Both Anna Troia (spelled with an "i", like the Italian town) and Christina Lopez and Laura Botin, the founders of the Anti Hassle Club, have successfully broken free from the neoliberal hamster wheel—a system that inevitably leads to burnout. Anyone assuming Anna was merely a lucky dropout misses the point. She has a solid corporate background in marketing. She experienced the endless performance pressure firsthand and realized that nobody can win in the long run because it directly contradicts human nature and the state of flow.
I first encountered Anna through Diana Osterhage's Wandelkraft platform and their joint podcast "Stimmig wirken im Business". Anna chose to escape the performance treadmill and moved to Ecuador, living in harmony with natural elements and the rhythms of the Maya tradition.
I experienced the depth of her approach during one of her online sessions. Riding my Honda Forza 750 near Schkeuditz, I realized I wouldn't make it home in time, pulled onto a dirt road next to a cornfield, put on my wife's Sony noise-canceling headphones, and joined the session on the element "Wind" right there in the late-summer air. Even though I was the sole participant and Anna operates on a Pay what you can model—with no guaranteed payment—there was zero pressure or disappointment. She immediately slowed down the pace and grounded the space.
In a second session focused on the element "Water", three other women joined. Because everyone involved operates on a Pay what you can basis on both sides, a functioning Common Good Economy (GemÖk) emerges naturally. It forms an ecosystem built on trust, empathy, and mutual support.
This format is also uniquely suited for refugee women learning German as a second language. It draws on active listening and community building principles formulated by American psychiatrist M. Scott Peck (The Road Less Traveled). No one is forced to perform or speak. While the neoliberal world rewards whoever shouts loudest, this approach builds a genuine safe space for relief, listening, and non-judgmental connection.
