The Gris Alves’ Podcast Tales of Recovery

Tales of Recovery with guest Lunita Velasquez

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!

Tales of Recovery ~ The "Appearances" that Kill

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. 

Tales of Recovery ~ We've been Robbed...

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. 

Tales of Recovery ~ With guest Leaf Weigel

Leaf Weigel, author, musician and music therapist joins me on this week's Tales of Recovery episode to talk about the reality of Eco-Grief and the longing for our bodies to connect to nature and comfort our souls. How aware are you about this? Our world is grieving this disconnect yet capitalism and the speed of culture's hustle of life has us half-blinded and half despaired to this phenomenon.  Leaf shares their story about how they noticed this in their body and soul, the depression they lived when they moved to the city for college and what it took to notice a healing change: LIVING in the open mountains for a few months to feel healthy again.  I am so grateful for the awareness and the beauty they bring as they shares their wisdom with all who are awake and open to listening. Is this dis-ease and culturally depressed nation on your radar? When was the last time you spent time in the  forest? In nature? Breathing fresh air? How did you feel?  Listen in and let us know your thoughts.  Follow Leaf on IG @crunchy_leaf and get their awesome poetry book just released called "Becoming Everything".

Tales of Recovery ~The big lies of being 'polite'

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~ 

 

Tales of Recovery with guests Carina Luz and Marcela Valladolid

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 ~

Tales of Recovery ~ What gets in the way of love?

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. 

Tales of Recovery The Family Cult problem`

No one likes to say anything about this but doesn't family often feel like a cult? It's hard to escape it since you are born into it. Then the ongoing message that family comes first and always and over everything else can get a little overboard. Do parents really own us? Setting boundaries with family can sometimes feel more like an escape tactic and if you dare say anything delicate about the family 'secrets' you will be shamed to death but probably still not be allowed to leave... How can we explore this without freaking out and begin to heal the skeletons in the closet? How can we transform the way we love instead of adoring or require adoration from our kids?  Are they really born to serve and honor us or are they here to be our teachers and companions on this incarnation journey? 

If we can notice, acknowledge and heal the intergenerational dysfunctional blueprint that "family" says is a must, perhaps we can renew the way we see relationships in general and maybe just maybe, have an actual family gathering where no one gets too drunk because they can't deal, too anxious, or triggered into a 20 yr old argument for Pete's sake!

This episode of Tales of Recovery is inspired by Chapter 7 of Bruce Sanguin's book Dismantled. In it, he states that the moment humans shifted from village life to nuclear family, trouble started.  Elder Malidoma Some writes about village life in Burkino Faso. Still today, every child has multiple mothers and fathers. The boundaries between families are more porous. Everything is on public display. In the age of nuclear family, generational trauma and the violence of parents against their children are hidden from public view.  If somebody wanted to create an institution in which emotional, physical and sexual abuse could thrive, the family as we know it in the West would fit the bill. 

 

In effect, they hate us in practice and love us in theory and induce us to believe them when they define hate as love. The consequent mystification, confusion, and conflict continue to devastate marriages, families and each generation of children.  - R. D. Laing 

Tales of Recovery with guest Sarah Knapp The Gift of Alzehimer's

Sarah Knapp, daughter, vocalist and Alzheimer's groupie joins me today on this episode of Tales of Recovery as we talk about the Gift that Alzheimer's has given her.  Her dad was diagnosed with this disease soon after her parent's divorced.  We have a soulful and raw conversation on how this difficult and painful experience of caring for our elderly and ill parents has opened up opportunities to dance with death and really breathe in the gift of life, love, looking inwards into our own shadow, and gaining a renewed perspective. 

Sarah is a beautiful soul, an amazing singer-songwriter and one of the founders of the San Diego Chapter of the Women's Resistance Revival Chorus ~(@sdresistancerevialchorus) You can follow her and her dad's journey on her Instagram @everythingtrueisfree 

 

 

Tales of Recovery~The relief of thanking G.O.D. again~

What happens after a huge deconstruction of belief systems? The grief and anger of going through the process of a spiritual breakdown and realizing that the G.O.D. and certain stories and creeds I grew up and was programmed to believe were a fraud? It took me years to 1)speak up about my doubts and anxiety about non-inclusive faiths, and 2) once I did speak up all hell broke loose (no pun intended)!I felt like a rug was swiped from under my feet.  The journey of grief is no joke.  It takes courage and it takes time.  For a long time I could not say the word G.O.D. because I felt like a hypocrite- and my kids felt something similar.  What to do when you quit a religion?  After two years of interfaith spiritual direction, Thanatology and Spiritual Intelligence courses, YTT, and seeking silence and contemplative practices like mindfulness and mediation PLUS digging deep into listening to my Higher Self: I can finally say the GOD word and feel relief at the fact that I'm not cringing. PTSD is for real.  Now, you can call it Universe, Spirit, Love, Reality, Mother Earth, Consciousness etc: it is just another language for something so BIG not even the name can describe this Creation Power.  No wonder the Israelites did not mention the 'name'.  My process of RE-covery so far with this longing for more and the expansion of my spirit on this week's episode of Tales of Recovery~  May you know you are never alone in doubting, May you find the courage to speak up and find YOUR way~

 

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