But it’s there, it’s in you.”
Family wounds, particularly what Liana Shanti terms “mother wound” and “father wound” dynamics, create foundational beliefs about inherent worth. “It’s a matter of healing what covers that—the wounds that make you think you’re defective, the wounds that make people think they’re not good enough,” she explains.
Practical Recognition
For those seeking to identify overlooked gifts, Shanti recommends examining what others consistently request. If people regularly ask for specific help, that pattern indicates natural ability even when it feels unremarkable.
She also suggests noticing what creates effortless flow. Activities that absorb attention without draining energy often point toward authentic gifts.
“Trust your intuition,” she advised. “If you feel drawn to something, if you feel that something could be healing, especially if you’re a little scared of it, that’s a clue.”
Fear often indicates proximity to authentic gifts precisely because claiming these abilities requires challenging internalized hierarchies about what matters.
From her base in Hawaii, Liana Shanti continues developing programs focused on gift recognition and wound healing. Her work addresses the gap between natural capacity and conscious awareness, helping clients see abilities that were present all along.
“Every one of us carries a unique light that the world desperately needs right now,” she says. “There is no competition, no comparison. Your light is yours alone, and it’s time to share it.”
