Ep 069 The MAGIC Method for Visualization & Transformation with Anushree Kini

In this episode, I sit down with transformation and visualization coach Anushree Kini to talk about how visualization can literally rewire your brain and help you create the life you actually want—not the one everyone expects you to want.

We dive into Anushree's personal journey from mystery illness to discovering the power of visualization, her MAGIC method for transformation, and why most of us are still operating from patterns we picked up when we were 13 years old.

What We Cover

Anushree's Journey

• How a mystery illness became the catalyst for her coaching career
• Why her dad telling her to "visualize enjoying math" at 13 seemed like complete bullshit (but turned out to be onto something)
• The moment she decided to stop letting doctors run endless tests and started healing from the inside out

The MAGIC Method Anushree breaks down her five-step framework for transformation:

• Mind-body alignment: Getting your nervous system out of overdrive
• Align with your future life: Getting crystal clear on what you actually want (not what you think you should want)
• Go beyond your blocks: Identifying and releasing the beliefs keeping you stuck
• Integrate with action: Taking action from awareness, not fear
• Certainty and surrendering: Building faith in the process while releasing attachment to outcomes

The Real Talk About Visualization

• Why your brain needs repetition to actually rewire (not just two weeks of half-assed visualizations)
• How to visualize when you don't even believe what you're visualizing yet
• The difference between toxic positivity and actually processing your beliefs 
• Why we're all out here trying to fix the external when the chaos is actually internal

Getting Started with Visualization

• Start with ONE area of your life (stop trying to fix everything overnight)
• Visualize the feeling, not just the outcome
• Show up every day, even when it feels fake as fuck
• Notice what fear or unworthiness comes up—don't bypass it

Resources Mentioned

• Book: Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself by Dr. Joe Dispenza
• Podcast/YouTube: David Ghiyam (spiritual wisdom & Kabbalah)

Connect with Anushree

Instagram: @projectdailymagic

Final Thoughts

This conversation reminded me that we can't keep slapping external action on internal chaos and expect shit to change. You want a different life? Start by changing what's happening inside your head first.

Want more aligned AF content? Follow me on Instagram @shalvikap or Substack 

Transcript

Shalvika: Welcome to your Aligned as F*ck Life podcast, hosted by your girl, Shalvika. I am a life transformation coach, a wife, a cat mom, pure generator, Enneagram 3, Pisces sign, and helping you build an aligned as f*ck life is my jam. Out in this world, we believe that there are no set rules for building a life, career, and business. That we are all unique and we should be able to embrace our uniqueness in everything we do while shedding all the rules or bullshit rules one at a time. We will talk all things mindset, manifestation, healing, energetics, rituals, success, and so much more. I believe that I can have it all and you can too. Ready for an episode that will take you one step closer to your aligned as f*ck life? Let's get started.

Interview with Anushree Kini

Shalvika: Hi Anushree, and welcome to your Aligned as F*ck Life with Shalvika. I am so excited to have you here.

Anushree: Thank you for having me, Shalvika! I'm very excited for our conversation today and so good to finally be speaking after, you know, being in touch on Instagram for so long.

Shalvika: Yes! That’s what I love about the work that I do—and I’m sure it’s the same for you—is meeting random people on the internet and then having these conversations with them is like the dream, I feel. So anyway, tell us a little bit about you, Anushree. Let the audience get to know you.

Anushree: Well, I’m a transformation and visualization coach. I work with women just like us who are in their 30s and 40s who are overwhelmed but high-functioning, you know? Managing life no matter the overwhelm, powering through, getting through, getting shit done—but really just feeling completely out of sorts, like they can't identify with who they are anymore. They have goals, they want to get somewhere at work, they want to get to the next level, but they want to do it with also creating a balanced, guilt-free, joyful life. And so I help them find this path and really rediscover themselves and their goals, and do it all through visualization. Visualization is, I would say, the thread that joins everything together, but of course, there’s a whole bunch of other stuff that we do as well.

Shalvika: Yeah, and I think that's perfect because I do talk a lot about building an "aligned as f*ck" life—a life that’s aligned with you. Because like you said, right? This idea of "powering through" has been kind of woven into the thread of especially womanhood. You know, overwhelm and anxiety is like normal. Growing up, I don't know if you had that experience, but I feel I did not meet a single woman who felt like she was regulated, a single woman who felt like she was balanced. Everyone, including like my mom, was always running in life—job, home, kids, this and that.

Anushree: Yeah, I think also the concept of rest and doing stuff for fun and for yourself is something that I think most women our age haven't really seen. You know, and I think that becomes hard for a lot of us to do, where you just want to do something because you want to, not because you need to.

Shalvika: Oh my god, I talk so much about that! Like literally these same exact words—doing something that you want to and not because you need to. So before we dive in—of course I do want to talk about visualization, it's something that I have been using in my life, I've been hosting vision board parties for the last five years, so it's something that's very close to my heart—but before we dive into that, I want to understand what made you choose this path? What was that "click" that happened where you were like, "Okay, I can do this"?

Anushree: My story... so, I’ve always sort of been inclined to meditation, visualization, it’s sort of always been around. I think my earliest memories are when I was 13 and my dad... you know, he’s a lot into visualization and stuff. So when I was 13, I hated math. And he was like, "Visualize yourself enjoying it." And at 13, I was just like, "What are you saying? This makes no sense."

Shalvika: "What is this bullshit?"

Anushree: I just didn't understand the concept, not like this. So of course I completely disregarded all of this advice. And many years later, maybe I found myself sort of always thinking about it and I was drawn to meditation and stuff. But a couple of years ago—I think when it really sort of changed, maybe three or four years ago now—is when I had this mystery illness come into my life. And I had like this swelling on my neck and doctors couldn't figure out what's happening with me. Scary possibilities being thrown around—biopsy, everything luckily was good, but it still was there in my life and nobody could really understand why. And when I think they were asking me to do a biopsy again for the nth time, I said, "Okay, you know, I think I need to stop and just sort of figure what's happening in my life." And I had two young kids and a very stressful time, basically. I think that's when I sort of doubled down on this journey and I said, "Okay, I, by conceptually, I believe in visualization and the power of your mind and everything. Maybe now is the time to sort of put it to practice and really double down on it." So that's when I really started, you know, every day sort of working through emotions, fears, mind-body nervous system... lots of stuff, you know? All of the stuff that I'm teaching now. And I wasn't coaching then; this was my own journey. And along the way, not only did I find answers and doctors and healing and everything, but I also found coaching. So I think I'm so grateful to that—it was really difficult that time. I think I'm so grateful because I think it had to come in and sort of bring me on this path.

Shalvika: Yeah, I think, you know, I always find... I've spoken to so many women who are in this field doing more or less like similar kind of work—maybe coaching, maybe healing, some of them are astrologers, things like that, right? And I feel like it's so amazing that this just chooses us. Out of nowhere it just props up and, you know, like, "Hello, you can do this." Cool, awesome. So tell us a little bit about what is your personal... since it sounds like you were your first client, right? And I love those kind of stories. So what will be your process of bringing that alignment? So for someone who wants to say, start on this journey, who has no idea, who's probably maybe read about it a little bit, watched some reels, you know, what would that look like?

The MAGIC Method

Anushree: Yeah, so I actually have a five-step sort of thing that I've now, through my journey and through my now training, that I've sort of put together and it's called the MAGIC method.

Shalvika: Oh, I have a MAGIC A method! Anyway, go on.

Anushree: So, the M to start with is Mind-body alignment, right? So we have to start with—we're constantly on overdrive, right? Our body's not centered, our nervous system is out of whack. We can't even go to the next step until we just like find some calm in our body first. So the first thing is, you know, breathwork, simple gratitude exercise, anything—various things that kind of get us to sort of start regulating again. Simple, take a walk outside, go walk barefoot on grass, get sunlight, breathe intentionally—just anything that we don't do. Five minutes of intentional connecting with your body every day.

The second one is A, which is Align with your future life, okay? Or align with your goals. So the second one is important because what do I want for myself? Most women I work with are confused, they're like, "I just want to feel different, but I don't know what I want." So let's get clearer on that—what do I want? Do I want to, okay, maybe I want to feel less overwhelmed, I want to feel happier—what does that mean? How can we get clearer on that? Does that mean a certain kind of a job? Does it mean a certain relationship in my life, parenting, friendships? What does that mean? Health? So get really clearer on that.

G is Go beyond your blocks. Now that we've identified this is what I want for myself, what is stopping me right now? I clearly have something inside of me that's telling me this is not possible for me, this is too far-fetched. "Oh my god, I want to make X amount of money, it's impossible." "Oh, I want to be healthy and fit, I can never do it, it's not even my genes this way, I have this, I have that." "I want to have routine and discipline, oh, I always give up halfway." What are my beliefs and patterns that are keeping me stuck? How do we start releasing them and going beyond these blocks?

I is Integrate with action. You know, we can talk and think as much as we want and keep everything inside in our head until we take action, it's going to stay in our head. Nothing works until you do. We have to take action, right? So how do we take action? But now we've done a lot of work on ourselves. So how do we take action from this space of awareness, from this space of, okay, this is... I was operating out of fear, my decisions were coming from fear, from guilt, from lack, but now I'm releasing that and how do I take action now from inspiration, from fearlessness, from trust in myself? So that will be the action.

And then the last one, which I think I struggled with for the longest time, is Certainty and surrendering. You know, just... yeah, and I think that's where kind of science and spirituality sort of combine for me, where you have to have a certain amount of certainty and faith that this is unfolding for you, and to surrender that I will do all of these steps and I'm going to release the outcome and I know it's going to come to me when it is meant to. Yeah, and I think if I did not have that certainty through my process of healing, I would not have, I think, been far more... and it took a while to get there. It was very fearful for a long time, right? Like so much fear of what is this, where is it going to go, and like all the "what ifs" were very scary. So to get past that and, you know, come to a place of certainty.

Shalvika: So how did that work for you? How did you get to the place of certainty? Because that's, you know to be honest, it's something that is a very recurring theme. Right, like today especially today, right, in this world of ChatGPT, access to information is so easy. Right, like I can actually like ask ChatGPT like, "Give me like 10 steps to bring clarity in my life," and I will get it. Information is not difficult, but the actual embodiment of it, right, is what... where people like you and me come into play. Right? So then how do you build that certainty?

Anushree: Our brain learns through repetition. We have to keep doing it. You may not believe it for the first 30, 40, 50, 60, 100 days—you might keep telling yourself and you're not going to believe it. But are you going to stop and give up and say, "Okay, forget it," or are you going to keep pushing and wait to that point where your brain changes, the chemistry, the neurons change? And that is actually where visualization, where I found so powerful—the more that you live in that future reality, the more that you visualize yourself living, breathing, acting, feeling as that future self, the more that not only do you start feeling it in your body, but your brain starts changing as well. And it reaches a point where this new identity suddenly becomes your new normal and you almost can't remember how you used to think and feel earlier.

Shalvika: Right, yeah, yeah. And I think that's... what is the word that I'm looking for... that's kind of the misalignment that is happening at this moment in the world. I don't know if you've experienced that, but because we are so used to instant gratification, right? Like you're online and you put up a reel and you get like 20 likes. It's like everything's instant. I want to order a kombucha right now, I go on my app and eight minutes later I have a kombucha delivered. Right? So we are so used to instant gratification that the process of delaying the results is what a lot of people find challenging.

Anushree: Absolutely, yeah. It's like, "I've started visualizing, it's been two weeks, why am I not seeing the results?" Yeah, that question actually is what is then keeping you stuck, right? When you're like, "Oh, why, why is it not here? Why is it not here?" You're still focused on why it's not here. So yeah, it internal change takes time. And like you said, I think we have forgotten how to be patient through the process with ourselves, how to allow ourselves that time to change. We are trying to rewire decades worth of, you know, patterns and beliefs. So it's not going to happen in two weeks, right?

Shalvika: It's not just decades, it's also generations. It's patterns that you've learned from your parents and from your grandparents and... and that's... I feel that's also something that feels like it's not talked about enough. Right? Like I'll give you an example: I'm a Maharashtrian, right? And I'm a Maharashtrian married to a Marwari. Like for those of you who are listening who don't understand Indian communities, Marwari is like a very predominantly business community and Maharashtrians are very predominantly like job service kind of a community. Like in my family, most people held jobs. Right? And there was also this belief that Marathi people can't do business. Marathi people are not great at doing business. And honestly, I felt that for a really long time. Did that mean that I did not have evidence or I did not know Maharashtrians who ran successful businesses? That's not true, like I knew so many. But that story just becomes yours because that's something you've seen repeated around you since maybe you were a child. Right? And then to get that separate perspective... like being married to a Marwari gave me a very different perspective on like, "Anything can become a business," was something that I learned and it blew my mind! And I was like, "Okay, you don't have to necessarily struggle to make money and work 18 hours a day to make money." Right? Like that, for a 25-26 year old Shalvika, that was a... that was a massive perspective on another way of doing things. But yeah, I think these stories are so dominant and a lot of times though there is hesitation in exploring these stories. Right? What do you do in those times? Like say someone comes up to you and they don't really want to be like, "Okay, these patterns are against my future self or my vision that I have for myself." Right? Like how do you navigate that?

Anushree: I think it’s a question of how badly do you want that future self, right? Do you want to get to that point? If you're happy where you are today, then great, we can continue living with our current patterns and goals, no problem, go on. But you're here because you wanted to see something change, otherwise you wouldn't be here, right? And if you want to see something change, then we do have to change. Nothing changes if nothing changes.

Shalvika: Oh yeah! And I feel you also have to... like there is a statement by Mark Manson that I love, okay? What he says is, no matter what you're doing, whether you're happy or unhappy, it doesn't matter—you always have to eat shit. You just have to decide what's your favorite flavor of shit sandwich. But yeah, I think that is the hesitation. I think a lot of times people don't want to eat the shit that comes along with... like you want to get fitter, people don't want to go through the pain that, you know, my legs are going to go through or, you know, being on a calorie deficit and not being able to eat a brownie, for example. That is what is a struggle. So do you end up using something like visualization in this process as well?

Anushree: Yeah, so I really what I do is really help them see that future self, and then we kind of decode why are we not there yet, right? Through that process, I think, they on their own they have these realizations that "Oh, this is why I'm not there," you know? And once you've seen it, you can't unsee it. Oh yeah, absolutely. So then after that, you can choose to say, "Okay, I don't want to deal with it," but it's still there, right? You've noticed it. And then once you're in the container with me, so then you have to see it and then we will go through it—your next step after that. But yeah, I think it's also for... we sometimes don't know where how do we start seeing these patterns, right? You're sometimes you're just not zoomed out enough. It's too... you're just part of your life is just going on every day and you don't even realize sometimes how these are governing your life or how you're making decisions based on something that happened when you were 13 and you're like, "Why am I still sort of looking at life through that lens? I don't need to, I can let it go, I'm 40, I don't need to." Yeah, absolutely. And I think, right, there is a massive disconnect sometimes with also what we want because there is a checklist of what we think we should want, right, that we have to follow. Like I remember this one client of mine and she was in her early 40s when we started working together and one of the things she came to me with is that "I am not growing in my career. I feel very stuck in my career so I want to help, I want help, like you know, getting that next level." And then when of course, like you said, right, like we start this journey of exploring around what do you want, like how that looks like, and a few weeks later I wake up in the morning and I have like a 20-plus minute long voice note from her. And one of the things that she said is... so she was a single mother of a son—she had an 11-year-old son I think at that point, right—and she's like, "I just like had a breakthrough moment yesterday when I realized that I don't actually want to grow. Right? Like I have been in this position so of course everyone expects me to grow, my boss has been insisting that I apply to the next job and like do this and do that, and my parents and my family of course expects me to grow." But she's like, "I don't want to grow because, you know, my son is 11, he's going to be with me for another maybe five or six years and then he's going to go off to college. I am serving the role of two parents and this current job actually gives me the space to be there for him. So maybe for the next five or six years I really don't want to grow, I'm happy with where I am." And there is so much guilt and shame that comes up when you say something like that, right? Like, "I'm okay, I don't want to grow." Like that's such a counter-intuitive thing. But yeah, I think that's where really knowing and understanding yourself comes into play. Anyway, cool. Okay. So for someone who's listening who's curious about visualization, for example, and they want to start exploring this modality, what would be your tips for them?

Anushree: I would say start small, don't pick one area of your life, okay? What we try sometimes we want to change everything overnight with the visual... "I'm going to be healthy and I'm going to be this and I'm everything, all of my life in one shot," and then that gets too much. So pick one area of your life and first sit and understand, "What do I want in that area?" Right? If it's a career, for example, okay, what do I really want for myself? And think, okay, six months, one year down the line, where do I want to be? Keep it a little not like 10 years away which feels a bit far-fetched sometimes. Okay, one year on the line, this is where I want to be and list it out and then write out how you want to feel, right? Because most often we want that feeling that we are going to get, right? We want... it's that feeling that we're chasing, whether it's the abundance, whether it's the freedom of time, of money, whether it's like your client was saying, that space to be with her son while also working. So what is the feeling that we want? What is currently... and then do I feel sort of any fear which comes up around this? Do I feel like, okay, this is not possible? Sit with that. Sometimes we don't want to sit with the negative feelings, you know, and we almost become like just ignore it and focus on the positive, the toxic positivity I call it. But unless we like process, "Okay, I am feeling... this is what I want one year from now. I am feeling fear, maybe I'm feeling guilt, maybe I'm feeling unworthiness, whatever it is." Sit with that and then visualize. Even if it's just five minutes a day, spend some time visualizing: how will that person walk, how will she talk, what is she doing, who is in her environment, who is she speaking with, what is she looking like, what is she wearing, how is she showing up, all of that, you know? And really visualize interactions, visualize how she's feeling, how she's showing up. And then sort of say, "Okay, I'm doing my bit and I have trust that it will unfold in this way." But I think visualizing and with visualization it's not something that we can do once a month and you know, just feel like it'll happen. Even if we don't feel like it, how can you show up every day? Even if doing it, it doesn't feel real, you know? "I'm visualizing this future self, it doesn't feel real, I don't believe it." But you will! Right? How do you still show up every day and say, "I will keep doing this"? Have a goal—okay, next 30 days I will do it every day, and then we see after that how I feel. Right, right. So what's your personal visualization routine or ritual?

Anushree: So I’ve been doing it for a while now so I think I intuitively sort of know what I need for the day. So on some days it’s very like I visualize myself six months, a year from now and just overall life, you know? How is Anushree like living in that moment, what is life looking like, what does it feel like? I’m very goal-specific—if I have a particular goal for this month, then you know, I’ll visualize that goal sort of happening, what I’m doing to get to the goal, how it feels when I reach it. Sometimes it's health, you know, when I'm visualizing healing for myself. So I think for me now it's I've reached a point where I can intuitively know what I need for the day and then sort of do it. But yeah, I think it is I feel uncomfortable if I don't do it every day. Like something is missing in my life and the days that I don't do it, I can really see the difference in my productivity in the day, in my, you know, how you are you tend to spiral that much easier, you know, and you get overwhelmed easier. So it just regulates you also on so many different levels. Of course, yeah.

Shalvika: Okay, so what’s been that one thing that you visualized but when you started it you did not believe it, right, and then when it happened you had that moment of like, "Whoa, like what the f*ck, this actually just happened to me"?

Anushree: Yes, I think very... I mean there have been quite a few but two moments, of course, my health journey has been sort of one of them. What did it turn out to be though? Sorry, I'm just mystery... oh no, no one knows. It's just some sort of infection, inflammation sort of... okay, okay. In fact, I've been working with a functional medicine practitioner who's amazing and... so she's figured out lots of like, you know, gut issues and various things. But I... so just before I met this person, I was thinking, you know, I want someone in my life who will who is not who will look at me holistically as a person and tell me what's going on, because clearly there's something inside me that's not functioning correctly. And I was visualizing that I would just find somebody who would look at me zoomed out, and I swear to you a month later I met her. And she told me what she was doing, I’m like, "Really? Like I'm looking exactly for someone who can zoom out and look at me like as the person and not as specialized organs." So that was amazing. And even visualizing an income goal... it blew my mind because it was like much more than what I had been making and then when it happened I’m like, "Wow!" And of course, actually you don't believe it because your evidence around you is telling you that you're at this level, how are you going to go there? But yes, I think that was one... and yeah, many more but I think these two kind of stood out.

Shalvika: Thank you, thank you, I love that! Okay, cool. So what one piece of advice or thought, something that you want to leave the audience with that you feel they have to know like right now?

Anushree: My one of my favorite lines is, "Your reality, your outer reality, is a reflection of your inner reality." And if there is chaos, if there's overwhelm, if if stuff is falling apart in your outer world, it's time to look inside because stuff is probably falling apart inside. And most of the time we try to fix the external, you know, we take more and more and more and more action. And of course we have to take action, I'm not saying sit and don't take action. But it has to start inside. We have to first change the inner environment and through that when we start taking action from that space... it is when we, you know, a new mirror, we create a new reflection then in our outer reality.

Shalvika: I love that! Thank you, thank you so much for sharing. Yeah, and I think that's what "aligned action" really is, right? Like I feel that's why like we're at that point in... like we're recording this on 8th December so we're almost at the end of the year. And I feel like that's why so many New Year's resolutions actually end up failing because people are just focusing on action. "I'm going to go to the gym three days a week." That's not going to change the story that you're telling yourself, that's not going to change your identity.

Anushree: Yes, absolutely! What is the identity inside? Why are you finding it difficult to go to the gym? What is the... what's under the procrastination?

Shalvika: Absolutely, absolutely, yeah. I love that! Thank you so much for sharing. Okay, last question, or maybe second to last, I don't know, but what is that one book or podcast or movie or music album... again, it doesn't necessarily have to be something that is informational, but something that just you can't live without? You feel like everyone in their life has to listen to it, watch it, read it... what is that one thing?

Anushree: I think the one book which really changed so much for me... I think it was like that switch... was Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself by Dr. Joe Dispenza. I read it years and years ago, I think much before I had this mystery illness. It was much before. And I think that really shifted so much about... something just switched inside. And I think that began to really believe that your inner reality really decides your outer reality. A podcast that I'm currently loving and binging on... so for I think the my theme of this year has been really going much deeper into spirituality, I think. Um, there is this person called David Giam who’s on YouTube and he talks a lot about spirituality and the spiritual wisdom of Kabbalah and it has I really it’s one of those things where something shifts, and I think it has really helped me immensely this year and transformed a lot of my worldview and the way I think and and show up. So I think yeah.

Shalvika: Cool, awesome. Um, all right, cool. So for anyone who's listening who wants to get in touch with you, who wants to know how they can work with you or get on your mailing list, basically be in your orbit, what would you... of course we will add it to the show notes, we'll add the link, but yeah.

Anushree: Just find me on Instagram: @projectdailymagic. That's my handle. Just reach out anytime, DM me, you can watch the content and see if it resonates with you and yeah, just reach out. I love... I'm very active in my DMs and everything, I love to chat with whoever messages, so yeah.

Shalvika: Awesome, okay, all right, cool. On that note, I think we are going to wrap up. Unless you have any last minute thoughts to leave us with?

Anushree: No, I think it was really fun, I really enjoyed this conversation.

Shalvika: I know, so did I! Thank you, thank you so much for being here, thank you so much for sharing your space, sharing your wisdom with us, and I'm really hopeful that this conversation is going to let some people at least down the path of visualization as a regular practice and not just something that you do when you want something. You know, that's what we usually end up doing. But thank you so much, Anushree, thank you for your time.

Anushree: Thank you, thank you so much! Thank you for doing all that you do and for bringing all of this out to everybody.

Shalvika: Thank you, thank you so much! All right, awesome, I’m going to let you go. Bye-bye!

Anushree: Take care, bye-bye!

Podcast Outro

Shalvika: Thank you so much for tuning in today's episode. If you absolutely loved what you heard today, be sure to share it with me by leaving a review on iTunes so that I can keep the good stuff coming. And if you aren't already following me on social media, come soak up some extra, extra inspiration and send me a hello on Instagram by searching @shalvikap, also tagged in the show notes. I love and adore you so much and I will talk to you super, super soon. In the meantime, continue building your most authentic and aligned as f*ck life. Ciao!