Lawyering Down, Kundalini-ing Up With Kara Bitar

On July 21st, Optimization Coach and Kundalini Yoga Teacher Kara Bitar and I spoke about Kara's journey from high-powered lawyer to ill health to healing to teaching Kundalini yoga and coaching. We also discuss: experiencing life differently, guilt, failure, doubt, transformation, energy (for living), inspiration, worthiness, clarity of mind, insights, answers, retrospection, kriyas, optimization programs, the inner teacher, unlearning, thriving, mind training, prioritizing knowing thyself, etc

Transcript

The easiest way.

Hold this welcome.

This is Josh Stippold of Integrating Presence.

And today I've got Kara Bittar with me.

Kara,

How's it going?

Good.

How about you?

So happy to be here.

I'm doing well.

Thanks for joining.

So as folks might know who listen to this,

Or watch this and or watch this,

I like to toss it back to guests to have them introduce themselves.

So I am a former litigator.

I worked at one of the largest law firms in the southeast in high stakes corporate litigation.

And I'm a graduate of Duke Law and I worked my whole life to become an attorney.

And now I am an optimization coach.

I work with people to help them live really their highest,

Healthiest,

And happiest versions of themselves.

I do that through programs I developed.

And I also teach Kundalini yoga.

Wow.

Well,

That's a great,

I guess maybe that shows some of your lawyer training is very concise,

Clear,

And to the point,

Right?

And yes.

So,

Well,

I mean,

This is fascinating.

And a few guests I've had on too,

I've noticed things about this where they've found really great success in what the world kind of told them.

The options just the regular standard world has offered them and what they say would make them happy and successful.

And it turned out that they did have some success in that,

But it's ultimately not what they were after and looking for.

So I'm kind of interested in what seems relevant about your law school journey and that story,

Expanding on that however you'd like.

Yeah,

I don't know where to really probe into this right now,

But I feel that you would know what's relevant to say about this,

Right?

Yeah.

So,

So yeah,

My,

I think my experience is probably going to be somewhat similar to some of the other people that you've spoken to.

So I,

When I was in fifth grade,

I decided that I was going to be an attorney and I worked really hard to that end.

Like I was really committed to it.

I,

You know,

Graduated high school,

Highest honors.

I graduated summa cum laude from college.

I published in college as an undergraduate.

I went on to Duke law.

I published while I was there.

And then I was recruited by,

And I did take a job with one of the largest law firms in the Southeast.

And so at that law firm,

I was doing really significant legal work.

I felt really appreciated and respected by my colleagues.

I was also doing a lot of pro bono work for victims of domestic violence.

And I was eventually named head of that project.

And so yeah,

I was making a lot of money.

I had this really charming house in the city and I had like two cute dogs and I had like,

You know,

I was married,

I have a husband and I had this beautiful wardrobe and I could like go on vacations and like,

So I think,

Um,

If you were to look at my life,

You would say,

Well,

You accomplished everything you set out to do.

And it was like,

I did everything that I,

That I had decided I was going to do.

Like I did it.

And,

Um,

You know,

If you were to look at my life on paper,

It just looked like it was like,

Perfect.

Like I had everything.

And sorry,

If you hear that snorting,

I have a little dog right here next to me.

She just snorted really loudly.

Um,

So it looks like I had really everything and I had everything that I thought I wanted.

I had everything that I worked so hard for and that I had planned for.

And so I'm in this job and I am so deeply unhappy,

Like so deeply unhappy.

And I don't know why,

Like,

I don't know why,

Because it's like,

It's,

It's confusing in a way.

It's like,

Wait a second.

I have everything that I worked for,

But more than that,

I have everything that everybody told me was going to make me happy.

Right?

Like I have everything that like kind of society and like this experience is looking at going like,

These are the things you want,

Right?

This is like what it is for you to do.

And when you get that,

You know,

And,

You know,

It wasn't like I was in this like great happy state during college or law school.

Like I wasn't,

But I had this thing of like,

But once I make it right,

It's like,

Once I get these things that we're told are so important and then are going to make us happy,

Then I'll be happy.

Right?

And so then I get there and I have all of them and I'm so deeply unhappy.

I feel so incredibly unfulfilled,

Even though you could argue I was doing significant work and it was so confusing.

It's like,

Wait a second.

I have everything.

And,

And you know,

People probably have situations in the law world or in many jobs where they're in jobs where maybe they don't feel appreciated or they don't feel respected or they have these issues with like the people they work for.

Like I didn't have any of that.

I felt very appreciated,

Felt very respected.

I,

I really loved the people that I worked with.

And so,

And so,

Yeah,

So that was the situation I found myself in and it was like,

I blamed myself for it.

Like something's wrong with me,

Right?

That I can't just,

I have all these things and here I am so unhappy.

Right?

And it was like,

I kept trying to make things work.

Like I kept trying to,

To,

To make myself happy in a way.

And I kept,

But it was like,

Nothing,

Nothing worked.

Nothing made me feel fulfilled.

Nothing really.

It was like nothing was working.

And so eventually it was just like,

I just felt like some,

Something has to give like this,

This cannot be what life is like.

There has to be more like,

And so,

You know,

There was this part of me that was like,

There isn't more like,

This is it,

You know?

And it's,

It's not good,

But there was something in me that was like,

No,

There has to be more.

And I have to,

I want to know,

I need to know,

I need to know if there's more.

And so it took me quite frankly years,

But I eventually left that job and I didn't leave it with this great state of clarity.

Again,

I left it with this,

Like,

I don't know why I'm so unhappy,

But this job is like the biggest thing in my life.

I mean,

Like we did work a lot,

Like it was high stress,

You know?

And so it was like,

This seems to be the thing that has to give.

And I did something too that,

Yeah,

I don't know if anybody at the firm has ever done it,

Which is I left without a plan.

I did not know what I was going to do next.

And like,

Listen,

I had a great resume.

I was well connected.

If I want to get another job,

I could have,

But there was,

Again,

There was this thing in me being like,

If you do that,

It's going to be different faces,

Different places,

And you're going to feel the same.

And so,

So yeah,

I left this job and this career that I'd worked for and planned for my whole life.

And I left it with without a plan.

Jeff Sarris,

And talking a little bit before the show or chatting a little bit,

We have similar yet different paths too.

I was in the corporate marketing world.

And while I could see that,

You know,

A big lavish lifestyle wasn't for me and then that wasn't going to be fulfilling,

Especially for me,

I had the opposite or the different,

Well,

Kind of opposite where I didn't feel respected.

Right.

And so this was,

But then I ended in left without a plan too,

Because I knew that that track wasn't for me as well,

But you know,

You're the guest here.

And so I'm not going to go into any further details on that right now.

I like to know about this transition between of this letting go this kind of,

You know,

It's one of the metaphors I've heard from a teacher that I used to follow more closely is you have to get off one train completely before you get on another train,

A different train.

Right now I hear some stories of how people will,

You know,

Have everything kind of planned with their transition,

But that was definitely not the case for me either.

It's just leaving without a plan.

Yeah.

So I guess especially the emotional,

What do you feel would be relevant to share emotionally with that?

Maybe some relationships and maybe support systems I feel could be relevant here too,

As well as that,

And just kind of what the transition process was like for you.

Yeah.

So,

So when I left that job,

There was a part of me that was like,

Okay,

You're going to leave this job and you're never going to have anything to do ever for the rest of your life.

Right.

Cause like,

This is all I knew.

And then there was this other part of me that was like,

You know,

Give me two weeks away from all of this stress and all of this pressure and like,

I'll figure something out.

Right.

So the two week thing didn't happen.

Um,

What happened was I left the job and a couple of things happened that really surprised me.

And the first was I realized I was not in a good state of health.

My,

It was like when that stress went away,

It was like,

My body really showed me,

Here's the state of your health actually.

Like here's,

What's actually happening in your body.

And really what I,

You know,

Now know is it was like,

I had been operating on adrenaline probably most of my life.

That was the thing that was getting me up in the morning.

That was the thing that was driving me,

Not this like passion for life.

Right.

And so,

And so when that stress and that job went away and I stopped kind of living on that adrenaline,

It was like,

I completely crashed.

And I went from being able to operate at this like super high level and do all of this stuff to feeling like I couldn't even drive somewhere.

I just had no energy.

My body ached everywhere.

Um,

Health problems that I had had since I was a child,

It was like,

They,

Um,

Seemed to get way worse.

And so I find myself in this really poor state of health.

And this surprised me because even though I was working a lot,

I woke up at 4 AM every morning and I did yoga.

I made my lunches and I brought them to work so I could have something healthy to eat.

I ran on the weekends or whenever I had time.

Like I was,

I tried to stay healthy.

Um,

But the thing that happened that surprised me even more,

And this is something that you touched on,

Which is when that job went away,

You would think like,

Okay,

I've,

I'm not in that job anymore,

But I did all of those things.

Like I have that resume.

I have that degree from Duke law.

I worked at one of these big firms.

Like I did it all and I left on my own volition.

And so you'd think that would give me some sense of like worth and value.

But when that job went away,

It was like every shred of what I thought I had of like worth and value.

It just went right with it.

And so I felt terrible about myself.

I mean like worse than I realized I could feel about myself.

I felt like I was just nothing.

And so that was the state I found myself in after I left this job.

And so I made the decision.

I'm going to give everything I have all of my resources,

All of my time,

All of my energy,

Everything to finding answers.

I'm going to give everything I have to finding.

Can I heal my body?

I'm going to give everything to finding like,

Can I feel differently about life?

Can I have a different experience of life?

Can I have a different experience of myself?

And so that's what I did.

It's really beautiful,

Similar type thing to when I started the daily meditation practice,

So much stuff was coming up that I had no idea that was buried for so long.

And that came up to be seen and healed.

And there's plenty of weeping during that,

But it was okay because I was by myself.

But that then,

You know,

Shortly,

Or alongside of that was this having to know things,

You know,

It was just like,

Oh my goodness,

It was just,

But so many possibilities opened up,

But then all these questions came and I was just so driven to finding answers to these.

And I was so glad that I spent time doing that as well.

And the answers came to me,

But just to share here that now I find that some of those answers were very satisfying,

But,

And this,

How beautiful life is that they're only part of the picture too.

We can get so many different answers and,

You know,

It's kind of boundless the amount of progression we can keep going,

But rewinding again here to that,

Yeah,

It's like that house had to be burned down completely before something else could be built in its place,

Right?

And the foundation kind of ripped up and it is not pleasant at all,

You know.

So,

But it's almost necessary with something like this,

Right?

I mean,

Maybe there's other ways around it,

But if it could have happened any other way,

It would have.

So it is just a beautiful,

Inspiring thing for me actually,

As heart wrenching as it feels to me too,

Hearing your story,

There's the kind of silver lining or the polarity of that,

You know,

That's the way it was meant to be with this.

Yeah,

Yeah.

And,

Yeah,

And you're right.

Like I just didn't,

You know,

I didn't see at the time what was happening.

You know,

I didn't know at the time,

Like I felt like a failure.

I felt guilty.

I felt like all these things,

You know,

And it's like I'm looking at the people who are still in the job,

Like why didn't I,

Why couldn't have I just done that and just stayed and just,

You know,

And,

But you're right.

You know,

I was,

I didn't see it at the time,

But like,

You know,

When we make a decision that we want answers to something,

We get them,

Right?

Like I love how you,

I loved how to use the word boundless.

I think that's such an accurate word to like what is available to us.

And,

Um,

So again,

At the time I felt totally like,

I felt lost and all these things,

But I did,

I made this very powerful decision,

Not knowing I made it,

You know what I mean?

Not knowing at the time what I was doing,

But it's like,

I made this decision.

Like I want answers and I did get them and I did get that guidance and that everything that I needed now,

It didn't come right away for me.

So for,

For me,

I spent a year and a half doing this like full time.

Like I was,

Um,

Taking programs.

I was like researching,

I was reading,

I was doing all these different diets and cleanses.

And,

Um,

Like I bought a sauna,

I did floats.

I learned how to make flower remedies.

I learned how to do human design readings.

I,

Um,

I trained in a number of modalities,

Um,

Became certified in them.

I worked in a clinic where like,

You know,

Working with these modalities on people to see the impact.

And so for a year and a half,

I did this,

Like this is all I did.

And at the year and a half mark,

I found myself in,

This was shocking,

Worse health than I was before.

And I also found myself feeling worse because it was like,

You know,

When I was in my job,

There was this part of me that was like,

If you leave this,

There's never going to be anything else for you ever.

But there is this other part of me that was like,

But if you tried,

Right,

Like you haven't even tried,

Like if you tried,

There would be something else.

Right.

And so now I'm in this place where it's like,

I've tried,

I have left everything behind.

I mean,

I,

I,

I ended up too,

Like,

I mean,

I didn't have this job anymore.

So I,

Um,

I moved,

Right?

Like I didn't keep the same house that I had.

And,

Um,

It was like,

I had left everything behind and given everything I had to finding answers.

And here I am feeling like I do not have the answers,

Feeling worse about myself,

Feeling like my health is worse.

And so there was a part of me that was like,

Just go back and practice law.

Like,

You know,

Like you've tried,

Um,

At least then you were making money,

You know,

And it really was the darkest,

One of the darkest times in my life,

Because it was like this,

This time of like this thing that I'm searching for.

It doesn't exist.

And life just isn't that great.

Do you know what I mean?

Dark night of the soul,

Classic dark night.

So,

And we can have multiples,

Multiple of these too.

Yeah.

And go ahead.

Yeah.

But like at the time for me,

I like didn't know what to me.

I'm just like,

Okay,

Here I am like failing again.

And I left everything and here I am,

You know,

Just,

I just didn't have that knowing.

Do you know what I mean?

I just didn't,

I didn't have that knowing in me yet that,

And,

And this is where our,

You know,

The,

Well,

First off the amount of programming that goes in that we have to undo and unlearn.

And I can't even really imagine with the law background,

How,

How intense,

Intensive that type of programming is.

And so unlearning that,

Letting go of that,

Allowing just the house of cards kind of come down and collapse and how devastating it can feel.

But that devastation,

That silver lining with that is it can reveal deep truths within us.

When it's not judged as much,

I feel now it just,

It feels so real,

These things,

Right?

But a lot of times there it's,

There's not truth in the fact that we think we're failures or things like this.

It feels that way,

But it's not true.

And,

And now we talk about like on my path,

Like something like what I'm doing really didn't exist.

Right.

And so,

And then kind of had to create it ourselves.

So would you like to talk a little bit about kind of the,

I guess,

Building up to what you're doing now after,

After that,

How,

How you found that and how you design,

I guess,

The transition into,

And then we can start talking about some of the,

The Kundalini yoga.

And I have a little bit of specific questions,

I guess,

On that.

And then these optimization programs as well.

Yeah.

So I obviously did not go back to practice law.

I kept going.

There was,

I listened to that,

Keep going,

You know,

It was like,

There's this thing in me that was just like,

Keep going.

And so I did.

And one day I tried a Kundalini yoga class.

Didn't know what Kundalini yoga was,

Never heard of it.

And the class while I was doing it,

Quite frankly,

It seemed really odd.

Like I was like,

Oh,

This is what my life has become.

Wonderful.

Do you know what I mean?

But after that class,

I felt,

I felt different,

Like noticeably different.

And so it was enough that I was like,

I'm going to keep taking these classes.

And so I kept taking classes.

The more classes I took,

The better I felt.

And so then I went and I got trained,

Um,

To teach Kundalini yoga,

Not to teach it,

But I just was like,

I want to know what is this thing that is really changing my life?

Like,

Why am I feeling so much better?

Because like,

The more I did Kundalini yoga,

It was like the aches and pains in my body started to go away.

I started to feel energized,

Like energized,

Not energized because I drank caffeine or energized,

Like I started to feel just energized,

Like energized by life.

I started to feel really inspired,

Like this kind of inspiration and creativity started to flow through me that I really hadn't experienced before.

Um,

And so,

Oh,

And the other thing that happened was I,

I started to feel this sense of worthiness,

Not from anything that I was doing just because of who I was.

And so I went and I got trained in this and the more I did it,

The more I benefited from it.

And the more I started to understand,

Oh,

This is why this is working.

And I,

Quite frankly,

I don't think we totally know why Kundalini yoga works.

I think we have some sense.

I don't think we've actually gotten up with yet why it completely works.

We know some reasons why it works.

They all seemed so logical and they made so much sense to me.

There were things that I didn't know about before.

Um,

But then what happened is it was like,

As I was doing Kundalini yoga,

It's like,

Now I'm getting this clarity of mind and now I'm feeling inspired and now,

And really what Kundalini yoga was doing.

I didn't realize it at the time,

But it was tapping me into me,

Into who I was.

And so as I tapped more and more into who I was,

Into the,

You know,

The creativity that I held within,

The knowing that I held within,

And I started to get this very like clear mind,

I was able to look back on all of those other things that I've done.

And I was able to see,

Oh,

This is why like this didn't work.

This is why this didn't really move the dial for me.

And then I was able to be like,

Okay,

Well,

What does work and why does it work?

And so it was like,

I was able to just with really tapping into myself,

Then I was able to take myself to even greater levels of transformation.

It was like,

I started to watch my entire life transform my relationship with my body,

My relationship with myself,

My relationship with my husband,

Like my experience of this world,

It was like everything just started to really transform.

And so it was really from that,

That space.

And with that understanding that I started to kind of be like,

Well,

Wait a second,

If this works for me,

What would happen if I shared this with other people?

Would they get a result too?

And so then I started to do that.

And as I started to do that,

And I started to see,

Oh,

They're getting results too.

This really works.

That's where I then developed my programs and that's what led me into what I'm currently doing now.

And I have to say,

It has surprised me,

Like talk about someone who's had like a plan their whole life,

And then it's like,

Now I'm doing this thing that,

Wow,

Didn't see this coming.

It really is cool.

And I go back to the,

It seems like one of the cores of this at least is,

And I've seen this so much too,

Is with the feminine,

The sense of worthiness.

I mean,

It's just,

That is so key.

And when the payoff of finding that worthiness is creativity.

And so,

However the feminine finds that worthiness,

It seems so very central,

Right?

And it's just amazing gift and reward of how that flourishes into creativity.

I'll just give some background here.

I had a daily or no,

A weekly yoga practice to support my meditation practice,

Probably from around somewhere in 2013 to right when this CoV thing started,

I kind of stopped them and transitioned more to Yijing and Qigong.

And I did take one Kundalini yoga class for sure,

If not two.

And that's what the teacher said right away is one of the reasons he got into it is he felt,

I think he was an ex addict though,

But he said he felt high,

Like naturally.

And I noticed the amount of intensity involved with it and kind of just fire energy.

It was,

It was different than the other types of yoga that I had done for sure.

I thought it was fascinating when you said we don't really know how it works and that's,

I've heard so many different things,

You know?

So I'm like,

Well,

What is this Kundalini snake in the spine?

How does it work?

And what do we do with it?

I've heard so many things.

I'd be interested in hearing your take on that.

Yeah.

So it's like,

I really think that the yogis and the yogic scientists and that tradition,

They really were tapped into the subtle realms.

And so it's very different from our kind of modern science,

Right?

And they're really tapped into the subtle realms and understanding the body in those energetic,

From those energetic places.

And again,

There's subtle realms,

Right?

And so it's like,

We have scientific,

We have some scientific studies that show that Kundalini yoga works,

That it's effective.

Like they've studied certain meditations.

And so we know that they're effective,

But it's so interesting.

It's like,

There's a meditation for that.

It works on the brain and it's recommended now,

If you go into like Alzheimer's websites,

Like they actually recommend this meditation because there have been studies done showing this can help prevent Alzheimer's,

Right?

So it's so interesting though,

If you read into it,

It's like the study is based like,

This works,

But like,

We don't know why.

You know what I mean?

It's kind of like,

And they found,

You know,

They have some hypotheses and there's a mantra that's used with this meditation and they found that if they don't use the mantra,

Then they don't have the,

It's not effective.

They use the mantra,

It is effective,

Right?

So it's like,

It's almost like in the,

In the kind of the realm we're in,

It's kind of like,

We,

We understand that this works,

But we don't,

We're not totally clear on why.

And so I do think that modern science,

What I would say is we're actually catching up to what the yogis knew.

Absolutely.

And I tell people this a lot of times with neuroscience is study the Abhidhamma.

So this is advanced psychology in the Buddhist tradition,

Right?

And they had all this stuff mapped out in minute detail thousands of years ago.

So you're welcome to go and into any,

What some people would call woo,

Because I've done plenty of that on here too.

Yes.

Science cannot do that right now.

Anything like that is off the table.

There's pros and cons to that as well.

You're welcome to go into that,

Or we can also go into the optimization and for people not familiar with Kundalini yoga,

I guess you could also tell folks like what is Kundalini yoga and how it differs from regular yoga and maybe how you teach it too.

Yeah.

So I think what people,

So there's a lot of different types of yoga.

And I think what people generally associate with yoga is like a form of Fatha yoga,

Which is like the postures and the poses,

Right?

Again,

There's a lot of variety though in yoga,

Which you've,

You're probably familiar with as you've kind of delved into practice.

Yes.

And to remind people,

This is just the asana practice.

And most yogas are a lot of different yogas.

There's eight different limbs,

But in the West,

It seems like a big focus on just the asana or postures or poses limb.

Exactly.

That's exactly right.

Yeah.

And so Kundalini yoga,

It does use postures and poses.

However,

Those postures and poses,

They vary quite a bit and they're going to some of them,

You'll see something that might look familiar to you.

If you're used to doing like Hatha yoga,

A number of them are going to look quite different.

So it does use postures and poses.

It also uses a lot of different types of breath work.

So there's a number of different types of breathing that we do in Kundalini yoga.

It utilizes hand positions and eye positions because our hands are connected to parts of the brain that we can like stimulate the pituitary gland with the use of the eyes.

We can stimulate the brain with eye positions.

It uses sound current.

So it uses mantra.

So there's chanting and Kundalini yoga.

It also uses meditation and relaxation.

And so if you were to go into a Kundalini yoga class,

It does look quite different.

It's a very,

Very dynamic practice.

There's a lot going on.

Um,

And then Kundalini yoga also uses what are called Kriyas.

And if you could almost see these as like a recipe,

It's like they're putting together certain postures and poses and breath work and hand positions and eye positions and meditation and mantra and breathing.

And they're like put together in this very specific way to create a specific result.

And so what Kundalini yoga is doing with all of this is it's working on all levels of our beingness.

So we're dynamic and complex beings.

And so it's working from a physical level.

And it's doing some really critical things at that physical level.

Like it's working the nervous system is working the endocrine system.

And that I found was a game changer for me,

Because if you actually want to be in kind of exist at different states of beingness,

Like where you feel good,

You've you've got to have the nervous system and endocrine system that can go there with you.

Um,

And so it's working on the physical body.

It's also working you from a mental level.

So it's working on the mind,

It's helping one to learn how to control and direct their mind.

It's also using different practices to rid you of old subconscious like programs and patterns and beliefs.

It's working on an emotional level.

So it's helping you deal with suppressed emotions and let those go and release them.

It's helping you deal with current emotions.

And then it's working on an energetic level.

So when we're talking about like the chakras,

We're talking about the electromagnetic field,

It's working on that level too.

And so it's really it's like doing all of this at one time.

And so I think like when I think of Kundalini Yoga,

It's like a lot of bang for the buck,

Right?

Because like doing all this at one time.

And once I started to understand the practice more,

It was like,

Oh,

Well,

Now I understand why this is having this really kind of massive impact on me.

Like,

Why is this having,

Why is this changing me?

So like,

Why is this helping me so much?

Like,

Oh,

Well,

It's doing all of these things at one time.

Right on.

Yes.

And then just the more and more we progress,

We'll be able to tap in,

You know,

On all those different levels and just have more and more details of how all that stuff works specifically.

Right.

And then some people even talk about the unseen and the things that normal people are normal,

Whatever that means.

Regular people can't see,

But with inner sight,

Things become even,

You know,

More detailed,

More apparent.

So what about this optimization coaching?

How do you work with people with this?

How did you design some of these programs?

Yeah,

So I,

So this really was like,

Okay,

I realized like,

We can have such a different experience.

Like we have such a different experience.

And,

But it's like,

How do we do that?

How do we have this different experience?

And,

And what it really boils down to what I learned is like,

We have to understand who we are and how we function.

And it sounds so simple,

Right?

And most people will be like,

Well,

I know who I am and I know how I function.

And I would say,

If you're living in states of stress,

Of overwhelm,

Of monotony,

If you're living in states where life feels like a grind,

If you're living in states of disease,

If you're living in states of worry and fear and unworthiness,

You actually don't understand who you are and how you function.

You have misunderstandings about that.

And so when I realized like,

Okay,

This is,

This is where it's at.

And it's so interesting too,

Right?

Because like I'm highly educated.

I spent a long time being educated and yet I didn't understand me.

I didn't understand who I was.

I didn't understand how I function.

I didn't understand that I held within me unique gifts and talents.

And when I used those,

Then I stepped into abundance and that's how I actually got my energy.

I didn't realize that I was structured to thrive in certain ways.

I didn't realize that I had internal guidance within me showing me all the time what the thing for me was,

Right?

And so there,

And so this is what my programs are about.

They're about you knowing you.

And I also didn't understand how my mind and my thoughts work.

I didn't understand how to control and direct my mind.

I just felt run around by it.

That's a lot of people do.

It's like,

Oh,

Please,

Can I just make my mind stop?

It's like,

That's not going to happen.

Okay.

So,

So it's not even going to happen in meditation and that's not the point of meditation,

Right?

So it's about understanding,

Well,

How do I control and direct to my mind and use it to serve me in powerful ways?

And so my programs,

That's what they're about.

You understanding you,

You doing a deep dive into you and that takes something and it takes something because of like you touched on before.

It's like we are living from these false senses of self.

We've taken on all of these beliefs that are not true,

That are not the truth of who we are.

We've been programmed in a sense out that is not expressive of who we are.

And we haven't been living from what I call the truth of who we are.

And so it takes something to then come back to that.

And so that's what my programs are about.

And I,

I structured them.

And the other thing about my programs that was really important to me was I structured them such that if I was still practicing law,

I could do these programs and benefit from them.

So they're structured to be highly efficient and effective and work with even the busiest of schedules.

That was really important to me because it's like,

Is,

Are,

Can most people just do what like I did or what maybe you'd like,

It sounds like what you did.

Can,

Can they just up and leave their job?

In many instances,

They're not going to do that,

Right?

This is great.

I love that,

That kind of attitude and,

And,

Uh,

Uh,

Method of approach too.

And it's so important,

Obviously the know thyself,

You know,

This classic axiom from just ancient axiom.

That's so important.

And I also love how you talked about kind of awakening this inner teacher too.

And that's what seems like a kind of the programs you've designed and the coaching you offer too will give people this,

Um,

I guess development to be able for that inner teacher to wake up within themselves.

And that is ultimately our ultimate teacher when that comes from within.

And this seems like a great support for that as well.

All right on.

I'm going to give you the last word,

Whatever you'd like to leave the audience with.

And then also you can talk about where people can find you online,

Your website,

Social media,

If you have any kind of events coming up,

Any courses planned or anything else you'd like to mention.

Yeah,

Great.

So what I would,

Um,

Like to leave people with is I know we are told all of these different things that should be our priorities,

Right?

And I would say make your absolute number one priority to know yourself and to be who you are.

Make that your absolute number one priority.

It's like we have this idea of like all these other things are told to us to be our priority and I,

There is nothing more powerful than you being you.

Everything you want is with you being you.

And when you are being you,

You don't just benefit yourself.

That's where you really benefit the world.

And so what I would offer to people is make that you knowing you,

Your absolute number one priority.

Um,

And the other thing,

Uh,

For,

In terms of,

Um,

My work,

So if you want to work with me or get in touch with me,

My website's karanicolebittar.

Com.

That's k-a-r-a-n-i-c-o-l-e-b-i-t-a-r.

And I'm also on Instagram and Facebook at karanicolebittar.

And,

Um,

On my website you can sign up for live streamed Kundalini yoga classes.

Um,

You can sign up for my programs.

And I also do these really unique sessions that I also include in my programs.

Uh,

They set forth your gifts and talents,

How you're structured to thrive.

And they also set forth,

Like if you have certain,

Um,

Kind of things that you just find like keep repeating in your life,

Like I keep having issues with money,

I keep having issues with relationships.

I do a session that sets forth why that those things keep happening in your life.

And so again,

My programs are really about efficiency and effectiveness.

And that's why I include these sessions in the work that I do because they give you a ton of information at one time and then you can have it and use it for the rest of your life.

Well,

Very cool.

It was a pleasure,

Honor,

And enjoy having you on today.

Thank you so much for having me.

You're welcome.

I wish you all the most ideal and optimal self-knowledge and discovery and knowing for yourself and for the liberation and wellbeing of all beings everywhere.

Reviews

Thank you for this interview. I am a former attorney who also found Kundalini yoga and I resonated deeply with Kara’s story. Thank you!