This is a 4-week series dedicated to cultivating awareness around challenging conversations within the LatinX and Hispanic communities that have created a pandemic of mental health obstacles, silent suffering, depression, domestic abuse, substance abuse, and suicide.

“Consider for a moment, if we are in fact healing atavistic ancient wounds, and we take into account that trauma is stored in the genes, which are essentially coiled little information packets.“ -Maria Colleen

Maria Colleen expressed some powerful points in last week’s conversation about Depression and her personal story. She also made mention of the term “complex programming,“ which we discussed this week!

Ayurveda would reference this as imbalances in our doshic constitutions, or the physiological make-up of our unique manifest “human” form. We may need to address the root of the trauma or the “pebble” (like we discussed last week) is…

Mental Health is at the forefront of importance, now more than ever before. If you notice someone is going through a difficult time, (even if you feel, “well hey, we all are”…), know that some may not have the tools and support that you may have or even the motivation to keep going on. They could be at “their lowest”…

Focusing our attention on cultivating awareness around mental and emotional well-being through the study of how the neurons, located in our brains, fire together forming the behaviors we exemplify based on what our traditions, beliefs, culture, and community have instilled into our programming and upbringing is what we are talking about on IGTVLIVE this entire week.

A tree is a symbol of antiquity and immense and enduring strength. A general symbolic meaning of a tree can be interpreted as protection. A widespread symbol of the tree is the tree of life, it’s body rooted in earth with its crown dancing in the sky.

Triangles in sacred geometry are thought to symbolize balance and harmony.

The three-sided shape can also be related to the body, mind, and spirit, and with an upward-facing point, it indicates raising consciousness..

In our last episode, we spoke to Humble Wave founder, Illi Stovall about uncertainty + life transitions = exponential growth. When we understand how mindset shifts go from performance to practical application and physiological well-being, we begin to discover the truth that is within ourselves and how to culture the inner guru. (teacher within).

In our last episode, we spoke about the 5 principles that hold students back from embodying the practice. In this blog cast, we apply our takeaways from these 5 principles as we are facing uncertain times. Sometimes we start to entertain thoughts of self-doubt, and self-defeat. We go down the rabbit hole of self-defeat…

Inclusivity - Let’s bring it back to how we felt the first time we entered a yoga class. My first time entering a live, public yoga class was Bikram. I arrived with a long sleeve shirt and matching long thick pants and I was not able to take them off, cause I didn’t dress for the class. I share this story in the video podcast. I literally thought I was at an Olympic gymnastics tryout, and I was way out of my league.

Where do you seek to find clarity? Are you blinded by your emotions?

I discovered this to be part of my perfect imperfection. The quote below by Serj Tankian of @systemofadown solidified a humbling truth for me….

For me, “Power Yoga” isn’t the fast-paced classes and the near-impossible acrobatics. In my opinion, “power yoga” is the most challenging of practices because you are doing the hard INNER work. The practice of surrendering the ego …

Legit, there are times that I let my emotions get the best of me. Some are harder to let go of than others. The reason being, what we have gone through on the level I call the manifest life. Everything that I have experienced from what I can remember of childhood and through adulthood, my responses, reactions, escapes…

I decided I am turning my fear into fuel. Yeah, I can see where I was allowing myself to let fear get the best of me, especially in a virtual world where although we feel so connected, and at times, feel so lost in the ocean of images, positive quotes, and so on. I think to myself, is there anyone even watching, does anyone even care?

I have been packing in WAAAAY too much into my day. There is not enough of me to give to all the areas of my life that require my attention. This is where I am “losing myself” to myself because I am allowing myself to be in control and not live in the space of effortlessness and “going with the flow.”

I found myself struggling with myself. With the idea of releasing control and being more relaxed without feeling guilty to take some time to enjoy life. As I was constantly on, my batteries were at their hottest point. They needed a cool down.

This last year has been one of incredible growth, perseverance, refinement, and reconstruction. Personally, I have come face to face with challenges that have brought me to my knees and at times to tears. Yet, something within me, kept me moving forward. I was comparing myself, wearing myself out, and allowing myself to be pushed and pulled in all directions without giving myself the healthy boundaries I needed To refuel.