Sparkle Up Your Life Podcast

Anja
  • 0.0 (0)
  • Philosophy
  • Daily

90+ days challenge to Sparkle Up your Life, starting with 20-30 min each day. Available on sparkleupyourlife.substack.com projecthumanexperience.substack.com

  1. Sep 7

    The Choice: The moment we claim the power.

    I am lying in my bed as something wakes me from my slumber in the middle of the night. It is pitch dark. Somehow, no matter how hard I try, I can’t open my eyes. I am not able to move. My arms, my legs, my whole body feel so heavy. So weighed down. And I just sense that, to my left, there is a presence there. A dark figure with bad intentions. Looking at me. Staring at me. I become more and more afraid. My heart is racing. My mind is screaming. And I can’t move. I can’t do anything. What can I do? I wish someone were with me. I wish someone would protect me. “Help me. Anyone. Help me.” I scream inside my mind. The figure starts coming closer. One step closer to the bed. One step closer to where I am lying unmovable. Its presence makes me feel even heavier. It makes me feel more helpless. More powerless. I can protect myself. I want to protect myself. If only I could move. I scream inside my mind, then a moment of clarity comes. Instead of fighting it, instead of building more tension in my body, I let it go. On my left, a figure of light appears. It waves a hand over me, and light surrounds my body. The heaviness is still there. I still can’t move. But its weight is lifted even though I am locked in place. Even though I know heavy shackles still bind my wrists. I am able to breathe. I am able to think. One by one, I begin picking apart the dark pieces of me. I start with the shackles on my left wrist. As I take them apart, the light absorbs them. The figure on my right shudders. Then I begin working on my right wrist. I struggle to remove the shackles, and the dark figure moves closer. But the figure of light moves closer, too. As if softly whispering to me. As if cheering me on. You can do it. With more effort. With more focus. With more dedication. I want to get rid of these shackles. I want to get rid of this heaviness. I pick them apart. Finally… Finally, the shackles fall from my wrists. I can move my hands. I hug myself. But my legs are still heavy. My legs are still held in place. I am still in my bed, unable to leave. The being of light on my left and the dark being on my right are locked in a silent battle. I cannot see their eyes, yet something in me knows they are staring at one another. Measuring their power against each other. And I am in the middle. I have all the power. The power to decide. Will I stay in these shackles? Will I stay with this heaviness? Or will I fight for lightness? Will I fight for life? No, I just cannot stay the silent observer anymore. I gather power in my chest. I gather love in my hands, in the embrace I give myself. The power builds. It builds. It builds. Until it explodes. In a single moment, it takes away all the heaviness. All the blackness. All the darkness in my legs. My legs, my whole body, are free. The darkness is gone. Only light remains. The figure of light on my left inclines its head toward me in a silent bow. We smile at each other. Knowing, once again, that my choice has won. My choice to claim my own power. My choice to choose the light. Get full access to Project: Human Experience at projecthumanexperience.substack.com/subscribe

  2. Sep 6

    The Clearing: Releasing what was never yours

    I am walking in a forest. It’s dark outside. The full moon shines through the trunks and leaves. I am cautious, careful as I make my way along a path tangled with roots, lit by just enough moonlight to guide me. “Good thing it’s a full moon tonight,” I tell myself. “Good thing there are only a few clouds in the sky.” I am walking through the forest to reach the other side. “I need to get through. I must get through,” my mind whispers louder and louder. I am not afraid, but I am anxious. With every step I take, the tension builds inside me. A tingling feeling tells me someone is watching me. Someone sees me, even though I don’t see them. I look around, but I don’t see anyone. An owl hoots. Ooh. Ooh. And far, far away, a fox laughs. Ha, ha, ha. Ha, ha, ha. Each sound tightens my body. More urgency to finally get through. And just as I think, finally. I am reaching the other side of the forest; I step into a clearing. Disappointment and anxiety cripple my body. My muscles tense. I already thought I was done with this. There, a lone figure stands in the middle. Oh my God. My heart starts racing. My thoughts start racing. What’s that? I did not expect that. My body freezes. The hooded figure comes closer. Step by step. Closer and closer. I scream at my body to move. My mind races. Move. Move. Run. The voice inside my head trembles with tension, begging. Please. Please. Just move before this hooded figure reaches me. But to no avail. It doesn’t work. The figure comes closer. Closer. And even though I don’t see his face, I know it’s him. It’s a man from my dreams. The one who was always coming for me. He stretches out his arm and gently—oh, so gently—touches my face. He tucks a strand of hair behind my ear and slowly traces his fingers down my neck. Down my shoulder. Down my arm. Down my hand. “It’s okay,” he says. “You have something that does not belong to you.” As the words leave his mouth, I begin trembling. The tension still keeps me frozen in place. A deep pit opens in my stomach. It slowly fills with something uncomfortable. Something rising higher and higher. It moves into my chest. Then into my throat. As it reaches my throat, a tingling begins in my mouth. I open my mouth in a silent scream. From my mouth, a small black snake begins climbing out. Then another. And another. One after the other, they fall onto the forest floor. “That’s all you need to release,” he says. “It’s okay.” He gently caresses me as my whole body convulses. More and more snakes leave me. It’s a strange feeling. With every snake leaving my body, I feel lighter. But my thoughts… My thoughts are filled with pain. I cannot understand what is happening. Where is this coming from? I want it to stop. I keep screaming inside my head. “It’s okay,” he hushes me. “It’s okay. You are so brave. You are so courageous.” He strokes my hair. He brushes my lips. Again and again, until no more snakes emerge. “You are not done yet, though, dear,” he says. “You are not done yet.” Now he stands behind me as my mind screams again. What is he doing now? Run. Run. But I cannot. I am still frozen in place. His hands touch my head. They slide down the back of my neck. Down my back. Then they stop. They are holding on to something. As he begins to pull, my entire back tenses. It feels as though someone is pulling a root from my spine. As though someone is pulling a root from my entire back. Slowly. Slowly. Slowly. He pulls it farther and farther away. The tension grows stronger and stronger. I just want it all to end. While one hand pulls, the other gently caresses the opposite side of my body. It’s strange. To experience such gentleness alongside such pain. Sweet and sour. Pain and comfort at the same time. “Just one last pull,” he whispers into my ear. “Then you’ll be free.” He pulls. I scream. I scream from the pain. And then… It’s done. He touches my back again. His touch is soft. Cold. Gentle. Healing. I don’t know whether I actually have wounds on my back. But they feel as though they are healing. “You are done, dear,” he says. “You are healed now. Whole. You are fully you.” He continues with that soft, gentle whisper that brings goosebumps to my tired, pain-exhausted body: “There is nothing left that was never yours. You are done.. “And I am so proud of you,” he whispers into my ear. “You are free now. Free of the thoughts that were never yours. Free of the expectations others imposed on you. Free of your need to control absolutely everything and everyone in your life. You are free to feel. You are free to think. You are free to create the life you want. Now it’s your time. Go and use this opportunity.” As his final whispers fade, I feel my body move again. The full moon still shines above. Only a few clouds drift across the sky. I stumble. I fall to my knees. And I cry. I cry as I have never cried before. When the tears finally stop, I turn around, searching for his cloaked figure. But no one is there. I am alone in the clearing, in the middle of the night, beneath a clear sky lit by the moon and only a few clouds. Did I imagine it? Did it truly happen? I don’t know. But I am on my way out of the woods now. And I am carrying calm. I am carrying myself. The raw version of myself. The true version of myself. The clear version of myself. Get full access to Project: Human Experience at projecthumanexperience.substack.com/subscribe

  3. Sep 3

    Where Whispers and Roars started

    You see, on one night of a full moon, on the 25th of March 2024, I lay in my bed. Pictures came to me. Thoughts came to me. Words came to me. Words that you will read in the next few posts and in the next few short stories. Those were revelations of stories that I’ve been telling myself. Dark stories that were holding me back. Yet, surprisingly, as each of those stories started playing in my head, they brought fear, tension, pressure, and heaviness. But each of them ended with light. Each ended with the message that I went through it all, and I am stronger for it. From Whispers to Roars is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. I faced each of my inner demons. And I hope, oh, I so hope, dear reader, that you face yours too. Because, you see, you are not alone in facing the darkness. You are not alone in facing the dark stories you live through each day. You are not alone. So many of us—dare I say every one of us—face those dark stories we tell ourselves throughout our lives. In my humble belief, not one single person, living or dead, is without those dark stories. Yet, we so rarely share them. We so rarely speak about them because those dark stories, my dear reader, are our dark truth. They are the shadow side of ourselves. The fear that we are not good enough. That we are not worthy. The fear that we are different. That we don’t belong. The fear that we are faking our lives. That we are pretenders. That we are liars. And, you see, the truth is that we become all of that because we choose to believe those stories. We choose to make those dark stories our truth. Because one day, back in our past, we decided they were true. And we continued living them. We continue living them until one day we realise that while those stories might feel true, they don’t have to be. Or at least they are not the full truth. We can challenge them. Change them. We can decide to tell a different story. Add to it. Or write a new story completely. We can decide to bring light into the darkness. We can find light in the darkness. And we can watch it unravel into this amazing, colourful, beautiful life. So, dear reader, I do hope these stories become your light. Become your call to create light in the darkness. To find your own spark in the darkness. To find your warmth. And to not let your flame be extinguished. I love you. Now, go and love yourself. This is a continuous collection of stories. Thank you for reading From Whispers to Roars is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Project: Human Experience at projecthumanexperience.substack.com/subscribe

  4. Aug 11

    The tiny promises that make you trust yourself again

    There is something we don’t talk about enough when we talk about confidence. Sometimes, the problem isn’t that you don’t believe in yourself. It’s that you don’t trust yourself. You’ve promised yourself you would exercise. You promised yourself you would journal every day, that you would leave that relationship or apply for that job.You promised yourself you would rest more and speak up. And then life happened. There was always something that came up. Maybe other people needed you; you ran out of time. Maybe you were waiting for motivation or were afraid you would make the wrong decision. Maybe you were trying to be perfect. And slowly, those promises disappeared. So many of those promises that we give to ourselves every single day disappear. And every single one of those broken promises teaches your brain that maybe what you say and what you tell yourself is actually not true. And that starts eroding your own confidence. Because if I don’t believe in what I’m saying, how can I be confident? If I’m constantly proving to myself that I’m not even able to hold promises to myself, how can I rely on myself? The good news is that trust can be rebuilt. And it doesn’t happen through more thinking. The trust is built through evidence. The same way that we trust other people because they’re consistent. They do what they promise us to do. The same way, we need to build trust with ourselves. We trust ourselves because we do what we promise ourselves to do. Here is how you can start trusting yourself again: Start incredibly small When we want to change our lives, we often make the promise too big. We want to completely reinvent ourselves. We decide we’re going to exercise every day, journal every morning, meditate for thirty minutes, eat perfectly, read more, sleep better and finally become the person we’ve been imagining. And then we wonder why we don’t stick with it. But the idea right now here is not for you to completely reinvent your life with this one promise that you make to yourself. You need to make it so simple, so convenient, so easy for you that it will be impossible to break it. Because consistency is more important than intensity. Consistency is more important than doing something big, at least at this first step. Through that action, through that consistency, your self-respect will grow. Your confidence will grow. Your trust will grow. Every kept promise will become an evidence for you. And you will start building up the momentum that always beats the motivation or discipline. Make Yourself that One Tiny Promise Notice where you are constantly proving to yourself that you cannot rely on yourself. Then choose one promise that is manageable and sustainable. Something that you’ll be able to easily achieve absolutely every single day. If you are having doubts, if it’s too impressive, then downsize. Go to the smallest possible thing that you will do. * Maybe you’ll drink a glass of water more. * Maybe you’ll read one page every day. * Maybe you’ll stretch for two minutes at home. * Maybe you’ll write one sentence every single day. * Maybe you’ll step outside on the balcony for five minutes. It doesn’t matter what it is. As long as you’re sticking and proving to yourself, to your brain, to your body and to yourself that you can stick with it and that you can rely on yourself, that you can trust yourself. Do it for one week. Then two. Notice what is changing. Once you see that this is something that you’re consistently doing, then it’s time to make it bigger. Then it’s time to move forward. Build your inner best friend There is another part of this that matters. You’re not just building a habit. You’re building a relationship with yourself. What you’re doing with all of this, you’re basically building your inner best friend. You’re treating yourself like you would treat someone else whom you deeply love. * Would you constantly disappoint other people? * Would you expect perfection from other people? * Would you constantly criticize other people? You wouldn’t. You would encourage them. You would consistently do your best to show up for them. You would expect them to make mistakes and it would be okay. So I want you to build that relationship with yourself as well. I want you to encourage yourself. I want you to be successful and to be successful, meaning you having your own back. Because then you trust yourself. Then you can be confident in that. And then you can create a big change in your life that you want. Every big change starts with something tiny, tiny, tiny. One promise Maybe confidence isn’t something you need to find. Maybe it’s something you build. One action. One kept promise. One piece of evidence at a time. So what I want to leave with you as the end message is this: Confidence comes from trust. Trust is what follows action, what follows the proof. And that action starts with one tiny intention, one tiny promise. So today, make yourself one. Make it small. Make it easy. And keep it. Then do it again tomorrow. And again. Until, little by little, you become someone you know you can count on. Your confidence won’t come from telling yourself that you can trust yourself. It will come from proving it. Love, Anja Get full access to Project: Human Experience at projecthumanexperience.substack.com/subscribe

    The tiny promises that make you trust yourself again

  5. Aug 4

    You don't need more certainty. You need more curiosity.

    In this episode of the Sparkle Up Your Life Podcast, we’re exploring why so many of us spend our lives searching for the right decision instead of becoming curious about what life is trying to teach us. Our brains crave predictability. We want the perfect career, the perfect relationship, the perfect timing, and the perfect plan before we take action. But life rarely offers guarantees. Instead of waiting until you know exactly what to do, what if you approached life with curiosity? In this episode, you’ll discover: * Why certainty often keeps us stuck. * How perfectionism and overthinking disguise themselves as preparation. * The difference between seeking guarantees and seeking growth. * How changing your questions can completely change your perspective. * Why curiosity is the foundation of noticing, experimenting, and connecting. * A simple daily exercise to strengthen your curiosity muscle. Your tiny challenge: Today, write down 30 questions about your life, yourself, or the world around you. Don’t worry about finding the perfect answers. The goal is simply to practice being curious again. Then choose one question and start a conversation: * Ask a friend. * Message someone you trust. * Share it in the comments. * Start a meaningful discussion. Curiosity grows when it’s shared. Remember: You don’t need to know exactly where your life is going. You simply need enough curiosity to take the next tiny step. If this episode inspired you, share it with another woman who might need this reminder today. 💛 Keep noticing.💛 Keep experimenting.💛 Keep connecting.✨ And keep sparkling up your life. Love, Anja Get full access to Project: Human Experience at projecthumanexperience.substack.com/subscribe

    You don't need more certainty. You need more curiosity.

  6. Aug 1

    The three steps to falling in love with your life again

    In this episode of the Sparkle Up Your Life Podcast, we’re exploring why so many of us lose our spark… not because our lives are falling apart, but because we’ve slowly become disconnected from ourselves. I share the simple three-step framework that has helped me (and many of my coaching clients) feel more alive again: ✨ Notice – Become aware of what energises you, drains you, and makes you lose track of time. ✨ Experiment – Stop waiting for certainty. Instead, introduce tiny experiments that help you discover what truly lights you up. ✨ Connect – Reconnect with yourself, other people, nature, creativity, and purpose. The places where we remember who we really are. This isn’t about quitting your job, moving across the world, or reinventing your entire life overnight. It’s about making one small choice today that helps you feel 1% more alive than yesterday. Small moments create extraordinary change. If this episode resonated with you, I’d love for you to share it with another woman who might need this reminder. 💛 Keep noticing.💛 Keep experimenting.💛 Keep connecting.✨ And keep sparkling. Love, Anja Get full access to Project: Human Experience at projecthumanexperience.substack.com/subscribe

    The three steps to falling in love with your life again

  7. Jul 31

    Identify that one decision and make that choice! Week 31, 2026

    What if the thing keeping you stuck isn’t a lack of information, but a decision you haven’t made yet? In this episode of Sparkle Up Your Life, I share a very real decision I’ve been navigating: whether to stay where I am or create space for something new. After weeks of questions, possibilities and overthinking, I realised that many of the smaller decisions in my life were connected to one wider choice. Once I identified it, I experimented with it: I spent several days living as if I had already chosen each possible path and paid attention to what happened: in my thoughts, emotions and body. Eventually, the answer became much clearer. This episode is about recognising when reflection is still serving you, and when waiting has simply become a way of postponing action. So I’ll leave you with two questions: What is the one decision that could move everything else forward? And perhaps more importantly: How would you feel if nothing changed? Sometimes, you don’t need another answer. You need to make the choice. ✨ Get full access to Project: Human Experience at projecthumanexperience.substack.com/subscribe

    Identify that one decision and make that choice! Week 31, 2026

  8. Jul 11

    Participation - Sparkle Up Your Life - Day 90/90

    When we imagine change, we often picture dramatic moments.A new career, new relationship, a breakthrough, life that suddenly feels different. If there’s one thing this journey reminds us, it’s this: Real change is usually much quieter. It happens in the way you think. The questions you ask. The conversations you’re finally willing to have and the habits you return to. The moments when you choose curiosity over certainty, compassion over criticism, and action over waiting. And sometimes, when you look back, you realize something surprising. Your life may not look dramatically different. Some dreams are still unfolding. Some questions are still unanswered. Some chapters are still waiting to be written. But you are different. You respond differently. You notice opportunities you once overlooked. You recover more quickly. You trust yourself a little more.You carry yourself with a little more intention. And that matters. Life was never asking you to become perfect. It was asking you to become present. To stop waiting until everything is figured out before you start living. To celebrate progress without demanding perfection. To accept that growth is rarely linear. Some seasons are for building. Some are for healing. Some are simply for learning how to stay open while life unfolds. Perhaps that’s what a sparkled-up life has been about all along - creating a life you no longer want to escape. A life where you are an active participant. Where you notice the small joys. Take responsibility for your choices. Allow yourself to begin again. Again and again. That’s what growth looks like. Hundreds of small decisions and actions. So today, allow yourself instead of asking: “Have I changed enough?”to ask: “Am I more present than I was before?”“Am I participating in my life instead of simply watching it pass by?”“And what is one small choice I can make today that my future self will quietly thank me for?” A beautiful life isn’t built in one extraordinary moment. It’s built in ordinary moments that you choose to live intentionally. Thank you for walking this journey with me. And remember... Your life doesn’t need to be perfect to sparkle. It simply needs you to show up. With love,Anja ✨ Get full access to Project: Human Experience at projecthumanexperience.substack.com/subscribe

    Participation - Sparkle Up Your Life - Day 90/90
See All (97)

About

90+ days challenge to Sparkle Up your Life, starting with 20-30 min each day. Available on sparkleupyourlife.substack.com projecthumanexperience.substack.com

Information