Interview with Anna Maria Stark: "We are all entitled and called upon to show ourselves in our full greatness"

"Today I can see and feel how people deal with their own energy during a conversation. How their energy field changes when they talk about things that really correspond to them, or when they unconsciously try to portray something that they are not. And to what extent they are in contact with their own soul." Anna Maria Stark , author of the spiritual self-help guide "Soul Potentials" , talks about harmonious life paths, intuition and living out one's own innermost potential: "... learning to meet ourselves as soul beings leads us to a feeling of connection that, in my experience, surpasses everything else."

Your new book is called “Soul Potentials.” What does this term mean?

Anna Maria Stark: Deep down in our being, we all feel drawn to discover who or what is actually inside us. Every now and then, this subtle inner voice speaks up with gentle insistence, seeking our undivided attention for a moment. But we rarely devote ourselves to things that we initially see as having no concrete, everyday or visible use. Our soul is usually a very vague, tangible inner experience for us, from which we may not initially be able to derive any conclusive answers for our own lives. The title of the book is intended to indicate that every person can derive information from their own soul that can help enormously in the development of worldly potential, or often allows us to really recognize it for the first time. Almost everyone is interested in their soul and the information it contains about their own existence, as soon as they hear that this not only has internal but also concrete external effects.

Can you give two concrete examples?

Anna Maria Stark: A concrete example that I particularly focus on in the book is intuitive decision-making. The soul has the ability to give targeted answers that take into account much more information than the mind may know. If you act more closely on these inner cues, you will encounter more situations that absolutely meet your needs and seem like happy coincidences.

Another wonderful potential of the soul is the ability to see one's fellow human beings with different eyes. Only when you learn to look at the soul level behind the spoken words, the external appearance and the intellectual interpretation, do you gradually begin to understand who is actually inside the other person. What this person is originally meant to be as a being, what this person means to you and why he or she acts the way he or she does.

What motivated you to write the book?

Anna Maria Stark: It is one thing to be able to recognize exactly what the next step is for you, but it is something completely different to actually implement this knowledge in your own life. On this path to finally fully allowing the true soul personality behind your own person - with which you have identified most of the time - to penetrate, many people reach their own limits of trust. It is often not so easy to stand behind the things that you have recognized as absolutely right in your own soul. Because these answers sometimes provide a slightly different path in life than the one you have previously imagined.

I was motivated by the observation of how difficult it is for people to integrate these intuitive impulses into their lives. Because they simply lack the experience of dealing with their own intuition and the knowledge that things seem to fall into place in a fascinating way when you start to act on the inner cues. Of course, I myself am familiar with these insecurities and fears as a person. But when I empathize with my own being, there is nothing but enchanting clarity, certainty about my own existence and the clear indication that we are all entitled and called upon to show ourselves in our full greatness. Perhaps I can pass on some of this feeling to others through this book. Because learning to meet ourselves as soul beings leads us to a feeling of connection that, in my experience, surpasses everything else.

Who should read your book?

Anna Maria Stark: "Soul Potentials" is for everyone who is at a point in their life where they feel that there is a lack of real content. No matter how many external factors seem satisfactory. When you no longer recognize yourself in the things and people that surround you, or you simply cannot create the satisfaction that you long for. When you find it difficult to make decisions and then feel that the decisions you make are consistent in the long term. So it is a book for all those who have this longing to encounter situations in life that finally feel like their "own".

When did you first notice that you could see something in other people that many others didn't? How has your ability developed?

Anna Maria Stark: First of all, this subtle information is not hidden from anyone. The only question is whether you let it penetrate you, because this often requires the right motivation. For some, the motivation to deal with spiritual matters at some point is the desire for success; for others, perhaps, to finally have a fulfilling relationship, and for many, the initiator is the need to finally create a permanently satisfying feeling of well-being within themselves. For me, it was this deep longing to delve into the essence behind things and to connect with it.

As far back as I can remember, I have always been deeply touched when I could sense that someone was striving in a certain direction or telling me about things that were in absolute harmony with their actual soul intention. It was a wonderful feeling that made me instantly vibrate as one with the other person and feel them completely authentically. Over time, it became easier for me to distinguish a person's personality from their inner aspect, that is, from their soul structure. Today, I can see and feel how people deal with their own energy during a conversation. How their energy field changes when they talk about things that really correspond to them, or when they unconsciously try to portray something they are not. And to what extent they are in contact with their own soul at all.

What changes over time is the clarity about what you are actually feeling. And that happens to everyone who embarks on this path and dares to face their own feelings in their depth.

You are 26 years old and already give advice in life coaching. What do you say to critics who say that at your age you do not yet have the necessary life experience?

Anna Maria Stark: A wonderful question. Probably the most important of all.

The fallacy in our concept of life is that experience makes us wise, in terms of the satisfactory course of our lives. Most people identify their self-esteem with the personality they have developed over the course of their lives. But experience should rather show us what inner conclusions we can draw so that we can attract different experiences the next time we try, if we so desire.

Many people stay in the same or at least a very similar energy structure for a long time, and accordingly also in thought and feeling mechanisms and thus in similar life circumstances. This means that you experience the same situations over and over again, have the same experiences and at some point you think that life is just the way you experience it day after day.

If we were to repeatedly address the underlying structure, and first of all deal with the inner, creative aspect of our lives, we would be able to attract and experience other experiences much more quickly. So you don't have to have so-called life experience to be able to advise on a soul level. You just have to be willing to actually look and address the underlying issue. But that requires that we have dealt with our own soul beforehand. Because if we constantly avoid this inner experience, we are not ready to look into others' souls either. Because if we really learn to look at and feel the soul of others, we are at the same time exposed to our own soul to the same extent. As deeply as we delve into others, we also delve into ourselves at the same time. And that only works if we are willing to be completely honest with ourselves and to allow all the feelings that then arise.

Your mother Roswitha Stark is herself a successful author of several self-help books. Is she your role model?

Anna Maria Stark: The people who surround us have a massive influence on the thoughts and feelings we allow in our lives. And this is especially true when we are young. I am very grateful that I had someone with me with whom I could openly share my feelings and thoughts on spiritual topics. My mother always let me be who I was, and I really appreciate this trait in her. Through her I know that one person who understands you can make the previously serious lack of understanding of many others seem completely insignificant. As soon as two people with similar intentions, the same aspirations and the same inner longing meet somewhere, they develop many times faster than they would have ever done alone.

Book tip:
Anna Maria Stark: Soul Potentials. Mankau Verlag, 1st edition March 2018. Paperback, 12 x 19 cm, 225 pages, 9.95 euros (D) / 10.30 euros (A), ISBN 978-3-86374-449-6.

Link recommendations:
More information about the book "Soul Potentials"
To the reading sample in PDF format
More about Anna Maria Stark
To the Internet forum with Anna Maria Stark