Thank the Jerks! Abundance through Gratitude with Karina Duque

Karina is a writer, spiritual student and teacher, agent for healing and evolution, and host of the shine your light crew podcast.  Her warmth and positive attitude can fill up every room in the building - but like many of us she had to do the inner transformative work to get there!  Before there’s a bloom, there’s a tree, and before that roots; Karina’s story begins in New Jersey on the outskirts of NYC, where she often felt lonely and unseen as the middle child to a single immigrant mother. An isolating childhood led to awkward and nerdy high school years, but Karina’s potential didn’t lie dormant for long.  She discovered Yoga through an ad in the Village Voice while waiting tables in NYC, and soon began traveling the world, studying in yoga ashrams and slowly developing a foundation for self-esteem.  Several years later and having survived a toxic first marriage, she now lives happily in New Mexico with her loving husband, son, and the beautiful nature and stars she never forgets to appreciate, meditate on and manifest from. Key Takeaways for this episode:  Prickly paths make us not only stronger but more compassionate - Karina knows what it’s like to stumble along through childhood, and is raising her son to have compassion on kids who are mean or difficult. We can turn emotional exile into radical transformation - after Karina’s divorce from her first tumultuous marriage she had to completely rebuild and move out of state for a job, where she had no family or friends.  She used that time to dive into her yoga and meditation practices, learned over years’ of practice in yoga ashrams.  It’s no coincidence that this led to her meeting her now husband and building a family.   Appreciation elevates our life condition in any way, and leads to better thoughts which manifest better things!  We can start by finding easy and reliable things to be grateful for, like sunsets and nature, to exercise our gratitude muscle.  Then we can work on the trickier things - like thanking the people who have wronged us.  Thanking the jerks - not to their face, of course.  Once we find inner strength and peace, we can shine our light forward - one candle lights the path for countless others.   On that beautiful note you can get an early preview of her upcoming podcast launch here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2271802/13905140  More stories, insights and personal memoirs on her Substack blog, including an insightful article about her mother’s family history and overcoming patriarchal ancestral baggage:  https://substack.com/@karina1