Episode 35: The Transformational Journey of Anja Steensig: From TV Host to Mystic

Former TV host Anja Steensig shares her journey from fame to spirituality, discovering unconditional love and a deeper connection with God. She explores surrender, faith, and bringing divine love into everyday life.

 

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Hello everyone, and welcome to Choices, Books, and Gifts, where you always have choices. Welcome everyone! My name is Jay DePaolo, owner of Choices Books and Gifts in New York City, a store dedicated to health, wellness, recovery community, recovery for the community for over 30 years. I am the host of the podcast You Always Have Choices, where we dive deep into stories of transformation, healing, and personal growth.

We can be found at 220 E 78th Street between Second and Third Avenues. And we can also be found at Choices gifts.com. I am so happy today to introduce a wonderful woman Anja steensig, and she's a terrific lady. And I'm going to tell you a little bit more about her before we go into the questions. So you know a little bit about her background. So today we welcome on Anja Steensig, a Danish mystic meditating God's love through writing, speaking and mentoring. For more than a decade, she was one of the best-known TV and radio personalities in Denmark, hosting her own talk show as well as almost every other kind of TV entertainment. She was voted Best Female TV host during her career. In 2011, she fell into a deep depression that changed her life forever.In six months. In a painful darkness, she reentered the world completely, transformed her heart had been blasted open, and she found herself in a state of pure and unconditional love, where she suddenly saw everything from a perspective of love. She knew that she was no longer in charge of her own life, but a servant of something infinitely bigger.

As she surrendered into the loving guidance she received, life took her on a seven year journey to learn and grow further into the experience and understanding of God's express of God, expressed as love before she began passing on the wisdom she received. She represents a new Nordic mystic approach to spirituality, where everything but the pure and simple connection directly to God is stripped away, uncomplicated, undogmatic, and solely focused on how we can bring God's love more fully, fully into our lives and into the world.

The simple and honest, non-religious, spiritual reality is devoted to service to God.You can learn about on You on her website, and that's www.anjasteensig.com So I'm going to just spell it for you guys. It's anjasteensig.com.

And I sure you're going to go there because she's going to be that interesting.

Not sure I'm to be able to live off that. So I first want to say welcome. Thank you for coming to the show. We greatly appreciate you. And I love the extensive ness of your career in, in Denmark. You were you sound like the Oprah over there. Yeah. So I was definitely not. I was doing, you know, sports shows and, home decorating shows and stuff like that.

I was nowhere near Oprah. All right. I thank you so much for having me. I'm really delighted to be invited on your show. Well, that makes both of us. So if it's okay with you, I'd like to start with some questions. Absolutely.

Okay, so the first question is, your journey from a celebrated TV and radio personality to a mystic devoted to meditating? God's love is remarkable. Can you share more about what led to that profound transformation?

That's a big question. It is. Well, I, I really believe that.

Life has the capacity to, move us where we need to go. So. I was in a place back then where I was, very far away from where I was supposed to be. There was so many, layers of,You know, just trying to fit in, trying to play the part, trying to, you know, be what was expected of me, what I expected of me.

And I had grown very, very far from who I was supposed to be. And when that happens, I believe that goes for all of us, is that life comes and it shakes us. It shakes us into remembering who we are. And often it doesn't feel very nice, you know, because it looks like a very, very deep crisis.

We are stripped of everything that we, usually hold on to, and just, you know, given an opportunity to enter life from a completely new and naked and vulnerable place. And, most often, what we do when we are on the other side of crisis is we quickly do everything in our power to get back to who we were before.

Because it's just too scary to be in the world in this very vulnerable state.And that was what I had been doing for years up until that point. You know, every time life came and gave me a big shake, I just quickly got up and got back to way I had been before, best I could, but this time there was just. There was somehow such a deep knowing in me that,something had to change and something already had changed. It was you know, over a long period of time that, it became apparent what the changes were. So, so from that point of entering back into the world completely naked and raw and vulnerable and just feeling, just knowing somehow that I had to find a way to stay that, raw and naked, because there was a part of me that knew that it had a gift to me.

And until I knew what that gift was, was a very long period of time, very long period of,getting to know the world from a new perspective. And, you know, I had an experience, I think like six months after I came out of the depression.

 

Where I, for the first time, so this sounds like a lot, but I saw the world through God's eyes.You know, I had an experience where it was, like, just every veil just fell from my eyes. And I saw  how much love there is. I just felt this, endless compassion for everyone I saw. And everyone was just so incredibly beautiful. Like. Like they were my children. Great. And I think that really was, a point of no return for me because, It was like I got to see what the world really looked like underneath everything. And I couldn't go back from that. So from that point on, it was just one big exploration. Okay. Great.

You've described your experience of falling into a deep depression in 2011 as a turning point in your life. What was that time like for you, and how did it lead to the awakening experience that you have today?

I'm sorry. It's just that would be exactly the same answer as, the question before. That's what I thought, too.

You went through a dark time, you discovered God, and there you go.

Well, When you speak of God expressed his love. How do you define that love? And how can people begin to connect with it in their own lives?

Well, to me, everything is an expression of God's love.

Absolutely everything. Agreed. Everything. Is God moving us, calling us back into Who we are So, one of the things that I really practice is keeping my eyes open, keeping my heart open for, these, things that move my heart, you know, because I believe that every time we feel, our hearts move, every time we, touched by beauty, by music, by, joy, by gratitude.

Anything that, you know, moves our heart. What is really happening is that our hearts open up so that we get to experience the presence of the love that is always there. Absolutely. Always that we are never outside of love. But in those moments, we recognize love in the world, and our hearts respond by opening and we experience, so we can catch these glimpses.

Every time our hearts move, we can just start by just saying, I am in the presence of God. I am in the presence of love right now.

Because just recognizing that expands our experience of being in the presence. Great, great. Thank you very much. Wonderful. And I agree with all of that. I see God every day to, to make sure that I have that relationship.

So you mentioned that your heart was blasted open during your transformation. Can you describe what that experience felt like physically, emotionally or and spiritually?

Well, blasted might not be the right word.Okay It was just this this because I fall into a depression where everything just fell apart. Yeah. You know, and when everything falls apart, it opens a space and gives us access to what is behind everything. So, it had to take me to a very, very dark place, to get there. But entering that place is, not a constant bliss, but it is knowing the bliss and knowing that it is always present for me to step into That it is like opened a door that that I can deliberately walk through. Yeah, yeah. You know, it reminds me of, you know, because I've had my own challenges in life and things of that nature.

I had to hit a bottom, a bottom that, you know, I could go nowhere else until I was willing to listen and seek and find the answer. But as you said, it's so much more experienced in me now. I have such a connection with God and things like that, and I don't think I've ever would have gotten there if not from the dark place, you know?

Yeah.

After your awakening, you went on a seven year journey to learn and grow into the state of unconditional love. What were some lessons and insights you gained during that time?

I think the  main one was, surrender, you know, surrender to, that voice. Yes.Surrender to the deep, deep, deep knowing surrender to wherever life wanted to take me.

And find, in that trust. Some kind of fearlessness, in moving into. Places I that was just, you know, strange countries for me. So, I think that's surrender, was the main thing that I learned. I learned so much, you know, knowledge and stuff. But that was not. That's not what I was learning.I was learning to surrender into where life wanted me to go.

Yeah, yeah, I, I agree, I love what you just said about that because, you know, as I said, I was going through my own challenges and trying to do it my own way and constantly failing. And until I could accept that, you know, and somebody had mentioned to me once, a lot like what you're saying now, you know, wave the white flag to win the war.

And when you surrender is when you begin to win the war.

Your spirituality is described as a non religious and un dogmatic. How does this approach differ from traditional religious teachings, and why do you feel this resonates with people today?

Well, it differs in, no, God is there, God is always there. And God is always reaching out for us.

So there is absolutely no reason that we should have, all sorts of, you know, structures or people, mediating the connection when we have the capacity to, and to the connection ourselves, and all these mediating and all these structures, in many ways have just been there to place the power somewhere, you know, it has made some people very powerful to, to say, well, you will never get in through that door unless you go through me.

You know, but it is all there for us to access and in my part of the world, religion,

you know, lost the battle against, natural sciences like, 100 years ago. This is this is the least religious part of the world. And what happened when we threw out religion was that it left us, empty.

There was an empty space. So this kind of spirituality opens up a way for people who do. Not anymore. You know, if, align with traditional religion to fill up that space, you know, and in this part of the world, it's really, really, really needed because, a religion has not been there to connect us with God.

So we have just been disconnected for a very long time.

 Yes, yes, I hear you. And I think, you know, the church and our religion that we grew up on, which was a fearful religion when I was a child, has changed so much in today's society. So coming up with these alternatives, I think, where you can reach the goals we want the people to reach are wonderful.

So I commend you on, your way of doing these things. How do you describe your role as a servant of something infinitely bigger, and how does that inform the work you do today?

That is part of the surrender. It is. It is just acknowledging that all the it's not about me. Well, it's really not about me. It's  about allowing God to work through me. And,  so it's a very big part of the surrender. Yeah. It is, it is getting out of the equation and stop getting in the way of, you know what? God. Well, God knows what he wants. Yeah, yeah. So cool.

For those who may feel disconnected from God, which I know so many people do, or even a higher power, what practical steps or advice do you offer to help them begin to rebuild that connection back?

I guess for many people who feel like that, there is this, a part of what is standing in the way is all the old dogmas and everything they learned when they were children and all of that.

So step one would be to try and put that aside and say, okay, let's start from scratch. New chapter a new chapter, a new chapter. Yeah. And then actually just if you can recognize that every time you feel anything that looks like love, you are in the presence of God. Yeah. If you can begin just to acknowledge that and allow that to gently grow, then by experiencing again and again and again and again that love is there, you begin to trust that loves that.

Yes. And as you, you grow in trust, your fears subside and you can begin the surrender. But you cannot you cannot decide to have faith because, if you do, it becomes just conviction. And conviction is not faith. No, faith is to me knowing from experience. Yes, yes. So we need to open up to the experience. Yes.

I mean, even for me, I remember I had to practice every single day to try to get to that point where, you know, life was difficult. But when I finally reached that plateau, it's almost unshakable right now. Yes. You know, it used to take me a long time. If I woke up during the day and it was sad and depressing and all of that, it used to take me a long time to get out of it.

Now, if I have those feelings, I can say a few words that I've learned in the past and from books that I've read and things that I've done and, I'm out of it in, in just as quickly as I get into it. So yes, it is a practice too. Yes. You focus on bringing God's love more fully into our lives in the world. What does that look like in a practice, especially in a world that can be divided with chaotic?

I know that we've sort of just covered that a little bit, but I guess they're talking about the chaotic part of the world, which I have to put over there and only worry about this right here. Exactly,exactly. But the way it looks, the first part of the question is, that when we. Decide to anchor ourselves in love, when we decide that from now on, I want to consciously be aware in every possible situation. How can I bring love into this equation? What would love want me to do?

What is what is needed? What may I give? So it's very, very much a practice of just being aware. how is love needed in this situation and not necessarily love as something sweet and you know, gentle It's more than fuzzy.

Now, love can also be, standing up for justice. Yes. No. All you know, this is where it stops. That is also love. So, yeah, that boundary that we take and, you know, we don't want anybody to cross it because then it’s unhealthy for us. Oh yes I see it.

Just to just to elaborate a little bit, Yes please. Because my definition of love is actually, Insisting uncompromisingly on the highest good of all. So love is the highest good of all. And they can look very differently  in different situations. What the highest good of all is. Yeah. Very good, very good. Your perspective on spirituality is described as a Nordic mystic.

Can you explain what that means? And how it reflects, on your unique approach? What does that mean Nordic mystic? You can say the mystic part is, actually just the personal experience that it is about personally experiencing God. The Nordic part is the simplicity. It is, you know, stripping away all the excess of words and explanations and structures and stuff, you know, and just keeping it so, simple.

That's, that's very Nordic and also what makes it very Nordic is that it's very eye level. You know, there's no one, there's no hierarchy. There's no one above and no one below, you know, so and a lot of other stuff. But that's the main, you know, key points that makes it Nordic.

 I think you explain that. Well, thank you. Thank you so much.

You've spent years mentoring others in spirituality and love. What is the most common challenge people face in connecting with God's love, and how do you guide them through it?

The absolutely most common thing is not feeling worthy to receive, you know, and the people that  come to me are typically very, very, very good at giving, often too good at giving, actually, which is the thing you can be too good at giving and very, very, challenged in receiving. So, what we do is, you know, I, I guide them in every possible way to, bring love into the part of them that, having trouble, receiving or feeling worthy and, and helping them heal that place so that they can receive.

Because we need to receive to be able to give, you know, we are just vessels. We are lamps. So the light has to come into us to go from us. You know? So that's a major thing.

Yeah, I have found I don't know if you have found the same thing that and when we give of ourselves our time and whatever that may, I think we receive so much more.

I think by giving my life, it grows exponentially spiritually, all of that. And so I have one more question for you. But before we do that, I would love people to see your books. So they know what it looks like. They can get it on Amazon and all the other regular places you buy books. That's perfect. Hold it right there.

And that's it folks. Take a picture of it and buy that book. All right. Great on you. That was perfect. Called a perfect. I did my best. All right. So me ask you this. What would it be? What would it be if there was one message, one piece of wisdom? You hope every listener today in this interview would take away that they are already loved. 

Oh, absolutely. Already loved. And they just have to realize that, yeah. All right, all right. So hold on. So with that, we will wrap up this episode of Choices podcast. I hope your time together was inspiring and motivating. Stay empowered, stay well, and remember you always have choices. May God bless you and look after you always. Thank you and thank you on you.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you for inviting me.