The Gris Alves’ Podcast Tales of Recovery

Grief is not a feeling, it's a capacity, it is not something that disables you. We are not on the receiving end of grief, we are in the practicing end of it

~Stephen Jenkins

Tales of Recovery this week is me and my grief. What it looks like, feels like and how I am traveling along with this experience of impermanence so far.  I fell held in love and connection, in friendships and practices of yoga, drumming, music and good ol' weeping and pajama days.  I am welcoming all of it. I am grateful for all your messages and notes after the last recording.  You all have helped in this process and I am a better griever for that.  

Peace,

Gris 

My mom suffered a stroke two years ago, she transcended last week on January 2nd, 2020.  This is a small bit of my experience on walking her home...

This week on the Tales of Recovery podcast, my guest Mimi Young and I have a deep and fun conversation that includes our somehow similar bi-cultural immigrant lives~ Her family moved from Taiwan to Canada when she was two years old, she sensed her intuitive gifts from a young age which included a deep connection with plants and Spirits, clairolfaction and other physic abilities.   Navigating through family traditions and cultural obstacles Mimi tells her story of REcovering her gifts of healing and becoming a Shamanic practitioner~ It is a fascinating conversation on the journey of discovering, knowing and allowing our birthright to freedom and the Spirit world, in spite of strong cultural and religious opposition.  We talk about the importance of our ancestry, honoring our dead and other juicy bits. Listen to her wisdom which is full of light~  on this eve of Samhain, and Dia de los Muertos. 

Mimi Young is a shamanic practitioner and founder of  Ceremonie, a shamanic and ritual-based brand focusing on in-person and online shamanic education, Remote Shamanic Readings, and an aura + skincare line that is made in ceremony. Mimi works with a blend of modalities including core shamanism and botanical healing, hedge magick, and Chinese shamanic modalities, with a focus on integrating the subconscious with the conscious, past lives work, divination, dream work, ancestral healing, and divine feminine reawakening.

This week on Tales of Recovery my guest Lunita Velasquez, a first generation American, Yogini, Poet and Mother of two tells us about her beautiful healing journey.  Recovery takes many paths and it's lovely to notice how we can all help each other heal in conversation and the honest telling of our stories~

Another Mexican Mujer shares openly with us her struggle with life, alcohol as an escape and the community and magic that led her to heal, practice embodiment, self love, boundaries and of course: to remember who she is and the Great Spirit that always accompanies us while we find our way.  Lunita is an inspiration to me and will be to all who listen in- especially our Mexicanas~  You can follow her on IG @iamrainbowheart for love and inspiration~ and if you are in San Diego.. you can take her classes @honeyyoga and join her Full Moon Circle Autumnal Transitions this Saturday October 12, 2019 @6:00pm. Find the link to sign up in her bio!

The Appearances that Kill. The, "What will they say?" message. The mirroring of having value as a human ONLY if you look good, perform well and pretend that you have your shit together all the time is killing our souls-- as well as our capacity to relate and connect at a deeper level.  Learning that love and acceptance is earned by how good you look hinders real loving and connection.  It creates judgement and self-loathing and is just outright a hot mess.  As a Mexican Woman, the pressure to perform and appear like I have it all together has been one slow self-sabotaging journey that I've been fighting against most of my life.  So many of us have.  Even in rebelling and doing it "My way" these subconscious messages keep coming up and must be met with awareness of what they are, compassion, radical self acceptance and self love.  

May we remember who we really are and that we are loved by life. May we feel supported by our breath deep within the tissues of our skin~ as souls that have value and divinity no matter what we have been programmed to believe.  This week on Tales of Recovery is this moment of awareness and hope for the inward journey of healing. Every day more and more healing. 

The fact that we were robbed of our magic, robbed of our needs and desires in order to follow "what will people say" and religious rules is some crazy bullshit. The programing is deep.  All this life I've been fighting for the birthright to BE free and able to speak my truth- To Live a life of unabandoned love and magic.  I've asked the difficult questions about faith and religion and family secrets ONLY to be told to be quiet- and stop questioning the law of the laaawwd and of course, the family.  I say we take it back people. Take back what has been robbed.   A few minutes of my experience with this theft of thought and sacredness.  More to evolve on this topic later for sure... let me know your thoughts (or experience) with this. ~

May these words be healing for you if you are struggling with your choices of spirituality, life, and love.  You already know the truth. It is inside of you, and no one can rob us of that. 

Why the behavior programming of training humans to just be 'polite' removes our freedom, our voice, robs us of our available healthy boundaries and the noticing and awareness of our emotions.

The choice we have of continuing with the lies of having to be 'polite' vs the knowing benevolent nature of our soul~ is so important. Can we rediscover in self love and KINDness that we can live a transformed life of peace and freedom.  We can stop the passive aggressive dysfunction of relationships based on empty politeness and not speaking our voice.  It is possible to heal and reconnect the mind with the body as we unlearn the 'politeness behavior management programming' that stripped us of our voice to SPEAK and FEEL our emotions.  Let's rediscover our benevolent nature and re-establish healthy boundaries~

May we be free of the fear of speaking our voice, May we be well, May we have peace~ 

This week on the Tales of Recovery Podcast, Tijuana sister's Carina Luz and Marcela Valladolid join me in a meaningful conversation on their journey of rediscovery and healing from the limitations of societal and religious belief systems.  They share their story of pain, loss and return to love after the death of their mother.  Carina Luz, entrepreneur, community gatherer and meditation guide along with her sister Chef Marcela, author, influencer and woman empowerment advocate light up the podcast with their wisdom, love and stories of recovery and healing.  Listen in on our fist official bin-lingual Tales of Recovery podcast! It was beautiful spending time with you girls today ~

More Recovery Insights on how this thing called 'social conditioning' and behavior modification HINDERS love, HINDERS the ability to give and receive love, self-love and the freedom to be ourselves... to just BE without all this pretending and walking on eggshells (in particular with family) because of preconceived ideas of conditional acceptance and how we 'should' act, think and perform.  The awareness of these hindering blocks can be a way to journey to freedom and our birthright to think for ourselves and just LOVE. Period.