Roberta is one of my current girl-crushes and someone I look up to. After being insta-buddies for a while we finally met this past summer when i was in my hometown in Northern Italy(Brescia). She and her boyfriend—a highschool friend—recently opened a meditation center in the heart of Brescia and they, among some other young creatives, are contributing to innovate and reshape the mindset of the city.
Among many other things Roberta is a Meditation Instructor, a life purpose coah, a pro traveler and a modern day Alchemist. She is gifted with amazing energy and she’s incredibly knowledgable on all things spiritual.
If you are feeling confused, tired, in need of changing something in your life but don’t know where to begin with, Roberta is your girl!
Tell me who you are,what you do, what’s your story?
Wow, that’s a huge question 😀
I am Roberta, I am from Northern Italy but I spend most of my years traveling, mainly to Asia. This is why I like to say that I am a traveler of both the inner and the outer world.
I am a Meditation Instructor and Life Purpose Strategist. I help women to get really clear about what they want in life and I lead them to achieve it, starting form their spirituality.
In the past 6 years I completely changed my life and my approach to it. After graduating with honors at one of the most prestigious Italian university I got an incredible job as Sales Export Manager for a big beauty company. I was living the life of my dreams: high income, artist boyfriend, big house. But something started sweeping me off my feet. Every day I felt more and more disconnected from my truest self. Years of painful soul searching followed by the end of a 7 years relationship made it all clear. I was not aligned with my Purpose. I suddenly quit my job, faced the pain of a lost love and started again by myself for myself.
When did you start traveling?
Quite early. I was 14 when I took my first plane alone. I wanted to go to Tunisia to live a bit of Africa without going to far.
I remember my parents’ faces when I asked them for their signatures on the documents that stated that they allowed me to fly alone, under the supervision of the hostess only 😀
What does travel mean to you?
It means to live.
There’s no other way I can conceive my life without it. It’s discovering yourself through the eyes of the people you meet. It’s finding love and trusting the Universe. It’s learning to be open without fear.
What’s your favorite country? Why?
I am an India Lover because every time someone goes there, he/she cannot expect to come back as the same person she/he was before. Mother India can be very tough but hers are the greatest lessons, those of a lifetime.
In India you learn what having no expectation and what detachment really mean. You are pushed to your further limits. You learn to go with the flow. But first you have to pass trough acceptance of what you are and what life is giving you at that time, in that moment.
She is like a medicine, the kind of medicine you don’t like because of its bitterness but despite the bitterness you know it is healing you from the very first sip.
Tell me about one of the most beautiful/magical travel moments you had?
They all start from being the most scaring and dramatic ones actually 😀 but I have this memory that I will carry on for the rest of my life that I want to share with you. I was in China, back in 2012, traveling with a friend, from a lost place to another, to discover how real China was. We booked a last minute train, an overnight one. At the time no one spoke English in China so I used my lonely planet guide and the few chinese words I knew to ask for a berth. When we jumped on the train, literally pushed by hundreds of poor mongolian farmers traveling to China looking for a better job and a better life, I realized that something went wrong. I found myself alone, my friend with my backpack and my money ended up on another coach, and I was left with a “reserved standing place” for the next 8 hours. I had no food, no water, no way to buy them. I was tired and scared. Everybody was looking at me suspiciously, I was the only stranger on a local train. I burst into tears. Literally. Loudly. I dared to show myself and let myself be seen. And everything changed. I have been offered hot tea, food, biscuits and sweets. A nice guy gave me his seat. I took photos with the girls, tried to play cards with the men. It has been the most magical train trip of my life.
You mainly work with women. Why Women?
Because as the Dalai Lama said during a conference in Canada some years ago, I really believe that the World will be saved by the western women.
We spent years being our biggest enemies, judging and denigrating each other. Now it’s really time to get together and show who we are and what we can do if we stand united.
Who and what inspires you?
Women who aren’t afraid to show their vulnerability, their real beauty. The ones who share their true stories. Women who travel, live in contact with Nature walk barefoot and with no make up on. I have loads of online momentary crushes, Instagram is my biggest inspiration source at the moment.
Your instagram handle is @roberta_alchimista which means “alchemist’ in Italian, what is an alchemist in today’s world? How important is spirituality today?
In a world that seems to be taken over by materialism and superficiality, I see alchemy as a tool for evolution and spirituality as the only way to go through life.
You know, an alchemist has always been the one who transmute lead into gold and being an alchemist today means actually the same. You just look at people and see them for who they really are. You see the gold, the light inside of them, that sparkle that is just hidden deep inside.
You help them see it. You lead people to see their potentialities and you help them to heal themselves and their lives by transmuting all the repressed and stuck energy, all the wounds they carry on their skin and in their hearts. You ask them to face their fears and all the dark they are escaping from.
It is a journey. You lead them to explore their inner world.
Spirituality is a deep connection with your truest self. It’s understanding that you are not you physical nor emotional body. You are much more, you are the Soul. And You are limitless and endless. Spirituality is realizing that there is a why behind all the experiences and emotions you are living. It’s understanding that you pass from one life to another just like you change your dress everyday with the only aim to evolve yourself to reach the Source.
Tell me about your retreats? Where and when is the next one?
They are spiritual travels for women who want to let go of all the labels of the past and reconnect with their spirituality. There are energy rituals, meditations, life purpose coaching session that show them what spirituality is and how they can add it to their life.
During my retreats you are highly encouraged to show up as you are because I really feel that that is the only way we can give value to each others life. There are no reasons to be worried about taking off our masks because we are already enough as it is. These retreats are life changing experiences.
Each retreat has a different theme. The next one is in February 2017 in the most challenging country ever, India. We will let ourselves be healed by its ancient medicine, Ayurveda and we will learn how to properly feed ourselves with the right kind of energy through the course “Technology for Feeling subtle energies”.
You helped tons of women finding their way. Any advice for women tha
t feel lost and can’t find the courage to leave, or to chase their dream?
Stop limiting yourself by believing that everything depends on you. Surrender to a far greater energy. Be open and ask for guidance. Don’t ask for what you think you may need but let the Universe guide you. Trust. Be honest and stop lying to yourself. Remember that all the possibilities already exist and asking is the way to connect and materialize them.
Get the fuck out of the city! (as Sophia Amoruso says), spend some time alone with yourself, ask and be ready to receive.
To know more about Roberta visit her website and follow her on social media!
FOLLOW ROBERTA
1 Comments
Roberta
<3