Marika Aalja
The grip of insecurities
My story
Marika comes from a small rural village, and as the daughter of a collective-farm chairman she always felt she had to be neat and quick. Her expectations of herself were high, and so was the pressure to live up to the expectations of adults.
With children it was different. With them it felt good, easy, direct. Already in the sixth grade Marika knew that in the future she wanted to work with children. And that is how life turned out.
She noticed that working as a teacher she found it easy to connect with children, but tended to avoid their parents. At some point Marika noticed how, in conversation, she would gladly listen but keep her own opinion to herself. She often formulated her message in her mind but did not say it out loud. Becoming a head of studies brought frequent presentations and speeches. For Marika this was a real challenge. Later too, when preparing as a trainer, what gave her difficulty was dealing with her emotions, not mastering the topic and passing it on. Before a training day she could not fall asleep because of anxiety and worry. This is how difficulty falling asleep began, and the exhaustion and sleepless nights kept piling up.
Soon Marika joined the values-education trainer-counsellor programme at the University of Tartu Centre for Ethics, where, meeting in a smaller group, the Silence Minutes activity began. During the Silence Minutes trainer programme she was able to observe Practical Consciousness teacher Helena Lass training others, and she wished to be just as calm and knowledgeable. She learned that Helena is a student of Ingvar Villido and that the same knowledge can be learned in Practical Consciousness courses. In autumn 2015 she began her studies, and she is still studying today.
Free yourself from anxiety about communicating
The Silence Minutes trainer programme gave her tools for noticing emotions and thoughts and creating distance from them. The disturbing emotions and thoughts themselves, however, remained. In the evenings before falling asleep, or just before a presentation, what Marika needed was precisely to be free of anxiety. She mastered the technique for releasing a disturbing emotion in Practical Consciousness Class II, and after some practice the changes came quickly.
Taking part in Practical Consciousness Class I, Marika was amazed by its systematic nature, simplicity and logic: “At times it seemed almost too simple: there is an apple and there is me, and between us there is awareness. The me who is looking at the apple is my real self. And I can notice what state I am in – my anxiety and worry – and change something myself.” She immediately began using the techniques of Practical Consciousness Class II in the evenings before going to bed, to finally sort out her falling asleep. And of course also before presentations, speeches and trainings.
“At one training, a participant somehow found it hard to accept what I had said. I listened to their question and explanations and caught that their tone of voice and resistance were affecting me emotionally. I quickly used the emotion-release technique and, indeed, before they had finished, I was already free of tension and could calmly and kindly share explanations and clarifications and give examples through stories,” Marika describes how today she is able to act in a completely different way in situations that used to cause her anxiety.
What does life become when you start releasing these emotions?
- you experience peace, because anxiety no longer gets triggered
- if any emotions do still get triggered, you already know how to release them while the situation is happening
- you don’t overreact and you sleep well – constant exhaustion becomes a thing of the past
- you discover what life is like without negative, depressing feelings
- you know how to rest and be with yourself or your loved ones without impatience or guilt
- you free yourself from health problems caused by negative emotions
What will you learn in Practical Consciousness Class I & II?
In Class I: CLARITY you get to know your inner structure, the five-body system, as a map and compass for orienting yourself in both your inner and outer world. You gain more clarity and achieve balance and focus in every area of life. This is the foundation on which you can start working with a problem area in more detail.
In Class II: EMOTIONS you learn to release emotions that spoil your quality of life – not only the emotions that lead to burnout, but also anxiety, depression, anger, the need to achieve, and so on. You are able to free yourself from a disturbing emotion instantly and easily. Even more importantly, this process frees you from the grip of ingrained patterns.
In Class I & II you also learn to live in the present moment. You find out how to use consciousness in a practical way, how to stay focused and creative in any situation, and you gain an experience of your real self, which is one of the most important cornerstones for your whole life.
A fast and lasting change that makes life possible in natural inner clarity and peace
While working, you find yourself in a good flow more and more often – everything is much more enjoyable to do when your activity is accompanied not by tension-building emotions but by inner lightness and calm attentiveness. What happens in the work environment no longer turns into a personal ordeal. Whether it is a new computer program, a difficult colleague or a misunderstanding with a client, you can notice tension arising within you and release it right away. You no longer need to draw an artificial line between work and private life when what happened at work does not carry on as an emotional ordeal at home, and vice versa.
What happens after the course?
You don’t need any special strength or willpower to start releasing negative emotions. You don’t have to release them according to any programme.
You release only those emotions that bother you the most. Of course, the more intensively you release, the faster the changes happen.
After the Practical Consciousness course you can join continued learning, so that you are not left alone with your practice – so that you stay firmly on your new path of development!
Video lesson for students in grades 9–12: “Feelings and Relationships. The Possibility of Choice.”
How is this different from everything I have tried so far?
Practical Consciousness does not dictate to you what is right to feel or how to behave. It does not teach you to dispute or avoid anything, nor to acquire more of anything: positive experiences, temporarily soothing substitute activities, self-suggestions, better thoughts or emotions. No medication and no talking through your worries will release emotions that keep getting triggered again every so often, reminding you of themselves. Emotions are released through the deliberate application of the properties of consciousness.
On the course you learn techniques for a lifetime. Once you integrate them into your daily life and, as a result of this practice, free yourself from emotions that harm your mental health, you will never again need to attend yet another stress or burnout training. Once you have freed yourself from the emotions that cause anxiety and depression, they no longer disturb your life, and the negative impact of these states on your body and brain chemistry also ceases.
This course teaches you to free yourself from the emotions that sustain the state of stress leading to burnout, anxiety and a negative mood. You get to experience freedom from involuntarily triggered reactions that limit your life and cause distress. You rediscover that there is lightness, goodness and beauty in life. You learn how to reduce everything that keeps you treading water and makes you repeat what you have experienced in the past, mistaking learned reaction patterns for your identity.
Marika in the media
Marika's students share their experience
Start your journey today
Practical Consciousness teaches people to live without disturbing thoughts and emotions, to access the qualities of their consciousness and to live permanently in the flow state