In a world where stress, clutter, and negativity weigh us down, Karin Kiser has emerged as a beacon of radical transformation. Founder of Radical Simplicity™, Karin is on a mission to help people shed the mental, emotional, and physical baggage that keeps them disconnected from their natural state of happiness, health, and vitality. Her journey began in 2008 with a life-changing moment in Spain that brought her literally to the floor—and sparked a profound realization. Since then, she has developed a streamlined system to help others reclaim their energy, clarity, and peace, skipping years of trial and error. With her no-nonsense approach and refreshing perspective, Karin dares to go beyond the surface to help you reconnect with the greater YOU. Are you ready to get radical? It might just change everything. Join Mystic Mag and read more.
Your wake-up call in Spain was a pivotal moment in your life. What were the first steps you took to start transforming your life after that incident?
Yes, passing out in Spain and smashing my head and face on the cement floor was definitely a wake-up call. Although it wasn’t the first time I had passed out for seemingly unknown reasons, it was definitely the most serious. I knew I needed to get to the bottom of why this was happening or else the next fall might kill me.
After the previous episodes, I considered what traditional medicine thought to be the likely culprits: dehydration, low blood pressure, not enough iron in my diet, low blood sugar, etc. But those really didn’t add up for me. I had a sense there was more to the story.
I decided to become the detective of my own life. I thought back to my environment and mental and emotional state leading up to each episode. I put together a timeline of all known trauma I had experienced, whether mentally, emotionally or physically. That process in and of itself was transformational.
You mention how detoxing one aspect of your life led to heightened awareness of other areas needing change. Can you share how this awareness evolved and what it revealed about your own habits or beliefs?
My detox path really kicked in about a year after that wake-up call in Spain. At that time, I developed what seemed like a simple skin rash. I assumed I must be allergic to something I was eating. So, I put on my detective hat once again and got to work. First I eliminated all meat from my diet. Although it didn’t solve my skin problem, I felt better overall, so I kept meat out of my diet and went on to the next category of common triggers: dairy. The same thing happened. No change to my skin condition, but I felt even better. I did the same with gluten, wheat, processed food, sugar, and caffeine. I continued to feel better but the skin rash wouldn’t budge.
So I started investigating everything else that went in or on my body, including water, soaps, cosmetics, deodorant, fabrics, and cleaners. I really went down the rabbit hole and learned just how toxic our personal products, clothing, linens, and household cleaners can be.
That process just naturally spilled over into other areas of my life. I realized toxins aren’t just in the food we eat and the things we apply to our skin. What we surround ourselves with also takes a toll on our physical and mental health. That includes the media we consume, the people we surround ourselves with, and how much time we spend indoors.
What type of services do you offer?
I offer books, programs, retreats, and energetic healing sessions to help people simplify and detox their lives so they can live at a higher level with more time, energy, simplicity, and ease. My mission is to inspire individuals around the world to greater health and happiness by teaching them to reduce the physical, mental, and emotional toxins blocking their path. A good tool to start with is my free report, “The 5 Hidden Causes of Nearly Everything That’s Not Working in Your Life… And What To Do About Them” that can be downloaded from my website https://karinkiser.com/.
I am best known for my book Lighten Your Load: 35 Surprisingly Simple Ways to Free Yourself from Stress, Toxins and Clutter, The 90-Day Reset Program, and the Catalina Camino Weeklong Retreat. You can see the current offerings at https://karinkiser.com/ and http://CaminoChroniclesPress.com.
What role does self-awareness play in sustaining the sense of calm, centeredness, and groundedness you speak of?
Awareness is really the key to everything. It is difficult to make lasting positive change in our lives when we are unaware of how our habitual thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors create our reality. Consciously observing our thoughts and our automatic reactions can be a powerful practice for self-transformation.
Greater awareness allows us to see how we have unconsciously taken on assumptions and characteristics that interfere with our health and happiness. I refer to these things as the “robot” in each of us. With greater awareness, we can come to realize that the robotic reactions and beliefs are not who we really are.
Can you tell us a little bit more about your book Unplug Your Robot: The Secret to Lasting Happiness?
It’s common to believe happiness comes from changing our circumstances, such as making more money, finding a different partner, or buying a bigger house. It doesn’t. Lasting happiness has nothing to do with external factors. Instead, long-term happiness comes from unplugging the robot, which is all the conditioning, the stories, and the unhelpful beliefs we’ve picked up from friends, family, teachers, and society. Once we unplug our individual robot, we can connect with the real us and rediscover the essence within us that is already complete, content, and capable of happiness.
Unplug Your Robot is a blueprint for lasting happiness and mental strength. It contains practical tools and insights for those wrestling with anxiety, distractions, or simply the nagging sense that they’re not living their best life. The book helps people create the amazing life they are meant to live.
What were some of the most challenging beliefs or habits you had to confront and change in your journey toward radical transformation?
Although I never would have described myself as a victim, I definitely had disempowering beliefs and habits, for example, feeling powerless about my circumstances, my family, my finances, or you name it. It is an easy trap to fall into, since believing we are powerless in any aspect of our life allows us to avoid taking responsibility for it. It’s easier to believe “that’s just the way it is” than it is to do the inner and outer work necessary to change it.
My life really started to transform when I realized two things: 1) that I was 100% responsible for everything in my life, and 2) that I am creating my own experience in every moment.
Each of us is creating every second, whether we realize it or not. When we’re run by our automatic habits, limiting beliefs, and childhood programming, we’re unconsciously creating. We don’t realize we are doing it. When we say things like “it runs in our family” or “this happened to me.” We see ourselves as a victim of our circumstances, our genes, or the rat race of modern life. This is unconscious creation.
The truth is, we are the common denominator in all of our experiences, so any desired change – on any level – begins with each of us. We are much more powerful than we give ourselves credit for. We’ve had a hand in designing every circumstance, situation, obstacle, and triumph in our life. Even the things that seem to be happening to us are attracted to us by our thoughts, beliefs, actions, and behaviors. When we take responsibility, we have the courage to take a good look at our life, and how our thoughts, beliefs, decisions, and actions contributed to this very moment we are in now.
Once we acknowledge ourselves as a creator and really let that sink in, what we think, say, and do takes on a greater significance because we realize that our thoughts and actions impact not just us but all of existence. When we take responsibility for everything in our life, we shift from a place of victimhood to one of empowerment. From that state of empowerment, we can create what we really want.
