This week on Tales of Recovery we go Bi-lingual again! Recuperando la Vida. Una conversación profunda con mis amigas del alma las hermanas Paola y Carla Ruiz de Chávez. Platicamos de lo que es el camino de serte fiel a ti misma, cómo llegar a lograr tomar esta decisión aunque eso pueda a veces incluir un divorcio. Lo difícil que es y el tiempo que toma llegar a esta decisión que al final del tiempo te permite expander y vivir el amor más profundo. El amor propio y tu libertad~ Carla y Paola nos ...
Sep 05, 2020•57 min•Season 3Ep. 51
Once again I am on here letting my voice speak of this intense habit humans have of returning to the addiction of certainty via the naming of a specific idol. I wonder why even after a deep awakening, a process of religious deconstruction and a time go healing- the addiction to certainty and returning to worship the idol of our childhood returns? Could it be.....superstition? Who knows. Tales of Recovery. G
Aug 28, 2020•25 min•Season 3Ep. 50
Practicing calm, entering into Presence~ 22 Minute Meditation led by Gris Alves
Aug 22, 2020•23 min•Season 3Ep. 49
On Tales of Recovery this week, I share some highlights of my experience with meditation throughout the years. As a little girl, in recovery, dancing, playing or out of a desperate desire to heal and find answers to my reality. There are many ways we enter into this space of PRESENCE without always being aware of it. When we are little looking out the window on a road trip, sitting on the beach and listening to the waves, entranced in dance or drumming.... or even with a guide anxious to get it ...
Aug 19, 2020•34 min•Season 3Ep. 48
On death and dying (part one) begins from a conversation on the difficulty of goodbyes, illness and end of life situations. Which are inevitable. Why are we so scared of the "D" word? Can we begin to realize that it is not a superstitious omen to talk about our transcendence - but talking about death can be an awareness of the actual full and meaningful LIFE that we are gifted to experience here for a while. AND since it will end, how do we want to LIVE?...
Aug 09, 2020•29 min•Season 3Ep. 47
In a world with so much available information, healing modalities, science based evidence on the power of meditation and connection....WHY are we still drinking the Kool-aid LIES of patriarchal religious belief systems and the toxic contracts on negative self-worth that these systems create? WHY? What if we can imagine for a few minutes a day that we were born in a different setting, with no prison boxes, but a free and inclusive community that celebrates all lives? A community that is aware of ...
Aug 01, 2020•31 min•Season 3Ep. 46
A Mindfulness Practice of Emotions, led by Gris Alves
Aug 01, 2020•23 min•Season 3Ep. 45
Any Corella, a beautiful yogi soul, tells us her experience on walking her sister Blanca home. After an aggressive cancer diagnosis, all the love and alternative healing circles, the breath of yoga and how her sister and family danced the journey of goodbyes all the while staying serene~ This is our first time recording in SPANISH... si, para tod@s aquellos que les llega mas en nuestro rico idioma, aquí esta. Disfruten, y demos gracias por cada respiración que se nos da. Ajo! G...
Jul 17, 2020•1 hr 4 min•Season 3Ep. 44
After January's episode of Walking my Mother Home...I find myself a few months later with a new widow (my dad) living in our granny flat. The plan to care for our elders and the opportunity to heal and love our parents as they age is set in place. The longing for wisdom keepers is real, but times have changed and when the 'wisdom keepers' don't realize this; they are robbed of their opportunity. In this deep pool of grief we're swimming in, the sensation of anger seeping in as realizations of de...
Jun 25, 2020•31 min•Season 3Ep. 43
Speaking heals, being heard heals even more. This feeling of Breathing Under Water is near, it is REAL and as tangible as ever. - I explore grief, anger and being alive and awake during this time. Tales of Recovery thanks you deeply for listening....as we Recover together may we know we can always always ask for help. May you know you are not alone in this. May we become better humans through it all. Resist always. Peace, G
May 31, 2020•16 min•Season 3Ep. 42
My friend Luis Illades and I were neighbors in Tijuana when we were kids and were both finding our way in our early twenties in the music and arts as well as working at Cafe 101 with other Tijuana greats, a wakeful fork in the road which we talk about during this podcast as we were all working on moving on to liberation from 'general' Tijuana societal structures. Luis is currently a New York City based interventionist and substance abuse counselor. With specific ties to the LGBTQ community, Luis...
May 19, 2020•1 hr 10 min•Season 3Ep. 41
This week on the TOR podcast my guest is a Mental Health Essential worker~ An in depth, real and raw conversation with San Diego based Marriage and Family Therapist Matt Bishop. Matt is one of the coolest guys in the therapy world that I know. He has a therapy wolf dog, a great story, is funny, he helps so many people in recovery, meditates and really just GETS it. He shares his own personal journey of healing and how this led to the discovery of his deep innate wisdom and empathy to choose to b...
Apr 27, 2020•57 min•Season 3Ep. 40
The love we allow to flow into healing is not always made of soft and gentle caresses. It takes courage and deep work, boundaries AF, dreams, traveling into the subconscious to RE-member and then allow our true worth and intuition’s guide into breaking free from ancestral trauma and codependency. A few words on my reflections on breaking ancestral patterns of disfunction and how my mother’s love was fierce enough to ‘allow’ this to happen. Tales of Recovery, by Gris Alves....
Apr 11, 2020•27 min•Season 3Ep. 39
Kirti Srivastava, my fierce friend from diLSe Movement Medicine and Spirit School and I have a conversation about all the feels, but especially about what Safety can mean during this season of Fear. What is happening in the planet and also WHO we need to quarantine with and does that feel safe? We talk about the work and time it takes to DE-program from social conditioning and coding, especially as women of traditional cultural backgrounds. Like always, Kirti blows my mind with her wisdom, humor...
Apr 03, 2020•48 min•Season 3Ep. 38
WTF is happening with this pandemic? Life is at a BIG PAUSE right now; and as we are faced with the reality of the fact that this life can end ... (and one day it will) who have we been up to now and how can we choose to live in gratitude and in the present moment? How difficult is it for us to stay still at home in enclosed quarters either by ourselves, a few roommates or our families? This could be the grand opportunity we are being granted by Great Spirit to evaluate and notice what we are re...
Mar 25, 2020•30 min•Season 3Ep. 37
My friend and guest RommelRomo had a recent and unexpected diagnosis with Stage 4 Cancer last month. I drove up to his home in Northern California we sat together as he shared with us his experience in a real and unedited conversation. He asked that we record this because he wants to raise awareness and continues to be generous with his life. Thank you Rommel~ May our life experience be of a beneficial presence to others. This conversation is published with great gratitude to you, for your coura...
Mar 15, 2020•52 min•Ep. 36
Rommel Romo, my Tijuana friend, and brother from another mother sit and reflect on 30+ (yes 30+) years of friendship and his journey of recovery through the process of creation, painting, music and art. We chat about our perspective on societal constructs, good times and hard times growing up and the TJ 90's music and drug cartel scene that set off the intuition compass to get the heck out of town. His life experience in San Francisco and Oakland has impacted many with his talent, resilient huma...
Feb 02, 2020•39 min•Season 3Ep. 35
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 a...
Jan 29, 2020•24 min•Season 3Ep. 34
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...
Jan 09, 2020•1 hr 1 min•Season 3Ep. 33
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 an...
Nov 01, 2019•58 min•Season 2Ep. 32
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 cour...
Oct 10, 2019•43 min•Season 2Ep. 31
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 perfo...
Sep 30, 2019•22 min•Season 2Ep. 30
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....
Sep 11, 2019•21 min•Season 2Ep. 29
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 ...
Aug 15, 2019•46 min•Season 2Ep. 28
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 o...
Jul 14, 2019•25 min•Season 2Ep. 27
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...
Jun 12, 2019•52 min•Season 2Ep. 26
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 ...
May 17, 2019•28 min•Ep. 25
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 ...
Mar 18, 2019•24 min•Ep. 24
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...
Mar 10, 2019•52 min•Season 1Ep. 23
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...
Feb 04, 2019•22 min•Ep. 22
