An interview with Anna Alfaro

About healing, journaling & self love

In this opportunity, we talk to Anna Alfaro all about her sustainable conscious lifestyle and how her personal healing journey has led her to become a life and business coach helping other women to heal, be inspired, and transform their lives. Anna tells us about her daily rituals, including beauty and everyday care and shares a powerful exercise to promote self-love.

Hi Anna, it's so nice having you here. Could you please share with us a bit about you and your background?

I’m Anna Alfaro. I was born in Spain and I’ve been living in Barcelona since I was 18 years old. So despite I was not born in that city, I feel that I’m from there. After living in Barcelona we moved to Mallorca and lived there for nearly a year, now I am based in Lisbon with my partner and our dog but we think we might move again at some point!

I'm a psychologist and coach and I mainly support women through coaching sessions, 1:1 or in groups to empower them to go through the transitions in life and live aligned to their visions, goals, and desires. In my work, I explore both the business and life/personal areas. I also host workshops and I am very excited to share here that we’ll be hosting retreats together with you my dear friend. This is something that I’ve been manifesting for a while now and I am so happy that is taking shape now! I talk a lot about manifestation, how to create your dream life and live fulfilled, well-being, sustainability, and other meaningful topics in my weekly newsletter. Oh, and I also write for other websites and magazines, I’m always open when it comes to sharing and exchanging to inspire one another.

How would you describe your personal lifestyle?

I like to have a calm and relaxed lifestyle. I pay a lot of attention to what I consume: what I eat - if possible organic and local food, what I watch - series, news, films, and what’s around me - surroundings, people. Because I believe that all of these have a direct impact on ourselves. I love eating well, practicing yoga and my rituals. I love my profession but I also love my life so I find it important to always have a balanced life between work and lifestyle. I’m committed to myself and I spend enough time doing all the other important things to me on top of work to live a fulfilling life. I love beauty and I see it in everything that’s around me: every object we have at home, on the books I’m reading (which I love doing), on the table we set when we eat, and whichever street I find myself whether is Lisbon, Barcelona, Mallorca, or any other city. I love traveling a lot, art, design, interior design, photography… oh, I believe we have so much in this life to enjoy and nurture ourselves!

What's a typical day in Anna’s life.

I usually wake up early, before 7 am and I spend my first 2 hours or 2,5 hours on my own: I practice yoga for 45-60 minutes (between 3-4 times per week, sometimes instead of yoga I do Pilates to gain more strength on my body, then I meditate for about 15 min (meditation and hypnosis) and then I always have some time for journaling.
After that is my beauty time: shower, face rituals, and taking care of my skin. Then, we have breakfast together with my boyfriend. I love to enjoy breakfast slowly with good conversation, talking about the day ahead, and sharing some thoughts. It's a very nice way to connect while enjoying a delicious meal.

Depending on the days, I have on my agenda to work with my clients (online, coaching sessions, having meetings for collaborations, workshops and similar things; and the rest of the day I work on my own (behind the scenes) creating, writing, answering emails, etc.

I always take a break to have lunch. At home, we are very conscious about what we eat and we always enjoy amazing dishes. On Saturdays, we visit the farmer’s market in Príncipe Real, Lisbon, to buy organic local food. If I don’t have any calls after, I take a small nap or relax (reading or simply closing my eyes) and then I work a bit more but I always to avoid working until late so I can have free time to spend with my partner and dog, studying - doing inner work (it can be my therapy sessions for example), exploring nice places in the city or outside, spend time with friends… or just disconnecting at home.

Could you share with us your own healing journey and how this inspired you and connects to who you are now and your work as life & business coach. 

I started my healing journey when I was a teenager and was experiencing anorexia. It was a hard time because at this moment I felt that nobody was able to help me but still, I went through many processes with psychologists for many years. So since then I never stopped working on myself, sometimes with more luck than others! But what changed me and all my inner journey was yoga, 10 years ago. I always say that it changed my life and the relationship I have with myself, others, and life in general. I share that in my book published in June 2021, “Yoga para equilibrar tus emociones” which is about our emotions and the way we can connect and work on them through yoga, other rituals and tools such as meditation, breathing, nature, nutrition, etc.

Apart from yoga, I explore other therapeutic spaces and journeys with professionals from different areas. I also did training and studies: yoga teacher training, meditation and reiki as well. I studied coaching and pnl to complement my psychology studies (my main degree) and started working with women as a life and business coach, integrating other tools and practices as I do with myself mainly meditation, journaling, yoga.

 Best advice you have received in life?

"The key to leaving and changing this situation is in your hands".

What would you recommend to someone who is starting its own personal journey?  

Most of the time it can be really hard to find the first step, person, therapy, or way to work on yourself because as we all know there’s so much information out there! So many people doing similar things as happens in other things in life (for example in nutrition) that it can be hard to know who to trust, believe and follow.
I would say first of all: trust your intuition. If you are feeling that a person or therapy is talking to you, follow it for a while, read, investigate - you don’t need to do a master's thesis - just research enough to try it and start doing something because that is what will help you: moving into action!
So be curious, try things, speak to others, listen to your gut and be committed to yourself by doing it if, along the way, at some point, you’re feeling stuck, not progressing or evolving the way you need, after giving some time to the process and yourself, you can always change.
For sure, once you’ve reached that moment, you will have learned so many things that you won’t be in the same place as before starting. We are always growing so after this firsts steps, you will have probably more ideas about where to go next.

Which books have most impacted your life?

Definitely The Power of Intention, Wayne Dyer

Breaking the habit of being yourself, Joe Dispenza

Gabrielle Bernstein, Happy Days and The Universe has your back

How is your relationship with your own skin? Do you feel connected and confident?

I’m very happy and grateful for my skin. It is sensitive but I think over the years I've learned how to take care of her. It’s been always essential the way I eat (food and also taking supplements when necessary, not only for the skin, also for hormones which also has an impact on the skin), hydration (drinking enough water), the kind of product I use for it.

I think I always take good care of it but it was when I started my own healing journey and especially when I started practicing yoga, that I became more aware and conscious and I started changing small and simple details from my lifestyle. All these things end up having a big impact on ourselves and the planet, so in that case, coming back to the question, I moved into consuming organic-eco and sustainable products which also nurture my skin amazingly.

Do you have any beauty rituals?

Yes, sure. This is something I learned from my mum who’s always been very conscious of the importance of rituals.

In the morning, I wash my face with Chamomile & Aloe Healing Mist or simply water and then I apply the Daily Ritual Facial Cream and an Eye Contour.

My main ritual is at night, after the day I clean my face very well with Cleansing Milk and Chamomile & Aloe Healing Mist , and then I use the Night Serum.

For my body, I use solid soaps and after the shower, I use the Everyday Balance Oil to hydrate my body and I combine it over the week with another body cream; on my hair solid shampoo, and conditioner as well. 

Do you practice other self care rituals?

Yes besides all the things I mentioned, I also treat myself with at least one monthly massage, I do acupuncture sessions and my regular therapy. I attend workshops from other professionals, to nurture myself and keep growing. Spending time in nature is also a way of connecting with myself, it became essential especially after living in Mallorca, where we were living close to the sea and the mountains. Spending quality time with my partner and friends is also a must.

You introduced me to journaling, and it's been so healing for me. Could you share a bit more about it and why it can be beneficial to incorporate this practice into our daily lives?

"Journaling is the practice of writing daily and by hand and that allows us to connect on an internal level and put down on paper feelings, emotions, thoughts, reactions, and things we want to reflect on. For example, about things that we doubt or about which we have to make decisions, intentions, or plans of action..."

That’s the definition I share in "Yoga para equilibrar tus emociones" my book published in June 2021 by Zenith.

Some of the benefits of this practice are:

• Improves self-knowledge, personal growth, and development
• Enhances skills 
• Helps with emotional conditions such as anxiety or depression
• Allows you to see things more clearly, to be more focused, discern, take distance, to have a more reflective and less reactive attitude
• Helps to make decisions
• Gives support to solve conflicts more quickly calms the mind

Could you please suggest us a Journaling exercise to help promote self love?

Yes, I do this exercise myself and also with my clients. It's simple and I would recommend doing it daily, it can be in the morning after meditation or at night, it's up to the person to see what works best.

I call it “Current Moment or Status” — It’s an invitation to reflect and express through writing your current state. 

In your journal answer this question: 

How you are, how do you feel, and what is occupying your mind, your heart, your life right now?

The idea is to communicate with ourselves freely, without judgment, describing how we are at a certain moment. If we are worried about something, if there is a decision to make, something we are grateful for, something we would like to happen, or things we don't not like.

This can be a way to communicate with ourselves which can help us to take care and responsibility for our needs and desires. The more we start to know ourselves, and what we want the easier it gets to work towards your desires and dream life.

What are you currently working on, does it excites your soul?

Yes, I am very excited about the new season. I have my new coaching groups (life and business) which are always a space of growth for the women who join it and also for me. Also, I want to host monthly regular workshops, online, to let everybody have access to those proposals online.

I would also like to give workshops in person on my own, and also with you. I’m very happy for this new chapter together which will be all about beauty, care, self-love, and growth. So looking forward to hosting events and workshops together this autumn and more to come next year, bigger and deeper. 

What’s in the future for Anna Alfaro? 

I hope to be able to reach more and more women to share with them all the tools and learnings that I have myself; I want to support and help them to feel empowered and live the life and businesses they are willing to have. I also want to host more events and retreats and let my business grow and be a beautiful and nurturing space for all who feel connected to it. On a personal level, I’m manifesting a move to Mallorca. I want to be back on the island to definitely settle there and create a beautiful home for us. I’m very happy in Lisbon, in Portugal, but my heart is deeply connected with Mallorca. 

 Explore Anna's favorite essentials from Raw Care

 Learn more about Anna Alfaro's work: annalfaro.com

Or follow: @byannalfaro