I’ve known Alfonso for about 6 years. A former Italian bodybuilding champion,  he is now a  a hypnotherapist and a Master NLP Trainer. Following extensive studies in spiritual science, he  now helps others achieve their own personal breakthroughs. In the 6 years I’ve known him I’ve watched him grow his business and himself into a class act.

What is faith? Faith means listening to God, or your guidance system. When God tells you to do something, you have to do it. Faith is being able to listen to the voice and take action, even if it’s scary, or it doesn’t make complete sense to you at the time. It’s like a knowing. If you listen then you’re doing what you’re supposed to do. If you don’t, you will get a push. Examples he gave were going to a new city, giving away things that you wouldn’t normally give, and taking some action that is scary. As long as “God” tells you to do it, the blessings will come back to you.

For me, I don’t belong to any religious affiliation, and I’m a follower of Abraham Hicks. So when Alfonso says “God” I interpret that as “my higher self” or “my guidance system” or even “the universe”. According to Abraham Hicks, the religions were written when someone went into the jungle for long enough to gain clarity and focus that allows the words to come through from their higher self. That there is truth is all religions, but as the humans get hold of the interpretations . . . ya know.

I had bought my condo 12 years ago. It’s a cute place in the Long Beach Marina. I walk over a bridge and I’m at the Marina Pacifica mall. I’ve also met many friends there. I’ve taken part in the communication by participating as the Newsletter Committee Chair, and I also helped create a yahoo group where the neighbors can communicate. After almost 5 years there’s over 8,000 messages and it’s played a great role in improving communication and helping people connect. I’m happy with what I’ve done, and I also feel that I made it a better place. It’s comfortable there, my mother lives only 10 minutes away so often I drop off my dog rather than leaving him alone when I have to work.

But about 6 months ago I got a feeling that I needed to move, that my time there was over, it felt stale, that whatever I needed to do was done, and that I really didn’t want to be there anymore. I looked at all my belongings that I’ve accumulated and I remember thinking how none of it seemed very important. It was just a bunch of stuff. It was time to go.

But I didn’t listen. Where would I go? It’d be hard to go somewhere different without someone to help me with my dog. It’s hard to go to a new city and start new. I would definitely have to revamp my social skills. I’d have to get out of my comfort zone, or, as they teach in seminars, make my comfort zone larger. All the chatter stopped me from taking action.

In the last few months of last year, I had three floods in my house which were really annoying. Two were from the rain, and the other was from me pouring in draino to clear a plugged up bathtub. But who knew that draino would destroy the old pipes? Was this the universe speaking? Or just an inconvenience?

About 3 weeks ago I had another flood, but this one was different, it came from the upstairs unit when their toilet kept running. The carpet, ceiling, and walls were soaked.

To make a long and emotionally exhausting story short, the company that came in to dry it used improper procedures. They cut into the asbestos-containing ceiling (to prevent mold from forming) and kept the four air movers on for an entire week. When an insurance adjuster came to assess the damage, he was annoyed, almost angry. “Who did this?”, he asked pointing to my ceiling “Was it a friend of yours?” I told him that it was a company I hired. He then said that asbestos is toxic when it is airborne, and since I have asbestos in an open ceiling and the air movers were going that the entire place was contaminated! Which started me on a week-long asbestos freak out where I read everything I could about asbestos and I called anyone that I could think of that knows about asbestos.

Since then I’ve been locked out, there was plastic covering the front door with a “Do Not Enter” sign on it. And then a company came with all this equipment and plastic to decontaminate, with the workers wearing suits and masks. The inspector describes it as a scene similar to that in the movie ET. My furniture and all the other contaminated belongings (everything) have been zip-locked with plastic bags and removed from my home.

Again, I’ll spare the emotional trauma all this has caused, and how creepy it is that strangers are moving all my belongings, and get to the spiritual part.

So now everything is packed and removed from my unit, I’ll be getting new carpet and paint, my ceiling is being scraped it will be in perfect selling condition. Okay, universe, I’m listening! Can you imagine what would happen next if I chose to stay? Ouch.

Next stop on this journey: Santa Monica.

For more information on Alfonso De Rose: www.takeyourrisk.com. By the way, his 2 1/2 Faith seminar is FREE.