Does this sound like you?

You ask yourself: Why don’t I feel more alive? Where did my energy go? How did I end up here?

You are not sure what to do: You feel stressed out, you’ve read great books on meditation, maybe you’ve made time to take courses and go to yoga classes, and still you feel disconnected, are not sleeping well, and are drowning in stress.

You feel like you’re coming up short and have no idea how to make this better, but deep down you know there must be a better way than this.

Yes there is!

In my experience, here are four things that might be keeping you stuck:

• Lack of  insight into what’s causing this and what would nourish your vital energy
• Making poor nutritional choices because of overwhelm and lack of focus
• Lost self-awareness when things get tough and you actually most need it
• When feeling stuck, panicking, feeling paralyzed and trying to fix things without clarity and a feeling of space

The key is not just what you do but how you do it:

• You feel so much better when you notice, understand and respect your needs right when they show up.
• Your life feels different when you see meaning in whatever you do.
• You do have the power to add effective breaks and make good choices throughout your day.
• You can notice intuitively when things don’t go well and you can create neuro-pathways to change this.
• You are much more energetic, resilient, and successful in everything you do if you refine your relationship to the present moment—and this is a skill you can easily cultivate.

You can build a life with less worry, stress and pain; and more clarity, joy, rest, and nourishing connections with yourself and everyone around you.

That’s what I and many of my clients have done, and if we’ve done it, then you can too. I like to call it: Finding stillness, meaning, and freedom in everyday life.

So who am I? I’ve done many types of work—I’ve been a nurse, art, music, and meditation teacher, and a writer. I’ve worked in hospitals, schools, in meditation centers, and as a musician. But coaching is where all of this really comes together. It’s my favorite work and it’s coming right from my heart. And if you want to know how that happened…

My Story

My wish has always been to brighten others lives. All my life I’ve wanted to bring more beauty, joy and, ease into the world, and yet it’s always been obvious that it’s not so easy for many of us to reach the positive states we long for.

I’m an introverted (INFJ) but highly energetic person (my Leo nature, perhaps). During college, I started my work-life as a musician, playing on stages in Europe with a popular folk band. I loved to make that offering of joy, but it only lasted for each performance. So I continued my education and became an art and music teacher, but I soon found that I didn’t agree with many aspects of traditional education. I was interested in expressing my love in teaching joy and peace more than facts. So to help in a more direct way, I became a nurse in my thirties and spent days and nights working in hospitals.

In between jobs I did long cycle trips all over the world. Meanwhile I steadily added yoga and meditation practice into my days. I thought it must be possible to bring all of this together in my daily life—but I failed every single shift at it. The theory and my teachers said it was possible to mix meditation with daily life, but it wasn’t easy for me.

My own path to discover the root of my suffering lead me to Buddhism, and I learned powerful and life-changing spiritual, somatic and meditative methods. But I wanted to go deeper, so in 2003 I became a nun and joined two back-to-back, three-year meditation retreats. This experience provided me with many of the answers I was seeking, but the journey of integrating that experience into daily life remained. I still had the strong wish to help others, and I felt pulled back into secular life to see if I now could find my path there.

It wasn’t until several years back working, initially as a nurse and caregiver for ill and dying people, that I really learned how to live a meditative life in our everyday world. People seemed to notice my calm and light cheerfulness and I was sometimes asked where that came from. So I started refining and teaching the skills I’d learned to friends and colleagues—and I saw over and over again, that we each have the capacity to develop a “meditative life” that fit us individually.

It is already a part of our biology, if we know how to look for it. By understanding our own mind-body system and learning to apply some simple and nourishing skills, we really can do this. It really is no different from learning anything else. We just need the intention, awareness, and a competent teacher…

…and that’s why I became a coach.

I coach bright and good hearted women who are struggling with worry, stress and overwhelm and who really want to find a way back home to more joy, balance, and love.

Fifteen years ago, before my meditation retreats, that was me! And it’s still me every once in a while, if I get triggered and lose my natural awareness and intuitive self-care. But those moments are rare and don’t last long anymore—because I have immediate skills at hand that work within seconds or minutes.

I work a lot these days. I enjoy working and I enjoy daily life, as busy, crazy, and full as it is. My heart is warm and well, because I’ve experienced that I really can be a source of joy, a relief from pain and hopelessness, and a guide to increasing awareness and love.

I don’t do my work by painting or teaching art anymore, I don’t do it for just an evening on stage with a CD to take home, but I do it by guiding others to understand themselves and learn the exact skills that cause a shift in the moment. And this integrates self-understanding, self-love and self-care.

These are skills and new habits that break the spell of mind-made confusion and suffering, that pacify the pain, and that allow for immediate relief. The more my clients establish these new habits in their daily lives, the more the worry and anxiety of a packed life that spins out of control when one more thing happens—dissolve on their own.

This makes room for self-trust, peace, confidence and courage to rise up inside and fill life with compassion and kindness, from the inside out.

Are you ready?

This lifestyle isn’t just for experienced meditators, this lifestyle is for anyone who knows their nervous system and knows what their sensitive spots are. This can be you!

I’d love to see you overcome whatever obstacles you experience, so that you can use your current life situation as the pathway to transform your experience, move forward, and be an inspiration for everyone around you.

With your own self-awareness, self-care, and your own intuitive clarity you can find the right path for yourself and the next steps to take. Let me show you how!

I believe that you’ll be a loving and competent guide for yourself. And I would love to be your companion on that journey to yourself. I’ll be your kind, inspiring, and maybe sometimes challenging coach along the way: Just kind awareness, experimental actions, and some new ideas to do things your way.

“Before I started working with Anka, I felt confused and disheartened. I was losing faith in myself, and my self-confidence and self-esteem were getting lower and lower. I was feeling anxious and stressed about how to deal with it all.

Thanks to Anka’s deep listening skills, wise feedback, accountability partnership, and extensive expertise in physical and spiritual health, I was able to re-claim my purpose and passion, and increase my productivity, using deeper insight and clarity. Now I’m moving ahead with confidence and focus, and a renewed sense that “Yes, I can manifest this goal! And I can feel good about it while I’m working to achieve it!” – Dr. Melanie Harth