What moves someone to travel across continents for inner work? What shifts when personal transformation unfolds on African soil, within an international circle committed to awareness and responsibility?
We spoke with Lorena Simoncini about her experience of the Life Alignment retreat in South Africa. Her reflections are personal, grounded, and quietly powerful, offering insight into how individual alignment naturally becomes part of something much larger.
A heartfelt thank you as well to Silvia Martinetti, Advanced Teacher in Italy, for your generous and ongoing translation support in service to the Italian Life Alignment community, and for helping make this journey – in tune with the beat of creation – truly possible for Lorena.
Maggie: Lorena, what inspired you to join the retreat in South Africa?
For months I had been participating in online meetings and community chats. I felt deeply connected to the teaching and to the international Life Alignment community. Through the screen I had encountered Jeff’s presence, the energy of the work, and the sincerity of the people involved.
And yet, at a certain point, something inside me began to mature.
It was not dissatisfaction. It was more like an inner ripening. I realised that I no longer wanted to experience this only virtually and isolated from the international community. I wanted to meet people face to face. To look into their eyes. To share physical space, silence, laughter, pain and meals. To breathe the same air.
At the same time, there was a very human hesitation. My English is not fluent, and for a long time this insecurity held me back. I often felt that language was a wall between me and a deeper participation in the international field.
When translation support became available for the retreat – thank you Silvia! – something in me responded immediately. It was almost physical. I felt a clear yes.
That yes was not impulsive. It carried both courage and trust. Trust that I would be supported, not only linguistically but also practically, in organising the journey from Italy to South Africa.
Looking back, that yes was already part of my process. It was a step beyond my perceived limits. The beginning of a big balance. A first return toward something essential within me. Toward my inner roots.
For someone who is new to Life Alignment, how would you describe what it actually is?
Life Alignment is difficult to explain purely with words, because it is something you experience in your body and in your daily life.
For me, life itself is an inner journey. What shapes us most is not only what happens externally, but what we carry inside, often unconsciously. Our inherited beliefs, emotional memories, unresolved experiences. These quietly influence how we relate, how we choose, how we react.
Life Alignment offers a structured and grounded way to work with this inner landscape.
In this case, through a group balancing processes, specific themes come to light. For the individual and the group. Patterns become visible. You begin to understand where you are not fully aligned with your deeper truth.
What I appreciate deeply is that it is not something done to you. You are present. You participate. You take responsibility. The practitioner or facilitator supports, but you remain at the center of your own transformation.
I often describe it as receiving keys. Keys that open inner rooms that have been closed for a long time. In those rooms there may be old stories, ancestral imprints, emotional residues. When these are acknowledged and released, something becomes lighter. Energy becomes available again.
And this is not abstract. It changes how you live. You communicate differently. You make decisions with more clarity. You react less automatically.
From my experience, personal alignment naturally influences the collective. When one person becomes more coherent, their environment shifts as well. Families, friendships, workplaces – everything aligns to impact.
So individual healing is never only individual.
What was it like to experience this work in South Africa?
South Africa touched me deeply.
It is not just a country. There is something in the land. A depth. A memory. A sense of ancestral presence.
I arrived with mixed feelings. Excitement and gratitude, yes. But also fear. Traveling so far from home. Facing my inner themes in a different continent. Stepping outside what was familiar.
Yet from the first days, I felt welcomed in a very quiet but powerful way.
The landscape itself felt like part of the process. The vast sky, the strong earth, the rough ocean, the mountains. Especially the mountains.
Standing before them, I felt a perfect alchemy between stability and expansion. They were solid, rooted, ancient. And at the same time, open, vast, almost infinite.
They reminded me that grounding does not mean limitation. It means having a stable base from which to expand.
Experiencing Life Alignment in that environment added another layer to the balances. It felt as if the land itself was holding space. As if the earth was participating in the realignment. I heard this experience from several other participants as well. It’s indeed a country aligned to the rhythm of creation.
That may sound poetic, but it was a very physical sensation. I felt the ground under my feet differently. I felt my body more present.
Was there a particular moment during the retreat that marked you?
Yes. During my first personal balance (I was the first priority person coincidently), a theme emerged very clearly: to embrace life fully on this earth and to root myself more deeply in my own existence.
Those words went straight into me.
I realised that, without consciously deciding it, I had often kept a slight distance from life. Observing, thinking, analysing. Not fully inhabiting.
In that moment, grounding revealed itself in a completely new way. Not as heaviness. Not as obligation. But as presence.
I felt the earth beneath my feet. I felt my heartbeat in my chest. I noticed my breath becoming fuller.
It was such a YES to this life. Not an ideal life. Not a future version of myself. This life, here, now.
That insight changed something subtle but essential. Since returning home to Italy, I notice that I am more present in simple moments. More embodied. More willing to stay with what is.
What surprised you most about the retreat?
The sense of familiarity.
After traveling across continents, I expected at least some initial distance. Some cultural difference that would take time to bridge.
Instead, from the first days, there was natural connection among the participants.
We came from different countries, spoke different languages, had different professional backgrounds and life stories. And yet there was immediate recognition.
There was no need to perform. No need to explain ourselves excessively. The bridges were already there.
I have participated in group work for many years. But I had never experienced such an immediate sense of belonging.
It felt like remembering each other beyond our biographies. Beyond language.
In a place geographically far from home, I felt deeply at home.
How did being part of an international community influence your experience?
It expanded my perspective significantly.
Listening to different languages during the retreat was beautiful. Each language carries a different rhythm. A different color. Seeing how Life Alignment is integrated into various cultural contexts broadened my understanding of its universality.
At the same time, I did not feel small within that international field. On the contrary, I felt empowered.
Even my fear around language softened. I realised that when there is authentic connection, communication finds its way. The heart communicates beyond grammar.
Traveling with someone from Italy to South Africa and back also created a sense of support and companionship. I felt accompanied, not only logistically but humanly.
This experience showed me that expansion is not only geographical. It is internal.
When individuals from different parts of the world gather for sincere inner work, something larger is served. Each of us returns home carrying that shared resonance.
In that sense, global healing does not begin with big declarations. It begins with individuals who choose to align more deeply with themselves and then live differently in their daily environments.
Did anything continue unfolding after the retreat ended?
Yes.
Remaining open after the retreat allowed meaningful encounters beyond the official program. One of the most significant was meeting a local sangoma, a traditional healer.
Our encounter felt like ancient recognition. It is difficult to explain rationally. We did not need many words. There was a sense of shared presence, of something older connecting us.
When it was time to leave South Africa, I experienced something unexpected. Not simply the sadness of a retreat ending, but a deep longing.
It felt as if I was leaving a place that belonged to me. Or perhaps a place to which I belong.
That feeling remains with me. It influences how I relate to my own roots and to humanity as a whole.
Finally, what would you say to someone who feels called to reconnect more deeply with themselves but hesitates?
Inside each of us there are two voices.
One voice seeks safety. It prefers what is known and predictable. It protects us.
The other voice is quieter but persistent. It senses that there is more depth available. More authenticity. More life.
My invitation would be to listen gently to that second voice. Not by denying fear, but by acknowledging it and taking one conscious step at a time.
Life Alignment offers structure and support for this process. It does not promise perfection. It invites responsibility and presence.
Every step beyond the comfort zone reveals something valuable. Every moment of alignment influences how we show up in the world.
For me, traveling to South Africa was not an escape. It was a return.
A return to grounding. To presence. To my inner roots.
And from that grounded place, contributing to the wider world feels natural. Quiet. Real.
This is how personal alignment becomes part of global healing. One sincere yes at a time.
Thank you, Lorena, for your honesty, courage, and the depth with which you shared your journey.
Your experience beautifully reflects the essence of this work — personal, grounded, and quietly transformative. Thank you for saying yes, for stepping beyond your limits, and for contributing your presence to our international community.
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