I thought I’d begin by sharing some of the illusions I used to have regarding a good morning routine.

1. There’s a perfect morning routine. WRONG. If you’re obsessed with perfection like me; this one’s probably going to be familiar. And this was not limited to daily routines in my case: for many years, I blocked myself from starting something new because I felt that I wouldn’t be able to do it perfectly. I wouldn’t go to the gym until I had all the right accessories (and I don’t just mean the essentials, but matching trainers, leggings and a top. And a towel. And a water bottle😁).

2. A good morning routine is for a lifetime. WRONG. Once you have a good one, you’ll always be content with it. The first time I had a great morning routine, I was so very happy with it. It gave me a fresh start of the day, I felt good and energetic. It was true love. But after a while, the shine of my wonderful new routine began to fade away and It wouldn’t inspire me the way it used to anymore. This is similar to the previous point, when the lack of flexibility keeps you from taking the next step.

3. It only works if you stick to it every single day. WRONG. Whenever I had days when I dropped my morning routine, or just elements of it, I had the feeling that I messed the whole thing up. And I gave up, telling myself that it didn’t make sense to continue if it’s not perfect. Never be that strict to yourself. A good routine should support you and not become your prison cell.

So what is my morning routine like at the moment?

I like getting up early. This usually means 5 am. If I happen to stay up late the previous evening, then it’s sometime between 5 and 6:30. Before I get out of bed, I say my morning confirmation out loud, addressed to Jesus Christ. This helps me become centered and gives purpose to my day. With the confirmation, I also remind myself that I’m an ambassador of his and that I’m not alone, whatever hardships I may encounter. Doing this as the very first thing in my day helps me stay focused: focused on my purpose in general, but even more so for the day. It prepares me for the challenges of the day, because when they come, sometimes it’s easy to forget why you’re doing the whole thing, and you may lose the point and get swallowed by the difficulties. This morning confirmation and the time with Jesus help me become more alert and conscious, as well as trustful that I’ll receive all the help I may need, and that through him and by keeping my focus on him, I’ll have the strength and clarity to face any hard situation that may arise.

After getting up, I prepare the celery for my daily celery juice and do my oil pulling, followed by some stretching and dancing. Then comes my daily practice of Karma Killer Yoga – links to the free exercises are below, at the end of the post. (On many mornings, I actually prioritize my Aname exercises to make sure I have enough time for them, and do them as soon as I get out of bed. My days don’t run as smoothly and energetically when I skip or shorten them). When I’m done with practice, I do a dry brushing before my cold shower, after which I spread some cold pressed coconut oil on my skin and do a very basic facial routine of toning and moisturizing. Before work, if I still have some time, I celebrate with a breakfast.

What would I like my morning routine to be?

I’m more or less happy with my current one, but would like to include some workout, or maybe alternate it with the stretching. I’d also like to find some time to do some planning of tasks for the day.

Also, Anamé Program includes 21 day Anamé lifestyle challenges, and as an instructor, I like to build them into my routines from time to time. These challenges are totally free, helping you introduce higher energy level habits into your routines, promoting a lifestyle which helps you reach and maintain a more elevated, high vibe state of existence. Just as I’m writing this post, I’m about to begin to do the Anamé lifestyle challenge for the body, which is about loving and accepting your body, and about which I’m planning to write more my next post.😊

Create a daily routine that suits you, and let the free exercises of Aname Program help you through the process! Here’s how:

1. Find a goal. How do you want to feel? More organized? More energetic? Or more relaxed? Find the activities that can serve your goal. Try working out to get a boost of energy, or meditation to calm your mind before you get started with the tasks of your day.
2. Make sure that it’s realistic. Don’t fall into the mistake of wanting too much at the same time. Be loving to yourself. When you create a morning routine, it might be alluring to try to stuff as many things in it as possible. That’s just natural, you should be enthusiastic about your routine, but don’t be hard on yourself. Remember, a good morning routine is supposed to serve you, not frustrate you.
3. Decide what elements you’d like to include. If you’re a beginner, don’t try to go for more than three. Set your priorities and go easy. Later, if it feels alright, you can always add more elements.
4. Now you know what you want, have the elements of your new routine, and have sorted out the excess or the least important things. Before you put your new routine together, there are some general guidelines to help you get the best results.

⚡️Remember that the very first thing you do when you wake up / get up in the morning will have an effect on your whole day.

⚡️Tailor the sequence to yourself. Do you wake up easily and refreshed? Maybe try some meditation or journaling. Are you a snooze hitter champion and want to quit this habit? Try placing your phone further away from your bed, so that you actually have to get out of bed to stop the alarm. Are you a snooze hitter champion and you’re OK with it? Just make sure you set the alarm early enough to have as many snooze rounds as you need. If you get up tired, try doing some exercise or have a cold shower to kick start yourself.

⚡️As said previously, don’t try to introduce too many new elements into your routine. Keep it inspiring, rather than frustrating. YOU should be at the center of your morning routine. Your goals, pace, and preferences.

⚡️Don’t let yourself feel like you have to do anything just because you heard your favorite actress talk about it or saw an influencer do it.

5. Now you’re ready to create your beautiful new routine and try it out. Stay curious and playful, notice how you feel.

6. Once you’re a few days into it, observe how it’s working, and give some feedback to yourself. How does it make you feel? Does it make you feel inspired? Does it help you reach your goals? Is it supportive enough for the life that you live / want to live?

7. If you’re not 100% content, feel free to adjust your routine until you’re happy with it.

8. Stick with it, but again, don’t be too hard on yourself. There may come an overwhelming situation, a journey, or an illness, and you may not be able to keep your routine. Life happens and that’s perfectly fine. Just go with the flow, and return to your routine when it’s possible / you feel up to it.

9. Change it if you need to. Any time! Your life, your goals, or your circumstances may change. Check if your current routine still supports your goals and empowers you. You may learn about new habits you feel like trying out. If you feel the need to change, go for it!

10. Enjoy! And try experimenting with a daily/weekly routine.

You’ve probably noticed that the above steps all require a great deal of empathy and self love, otherwise they can easily turn into stress factors and become contra productive. And this is where the free Karma Killer Yoga exercises by Aname Program can help enormously. By raising your energy level, you naturally become more positive, loving, and supportive. Believe me, it’s a support beyond measure on the days when you’re fighting against your own resistance, judgements, or inertia.

I hope you’ve enjoyed these tips! See you in the next post, where I’ll be back with the 21 day Anamé lifestyle body challenge.

The free basic Karma Killer Yoga exercises I’ve mentioned above can be find at:

Minimalism is quite a thing today: a Google search will give you about 355 000 000 results for the term. It seems to be a natural response to the tendency of overconsumption in our culture.

The whole thing is about happiness. After all, that’s what we’re all after, isn’t it? As we’ve tried reaching happiness by owning stuff, we’re now trying the other pole as well by getting rid of it all.

But let’s go to the experts; this idescription you get if you go to The Minimalists’ website:

What is minimalism? If we had to sum it up in a single sentence, we would say, Minimalism is a tool to rid yourself of life’s excess in favor of focusing on what’s important—so you can find happiness, fulfillment, and freedom.

Minimalism has helped us…

Eliminate our discontent

Reclaim our time

Live in the moment

Pursue our passions

Discover our missions

Experience real freedom

Create more, consume less

Focus on our health

Grow as individuals

Contribute beyond ourselves

Rid ourselves of excess stuff

Discover purpose in our lives

…

Minimalism is a tool that can assist you in finding freedom. Freedom from fear. Freedom from worry. Freedom from overwhelm. Freedom from guilt. Freedom from depression. Freedom from the trappings of the consumer culture we’ve built our lives around. Real freedom.

That doesn’t mean there’s anything inherently wrong with owning material possessions. Today’s problem seems to be the meaning we assign to our stuff: we tend to give too much meaning to our things, often forsaking our health, our relationships, our passions, our personal growth, and our desire to contribute beyond ourselves. Want to own a car or a house? Great, have at it! Want to raise a family and have a career? If these things are important to you, then that’s wonderful. Minimalism simply allows you to make these decisions more consciously, more deliberately.

Being conscious is a good thing. Deciding what you spend your money and your time on is important, otherwise you’ll be lost in the automatism of blindly and unconsciously responding to influences and stimuli coming from the outside world. Of reacting to how you should live, what you should value according to your surroundings or even according to your exaggerated expectations. Of trying to keep up – keep up with that influencer’s body, your brother’s salary, or your friend’s new relationship.

Being conscious is like popping your head out of the water and getting some fresh air, which is a good thing. A great thing, actually. Let’s not forget, however, that we’ve delved into the treadwheel of accumulation and consumption for a reason. If we didn’t feel that we’d been lacking or missing something, why all the fuss about things and experiences and feeling more or better than others?

It seems to be obvious that the relentless pursuit of all these things comes from a feeling of dissatisfaction, and the assumption that satisfaction will be achieved when we finally gain them.

The ego game

The ego can never be truly satisfied. It doesn’t really matter whether you try to feed it with the latest Apple product, a trip to Bora Bora or having more leisure time. The level of satisfaction may and will vary depending on how much control you have or at least you believe to have over your life. The egoic state of your consciousness will always crave for something more. Or something different. You’re probably very familiar with the phenomenon of ‘if I could just…..I’d be happy/content’. And the dots may stand for a wide variety of factors: have enough money / a good relationship / a supportive family or background. Or something else, like: be younger / more courageous or skilled or educated / better looking.

The ego game is not a bad thing. All of us get caught up in this game every now and then, some of us for a longer time, while others for a shorter period of time. And sooner or later we learn. We learn that no matter how much of our wants get satisfied, there’s always something more, something else to wish for or to crave for. And these cravings are not necessarily for material goods, it could be subtler things, too, like appreciation, for instance.

My mom, for example, has this underlying feeling of not being good or valuable enough. She’s a creative and very talented craftsperson who, for her years in pension, found a nearby market and began to sell some of her home made products there. Each time she gets lots of compliments for the beauties she makes and she always receives these happily of course. But do you think her desire for appreciation can ever be satisfied? Is there a certain number of compliments after which she feels good enough and valuable? For a short time, maybe.

In time, she and all of us will learn that it’s a never ending game. It doesn’t matter what you’re longing for, if it’s a new couch of more appreciation, like in my mom’s case, the egoic state of consciousness cannot ever be truly satisfied. And the idea of ‘if I were a minimalist, I’d be happier’ is no exception either. In time, we all learn that we cannot win the ego game.

What do we value?

Before my daughter was born, I used to work as a Project Manager at a translation agency. At first, it was a relatively small firm operating mainly in Central and Eastern Europe. I applied for the job having basically zero experience in management. But I had the humbleness, interest, and curiosity to learn combined with just the right amount of ambition and good people skills, so I got promoted and became successful.

My dad was very proud of me. I had a prestigious position with a decent salary and an interesting, versatile, and responsible job. I was good at it and was valued by both my colleagues and my managers. Every time I visited my dad, he would ask about my job and liked to listen to my stories of decision making and problem solving. 

My job is different now. It doesn’t require a university degree and doesn’t come with the same amount of money. Being a Karma Killer Yoga instructor doesn’t sound as prestigious as a project manager, either. 

Since then, my dad is not interested in my job anymore. He doesn’t know how many people it gives a powerful tool to heal on every possible level, finding their life purposes, changing their lives, and becoming happier and more energetic. 

My dad is a good person, for whom having a family and a good position holds value. Therefore, to have a good and content life, these are the things that you have to accumulate.

It seems that besides objects and experiences, we also like to collect labels ranging from skills to achievements, worldviews, and position. You know what I mean: I’m an open-minded, intelligent woman with a university degree and a cool job, living in a fancy neighborhood. I follow a plant based diet, meditate, and try to live an environmentally conscious life. My daughter goes to an alternative school and we both think Harry Potter is great.

We all put such labels on ourselves, typically the older we get, the more. We know how we react in certain situations, where we go shopping, what we think about gay adoption, and which party we vote for. And most of the time, we like to interact with people who live and think similarly, and therefore begin to see that lifestyle and collection of views as a sort of standard.

But something is still missing. And then we encounter the idea of minimalism. It sounds good, it sounds logical. Have less stuff, spend less time and less money on getting and arranging and cleaning them, find where your true values lie, and spend that time and money on them instead. Gain back the control that’s slipped out of your hand. And once you decide what you dedicate your time and energy to, you’ll feel better about your life in general, and find more happiness in doing the things you like, spending your time only with people you truly want to.

It’s like a trade. You trade some things for others in a conscious way. But sometimes all you gain is a different identity. Instead of being the person who collects shoes or designer clothes, you become a person with a capsule wardrobe. The new identity may feel cooler and shinier for a while, but the excitement may fade with time and the feeling that something’s missing may return.

With minimalism, its criticism has also emerged

The below fragments are from a theguardian.com article titled The empty promises of Marie Kondo and the craze for minimalism.

For some of its devotees, minimalism is therapy. The spasm of getting rid of everything is like an exorcism of the past, clearing the way for a new future of pristine simplicity. It represents a decisive break. No longer will we depend on the accumulation of stuff to bring us happiness – we will instead be content with the things we have consciously decided to keep, the things that represent our ideal selves. By owning fewer things, we might be able to construct new identities through selective curation instead of succumbing to consumerism.

Here the author of the article mentions Marie Kondo and the KonMari method, and criticizes her for her overly disciplined ways and her rigid approach to cleaning and tidying up. In the author’s opinion, Kondo’s readers this way are offered to trade the orthodoxy of consumerism for the orthodoxy of tidiness. 

What she talks about is basically the road of distortion. Remember what the Minimalists said about the movement? That it’s a tool to…and then they listed various aims you can achieve. Let’s not forget, though, that the distortion is not necessarily the fault of any method or movement, but rather how we want to grab it and use it to be happier and more content.

Again, the egoic consciousness likes to accumulate, in this case, identities. So what happens in many cases is that instead of finding happiness, fulfillment and freedom, as the Minimalists promise, you strive to become a minimalist yourself and expect those things from the label.

The most famous proponent of minimalism – or at least minimalism as a lifehack – was probably Steve Jobs. In a famous photograph from 1982, Jobs sits on the floor of his living room. He was in his late 20s at the time, and Apple was making $1bn a year. He had just bought a large house in Los Gatos, California, but he kept it totally empty. In Diana Walker’s photo, he is seen cross-legged on a single square of carpet, holding a mug, wearing a simple dark sweater and jeans – his prototypical uniform. A tall lamp by his side casts a perfect circle of light. “This was a very typical time,” Jobs later remembered. “All you needed was a cup of tea, a light and your stereo, you know, and that’s what I had.” Not for him, the usual displays of wealth or status. In the photo he looks content.

Yet the image of simplicity is deceptive. The house Jobs bought was huge for a young, single man with no use for that excess space. Wired magazine later discovered that the stereo setup resting in the corner would have cost $8,200. The lone lamp that illuminates the scene was made by Tiffany. It was a valuable antique, not a utilitarian tool.

Not only is simplicity often less simple than it looks, it can also be much less practical than it seems. […] it probably did not endear Jobs to his family, who might have preferred a place to sit.

[…]

Apple devices have only a few visual qualities. But it is also an illusion of efficiency. The company strives to make its phones thinner and removes ports – see headphone jacks – any chance it gets. The iPhone’s function depends on an enormous, complex, ugly superstructure of satellites and undersea cables that certainly are not designed in pristine whiteness. Minimalist design encourages us to forget everything a product relies on and imagine, in this case, that the internet consists of carefully shaped glass and steel alone.

[…]

Similarly, we might be able to hold the iPhone in our hands, but we should also be aware that the network of its consequences is vast: server farms absorbing massive amounts of electricity, Chinese factories where workers die by suicide, devastated mud pit mines that produce tin. It is easy to feel like a minimalist when you can order food, summon a car or rent a room using a single brick of steel and silicon. But in reality, it is the opposite. We are taking advantage of a maximalist assemblage. Just because something looks simple does not mean it is; the aesthetics of simplicity cloak artifice, or even unsustainable excess.

With minimalism it seems that our stuff may go, but dissatisfaction and the burden of the label can still remain. Anamé Program also encourages people to lead a simple life, get rid of unused things, and surround themselves with things they love and/or actually use and give them inspiration. What’s the difference, then?

The energy behind the minimalism of Anamé Program

The energy work we do on the level of the chakras and in the whole system is based on two basic factors: cleansing and charging. And Karma Killer Yoga has been designed with that goal in mind. The combination of various breathing techniques, movements, and concentration first begins to clear out the blockages on all levels. How? On the physical level, these blockages could be toxins that have accumulated in your body. On the emotional level, these can be old hard feelings from relationships where you’ve got hurt. Mentally they could be some toxic views about the other sex, or harmful, self-depriving thoughts whenever you’d start something new. This is the cleansing part, but Karma Killer Yoga gives you something else to fill the gap, too: energy.

But why do we even bother about these blocks anyway? Shouldn’t we just let them in peace, accepting that all of us have them, and learn to handle them and just live with them? 

Blocks in your energy system siphon off your energy, which means that it is not freely flowing and not freely available. Unused items and excess stuff do more or less the same. By giving them away, selling them, or (if they are in a bad condition) throwing them out, you release the energy that’s been stored in them. So it’s basically something that supports the cleansing process.

What we see at Anamé Program is that excess things or accumulated stuff work like energy traps. It’s as if some of your energy’s got soaked in them, whether they be old pieces of clothing or additives in your food that your body doesn’t need but has to work with. They all take up energy that you cannot use freely.

By charging, the other important component of Karma Killer Yoga, your body becomes more energetic and its healthy way of working is promoted. A higher energy level can be experienced on other levels as well: you begin to feel less fear and more hope, less doubt and more trust, less sadness and more joy, less anxiety and more stability, less judgement and more acceptance, less criticism and more love.

So how does getting rid of stuff with Karma Killer Yoga and doing the same as a minimalist differ, if at all? With Karma Killer Yoga, goes everything. In a way, this can mean life’s excess, just like in the Minimalists’ summing up in the beginning of the post, but this can also mean the part of you that’s craving for new identities. By applying the idea of cleansing and charging, what we see is that in many cases, it’s not enough to just take away stuff from your life, because unless you elevate yourself to a higher energy level, your choices to fill the gap may not be those of freedom but rather dictated by the same old blocks, such as fear.

In the next blogpost, I’ll go on to three more popular movements that are close to minimalism in more of their aspects: simple living, slow living, and mindfulness. I hope to see you there, too!

The previous three posts were all about your relationship to yourself both on a physical and on an emotional level. Acceptance, appreciation and love for yourself cannot be bypassed on the journey of becoming radiant and shining your light. And when you do have that acceptance, appreciation and love, it’ll already have an aura for sure, with an air of harmony and content and maybe even joy. It is something that people notice.

Have you ever had the experience of attracting more people (of the opposite sex as well) when you’re in a well functioning relationship? It’s most likely, at least partly, because then you’ll see yourself as lovable and worthy and content and that’s the air that you’ll be emanating.

Other aspects of self-love

The way I see it from my experience as a Karma Killer Yoga instructor, it is rather a condition of it, but not the whole thing. And there may be differences even in how we think of, how we define self-love.

Here I brought you another article of Psychology Today. Comparing it with the energetic point of view of Anamé Program you’ll find that depending on the approach, what we mean by self-love can differ.

Self-love means finding peace within ourselves — resting comfortably within the depths of our being. We might find temporary respite by doing something to nurture ourselves. But a deeper inner peace requires cultivating a certain way of being with ourselves — a warm and nurturing attitude toward what we experience inside.

The suggestions that follow are derived from Focusing, developed by Dr. Eugene Gendlin. Sometimes called the Focusing Attitude, this is simply a way of being nonjudgmentally kind, present, and mindful toward whatever we happen to be experiencing.

Here’s the first one.

Being Gentle with Ourselves

It’s often easier to be kind and gentle toward others than toward ourselves. Judgmental voices from the past may have left a hidden residue of toxic shame, which blocks us from honoring or even noticing what we’re really feeling.

Being gentle with ourselves means being kind and friendly toward the feelings that arise within us. It is very human to feel sad, hurt, and afraid sometimes. It’s a sign of strength, not weakness, to become mindful of these feelings and allow a friendly space for them.

When clients notice difficult feelings, I may ask, “Is it okay to be with that feeling right now? Can you be with it in a gentle, caring way?” I might also help them find some distance from painful feelings so that they are not so overwhelming.

An attitude of gentleness toward our feelings is one way to have more spaciousness around them. We can “be with” our emotions rather than be overwhelmed by them.

Psychotherapist Laury Rappaport offers some gentle inquiries into our feelings in her book, Focusing-Oriented Art Therapy:

Can you be friendly with that (felt sense)? Can you say hello to that (felt sense) inside? Imagine sitting down next to it. Can you keep it company much the way you would keep a vulnerable child company? This gentle way of being with ourselves is an antidote to shame. Rather than battling ourselves or trying to fix or change ourselves, we find more inner peace by simply being with our experience as it unfolds.

Being gentle is a good thing. What’s even better is being able to decide when to be gentle and allowing and when to be strict with ourselves. What do I mean by that?

A weekday evening. You’ve worked a lot, until late in the evening, planning to go to bed early. Your partner is out, picking up some stuff. You’re expecting him sometime between 8 and 9. Half past 9, he hasn’t arrived. You go and take a shower, being sure he’ll be at home by the time you finish. Surprise, he isn’t. 10 o’clock, you text him ‘miss u. When r u coming?’ A voice message comes saying he’ll be home in half an hour. And a second one asking you to cook some rice. 

It doesn’t feel good. You feel somewhat neglected: he didn’t give a notice, and didn’t think that you may want to go to bed early. You begin to think it’d probably be different half a year / three years / ten years ago, fearing that he doesn’t love you / care about you that much. There you go. Feeling hurt and afraid.

The important question is: does it help if you just let yourself be with those feelings? There’s a thin line between giving space to your feelings and letting yourself be sautéed in their energy.

This is where Karma Killer Yoga has helped me beyond measure. To this day, it helps me decide where an emotion (or thought, as they are closely related) is coming from: a place of love and the sense of connectedness or just the opposite, from a place that cuts me off of these. Whenever I identify the second type, I try to make sure that I don’t sit with that feeling. Instead, after a short time of perception I say goodbye to it. As if I said: “I know you. I know where you’re coming from and the life that you’d sentence me to. Thank you for accompanying me to this point, but now I’m strong enough to say no, and to make my own choice. And I choose love over fear”.

And now the second of the suggestions.

Allowing Our Experience to Be as It Is

When I invite clients to notice their feelings, they sometimes reply, “Why would I want to feel that?” I explain that when we push feelings away, they often come roaring back. Or they get acted out in ways that are destructive to ourselves or others, such as by drinking alcohol or through other ways of numbing ourselves or transferring our pain to others through raging or blaming.

Loving ourselves means experiencing our feelings just as they are. Oftentimes, we try to push away unpleasant experiences and cling to pleasant ones. But as Buddhist psychology suggests, we create more suffering for ourselves by clinging to pleasant things and having an aversion toward painful feelings.

A subtle sense of fear and shame may prevent us from allowing our experience to have its life inside us. For example, if we feel (or show) sadness, hurt, or anxiety, we might think we’re weak. Or perhaps we were given messages that it’s not okay to feel; we’re afraid that others might judge us.

We live in a culture where hard feelings like grief and sadness are often seen as something to manage rather than to live through or flow through.

At my aunt’s funeral there was a moment when the family stood around the open coffin and my mom suddenly broke into tears. She wouldn’t simply cry; she gave herself completely over to the pain of losing her sister, sobbing loudly and uncontrollably. I stood right beside her and felt how healing it was, the pain of the moment and the way my mom got immersed in it. Then someone else from the family touched her back and then my arm, whispering in my ear to help my mom collect herself. It was a gesture of pure good will: my mom used to have panic attacks and the person just wanted to prevent such an event. And she may have been right. But still, I just felt the truth of my mom’s collapse in grief and tears and didn’t feel the urge to “do something”.

Again, this is something that I have Karma Killer Yoga to say thanks to, that I can be more connected to myself and others and stand still in the truth of a situation, instead of operating from coded behavior and automatic actions.

So here we are at the third suggestion.

Embracing the Wisdom of Not-Knowing

If we’re honest with ourselves, we might notice that we’re often not clear about what we’re feeling. Our feelings are often vague and fuzzy. If we can allow ourselves to pause and make room for ambiguity and patiently welcome and explore our blurry, vague feelings, they may gradually come into clearer focus (thus the term “Focusing”).

For example, we might notice anger toward a partner, but something deeper might lurk beneath. We’re aware of the tip of the iceberg, but to see what lies beneath, we need to look more closely.

Our society values knowledge and decisiveness. But often we’re unclear about what we’re really experiencing. Politicians who don’t mouth strong opinions about everything often are seen as wishy-washy. It actually takes strength and wisdom to say, “I’m not sure about that. Let me think about it.”

Human feelings are gifts to be welcomed. But we need to find a way to be with them so that they become allies, not enemies. Emotions such as grief allow us to release pain so that we might move forward in our lives. Other feelings may be more fuzzy, such as a clutching in the stomach or tightness around the chest. As we bring an attitude of gentleness toward it, we might begin to have a sense of how it relates to something important — perhaps how we’re not honoring ourselves or being afraid of looking foolish.

Feelings often contain wise messages, if we can only decipher what they’re trying to tell us in the best way they know how. If we can cultivate a warm and friendly attitude toward our feelings, they’re more likely to become friendly allies on our life journey. New meanings, insights, and openings arise and our lives move forward in a more fulfilling way.

In my opinion, attributing too much significance to our feelings can divert us from living our true self just as much as oppressing them. For instance, if you’re often anxious or afraid, and you just sit with them, trying to analyze where the feelings come from, you can quite easily come to false conclusions, which won’t help a bit. And the more time you spend deciphering their message the more you tie yourself to them. Feelings are rarely for analyzing and more for experiencing – as far as I can see.

Looking at the articles I’ve brought you so far, and many others written in this topic one question keeps banging in my head: why does it have to be so damn difficult? I don’t have a definite answer to this question. But I believe that it’s because we are looking at the blocks rather than what’s behind them. To me, Karma Killer Yoga helps to see more the possibility of victory than the difficulty of the hardship and I work every day to help others see their victories behind the difficulties of their blocks.

Is self-love enough in itself for you to become radiant and shine your light?

Once you ask, I don’t think so.😉 In the previous post I’ve shown some aspects of this topic reflected in the different chakras. But there is one that’s connected here, to crown them all. And that’s the crown chakra, the “place” of unity. Because at the end of the day, true shine is about so much more than being on good terms with ourselves.

So what does it mean to shine?

Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. —Philippians 2:14-16

In the Gospel of John, Jesus is called “the true light, which gives light to everyone” (John 1:9). Throughout the New Testament, the followers of Jesus are called to be lights in the darkness.

Billygraham.org, talks about the topic as follows:

Being counter-cultural. We live in a dark world, full of lies, hate and confusion. But God’s Word tells us to “cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light” (Romans 13:12). While others are chasing after physical pleasures and selfish gain, we’re commanded to live a different way—to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires” (Romans 13:14).

Does it mean that finding pleasure in physical things like eating or sex is bad? I don’t think so. To me it means that you have to decide where your focus is. What do you vote for? For the temporal or the eternal? 

None of us can avoid answering this question: even if we don’t have the slightest interest in it, we’ll give an answer with our actions and how we live our everyday lives.

So what do YOU vote for in YOUR life? Are you working to buy more stuff or with the intention of reaching your highest potential? To nourish your ego or your divine self?

Jesus’ message then, to me, is not one of bitter rejection, much more about being conscious about which part of us we want to nourish.

Putting yourself out there. Jesus said, “Let your light shine before others” (Matthew 5:16a). He explained that no one lights a lamp just to hide it under a basket. A lamp is meant to be placed on a stand to give light to everything around it. Whether you’re timid or outgoing, you’re called to be a light to the people around you. That’s only possible if you’re taking time to interact with people and cultivate relationships.

If we accept the idea that we’re here for a reason, we can be sure that it’ll come with a task, including individual as well as collective elements. Energetically, crown chakra is the one responsible for the knowledge of “we are all one”. That’s the area to make sure that besides our personal development, our life and the task that we’ve undertaken is for all of us. Our gifts, our skills, our values are like common treasures, and the more we treat them as such and “show our light”, the better we’ll feel.

Always pointing back to the light source. When Jesus said, “Let your light shine before others,” that wasn’t the whole sentence. He went on to give the reason why it’s important to shine: “so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16b). Our goal should never be to bring recognition to ourselves, but to bring glory to God. There’s a fine line between being a light and putting on a show to get attention. It’s a matter of the heart.

And while doing so, while showing our light, the eternal will shine through our being. This is the highest possible manifestation of a human being, and also the state where true radiance is born.

In the previous post, we left off where Rob (Robert Wilson, writer and humorist) was telling us how difficult it had been for him to start loving himself, and I promised you to look at the general phenomenons his article shows.

Firstly, these days the lack of self acceptance and self love seems to be a general phenomenon. Like a disease that strikes western society: self judgement and blame skyrocket everywhere. As a result, messages such as don’t beat yourself up for this and that and love yourself are pouring on us through numerous channels from helpers, religious and spiritual mentors, coaches, motivational speakers, and influencers, just to mention a few.

Secondly, although it’s already beginning to change, loving others and loving themselves are still not interconnected for many. From the point of view of Karma Killer Yoga, however, these two cannot be separated. The personal growth that practice and all the energized accessories (Anamé crystals, Anamé Frequency CDs, energized water, and even the books Chakra Program and Karma Killer by Anamé Valéria Balázs) bring, leads us all to the truth of unity and to the experience of we are all one.

Thirdly, there seems to be a confusion around self love. For many, this concept feels a bit fishy: as if it meant that a person who has a loving attitude towards themselves wouldn’t be capable of having the same attitude towards others. But if we accept the truth of we are all one, it’s natural that “we” includes everyone, even ourselves. Love, care, and respect in this sense is not limited to certain people and doesn’t mean rejecting others. Instead, it comes from the understanding that we all are manifestations of the same divine essence, in different colors, forms, and shapes.

Then, last but not least, there’s the phenomenon of seeing a point or even a necessity of something, yet not being able to grasp it on a practical level. Or, to put it shortly: OK, I get it, but how on earth do I do it? I see it in so many cases when people are perfectly aware WHAT they should do to change, to solve a problem, to feel better, etc. but feel totally helpless about the HOW. I remember when I was first advised that I should somehow connect with myself. I thought it to be a great idea, but had absolutely no clue about how to actually do that. I tried analyzing my feelings, but it was happening more in my mind than in my whole being, if you know what I mean. I wanted the real stuff, the cellular experience, not the idea. And by removing the blocks that kept me from it, that was exactly the experience I got from Karma Killer Yoga. Being connected with ourself is not something that we achieve; it’s more like our natural state where we can return to when we remove the obstacles out of the way. And the exercises of Karma Killer Yoga do exactly that. They remove the karmic blocks of old stories, fears, and wounds that convince us to keep our hearts protected from more injury by locking it down, even for ourselves.

And now, let’s see some of the 13 ways you can start loving yourself according to Robert Wilson, writer and humorist. I chose not to list them all, and for the ones I did, I took the liberty of changing their original order (sorry Rob, hope you don’t mind), but to group them according to various chakras to introduce the energetic side of the tips, and also to show you some differences compared to the viewpoint of Karma Killer Yoga. I’d also like to give you some additional tips that can bring you even further on the road to shining your light onto the world than loving yourself in itself could.

Heart chakra

Carefully Choose Who You Spend Time With. You may not have a choice who you work with, but you definitely choose your personal relationships. If you’re spending your free time with abusive people, then you are abusing yourself. Spend your time with loving people who are not judgmental. Pick friends who are supportive, caring, and accept you for who you are.

Don’t Take Crap from Anyone. If you find yourself with someone who is disrespectful to you, let them know that you do not appreciate being treated that way. If they continue, simply remove yourself from the situation. Don’t allow jerks to ruin your good feelings.

Own Your Feelings. People would tell me to “feel my feelings.” Again another concept I had difficulty understanding. The trick is to acknowledge your feelings, and understand they are normal. If you feel like crying – find some privacy and cry. Work to understand why you feel as you do. Don’t numb your feelings with drugs or alcohol.

Don’t Judge Yourself Because You Have Feelings. Having feelings is normal. You should not feel guilty about them. If you have to cry that does not make you less of a man (or woman).

Learn What Your Feelings Are Telling You. Your feelings are communicating important information to you. Just like physical pain tells you when you have an illness or an injury, emotional pain is telling you that something you are doing is not right for you.

The above tips are basically about connecting with your heart, with your own feelings. We grow up among so many expectations that by the time we should be responsible for our own lives, we barely know what we want, what we feel, and how to feel without the countless shoulds and should nots we have gotten used to navigating among. Listening to your emotional needs, accepting your feelings, or learning to have some emotional autonomy can all be a good place to begin connecting with your heart.

And the practice of Karma Killer Yoga can bring you even further than that. It can bring a lot more than being indifferent to other people’s judgments, blame, or negativity towards you, for example. You’ll see how much suffering we cause each other by doing so, and probably also see the occasions you’ve done that to someone else. It’ll bring compassion: both towards yourself and others. You’ll see how that “crap” coming from someone else is a product of their own hurt or fear, and will be able to see the situation as an opportunity to grow, without blaming yourself or the other person.

Another great benefit is that you’ll be able to differentiate between real feelings and the ones that are generated from recurring thoughts or emotional patterns, which are only preserving a problem instead of solving it. Real feelings have an enlivening effect, even if they are painful, while the rest have a numbing sense, like beating a dead horse. An example of this from my life is that I used to resent my mom for not standing by my side when I was unjustly accused or sanctioned by someone else. Whenever I thought of such an occasion, it would bring up the same feelings of anger and self pity. But these feelings didn’t help me resolve anything, quite the contrary. They pulled me into the old circle of thoughts and feelings. With the practice of Karma Killer Yoga, however, this has changed radically: I allowed myself to feel the deep pain of being deserted, the distrust, and the unjust blaming, as well as the fear and uncertainty of my mom. And that pain and the tears coming from a deep place in my heart let those stories dissolve, leaving peace and compassion in their place.

Throat chakra

Acknowledge Your Gifts and Talents. Whether you realize it or not, you have knowledge and skills that other people do not have. Work with your strengths. Find ways to share these with others for fun and fortune.

Be True to Yourself. I’ve previously written about this. Pursue your passions. Find work that you genuinely enjoy. When you do what you love, you will be so fulfilled that you’ll never again watch the clock in anticipation of quitting time. Also, by following your own interests, you will attract people to you who share your excitement, dedication and joy.

Know Your Own Value. Don’t assume someone is better than you. Find ways to assess your skills, abilities, and achievements without comparing yourself to others. Malcolm Forbes once noted, “Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are.” And, when you do see someone who has already achieved what you haven’t yet, try to understand that you cannot know what advantages they started with or what sacrifices they may have made.

The throat chakra is not only about how you communicate, but also about how much you’re able to show your value to others, to the world. It really does help if you recognize your strengths, see your uniqueness, endeavor to live them, and share them with others. So the ones above are really good pieces of advice that all of us can benefit from.

What more Karma Killer Yoga could add to this? Well, sometimes you may know well enough that you should value yourself, you don’t quite know how to do that in a way that you actually believe it, let alone others. When you try to make a list of your values, you may still have the ‘yes, that’s true, but…’ voices outnumbering them by three to one. Or worse. In such cases it may feel a vain attempt to truly feel in your system, in your gut what your head knows.

That’s because sometimes shame and self blame get so deeply interwoven into our being that even if we are aware of our values, we may still have difficulties in actually feeling and living them. 

Karma Killer Yoga can remove the blocks behind all that shame, self blame, and the fear that wants to keep us hiding in the shadows. The movements and the breathing are designed to reach the old stories and pains which have created and maintained those blocks, and to get them to the surface, get them to flow, and wash them away.

And in the clearness and spaciousness that remains, something that seemed to be impossible earlier will now feel natural: to own your values and live who you actually are.

Third eye chakra

Focus on the Positive. Eliminate your bad habit of only focusing on the negative aspects of your life because it makes those things seem disproportionately important. I have friends who are police officers, and I see how their constant dealing with criminals has tainted their view of people and tends to make them see nearly everyone as bad. Make a habit of observing the good things in your life every day.

Correct Negative Self-Beliefs. Self-perception will affect the outcome of your pursuits and can determine success or failure. Henry Ford said, “If you believe you can or believe you can’t; you’re right.” A positive self-belief will produce confidence and success. A negative self-belief in our abilities will make us flinch in the moment of opportunity. Often we unconsciously broadcast our self-belief which affects the way others perceive and treat us. A hindering self-belief of “I am not good enough” can be resolved with positive affirmations, visualization, and tallying up your successes regardless of size.

Avoid Perfectionism. I’ve also previously written about this. Perfectionism leads to procrastination. Procrastination is all about fear of failure. My solution is to take imperfect action which is better than taking no action. You can always learn as you go along and tweak or correct what you may not have been ready to do when you began. The important thing is taking the first step.

These are very helpful and useful pieces of advice. It is true that more often than not, we magnify the negative: not only as to what we see around us, but also within ourselves. We also tend to magnify a problem by keeping our focus on it: and as the problem seems to be bigger and sturdier, the smaller and weaker we see ourselves. And quite naturally, believing that we’re small, weak and powerless won’t help us to shine. The story of David and Goliath in the Bible is a good example: had David been focusing on the odds and the size of his opponent, he wouldn’t have been able to win. The opposite is another trap: while self confidence and being aware of our strengths is necessary and can be very helpful, believing ourselves to be omnipotent isn’t; if nothing else, our fate will make sure to correct that illusion eventually, too.😉 Think of the story of David and Goliath once more: David’s power didn’t come from his belief in his physical strength, but from his unwavering faith and connection to God.

The third eye chakra in this case is all about control. The less we can see the truth, the more we’ll buy into the illusion of control. Working with it can help us release it, which is great, because it’s only an illusion anyway.😁 On the other hand, you gain something, too: the strengthening of your creative power. When the third eye chakra is clear and filled with energy, your thoughts and the inner images have a greater power, which means that you’re free to use them for raising yourself and everyone else onto a higher energy level.

You may have tried visualization methods where you keep the image of a desired outcome within you. In case it didn’t really work out the way you hoped it would, the below may be helpful for you as well.

It is true for the majority of us that our inner focus can easily be diverted either by circumstances, the events of the world around us, or by our own never ceasing chain of thoughts. Just imagine if all that energy tied up in those useless thought circles and in maintaining your views, judgements, and explanations could be released and freely used! This is exactly what happens with practicing Karma Killer Yoga by Anamé Program. And something else, too. By elevating yourself onto a higher energy level, the goals you want to achieve will get further away from the self centered endeavors of the ego, and closer to the true desire of your heart, of your higher self. To be more specific: you’ll be more attracted to finding your calling in life than wanting to purchase a new car. There’s nothing wrong with wanting a new car, of course, but as it’ll have a weaker energetic charge than what your heart is genuinely thirsty for, the creative power it can move will be weaker as well.

By elevating yourself, you get the power to choose and act on what kind of life you want to live, and you get the power to create it, together with an increased responsibility. This is the most exciting journey a human being can set out to.

So far, we have discussed mostly the material aspects of how to feel radiant and how to shine your light. In the next post I’m planning to go on with a less tangible part of this topic: the role of our divine part in all this. Come and join me!😉🙏🏻

In the previous post, part one, I’ve approached the topic of radiance mostly regarding the body. On the level of the chakras, this is represented by the root chakra. When your root chakra works optimally, you have a good relationship with matter, and therefore with your body, too.

But how you look and whether or not you feel radiant doesn’t only depend on your relationship with your body. It’s also dependent on whether or not you are on good terms with your whole being: whether you love and appreciate who you are and find yourself valuable.

That’s why, after having given you some tips relating to the body, we’ll now continue with other aspects and other chakras….but first things first.🙂

Karma Killer Yoga and some further Anamé Program tips to cultivate a better relationship with your body

• When we want change, we need a goal first. The clearer you are about what you want to achieve, the easier it’ll be to keep your focus and to persevere. This is why, as a first step, I recommend that you choose a mantra. Your mantra is something like a clear and short affirmation. When you create your mantra, there are several rules that should be followed in order to get the most out of it. Let’s see what they are:

☀️It should be formed in the present tense. Just for the sake of comparison, try to form one in future tense. It doesn’t seem to have too much power, does it? The present tense ensures that the mantra represents a creative power rather than a wish or a nice possibility in the future. It helps you change in ways so that you become the person who has that ability to or has already reached that certain goal rather than focusing on the lack of something. So instead of I’ll be healed, go with I am healthy.

☀️Make it short. Don’t overcomplicate (Actually, name anything for what this is NOT a good tip😂). When your mantra is too long, you lose the essence of it. It becomes less powerful and less intentional. Make sure that you use only the truly necessary words, which is a good exercise for focus and intentionality in itself. In case you work with some really specific issue, the mantra could be tailored to that of course. I remember one case, for example, when a practitioner was afraid of traveling and to overcome her fear she chose a mantra about safety. So she tailored it to her current situation, and it went something like I am safe on land, water, and in the sky. Be creative, but remain specific and goal oriented.

☀️Concentrate on yourself. The will and the intention of others is sacred, as Anamé always emphasizes. Therefore, if you feel, for instance, that you’re not appreciated in your relationship, then choose I am confident or I am valuable, or to be more specific, go with something like I am respected in my relationship instead of My boyfriend respects me. I love myself or I love my body are good examples, too.

☀️And finally, here goes a king/queen mantra tip for you, if you want to get the most out of this topic: I am radiantly happy.😊

• The Body exercise [Link at the end of the post] is one of the 6 free exercises of Karma Killer Yoga by Anamé Program. And if you begin to think along the lines of free equals junk or inefficient, let me tell you that I, as a Karma Killer Yoga instructor, have been practicing them every day for more than five years.

• 21 day home challenge by Anamé Program (description coming soon) Your home is like your extended body. Ideally, it is a place of restoration and calmness where you spend your time with joy. But what can you do, if this is not the case? Change! The 21 day home challenge by Anamé Program is designed to turn your home into a safe place where you like to retreat at the end of your day. This challenge can be a great help with something else, too: if you want to see some change in your life. While you change and reorganize your living space, things will change and reorganize inside you, too. You may find a new zest and new perspectives in the way you look at your life and connect with yourself.

• 21 day diet challenge by Anamé Program (description coming soon) For many people, diet and food are strongly connected to their relationship with their body and themselves, and in many cases, they’re burdened with guilt and other negative feelings. If you’re one of those people or would simply like to build a better relationship with food and eating and promote a positive, nurturing attitude towards your body, try the tips of this 21 days lifestyle challenge by Anamé. It’s also a great way to just feel more energized or, if you ever experience food coma, to get rid of it. The goal of this challenge, first and foremost, is to help change your attitude towards food for the better. In the process, you can learn how to make more loving food choices so that what you eat is enjoyable to consume AND nurturing to your body at the same time. According to one of the slogans of Anamé Lifestyle, the closer your food is to its original state, the better. Our bodies’ ability to regenerate can be best supported by not burdening it with food that’s hard to digest. The closer the food is to its ordinal state and the simpler it is, the less energy it takes to digest. Our body is an amazing tool, and we can make a considerably contribution to its ideal way of working with the help of our diet and eating habits. Have a fresh look at the food that you consume and transform everything you’d thought about eating and nutrition.

•  If you have a difficult relationship either with accepting your body or with food and eating in general, I recommend a free, 15 minute online consultation. For that, please leave a comment here or send an email to info@anameprogram.com, where we can help you with booking one. There may be various reasons behind this issue, and many of them date back to (early) childhood, when your relationship with food, eating, and/or your appearance were traumatized. I, too, have some food related bad memories from my childhood: I remember having a plate with an elephant at its bottom and how I had to always keep eating until I could see it. I remember how I hated to eat when I wasn’t hungry and didn’t feel like having that food, trying to smash it around the plate desperately so that I could finally see the elephant and get released from the table. With Karma Killer Yoga, you can achieve more than just managing your negative feelings: by getting to the root of the problem you can restore the positive attitude and the joy of eating that you’ve lost. In addition to that, it can also help you make more conscious food choices. But how?

I know you’ve probably heard that you should eat healthy many times before. And while this is undoubtedly a good advice, you may feel stuck right at the beginning with the concept of healthy food. What is healthy nutrition? What food, which diet? Paleo? Keto? Macrobiotic? Low carb? Atkins? Mediterranean? Meat or no meat? Plant based? Ultra low fat? Raw? And endless more to choose from. Each of them can show you studies and/or experiences justifying their benefits, only to make you feel even more lost in the more often than not, contradictory pool of information.

As for me, my relationship with my body has changed a lot during the years of practicing Karma Killer Yoga. I’ve tried different types of diets, experimenting with them, checking how I felt in my body as a result. I’ve noticed that with time, it’s gradually got easier to decode the signs of my body and I could count on my intuition more and more. The exercises of Karma Killer Yoga have a cleansing effect not only on the level of fate, but also emotionally and, of course, on the physical level as well. And the less your body is loaded with unnecessary materials and toxins, the more it’ll be able to judge what’s good for it and what is not.

Everything has a frequency. People, food, relationships, even a TV program. It’s a general law that your choices for basically anything will fall into the same frequency band as yours and whatever falls outside of it won’t be attractive to you. What’s in the lower part of your band is what you will mostly choose when you don’t feel at your best. You go for what’s at the top when you feel happy, energetic, or trustful. And what’s somewhat above your energy band will probably be alluring. A bigger difference either upwards or downwards is almost always repulsive. The exercises of Karma Killer Yoga have their effects in different ways. One of them is raising your energy level, which will basically have a positive effect on all aspects of your life through the choices you make. From activities to people you spend your time with, services you use, where you go shopping or for a coffee, to the thoughts in your head and the words you say, and even the cosmetics you use and naturally, the food you eat. This way, the changes you’d like to invite into your life will be supported on an energetic level, making them easier and smoother. Otherwise, depending on the degree of your motivation, it may be difficult to take a change all the way through without feeling self abused.

As for food, what we feel like eating is greatly dependent on our physical, emotional, and mental state. Before I became a Karma Killer Yoga instructor, I used to think that it’s merely dependent on taste, and tastes differ, that’s why we like to eat different types of food. But I never really pondered where taste comes from and what factors may determine or modify it. In an ideal case, the body would make you want food full of nutrients, fibers and everything else that’s needed for its healthy functioning. Why is it, then, that you tend to crave stuff with refined sugar, let’s say, or many other things that do everything except for promoting the healthy functioning of your body?

One aspect is the condition of the gut flora, which may not be the first thing that comes to mind. On the page of scientificamerican.com, I’ve found an interesting article titled How Gut Bacteria Tell Their Hosts What to Eat by suppressing or increasing cravings; microbes help the brain decide what foods the body “needs”. Here are some fragments from it to give you a clue:

Scientists have known for decades that what we eat can change the balance of microbes in our digestive tracts. Choosing between a BLT sandwich or a yogurt parfait for lunch can increase the populations of some types of bacteria and diminish others—and as their relative numbers change, they secrete different substances, activate different genes and absorb different nutrients.

And those food choices are probably a two-way street. Gut microbes have also been shown to influence diet and behavior as well as anxiety, depression, hypertension and a variety of other conditions.

[…]

Strong evidence from the study indicates that microbially derived metabolites carry information from the gut to the brain, telling the host whether it needs a particular kind of food.

[…]

Microbes may have their own evolutionary reasons for communicating with the brain, […]

The data are limited to animal models so far, but Ribeiro believes that gut-brain communication can provide fertile ground for developing treatments for humans in the future. “It’s an interesting therapeutic window that could be utilized to improve behaviors related to diet one day,” he says.

The below article from the page of ncbi.nlm.nih.gov refers to a human based research, where it states that

Microbes can manipulate host behavior

There is circumstantial evidence for a connection between cravings and the composition of gut microbiota. Individuals who are “chocolate desiring” have different microbial metabolites in their urine than “chocolate indifferent” individuals, despite eating identical diets. There is also evidence for effects of microbes on mood. A double-blind, randomized, placebo controlled trial found that mood was significantly improved by drinking probiotic Lactobacillus casei in participants whose mood was initially in the lowest tertile.

It seems that what I’ve learnt during the many years of experimenting with food and diet has (or will have in the near future😉) a strong scientific basis: on the one hand, I’ve noticed that what I ate had a considerable effect on how I felt physically, emotionally, and mentally. But it worked the other way round as well: when I had negative feelings and thoughts, I began to crave more unhealthy foods, like sweets, coffee, and baked goods, but they never actually made me feel better.

Back to the point I’ve mentioned above, the exercises of Karma Killer Yoga are designed to raise your energy level. And as a consequence of a higher frequency, with more positive thoughts and feelings, it’s easier and more natural to make healthy choices which truly nourish your body.

Besides the body

Although your relationship with your body, how you see it, how you feel in it, and how you take care of it is an important component of becoming your best, radiant self, it is not the only factor by far. 

This is why I’m moving on now to other aspects of self love, which are more about the acceptance of your character and your feelings than about your physical appearance. I’ve checked the page of Psychology Today about the topic, and brought you an article from there which I found the most useful, and would like to show what more Karma Killer Yoga and Anamé Program can add to it, or what other perspectives it can offer.

Over the years, I have beaten myself up over business breakdowns, lost relationships, and countless other failures. I would only look at what I had done wrong and where I was at fault. And, of course, this would only make me feel worse.

People would tell me, “Rob, you need to love yourself.” Wow, that sounded great, but the problem was I didn’t know what that meant. I knew that they didn’t mean that I should be self-absorbed or narcissistic. I also knew it didn’t mean soothing myself with several shots of whiskey.

I understood how to love others—at least the feeling that made me want to give attention, caring, respect to someone—but feeling that for myself? I was completely confused on where to even begin.

It took me years to learn, but I finally did; and I would like to share with you what I found. Here are 13 ways you can start loving yourself:

Before we dwell into Rob’s tips, let’s just stop at this intro for a while. To me, four major tendencies pop out of this approach of the author. I thank him for showing them quite clearly, and want to share them with you in my next blog post, followed by the actual tips grouped and discussed based on the different chakras.

The above mentioned Body exercise:

https://youtu.be/_M5Yft9bYUI

Or an alternative, in case of high blood pressure, panic or reflux:

https://youtu.be/2erxwDNwGjM

Today, many people talk about how hard it is in this world to nurse a good relationship with your body. There’s much more to it than the pages of fashion magazines and advertisements.

We live in a society that praises beauty, fitness, and youth. To a certain extent, this can be useful, as long as it motivates people to lead a healthier life and feel better about themselves. And indeed, this could be a good thing if it makes you take good care of your body with an active lifestyle, body/skin care routine and a healthy diet. But for most people, this is not the case. For many, it’s a battle that you don’t have a chance to win. Many are just trying to keep up with the pace, which makes you feel that you’re less valuable if you don’t hit a certain level.

But until we see ourselves and others as physical bodies, it won’t change, or not really. Because when you’re surrounded with images of young, lean and beautiful bodies, it’ll be hard to see the beauty of either yourself or others. One may say that it doesn’t make sense to blame the images, because if we are on good terms with ourselves, they won’t affect us negatively.

But are we on good terms with ourselves?

I’m not a huge fan of action movies, but I’ve noticed a shift in them during the last decades: the female characters tend to become younger and younger as time passes. Now it’s perfectly normal that out of the two main characters the man is twice the age of the woman. Of course I don’t mean that relationships with considerable age differences cannot work or be based on love. But making a tendency out of this has many hidden messages about how we should think about age in the case of men versus women, or what values we should contribute to a woman. These hidden messages can have a lot more influence on us than we’d think, because they ‘attack’ the subconscious.

Working as a Karma Killer Yoga instructor, what I see is that when it comes to ourselves, many of us struggle with grievances, uncertainty, blame, and dissatisfaction, and these provide a fertile soil for the above hidden messages. 

Of course, many voices tell you that you shouldn’t beat yourself up because of a couple of extra pounds, your physical imperfections, or your age, and that is a good thing. No make up photos, allowing less favorable body parts to be seen, and talking about the subject all help. Whenever I heard someone say how I should be OK with my height or my breasts, and how we are all beautiful and so am I, I always totally agreed. At least in my mind. But, to be honest, I didn’t feel better at all. Or maybe for a few minutes. Still, next time I looked in the mirror, I still wasn’t satisfied, no matter how I tried to convince myself of the opposite.

So what helps, then?

As long as we see ourselves and others merely as bodies or physical beings, it’s very hard to accomplish the total acceptance, empathy, and respect that leads to that radiant being we all aspire to be. And we cannot avoid becoming this: it’s a code in the core of our being that wants to enfold, wants to shine. This has nothing to do with whether you are an introvert or an extrovert on a personal level. It’s only about meeting yourself on a very deep level and living the truth of that encounter. 

The closer you are to your core or your higher self, the more appreciation is born out of it. Then your body is not just a facade allowing you to grab and collect things that you want, like image, status, or appreciation, but it really is a living, moving temple.

Five ways Karma Killer Yoga helps me to this day

1. By bringing my focus within. We hear so many times that real beauty comes from within, shines from within. This sounds good but in our culture, we have to face factors that hinder its manifestation instead of encouraging it. Most people don’t know how to be in or with themselves. How do we accept and be comfortable with ourselves when we have difficulties with just being alone, without any task or activity (even if it’s just scrolling our feed) to drive our attention away from inside, and direct it onto something else. If we don’t give ourselves the chance to connect with our inner beauty, then how can we expect to live it, shine it, and make it be seen by others?

As for me, although I’ve always liked to be alone even without any distractions, the quality of my focus changed a lot. It’s become more self composed and self assured. Now, whenever I focus within, I find so much more appreciation and acceptance, that it has a positive impact on what people see when they look at me.

2. By helping me keep my balance. This one is strongly connected to the previous point. I’d been an easy victim of the change of circumstances. I remember often I would walk on the street in a good mood, until I would see someone who either looked really good and put together, or cool in any way, and I would feel intimidated immediately. And my good mood would suddenly be gone, I would begin to criticize myself for a wide range of things from how I look to being stiff or clumsy; somehow smaller, less pretty, good, or worthy.

So how did this change? At first, I just started noticing that I couldn’t be thrown off my balance that easily. Fewer things, fewer situations could trigger me. And even when they did, it became a lot easier to get back to my balance. Then I began to notice that I spend more in, than out of balance. And when I do, there’s a sense of peace that has an impact on others as well.

3. By raising my energy level. I practice Karma Killer Yoga exercises on a daily basis, and besides that I use the energized crystals, water, and frequencies by Anamé Program. These are all designed to keep my energy level high. I’ve noticed that whenever I feel a drop in my energy level, I’m more critical of myself (and not in a positive way😉). I also tend to blame myself more and be less satisfied in general. Self love, self respect, and compassion all come with a higher energy level, so this one is definitely a key element.

4. By improving the way I connect with others and with myself. I used to have this notion that people didn’t like me. Not all of them, of course.🙂 But you get it, I just often had this feeling of not being appealing to people. Sometimes, this feeling would be so strong that I was convinced of it even when, in many cases, the opposite turned out to be true. And that’s not a good basis for shining your light, I guess we can agree on that.

Translating this to the language of the body: when you feel not likeable, you’ll be small, as if you were squeezed in a small box. Wishing to be unseen. With the practice of Karma Killer Yoga, something tight within me has loosened a lot.

5. By clearing out the inner negative programming which says that I’m not good enough. Or others are not good enough, for that matter. When you go around having a mostly negative narration in your head about yourself and others, that will inevitably be apparent in your posture, your gestures. Such an attitude leaves its marks on your face, your gaze, your muscles, your body. And yes, it’ll have an aura that other people sense.

The exercises and the breathing technique of Karma Killer Yoga by Anamé Program are designed to clear that programming, whether they stem from painful experiences or just from interpretations of neutral situations. Also, thanks to the cleansing and energizing process, each chakra and the aspects of life connected to them can find the optimal way of working. And together they provide a shine of your being that nothing else can. It has the beauty and the dignity of integrity and self-identity.

And what can the different chakras do for us to reach this? As they are responsible for different aspects of our lives, they will naturally provide help to different aspects of our being as well, ranging from the physical through the emotional to the spiritual side.

True radiance happens when all these three levels are included, free of karmic imprints – or obstacles we may say -, and they become balanced and energized. Besides giving you an overview below with the help of some of the chakras, I’d also like to show this matter to you from the point of view of Karma Killer Yoga by Anamé Program compared to that of psychology.

BODY

The root chakra, among other things, is responsible for your relationship with your body. As a result of working with the root chakra, you’ll have a better and more intimate relationship with your body, not based on criticism but acceptance and support.

On the page of UW Health, you can find an article titled Building Better Relationship with Our Bodies. Let’s see how they approach the topic and what tips they can offer.

Worries about weight and appearance begin in childhood. Girls as young as six talk about wanting to be skinnier. Boys in middle school take supplements and even steroids to develop more muscular bodies. The pressure to look a certain way is often reinforced through marketing and advertising, and through the carefully selected images popular on social media. A growing number of influencers try to demonstrate how lighting or posture can change how their bodies look in photos, while ads and mainstream images are becoming more inclusive. Even so, there still remains unrealistic expectations and the underlying messages we’re faced with is that our bodies are simply “not good enough.”

UW Health psychologist Shilagh Mirgain, PhD, cites extensive research showing just how much influence images can have on our own perceptions. Seeing images of models in mainstream magazines and ads – even just briefly – can lead to increased feelings of depression, stress, shame and insecurity.

“It is difficult to get through an average day viewing these images, let alone begin to comprehend the impact exposure to hundreds of thousands of images over a lifetime can have. The constant message we’re being sent is ‘You don’t measure up,’” says Mirgain.

Mirgain notes that problems with eating disorders have increased over 400 percent since the year 1970. And while it’s often perceived to be an issue affecting females, one in three individuals struggling with an eating disorder are male. Developing a positive body image and healthy mental attitude toward our bodies is crucial to our health and wellbeing.

While it seems like accepting our bodies for how they look should be an easy thing, Mirgain notes that it takes patience and doesn’t mean we’ll never feel inadequate or uncomfortable.

“Accepting our bodies doesn’t mean that we’re always satisfied or comfortable with how we look or feel. It’s only natural to experience insecurities or doubts,” she says. “But we can hopefully reach a point where we experience positive feelings more than negative ones.

Here we get a rather grim reflection of our society, but it can also be looked at like an opportunity to develop. This situation shows us how toxic turning our attention only towards the outside world can be, where no one teaches us how to remain centered and how to use our own headquarters. The problems and tendencies in body image and eating disorders described above can be interpreted as a sign that maybe it’s time for us humans to start treating ourselves and our bodies differently.

Not just as pieces of flesh but also as great and wonderful spiritual beings. This shift in our perception can throw a whole different, a whole new light on how we look at our own bodies and those of others.

To help, Mirgain offers a few tips:

Focus on the function of your body, not its form. Rather than focusing on how our body looks, Mirgain suggests focusing on what it enables you to do. “Your body shows up for you every day, no matter how you treat it or the way you feel about it,” says Mirgain. Think about the ways your body lets you experience the activities you enjoy or how it has carried you even through tough times.

Appreciate your body. Mirgain suggests standing in front of a mirror for several minutes. It can be uncomfortable at first, but the goal is to work up to at least five minutes. “As you stand in front the mirror, simply notice where your eyes go and what thoughts arise. It’s easy to find things you don’t like, focus on finding things you do,” Mirgain says. “Through practice, you can learn to love what you see.”

Be Body Positive Around Others. We often don’t realize how our negative words about our body affect other people. “Be aware of what you are saying about your body and how it can affect friends, family and kids. Don’t comment negatively about your body or other people’s,” says Mirgain.

Connect your mind, body and spirit. There are several small steps we can take to help change our attitudes explains Mirgain:

Keep a list of the top 10 things you like about yourself

Move in a way that feels good to you, like dancing

Buy a swimsuit and wear it proudly

Clean out the closet and get rid of clothes that make you feel uncomfortable

Take care of your body. Health is a direction we travel in every day through the choices we make about our food and ways we support our wellbeing. Make healthy food choices, get rest, take a break to recharge. Small steps can make a big difference.

Fall in Love With Your Body. Mirgain suggests thinking about the relationship we have with our bodies. As with any relationship, a positive one can improve our sense of wellbeing. She shares what an inspiration her mother has been, “I have never heard her say anything negative about her body. She’s always been positive about my body encouraging me to focus on keeping it healthy with regular exercise and nutritious foods. She’s a role model of what it means to age gracefully as a woman who cultivates deep appreciation for her body through all the years.”

Here you can have some useful advice for how to build a better relationship with your body. The common theme is that all these tips work with the mind. According to my experience, for many people (including myself), making such a leap can be hard. There’s often the feeling of the whole system not wanting to follow the mind. You see how it all makes sense and try to see it that way, but somehow your gut feelings just don’t want to align.

What are the tips Karma Killer Yoga by Anamé Program can offer?

1. Choose a mantra. It should be a sentence in the present tense, only about you. I love myself or I love my body are good examples, for instance.
2. The Body Exercise. It’s a free, special yoga exercise available online that you can practice every day. It’s perfect even for beginners: https://youtu.be/_M5Yft9bYUI
3. If you have a very difficult relationship with your body, food and eating, I recommend a free, 15 minute online consultation. For that, please leave a comment here or send an email to info@anameprogram.com where we can help you with registration.

And how does Karma Killer Yoga help? It works around the conscious mind to make the changes deep inside, engraved like a code, on a cellular level. The combination of breathing, movement and concentration enables you to reach the depths where reasoning cannot reach. As a result, you won’t have to convince yourself of a different viewpoint than what you actually feel. Instead, you’ll notice a gradual shift in your way of thinking and feeling, and your consciousness will support the process instead of having to do all the work on its own.

In the next post, I’ll start with practical tips to build a better relationship with your body with the help of Karma Killer Yoga and Anamé Program, and will go on to discuss the emotional and mental aspects of a radiant look.

In this post, I’d like to invite you to check out a different aspect of finding your purpose with me, and for that, I’ll cite an excerpt of an article written by Jeremy Adam Smith, editor of Berkeley’s online magazine, the Greater Good.

Why this article was so interesting to me is partly because what the author says can also be translated to the language of our chakras, and partly because it correlates with my experiences as a Karma Killer Yoga instructor both through my life and through those that I’ve been working with over the years.

It’s also nice to see how different approaches of the same question can exist next to each other without crashing, and it’s always refreshing to learn about the points of view of others.

Let’s start learning together, then by checking out how the author begins with connecting the sense of purpose with overcoming isolation and being a part of a community. 

Do you have a sense of purpose?

For decades, psychologists have studied how long-term, meaningful goals develop over the span of our lives. The goals that foster a sense of purpose are ones that can potentially change the lives of other people, like launching an organization, researching disease, or teaching kids to read.

Indeed, a sense of purpose appears to have evolved in humans so that we can accomplish big things together—which may be why it’s associated with better physical and mental health. Purpose is adaptive, in an evolutionary sense. It helps both individuals and the species to survive.

Many seem to believe that purpose arises from your special gifts and sets you apart from other people—but that’s only part of the truth. It also grows from our connection to others, which is why a crisis of purpose is often a symptom of isolation. Once you find your path, you’ll almost certainly find others traveling along with you, hoping to reach the same destination—a community.

Here are six ways to overcome isolation and discover your purpose in life.

Smith points out that having a sense of purpose has its benefits both individually (better physical and mental health) and collectively (referring to the survival of our species). And he mentions a very important and maybe somewhat underrated or overlooked point of view: that the lack of purpose can be a symptom of isolation, and along that way of thinking, he recommends these six methods to overcome it. 

So let’s see his suggestions one by one below.

1.

Reading connects us to people we’ll never know, across time and space—an experience that research says is linked to a sense of meaning and purpose. (Note: “Meaning” and “purpose” are related but separate social-scientific constructs. Purpose is a part of meaning; meaning is a much broader concept that usually also includes value, efficacy, and self-worth.

[…]

So Smith interprets reading as a means of connection. He begins his list with an element which can be helpful even to those who are suffering the most from isolation whether because of an illness, an overwhelming life situation, a mental state or even financial difficulties (as reading is a relatively cheap option compared to a therapist, for instance).

People who struggle with similar situations or conditions seek each other’s company through support groups (either in person or on Facebook, let’s say) or forums to find solace in knowing that they are not alone. This is quite similar to how tribal healers and shamans used the power of connection either with the community or with the divine source during the process of healing. 

In addition to providing a link, reading may also serve as a sign or as an inspiration to many. Reading may give us a boost of energy we wouldn’t be able to find elsewhere. It may be the last piece of information or a trigger we need to set out on a new path.

Everything is energy. Words on the pages convey energy. And far beyond the effects of words woven together in a certain sequence, their energetic component and message may have the power either to evoke fear and hatred or  to evoke love and compassion and unity in us.

To demonstrate, I brought you a short fragment of the book Karma Killer by Anamé Valéria Balázs. Try to read it slowly, and let the words sink in, making their effect. 

[…] I realize that I received many opportunities in my life. I got the opportunity to get to repeat some situations that had previously left an imprint of hate in me. So that I could turn hate into love. I would like nothing more than to progress, and to reveal reality even better. Even the smallest deposit of hatred hinders me in the achievement of my goal, in a way similar to a bolted iron door.

I accepted all this of my own free will, out of love. There is absolutely no chance that this be considered a punishment.

If you feel like, you can try this with different types of texts (maybe not with texts about let’s say the role of RNA in human development and cognition or such as a first choice ;)), and see how they can make their effects in many layers.

And back to Smith’s tips, the next one encourages us to step out of the receiving side, and to reach out to others.

2. Turn hurts into healing for others

[…]

Kezia Willingham was raised in poverty in Corvallis, Oregon, her family riven by domestic violence. “No one at school intervened or helped or supported my mother, myself, or my brother when I was growing up poor, ashamed, and sure that my existence was a mistake,” she says. “I was running the streets, skipping school, having sex with strangers, and abusing every drug I could get my hands on.”

When she was 16, Kezia enrolled at an alternative high school that “led me to believe I had options and a path out of poverty.” She made her way to college and was especially “drawn to the kids with ‘issues’”—kids like the one she had once been. She says:

I want the kids out there who grew up like me, to know they have futures ahead of them. I want them to know they are smart, even if they may not meet state academic standards. I want them to know that they are just as good and valuable as any other human who happens to be born into more privileged circumstances. Because they are. And there are so damn many messages telling them otherwise.

Sometimes, another person’s pain can lead us to purpose.

[…]

Kezia’s story is a typical way of finding our life’s purpose: a hardship that we’ve had to endure can become something valuable. On the one hand, it can give us comfort that the suffering was not pointless, and on the other hand, we can help others by having been in their shoes and by being able to show them a way out not through some smart words but through our whole being. And finding such a life purpose will become healing to all parties.

It all makes sense already in itself. But if we want to put it in a higher perspective, again, the concept of karma and the evolution of a soul become unavoidable factors. To show that, here’s another part of Karma Killer by Anamé.

I see my grandmother’s future greatness, since at a higher energy level, not only the past, but also the future is revealed, and to top it all, both happen simultaneously, at the center of the present. […]

In the distant future, this will be the point when in my grandmother’s energy pattern, the infinitely valuable living code of child abuse committed by her becomes a jewel shining in the light of consciousness. This karmic imprint had been working subconsciously the whole time: at lower energy levels it activated rougher energies, creating physical and spiritual suffering. But at this level of consciousness, karma will no longer mean the suffering of the consequences of one’s actions, but acts of forgiveness. At this higher energy level, as the consequence of the activation of the old karmic imprints, my grandmother will feel a fiery, inner impulse to stand up for the rights of abused children and all circumstances will align to help her.

3. Cultivate awe, gratitude, and altruism

[…]

Several studies conducted by the Greater Good Science Center’s Dacher Keltner have shown that the experience of awe makes us feel connected to something larger than ourselves—and so can provide the emotional foundation for a sense of purpose.

Of course, awe all by itself won’t give you a purpose in life. It’s not enough to just feel like you’re a small part of something big; you also need to feel driven to make a positive impact on the world. That’s where gratitude and generosity come into play.

“It may seem counterintuitive to foster purpose by cultivating a grateful mindset, but it works,” writes psychologist Kendall Bronk, a leading expert on purpose. As research by William Damon, Robert Emmons, and others has found, children and adults who are able to count their blessings are much more likely to try to “contribute to the world beyond themselves.” This is probably because, if we can see how others make our world a better place, we’ll be more motivated to give something back.

Here we arrive at altruism. There’s little question, at this point, that helping others is associated with a meaningful, purposeful life. In one study, for example, Daryl Van Tongeren and colleagues found that people who engage in more altruistic behaviors, like volunteering or donating money, tend to have a greater sense of purpose in their lives.

Interestingly, gratitude and altruism seem to work together to generate meaning and purpose. In a second experiment, the researchers randomly assigned some participants to write letters of gratitude—and those people later reported a stronger sense of purpose. More recent work by Christina Karns and colleagues found that altruism and gratitude are neurologically linked, activating the same reward circuits in the brain.

Reading this part of the article, I found it interesting that nothing so far has been said about one’s individual goals. It seems that though we all have goals in our lives that we want to achieve for ourselves (like having family, a good job, health or financial stability), when it comes to discovering our life purpose, we appear to aspire higher.

What could be the reason for that? From an energetic point of view, individual goals belong to the lower chakras or energy centers, which are more about how we can base ourselves in the material world with all its existential, relationship, and career issues. 

At the level of the heart, however, our world opens to others, and by the time we reach the level of the throat chakra, which is the area of our true self and true calling, it’ll be already pervaded with that quality of the heart chakra.

As Anamé writes about It in Karma Killer:

The perfect completion of our task is not enough. The day will come when this beautiful soul will look at the oppressors with the same love as she does at the oppressed. On that day, she will forgive herself for the things that she didn’t even think were wrong at the time she did them, and which to top it all, she doesn’t even remember. On that day, the karmic imprint that was responsible not only for her suffering, but also for her enlightenment, will unravel. This is the same code that compelled her towards constant progression and to surpass herself.

There shall be no more need for the code, when there shall be no more need for fear and pain for you to stay on the road towards your true self.

4. Listen to what other people appreciate about you

Giving thanks can help you find your purpose. But you can also find purpose in what people thank you for.

[…]

The artists, writers, and musicians I interviewed often described how appreciation from others fueled their work. Dani Burlison never lacked a sense of purpose, and she toiled for years as a writer and social-justice activist in Santa Rosa, California. But when wildfires swept through her community, Dani discovered that her strengths were needed in a new way: “I’ve found that my networking and emergency response skills have been really helpful to my community, my students, and to firefighters!”

Although there is no research that directly explores how being thanked might fuel a sense of purpose, we do know that gratitude strengthens relationships—and those are often the source of our purpose, as many of these stories suggest.

Listening to others with an open heart and mind, that is to say, with a cleansed and energized heart chakra and third eye chakra, is a great compass. Until the final meaning and the final purpose of your life is not yet revealed, other people can help you along the way. And why do I say cleansed and energized? Because the more cleansed and energized your heart is,, the less probable it is that you use the feedback to either bloat your ego or feel aggrieved. Instead, you are free from the imprints that would jump on judgements coming from others, and are able to see the true value in what you hear from them.

5. Find and build community

[…]

If you’re having trouble remembering your purpose, take a look at the people around you. What do you have in common with them? What are they trying to be? What impact do you see them having on the world? Is that impact a positive one? Can you join with them in making that impact? What do they need? Can you give it to them?

If the answers to those questions don’t inspire you, then you might need to find a new community—and with that, a new purpose may come.

The heart chakra. Quoting Karma Killer by Anamé again:

Your heart will open up to yourself and others, making condemnation impossible, since you see life in its flow and in intertwining relationships. Viewed from here, even the greatest darkness is transitory and not a final destination.

This level will bring the gift of forgiveness. […] You see that revenge only breeds suffering and we humans are united in suffering, but are also united in that we carry the light within us, that will guide us out of it.

6. Tell your story

Reading can help you find your purpose—but so can writing,

Purpose often arises from curiosity about your own life. What obstacles have you encountered? What strengths helped you to overcome them? How did other people help you? How did your strengths help make life better for others?

[…]

Again, from an energetic point of view, we’re talking about the throat chakra here. This is when you show your treasures to the world, your true values, with your whole being and your whole life. Words, written or spoken, are only a means, but their power comes from experience, from having had your way through all the challenges of the path.

So, as I mentioned at the beginning of the post, to me it was really interesting to see how non-energetic approaches to this topic can easily be translated into the language of the chakras. I considered it to be helpful, because it gives us a chance to identify which chakras to work with, should we feel resistance toward a topic or a tip or feel some blocking energies and are unsure how to make them flow.

Depending on where you are in your life, different aspects of having an occupation may be what you’re interested in. For example, when I had to take care of my 5 year old daughter all by myself while paying the debt on the house, the first thing I thought about was not a dream job where I could live up to my full potential. My focus was much more on finding a job that paid decently.  The workplace had to be close enough to the school so that I could take her in the morning and pick her up in time in the afternoon. Fair enough, I guess. So, I just wanted to point out that whatever your goal might be on this money – career – fulfilling your purpose line, it’s OK.

Also, you can be sure that it’ll bring you closer to your true self, your true calling. Let’s check out what the different chakras can offer you in this field and how they represent the various aspects of making money or a career or living up to your highest potential.

Root chakra

In the previous two posts, with the topic of stress I showed you a somewhat different face of the root chakra: the one that’s responsible for stability and practicality. But the root chakra also has an important role in your relationship with money, material goods and abundance.

There may be periods in our lives, just like the above mentioned in mine, when livelihood seems more important than self development and that’s perfectly OK.

And once at this topic, I want to grab the opportunity to talk a bit about this real life versus spiritual or self development issue. So many times I hear people talk about spirituality, a higher purpose of life or only about being more conscious as something extra that you do when you’re done with all the other important things in your life. Like your health and family or relationship problems, finances, conflicts at your workplace, etc. It sounds as if they considered it as a kind luxury that you pay attention to only when every issue or problem of your life is sorted out. 

I don’t believe in such a division between mundane or ordinary and spiritual. I believe that if there’s something more to our lives than what is driven by matter and coincidence, it’s not limited to certain fields. In case there was a separate territory for spirit and another one for matter or ‘worldly’ things, it’d be as if we put an equality sign between the two, attributing the same amount of power to them. It’d be like a marriage where you’d see your spouse’s physical appearance and his or her characteristics as two separate things. 

As someone who’s been practicing Karma Killer Yoga for over twenty years and teaching it for more than eight, my experience is that spirit is ruling over matter. It has a creating and a transforming force and matter, the one that has a lower vibration out of the two, is subordinated to it. 

How does it look in real life? Pretty cool, actually.😎 In order to show you how the magic works, first I want to quickly give you a clue on how the chakra diagnosis in Karma Killer Yoga by Anamé Program is done. 

So the basic idea is pretty simple: matter follows energy. Therefore the physical body is like a map or a blueprint of your own unique energy pattern. Wherever the energy flow is more or less obstructed, the body will be either withered and weak or swollen and over tense compared to its average, depending on whether that area (or chakra, that is to say) is underfunctional or overfunctional.

So let’s say you have had enough of the lack of assertiveness in your life and its effects both in your professional and private life. Therefore, you decide to grab the problem by the roots and invest in a one to one Karma Killer Yoga session. During the chakra diagnosis you’ll get a map of the affected chakras and their current state, and which one(s) to start with and why, an outline of the changes that can be expected as well as your first series of exercises tailored to your specific situation, your needs.

And going back to this matter – spirit question, it’s worth having a look at what Jesus said about it.

Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear? ’For the Gentiles strive after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.

He doesn’t say that first you go and fix all your worldly troubles and then come to God for some extra goodies, right? No, he said seek him in the first place, and don’t worry about anything else.

Is it because Jesus didn’t know how overwhelming it can be to pay our bills and take care of our children AND deal with the whims of our boss at the same time?

Or maybe because he wanted to teach us that there’s no worldly issue outside the reach of spirituality?

After this short bypass, let’s return to what happens when you get your exercises and begin your practice.🙂 As the energy block or karmic blueprint begins to dissolve, it’ll immediately have an effect on your life, and also, on your body. Yes, it actually means that, for instance, parallel to finding your strength while you work with your solar plexus chakra the vertebrae of the lumbar section can get back to their healthy position. This is how it happens when you can actually follow in the physical body how matter does follow the energy. 

So what can an optimally working root chakra offer? The sense of abundance and being on good terms with money and material goods. You’ll be aware of the value of your work and feel comfortable getting value for what you give in return.

Let’s have a look at the other three now. The excerpts are again from the book Chakra Program by Anamé Valéria Balázs.

Solar plexus

In the case of an under-functioning chakra

• our body is tight in the line of the navel, the spine bends in an overly tense concave shape at the waist
• our body cools down easily, and our extremities are usually cold
• our digestion is weak
• we are inclined towards depression and are hard to motivate
• we are indecisive. Will is like an invisible lasso that extends from the navel towards the goal. When the chakra under-functions, this lasso is loose, too thin and consists of jumbled, divergent strands
• we get entangled in human intricacies. We usually fall short in these, we are oppressed, and are forced into the role of a victim, also our boundaries get encroached upon and we become vulnerable
• our self-assertion and career is inhibited, and we constantly conscious up against barriers and difficulties.

In the case of an over-functioning chakra

• our body is emphasized at the navel, and is swollen in this area
• we are inclined towards revenge and anger
• we are inclined towards domineering, manipulation using and oppressing others
• the lasso of our will is a stiff steel hook that enchains us to our goal, which in this case becomes a heavy burden and causes enslavement
• our thinking is competitive and we want to win at all costs

[…]

When the chakra works optimally, inhibiting factors cease. Such practitioners know what they want to achieve in the world and will achieve it, without causing themselves or others harm. Their intentions have power. They inspire and fascinate others.

At this level, you basically use your strength, self confidence, willpower, intention and perseverance to achieve your goals – in this case, to find a job or to build a career. 

Heart chakra

As well as with the root chakra, you can get acquainted with a different aspect of the heart chakra here. 

Besides being the area responsible for love and feelings, this is the place where you truly experience yourself as a part of a bigger community. And with that, you begin to feel the desire to find your purpose within that community. And also the desire to serve the goal that you were born for the best way you can.

It’s like a calling: you know that your heart just won’t be satisfied until you live it, your highest, brightest self and that will serve like a fuel to the next chakra, the throat, the one responsible for truth and your calling.

Throat chakra

After you have strengthened yourself in the material world at the level of the bottom three chakras, the willpower of the solar plexus chakra is joined by noble and elevated emotions at the level of the heart. That is how the will to complete your destiny is born within you.

Every person is born with an individual energy pattern and individual treasure that only they are capable of adding to our world. By the time you get here, the cleansing process will have cleansed you to the extent that these values get to be manifested in their true forms. A master who lived two thousand years ago once said the following about this state: “I am who I am”.

This is the highest state of being for us humans, in which you undoubtedly are where you should be, already fulfilling your life purpose and living up to your full potential. Until that state is reached, you’re most likely to have a – to some extent – under or overfunctioning throat chakra. Let’s have a look at the signs below.

In the case of an under-functioning chakra

• our chin and collarbones pull downwards
• our self-knowledge and self-acceptance are flawed
• we are introverted and silent. Our inner world has difficulty manifesting in the external world.
• we are secretive, we feel shame and hide
• we sacrifice the manifestation of our true self for something else (e.g. relationships, security)

In the case of an over-functioning chakra

• our chin pulls upwards
• our ego is overinflated
• our personality constantly strives to manifest itself. We are overly extrovert, typified by communicational exhibitionism
• we constantly express our opinions
• we proclaim great truths about all areas of life, and tell everyone what to do, the way a smart-ass does

[…]

When the chakra functions optimally, you are no longer the same as the difficulties of your past, your human intricacies, infixed reactions, perspective and illusions. All that you thought to be your personality falls away from you. Your inner world changes. Your circumstances change so that you can fulfill your duty in life. Everything that is not based on truth leaves you, but only because this is how the new, perfect coincidence of circumstances can be built around you, enabling you to become your most wholesome.

Let’s stop here for a moment for the sake of the above sentence: All that you thought to be your personality falls away from you. Earlier, when I first became interested in self development, read about it, thought about it, I came to the conclusion that I should get to know myself in the first place.

The way I interpreted it back then was that in order to develop first I have to be aware of how I respond to certain situations, how I think about things, and my characteristics. In other words, what I thought to be my personality.

For example, it used to be difficult for me to accept change of plans. Let’s say I planned to work for half a day and then meet with a colleague, go to the grocery store and pharmacy, and then back to work in the evening for some more hours. And if my colleague suggested that we meet later or somewhere else than what we agreed on in the first place, I got anxious and irritated. 

I couldn’t handle the change of my plan flexibly back then. Instead, I’d be annoyed to rearrange my schedule or go to a different store. 

Based on that, I could’ve made the conclusion that I’m simply like that, someone who likes to stick to her plans and keep the control in her hand, and that it’s a characteristic of mine, therefore a part of my personality. Being inflexible or a control freak, depending on how nicely I wanted to put it.🙂

Before practicing Karma Killer Yoga by Anamé Program I did try to change it, actually. I tried to convince myself that it’s not such a tragedy to change my plans and that it could even have some positive outcome. I also tried to remain calm, reassuring myself that it’s not such a big deal and definitely nothing so serious as to be upset about and let it ruin my day. AND it’s not good for my health or my mood. Make a guess if it worked or not.😉

Actually, to a certain point it did work. I could see that it was true and logical, the reasoning, the logic of all of it. In that sense it wasn’t pointless and was a good try. But, as it turns out, we are not our thoughts. Far from it. I didn’t have to read it anywhere or receive it as a teaching, I knew it from experience. Because even if I knew that something was right, with my conscious mind, that is to say, my whole being didn’t always seem to obediently follow. 

In this very case, no matter how clearly I saw that although planning in itself is useful, being rigid about it is not. The first one helps me in managing my time, being more organized, and making sure I do whatever has to be done, while the other holds me back. Still, I had this feeling of annoyance and stress, whenever I was forced to change a plan.

What I couldn’t reach back then by convincing myself, the practice of Karma Killer Yoga did for me. In other posts I write a lot about how these deep changes happen by dissolving karmic blocks, here I’d rather return to the question of personality. 

Like in the above example, I could’ve said that I’m a person who likes to keep herself to her plans and doesn’t like sudden changes and being out of control. Then, I could either accept it as a part of my personality and live with it, or I could decide to change it. 

This is how Karma Killer Yoga by Anamé Program gave me a different approach to how I used to think about the importance of personality and characteristics and how I had to learn about mine in order to develop.

To find your calling, your purpose, what you basically do is clear away the blocks that cut you off of your true self. In my case, the need to control stemmed from fear and a lack of trust and Divine Providence. The exercises of Karma Killer Yoga helped me get rid of this fear and uncertainty, which is a much deeper transformation than if I tried to change the habit or the fixed view instead.

The same way, the road to your true self can be cleared, so that you find what you were born for. In the next post I want to link a completely different approach to finding your life’s purpose to what I experienced as a Karma Killer Yoga instructor.

In the previous post, I mentioned some common advice you can find on the net if you’re interested in stress relieving techniques, and quoted an article on studies which suggests that short term stress can actually have some positive results, like enhancing our productivity or our ability to cope with a difficult situation.

I also added my own three tips, based on a different approach: combining some free elements of Anamé lifestyle: the power of a free Karma Killer Yoga exercise, a higher energy level viewpoint, and one that’s about your environment. 

At the end of that post, I promised you to talk about our relationship to stress and pressure (feel free to include anxiety here) in relation to some of the chakras. So let’s see them one by one here, and see how they can help you with relieving stress. For all of them, you’ll find quotations from Anamé Valéria Balázs’s book Chakra Program – The Secret Behind Anamé Program. This book by Anamé is mostly recommended if you want to dig deep and go to the roots, and see the very core of the problem of whichever aspect of your life you’re seeking a solution for.

The fact is, we all have energy blocks. Seeing them for what they are is an opportunity to clean the root causes of the difficulties you’d like to solve, if you decide to do so. It means that you have the chance to stop being the victim of your circumstances. You don’t have to be super self-aware or good at analyzing yourself or anything like that at all. Just try to be open to an approach that’s most likely different from how you’ve looked at stress and pressure before.

The descriptions of under and over functioning in the book Chakra Program are great to give you orientation points as to where you currently stand, but not to give you an accurate chakra diagnosis about yourself, much less about others. Not because Anamé decided to hold back any of her knowledge or the information that she has access to. It’s purely because the quantity and the distribution of the energy, together with the individual characteristics of resistance and conductivity (quite like in the case of electricity), and how these factors are interconnected, all form an individual energy pattern. It is something like a map, based on which a trained Karma Killer Yoga instructor will know how to work with any given individual, but due to its complexity cannot be explained in a book thoroughly. 

I still think that it’s very helpful to learn about the main characteristics of under and over functioning, and of the quality of each chakra. As for the latter, you can see approximately where you stand with that particular quality. And as far as under-functioning or over-functioning of a chakra is concerned, you’ll probably find that their elements can be mixed in your life depending on circumstances, rather than being represented in a crystal clear, point by point manner. Nevertheless, you’ll most likely be able place yourself somewhere on the scale in between the two end points.

The below quotes are general information about the third eye, the root, the heart, and the crown chakras. They still may help shed a light on where you stand at the moment, which can determine not only the various fields of your life like assertiveness, family, or love life, but also more general things like your worldview and your general emotional and mental state, which can also determine your attitude towards stress. In particular, how you receive and endure stress, what you make out of it, and whether you feel that it crushes you or it empowers you beyond measure.

Nothing, no aspect of your life is independent from the state of your chakras – their under- or overfunctioning play a major role in everything, because, at the end of the day, our reactions to both internal and external factors and circumstances stem from deeply ingrained (or coded, if you like) information.

There is nothing mystical about this. If you’d ever been to a massage therapist, you’ll know how feelings and memories can be stored in the body. And there’s no need for anyone to dig themselves deep into an esoteric teaching or any form of spirituality to notice that some people emanate an air of positivity, while others have a negative air around them.

The effect of the Karma Killer Yoga stress relief exercise

It all sounds good but you may wonder how, in what ways these exercises are able to eliminate stress. 

As we saw in the previous post, there’s a difference between short term and long term stress, and Karma Killer Yoga offers an effective way to relieve both.

The stress relief exercise mentioned in the previous post (link at the end of the post) uses two main factors to achieve this. One of them is breathing. Whenever you’re stressed, your breathing gets faster and more shallow. You may have noticed a natural correcting mechanism, when, after a stressful situation, you sigh out a couple of times. As a closure of a stressful situation, your body knows that it should get back from an overly active state to a calmer, more balanced state. Sighing out is a good way to do that. 

While inhalation works as an activating force, exhalation has a relaxing and calming effect. In practice, this means that when you want to activate your system, you work with stronger inhalation, and when you want to relax and stabilize it, longer, deeper exhalations will help. Both forces are essential, of course, but whenever the balance is broken, it should be corrected. The stress relief exercise uses the calming power of exhalations to achieve that in a more conscious, goal-oriented way. The long, deep exhalations out of the mouth activate the parasympathetic nervous system, helping the body to rest.

The other method this exercise works with is pressure, which is achieved by placing a tennis ball to your chest in the prone position. 

“The pressure releases the tension like a safety valve, breathing and life commence, and the body relaxes. The quantity of energy grows perceptibly in the system (e.g. extremities tingle). The energy that the energy block had absorbed before is now released into the system.”

The above two methods combined together (exhalation and pressure) provide a highly effective way to release stress. In the short run, by relaxing the body, and in the long run, by promoting the stabilizing and calming nature of the lower chakras.

Besides this one, all the other exercises of Karma Killer Yoga work with the clear and accurate application of breathing, pressures, twists, and leaning to direct the energy in the body to get the desired effect in a way that’s easy to perform and understand.

Third Eye

“If the area of the third eye is filled with energy, spiritual self-determination is born. In this case, no situation, emotion or thought process can pull you down. You become capable of changing your perspective through the power of your concentration.

“As such, you become capable of the most complete presence in the given situation. You experience and feel what is happening, without it ingesting you. You remain an observer, and become neither an outsider, nor a prisoner of the situation.

“The development of the chakra helps you see reality. It gives you a certain inner guideline that connects you to your true self. The only thing that helps is if you bind yourself to your own laws and your inner strength, and if you observe yourself and your surroundings without prejudice. Hence you become able to make responsible decisions, guided by your inner voice.

[…]

“When the chakra works optimally, you get in connection with your own internal control system. You see the world and the higher goal you are heading towards clearly. Your concentration is creative energy.”

Based on the above, it’s not hard to guess what happens if you are under pressure and your third eye chakra works optimally. Without feeling like you’re a victim of the situation, you’re able to assess the situation and your resources. You’re able to change your viewpoint, if necessary, to see how you can benefit from the situation. Your concentration has the creative power to make the best out of the situation, seeing yourself in your highest form and the source of the stress as a step toward it, staying focused.

The clarity and stability of this state gives you confidence.

Root chakra

“The state of this energy center is responsible for how well we can stand our ground in the material world, and how “at home” we feel in it. This is where our relationship with money, life, our ancestors, and our roots are coded.

[…]

“When the chakra functions optimally, emotional and financial stability is typically achieved. The earthly world is safe and offers its many gifts generously.”

So basically, when you have an optimally functioning root chakra, you feel safe and stable in your life. Even if the turn of events causes some turbulence, you’re able to center yourself, and are not blown away by the situation. Instead, you have a calm and practical approach in handling it. Tranquility and a general sense of groundedness accompany you wherever you go.

Heart chakra

“When the heart chakra functions optimally, you become able to give and receive, and live lovingly with yourself and others. The heart becomes sensitive and strong simultaneously. It becomes open and alive, sensitive to feelings, but emotionally stable and cannot be unstabilized.”

The heart chakra is the one where most of the stress is stored. You may have noticed already that in stressful situations your breathing can get faster and shallower, engaging only the chest, unlike in the case of deep breathing. When working optimally, your heart is able to remain open and emotionally strong at the same time. You’re in touch with your own feelings and those of others, if more people are involved. There’s no sense of panic, and you don’t feel the urge to either head jump into the situation emotionally or to withdraw yourself from it. You feel that you’re open to whatever the situation will ask of you.

Crown chakra

“When the chakra functions optimally we feel our upper anchorage. […] However life tosses and throws you, our upper anchorage is the secure point that is immovable and which cannot be destabilized. It has different names in different cultures. In our culture it’s called God. You no longer believe in it because you live with it and experience it every moment.”

Somehow we are made to think that if there’s a hard situation going on in our lives, we have to feel bad about it. It is based on the idea that we are separated beings: separated from each other, from the flow of life, from God. It is based on this idea, that it’s our job to figure out the answers to all our problems, and that the struggle is ours as well. I’ve collected some fragments from the Bible, which are all about not being afraid or disheartened in such situations, because we are not alone in them.

But before I give them to you, I want to share a story from my own life. I did not have faith back then. I thought that I had to struggle alone constantly, be strong somehow and endure the hardships, trying to make plan after plan and somehow fight my way through the difficulties. Yes, that’s a sign of an under-functioning crown chakra, in case you wondered.🙂

Here it goes, then. My baby girl was only over a year old, when our life took such a turn that I had to take care of her by myself. Nursery was not an option, therefore I couldn’t go back to work. The financial support I got lasted only for a period of some months. 

So there I was, a young single mom with a 1.5 year old, a debt, and no income. I felt that I had every right to feel desperate, when suddenly something happened. A couple in the neighborhood whom I knew well and who had a kid the age of my daughter suffered a heavy loss at one of their businesses. As things worsened, so did their relationship with lots of tension. The wife took it out on the husband, who would just withdraw himself from the situation with the help of alcohol and another woman. It destroyed the marriage and began to corrupt the wife’s relationship with the little girl. 

I saw it all, and although I was a terribly critical person in those years, I never judged her for how she handled the situation. Instead, something else happened: I realized that I didn’t want to let it happen to myself. No matter how hopeless the situation seemed, I decided that I won’t let it ruin my life or my relationship with my daughter. I just realized that I might as well act calmly and cheerfully, because no amount of worry and anxiety will get me out of that deep pit. 

I know it sounds logical, but at that time this realization hit my whole being. It wasn’t simply a thought, it sank right into my guts, and I’ll be forever grateful for it to that couple.

And now, back to the Bible verses I promised you earlier. 

1. Cast your burden on the Lord, and He will sustain you (Psalm 55:22)
2. Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28)
3. For I, the Lord your God, will hold your right hand, saying to you, ‘Fear not, I will help you’ (Isaiah 41:13)
4. Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand (Isaiah 41:10)
5. Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you (1 Peter 5:6, 7)

To put it shortly, with an optimally functioning crown chakra you, have faith and an ever present certainty of being taken care of.

Having run through the above analysis, it becomes clear that as a general rule, an under-functioning root or crown chakra and an over-functioning heart chakra will make you more susceptible to the negative effects of stress. 

In the next post, similarly to this one, I want to examine the chakras that have an influence on finding your true self and your true purpose in your life. And, until then, in case there is any aspect of life that you’d be interested in having a look at from the point of view of the chakras, let me know in a comment!😉

Stress relieving exercise by Anamé Program:

https://youtu.be/L0wwk5ShIw4

Stress relieving excercise in case of HBP, panic, reflux, pregnancy or other conditions when the prone position is contra indicated:

https://youtu.be/3OlJM2T-Q7Q

If you look around in this amazing world we call the internet, you’ll find tons of useful information about managing stress and pressure. Among the top ten you’ll surely find exercise, diet, suggestions to eat and sleep well, breathing and relaxation techniques like yoga and meditation.

These are all great pieces of advice, and if you’re interested in them also from the point of view of Karma Killer Yoga, then I invite you to read my earlier posts [links here] as well.

Here, I’d like to give you a perspective that’s more specific to Karma Killer Yoga by Anamé Program. First, let’s have a look at a practical approach I found on the website of the American Heart Organization:

Negative stress can keep you from feeling and performing your best — mentally, physically and emotionally. But no one’s life is completely stress-free. It’s important to know how to manage the stress in your life. Try these simple techniques for dealing with it.

-Positive Self-Talk

Let’s be honest, we all talk to ourselves! Sometimes we talk out loud but usually we do it in our heads. Self-talk can be positive (“I can do this” or “everything will be OK”) or negative (“I’ll never get better” or “I’m so stupid”). Negative self-talk increases stress. Positive self-talk can help you calm down and control stress. With practice, you can learn to shift negative thoughts to positive ones.

For example:

Negative to Positive

“I can’t do this.”> “I’ll do the best I can. I’ve got this.”

“Everything is going wrong.” > “I can handle this if I take one step at a time.”

“I hate it when this happens.” > “I know how to deal with this; I’ve done it before.”

“I feel helpless and alone.”> “I can reach out and get help if I need it.”

“I can’t believe I screwed up. > “I’m human, and we all make mistakes.”

To really make it work, practice positive self-talk every day — in the car, at your desk, before you go to bed or whenever you notice negative thoughts. It’s a great practice to teach kids, too!

What this part basically says is that try to control what you have control over. You don’t have control over how your boss talks to you. But you can gain control over how you think or feel about it – your entire internal environment. And if I told you that it’s possible to change your thinking pattern with less thinking, would you believe it? Later I’ll get back to this but first let’s break down what happens in a how-your-boss-talks-to-you situation:

1. Your boss talks to you in an unacceptable way: he or she may be unjust or can simply have a bad day and take it out on you.
2. The rest of the day is shadowed by this incident. It stays with you all day at the back of your mind, feeling bad about yourself or about what happened, being angry or unable to grasp what’s going on, as yesterday everything seemed to be just fine.
3. You replay the conversation in your head over and over again. You analyze all the things that have (and haven’t) been said. What you should’ve said but didn’t. How it’d have been the best to react to that certain accusation.

Of course, it could be any other conflict – with your mom, your child, a close friend or your spouse. What basically happens is that after the conflict the stress factor is gone, you keep it alive in your mind.

Conflict induces stress, but your body can tolerate it relatively well. Depending on many factors (like age, gender, personal adaptive mechanisms, social relationships, etc.) individual responses to stress, pressure and their effects may vary, but as a general rule, it is safe to say that stress is more harmful when it’s elongated. Some studies have also found that short term stress can have beneficial effects that enhances physical and mental performance as well as immune response. An NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information) article approaches this topic the following way (in case you’re interested in the whole article, it is linked at the end of this post):

[…] it is also important to appreciate that the process of evolution did not select for the biological stress response to sicken, handicap, or kill us, but rather to help us survive. A psycho-physiological stress response is one of nature’s fundamental survival mechanisms. Without a fight-or-flight stress response, a lion has no chance of catching a gazelle, just as the gazelle has no chance of escape. Thus, during short-term stress, multiple physiological systems are activated to enable survival. Dhabhar et al. first proposed that just as the short-term stress response prepares the cardiovascular, musculoskeletal and neuroendocrine systems for fight or flight, under certain conditions, stress may similarly prepare the immune system and the brain for challenges (e.g., wounding, infection, figuring out an escape route, tackling a job interview, running a race, etc.) that may be imposed by a stressor (e.g., predator, or, in modern times, a medical/surgical procedure, professional opportunity, athletic competition, etc.). Since then, numerous studies have shown in humans and animals, that short-term stress experienced at the time of immune activation induces a significant enhancement of the ensuing immune response. Studies have also shown short-term stress induced enhancement of mental performance.

[…]

It is known that stress can be harmful when it is chronic or long lasting, however, it is often overlooked that a stress response has salubrious adaptive effects in the short run. Therefore, a major distinguishing characteristic of stress is the duration of the biological stress response. Short-term stress has been defined as stress that lasts for a period of minutes to hours, and chronic stress as stress that persists for several hours per day for weeks or months. Dysregulation of the circadian cortisol rhythm is one marker that appears to coincide with the deleterious effects of chronic stress. The intensity of stress can be gauged by the peak levels of stress hormones, neurotransmitters, and other physiological changes such as increases in heart rate and blood pressure, and could affect the amount of time for which these changes persist during stress and following the cessation of stress.

According to the above, chronic stress persists for several hours per day for weeks or months. The conflict with your boss described above doesn’t happen every day. But think about all the tiny conflicts of a day: the unfriendly remark of a colleague, the unreasonably honking and cursing driver, the doctor, who didn’t explain the possible side effects of a treatment to your dad, your child getting a bad or an unfair grade or you getting late from an appointment. 

Now, I don’t know about you, but this is how I used to react to such everyday negativities before practicing Karma Killer Yoga by Anamé Program:

1. Judgement. I immediately began to judge and blame the other person, myself or the circumstances or these three in any possible combination.
2. Narratives. I came up with stories and explanations for the other’s behavior, setting theories of how they think about the other sex or what kind of relationship they must have had with their moms.🙂 
3. Exaggerated criticism. I always found something to criticize. People, including myself, the turn of events, situations were rarely good enough for me, I almost always found a weak spot or a flaw I could complain or be discontent about.

If you are a human like me, one or two things of the above probably sounds familiar. And what effect do you think they have on an initial, a certain factor induced stress? Elongate it, you’re correct.

And now, back to the AHO tips to manage stress, which I’ve knocked up for you with my own experience, a Karma Killer Yoga exercise and an Anamé lifestyle goodie😉

The below AHO tips are basically coping mechanisms for short term and long term stress and pressure.

With the free exercises of Karma Killer Yoga you can benefit from the immediate relief as well as the long term effects of living your life on a higher energy level. These exercises, which are perfect for beginners as well, can help you get rid of the negative, stress persevering thought patterns as well as get more conscious about what type of food and other external stimuli – that may affect your stress level and the way you respond to pressure – you allow into your life. 

Out of the three tips I want to share with you, one is about the mindset, the other offers an immediate and also a long term relief on a physical and emotional level. I’ll also give you a lifestyle tip, that’s probably outside the frames of the obvious (but very helpful!) sleep well – eat well – exercise – socialize four in hand. Applied together you can get great results already in a couple of days, depending on the severity of the stress. To enhance the effect further try to make sure that you eliminate sugar and gluten from your diet and make it more plant based with some fresh raw fruits and veggies for each meal. And I try to include some sort of an exercise into your daily routine, even if it’s only going out for a walk for fifteen minutes, for a start. 

And if you’re interested in more lifestyle tips you can apply for even better results, see my earlier posts. So let’s get back to AHO a bit shaken up and complemented.😉

-Top 10 Emergency Stress-Stoppers

Emergency stress stoppers are actions to help you defuse stress in the moment. You may need different stress stoppers for different situations, and sometimes it helps to combine them. Here are some ideas:

Count to 10 before you speak or react.

Take a few slow, deep breaths until you feel your body un-clench a bit.

Go for a walk, even if it’s just to the restroom and back. It can help break the tension and give you a chance to think things through.

Try a quick meditation or prayer to get some perspective.

If it’s not urgent, sleep on it and respond tomorrow. This works especially well for stressful emails and social media trolls.

Walk away from the situation for a while, and handle it later once things have calmed down.

Break down big problems into smaller parts. Take one step at a time, instead of trying to tackle everything at once.

Turn on some chill music or an inspirational podcast to help you deal with road rage.

Take a break to pet the dog, hug a loved one or do something to help someone else.

Work out or do something active. Exercise is a great antidote for stress.

And here goes your extra Karma Killer Yoga tip for immediate (and long term!) stress relief: 

The stress relieving exercise by Anamé Program

This free exercise of Karma Killer Yoga (link below) is capable of relieving stress immediately, as well as contributing to a general calmer attitude. Stress usually goes along with shallow, faster chest breathing. The exercise helps to drain the excess tension from the chest, promotes to let go negative feelings and assists the body to return to a deeper, slower breathing pattern.

It’s most beneficial when practiced every day but works well as an immediate tranquilizer as well.

Practiced regularly it can help normalize high blood pressure, reduce anxiety or panic and promote a general feeling of stability.

-Stress-Busting Activities

Doing things you enjoy is a natural way to relieve stress and find your happy place. Even when you’re down, you may find pleasure in simple things like going for a walk, catching up with a friend, or reading a good book. When stress makes you feel bad, do something that makes you feel good, even if only for 10 or 15 minutes.

1. Find inspiration in stressful situations and pressure

Here come some more tips for activities, similar to those of the previous point. So let’s see what I can add here from the point of view of Karma Killer Yoga and Anamé lifestyle.

Short and long term coping strategies are both useful and inevitable. But there are true treasures hidden in the attitude to see what certain stress factors or pressing circumstances require from us and how we can grow, how we can develop with their help.

As for pressure, the Queen and David Bowie suggest giving love one more chance:

The way you look at a stressful situation is a determining factor in how you cope with it in the short term, and also as regards to how you cope with the pressure of stress in the long run in general. The more you’re able to see it as a challenge, a problem to solve, the more you’ll be able to treat it. That way you’ll see more and more the gifts that a stressful period or situation can bring. You may learn skills or get a new perspective and therefore have the opportunity to evolve.

I’ve recently had a two week period with quite an extreme workload. Before I approached those two weeks thinking about it as a survivors’ camp. I planned everything I could in advance and had seriously thought that somehow I just had to endure what was about to come. 

And what came was in many aspects unexpected. First, I was aware that I didn’t have any excess energy for activities that keep me from performing my very best, like spending time on social media above the necessary. The only way to make it was to keep focused and effective. Even complaining about it would take up too much of my energy. So I simply concentrated on what had to be done. 

And I could do it much better than I expected. Much better, actually, than ever before. So, there you go. Just stay open to any stressful situation and pressure and look for the ways it can help you develop and be receptive to the message it wants to convey. And if it doesn’t go the way you hoped it would, be patient, appreciate yourself for the effort and be aware that it’s a process. You cannot fail; it’s not like in school.

2. Start small – In your apartment: find a spot where you invite calmness and structure

It’s easier to respond to everyday stress and pressure if your home is a place for charging, calmness and cherishing yourself. In case you don’t have the time or resources to rethink your whole apartment and organize it accordingly, just find a corner or a spot which can be a true island of relaxation and tranquility. Notice that having such a spot in your home will make it easier to cope with difficult, stressful situations also when you’re out and about.

Stress and pressure management on the level of the chakras

I’d mention 4 chakras here, all of which play an important role as to your general attitude toward stress and pressure, and also in how you’re able to manage them in your everyday life. They are:

3rd eye 

Root chakra

Heart 

Crown chakra

In my next post I’ll show you how each of them contribute to stress response and pressure management, how the practice of Karma Killer Yoga by Anamé Program can help them be in better shape and what this whole thing has to do with a higher energy level life. See you there😉

Stress relieving exercise by Anamé Program:

https://youtu.be/L0wwk5ShIw4

Stress relieving excercise in case of HBP, panic, reflux, pregnancy or other conditions when the prone position is counter indicated:

https://youtu.be/3OlJM2T-Q7Q

The above quoted NCBI article: 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5964013/