“The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.”—Carl Rogers

Paradise is where the heart is! This weekend, my heart is back in Balesin Island after being away for almost a year. Thanks to the generosity of Alphaland chair Roberto “Bobby” Ongpin, I am now a Diamond Member here at Balesin Island Club.

After clearing the island’s strict health and safety protocols at Aegle Wellness Center in Makati, we took the short 20-minute Balesin flight on Friday morning to be in the island early. We are here for the birthday celebrations of wonderful friends Ysa Veluz and Malu Gamboa.

Balesin Island is truly unique in the world. It has remained as pristine and breathtaking as the last time I was on the island. I am excited to try the new eel dishes at Tang Palace as well as dine in Toscana and Mykonos.

Changing my mindset in life, I have let go of the need to control what I can’t, and have embraced radical acceptance. It signals a chance for hope and clarity to live in the present instead of dwelling on the past. Rather than being stuck to a painful past, radical acceptance requires nonattachment. It does not mean to disregard your emotional feelings. Nonattachment refers to an intention to not allow your pain to turn into suffering. Identify your feelings and take positive control over them!

It is different from forgiveness, which extends an act of kindness to the offending party. Instead, radical acceptance is an act of kindness to yourself. Moving toward calm and logical thought, we are able to choose a more favorable point of view to attain self-growth.

Psychologist Carl Rogers writes in his book, “On Becoming a Person: A Therapist’s View of Psychotherapy,” that by being stuck in the past, you are letting yourself get stuck in the pain. Stagnation and dwelling on what we cannot control or change stops us from moving toward a path of healing. In finding and forging our own self-direction, we are able to create self-initiated learned lessons. With empathy to our inner beings, we attune ourselves to the illumination and healing of the universe.

Mindfulness is one method of practicing radical acceptance. Living in the present moment requires living mindfully. In balancing emotion and logic, we are able to cope with traumatic experiences and heal faster. Practicing gratitude can also help us let go of the things in our life that we are not in control of.

Positivity is contagious

Spending time with people that make us happy and fulfilled can be a great way to help us live in the present moment. Positivity is contagious! Keep happy friends close by.

It was wonderful to host lunch at my home with my Usana family after a year of not seeing each other. We talked about keeping healthy with the new supplements of Usana Stress and Mood products.

In helping to adapt to occasional stress and balancing moods, Usana ProCalm+ mood-support supplement is an internal, holistic solution that helps maintain healthy responses to stress and worry. Combined with Usana Calm Response essential oil balm, the supplement helps attain the feeling of calmness, with the soothing aromatic scent of lavender.

Taken twice daily, ProCalm+ potent ingredients can help you cope with your daily grind. The saffron, lemon balm and ashwagandha in this unique supplement supply an aid to calmness. This product is a combination of tradition and modern science to deliver effective amounts of those high-quality adaptogens—foods (usually herbs) that help you cope with mild stress.

Usana Calm Response essential oil balm taps into the power of the sense of smell to deliver a feeling of calm and well-being. Creating feelings of serenity, this soothing aroma brings a sense of harmony of body and mind.

Meditation helps increase our concentration and become more aware of our thoughts and feelings. There are different types of meditation. The easiest is to lie down and do sound meditation using the powerful vibrations of the gong. The gong is a sacred instrument. Some call it a divine agent of transformation. The mind is said to surrender to the sound within three to 90 seconds of it being played. That’s why as a meditation tool, the gong is very powerful.

Good karma

Urban energy healer Rosan Cruz (tel. 0918-8889198) is facilitating a Scent and Sound Healing session today at 10 a.m. to heal and release karmic relationships and charge your heart energy fields. The session will be online.

Karmic relationships are usually from a past life that drive you crazy with anger, disappointments and frustrations. It means that you’ve had prior lifetimes with this person and were sent back together to work things out peacefully. This was your soul’s choice.

And in each lifetime, this relationship will continue to be close, either through genetics and familial bonds, or through friendship, marriage, or career. So, that annoying ex could be your mother or brother or coworker in the next lifetime unless you clear the energy now. Otherwise, you’ll continue to incarnate with this soul and meet again and again and again.

The universe corrects all wrongs! That is the law of karma. Positive energies heal pain and trauma so the negative cycle would break. As Carl Rogers shares, “A person is fluid energy, not a fixed and static entity. A person is a flowing river of change, not a block of solid material; a continually changing constellation of potentialities, not a fixed quantity of traits.”

Good karma is always rewarded, as well. Online fashion site Vestido Manila (@vestido.manila on Instagram) added a pantsuit set complete with their signature Philippine freshwater pearl buttons to their new collection. This will be up for auction through Vestido’s Fashion for Others initiative for Typhoon “Odette” (international name: Rai) ravaged Siargao. A hundred percent of the proceeds will go to the following beneficiaries: Lotus Shore Rebuilding Fund, Lokal Lab Farm Project and Harana. (Follow @thepermanentweekend on Instagram.)

Be the love and light to all you know to create more positivity in the world today!

Follow @seaprincess888 on Instagram.