It’s been a while since I’ve written… Here is a little of what’s been going on, keeping me in a little bubble.

In September I attended Vipassana Meditation course for 3 days, you can read about my previous 10 day experience here , boy was I in for an even harder experience. I thought, 3 days would be easy, you know like a check-up ,to get back on track. Well, not quite, It was really challenging to do what I accomplished in 10 days in just 3 days. It's like cramming a 10 day internal self-inquiry journey into 3 days, next time I'll go for the 10 days again for sure. Here are two re-MINDers I took with me:

1. Judgment - In it's presence, there is no love, no compassion, no understating, no empathy. It is self-turmoil.

2. The Mind - Can make a hell out of heaven, and a heaven out of hell.

These are concepts I knew about, yet this time around, I got a dose of personal experience. And so I choose to keep working on releasing judgement of self and others, and to pay more attention of how and what I'm thinking. It's a daily practice.

In October, I encountered other life lessons - forgiveness and unconditional love. For as long as I can remember I did not believe in unconditional love. How can it be unconditional? Everyone always has some kind of condition for love. I think my higher self was looking for experiences where I get to live these two concepts. To forgive and to love without conditions. I am grateful for the challenge to act from a higher frequency and to practice forgiveness and unconditional love. At first my ego was not having it, but then I remember of who I want to be and how I want to show up.

November brought in another kind of challenge. I got a cold during Thanksgiving week! I have not had a cold since January 2014! Five years of good health was a pretty good run though! The funny thing is that the day before I started feeling the cold coming on, I had just done an essential oils class and I was sharing how I have not been sick for years, LOL ... and then life gave me a cold... did I ask for it? Well, I did get an opportunity to use the oils how I was teaching in class. The good news is, it only lasted a few days and it never got bad, it just came and went, thanks to the oil protocols I was doing.

And here we are, December, I am feeling inspired to connect again, coming out of my challenges stronger, better, and happier. I wanted to share them with you so that you know that life is not always going to be flowers and rainbows, and that is OK. The good thing about challenges, whether mental, emotional, or physical, they make us stronger. They build our character, and give us an opportunity to choose how we want to change the patterns that might no longer be serving us.

There is a really great book I've been reading since August, it's called Breaking The Habit of Being Yourself - How to loose your mind and create a new one. I am recommending it to everyone who is seeking to change limiting beliefs, anyone feeling stuck in the same patterns, and anyone looking to cultivate more positive and empowering ways of thinking. Maybe reading this book has stirred a lot of stuff in my mind and bringing in all these experiences these past few months.

Change your thoughts, change your life.

The change wont't be easy, or pretty, but it is totally worth it if you're looking to live a life of integrity, courage, and authenticity.

I hope that my experiences shed some light into your own experiences. As always thanks for reading.

Sending you so much love and gratitude! I hope this holiday season brings you joy, peace, and love.

Barbara Alfonzo