The Gris Alves’ Podcast Tales of Recovery

Nikki Velch is an Earth Intimacy Facilitator, Ayurvedic Educator, Natural Builder and Beautiful Soul.  We met a few summers ago at Elder Farm in Southern California and I have been following Nikki's journey and her inspiring lifestyle of honoring Mother Earth, our bodies and humanity in such a gentle, powerful and beautiful wildness that is absolutely beyond inspiring to me.   Listen in and enjoy her stories of living both the dream as well as the hardships of what it takes to create a life living off the grid, tuned into nature and exploring the void we all come to this earth to explore, love and if we are lucky, fulfill.  

I am so grateful and honored to have Nikki as a guest this week! You can follow her on IG @earth.as.healing and catch her workshop Sensory Doors of Perception a the Origins Gathering Waning Season July 9 -12th 2021.  www.originsgathering.com   www.aboutandforsustainability.com 

The Magic is in the Earth. If we listen, She will guide Us~ 

May our stories soothe our hearts and continue in healing our community ~ 

Asé!! 

Please share, rate and subscribe!! 

Que le da sentido a tu vida? Como sabes si lo que estas haciendo es para ti o para complacer a los demás? A tus padres, la sociedad, los abuelos, a la cultura, las mentiras tóxicas de la religión?  Con tantos humanos en depresión , anestesiados y sufriendo de ansiedad estaría bien investigar si se robaron el sentido o en realidad estamos viviendo los que nuestras almas vinieron a experimentar en esta vida.

Pensamientos en domingo. 

G

The changes I have been a part of, witnessed and experienced in these lat 20 plus tears in the solutions and choices people can have for assisting with addictions.  From outgrowing 12 step programs  and trading addictions (from alcohol to religion or food or work or perfectionism etc...) and a constant seeking and doing "the work" of healing; the evolution I see is the really the PERSPECTIVE of addiction rather than which way you choose to heal and move toward wellness for your SELF, your children if you have any, your family and community, and of course the end result of serving the entire world.

Gabor Mate writes: "The question is not why the addiction, but why the pain"  And the source of pain is always and invariably to be found in a person' lived experience, beginning with childhood. 

When we can touch our childhood heart, our traumatic experiences with compassion, and be surrounded with healers we trust that have done the work ahead of us, re-connection to our hearts and bodies is possible.  

Ask for help.  Why? Because it is your birth right, and we are all in this together. 

Asé

G

Tales of Recovery this week sprouts from an experience I had at a retreat with my hands as I was led to softly touch and massage them in a guided meditation. Noticing how my hands are looking more and more like my mothers, I felt a sense of grief at first, then such deep pleasure and intense beauty.  The felt sense of beauty is so many times bypassed by the deep struggle that we hold because of standards of 'beauty' artificially created by others- and then imposed on ourselves. 

How where you SEEN as a little girl? As a teenager? A grown wom@n? Where you compared to others? To the magazines and the movie stars?  The long time struggle of looking "good" so they (your parents)could marry you off is SO OVER... so why are we still in this game?  Can the dreadfully artificial and suffocating ''standards' of beauty be identified, acknowledged, let go off and released for good?

Can we Reclaim the Felt Sense of Beauty? The Strength and Dignity of feeling embodied IN Beauty and how sorrow and suffering are part of the story? 

We can try and escape from suffering, or from aging- but the humility of understanding that learned beauty is just that: a lesson that may or may not be true is really liberating.  

Perhaps this not-knowing is the winning ticket, and the Felt Sense of our own inner beauty is the best dignified return to Love~

This week on the Tales of Recovery Podcast, I sit with my friend Danna and listen to her beautiful spirit as she tells us her story of turning pain into power.  Danna lost her son to a culture that allowed men to override the rights of a mother, she sought justice all the while protecting her child's heart, and fought hard for years until she was able to reunite with him.  She then continued to create avenues of communication for other women to speak up and seek help as well.   It was an honor to sit with such a powerful woman, her essence illuminates so much love and faith.  Thank you Danna for sharing a grand piece of your heart with us~ You are an inspiration to all. 

Danna Yunis is a 500RYT Yoga Teacher and Poet.  Over the past 12 years, she has worked as a creative producer, news producer, and writer/copywriter.  A healer and activist at heart, she recently opened her own yoga studio, Yoga Church SD, with the intention of bringing the essence of yoga back to life and spreading the healing throughout the community.  Follow her on IG @yogachurchsd 

El querer crecer y ser mejor persona es algo bello y necesario para evolucionar como especie~ Pero.... la ansiedad que cargamos al exigirnos siempre mas y mas y mas se puede cuestionar. 

Para QUIEN te exiges tanto? Para tus padres? Para el gobierno? La sociedad? Los vecinos? tus hijos? Como para QUIEN?  Deja tu el para que.. ahi podría haber sentido que hay que trabajara para pagar la renta y comer; o lograr un deseo lindo que quieres realizar para TU vida.  Pero cuando se cambia el "para que"- con el "para QUIEN", ya se cae- o de convierte en regalar tu poder.   

Y retomar tu poder es tu derecho de nacimiento. Tu poder es lograr vivir sin ansiedad de competir y de sentir que tengo que cumplir con mil obligaciones que ni me gustan y aparte con alguien fuera de mi. 

"No te apures"  es el mantra que me regalaron hace mucho.  La vida despacito es mas dulce, que fluya lo que tiene que fluir.  Sin culpas que no no pertenecen, sin exigencias del colonialismo y de los gobiernos y religiones toxicas.

Recuperando la Vida. Un dia a la vez.  

I had the gift of sitting in conversation with the powerful Myranda Bennett for this week's episode of Tales of Recovery.   In her words, we continue to bridge communities and dismantle systems of control and oppression.  By sharing our journeys with strong backs and soft hearts, may we continue to heal, REcover and REMEMBER all that we have forgotten that belongs to us~ just as we belong to Her~

Boundless Warrior, Myranda Bennett is a Holy Guardian of Indigenous Teachings, Shamanic Practitioner and High Priestess.  She shares her story of growing up in a spiritually focused home. Her mother, a Holy Woman within Lakota tradition, brought her up with an awareness of the sacred, the unknown, and the spirit world.   In her early 20's however, she left her roots to focus on business as the world would call 'success' and it was not until hitting rock bottom that she returned home to continue her journey of self healing, enlightenment and spiritual education. 

Besides her deep connection with her Lakota teachings from her mother and elders,  Myranda is also a Holy Guardian, protecting the ancient traditions.  She is a certified Light Medicine Master Healer and Master of Crystology through the Melody Crystal Mastery Course.  She is a guide inducted into the White Buffalo Calf  Woman Healing Nation,  High Priestess, Ritual Master, and Qabalist  through the Universal Mystery School.

Her path brought her back home to magical Colorado where she and her husband  own Boundless Warrior Ranch Sanctuary, a beautiful ranch that is reminiscent of the  old ways. Through her growing healing center and ranch retreat , Myranda can bring people to a clearer vision of their healing and higher purpose.

Basically, GOALS as I spoke with this Hermana!!  Please grab a cup of tea, light a candle and enjoy listening to her journey, wisdom and power this week on #talesofrecovery

You can find Myranda on www.boundlesswarrior.com and on Instagram @boundlesswarrior and @thesacredwaymysteryschool 

Gris

Mimi Young returns to the podcast for a raw and vulnerable conversation on sexism and the disconnect, competition and insecurity (among other issues) this brings among women.  The betrayal that gets handed down by mothers, grandmothers, other women is real and certainly not ill heart intended-- but Hurt people: Hurt people!

We dive into our experience with sexism and how this system has affected us personally, culturally and how it actually created a women policing other women effect.  Sexism and the abrahamic religions (oh yes ..of course we get into this) get in the way of connecting deeply to ourselves and in turn, other women.  The recovery of SISTERHOOD, trust and encouragement is necessary.  The roots and experience of this obstacle in the life of freedom this week on the Tales of Recovery podcast.   

Ashé

G