Well, hello there. Welcome to Tales of Recovery, a podcast where we talk about what's happening in our heart, in our bodies, and experiences that have shown us how to take better care of ourselves, how to build resilience, continue with discipline, if discipline is a necessary thing, to just be better, you know, to have a better life, to have better relationships, to be in a better space in general while we're alive on this planet.
So welcome to Tales of Recovery. Again, my name is Gris Alves. I'm your host. I've been away from here for a few weeks. We've been traveling. We went down to Oaxaca City and then the mountains and we hiked for about six days without any Wi-Fi and we almost died. I almost died more mentally than physically. And it's a beautiful road. It's called Camino Copalita and you're basically going from community to community in the Zapotec Mountains, communities in the mountains.
Second, it's a project that this guy started so that they could do regenerative farming and they're very much into regenerative farming. All these communities grow their own food, mostly coffee, corn, squash, and honey. It's pretty much what we ate all week. Part of the deal was you eat what they eat. You walk with them. You do the life that they lead. You lead the life that they lead, which was really interesting to see.
I did a post on this a couple of days ago on Instagram, how much we are used to comfort. And access to whatever we want as the click of a thing on the Amazon or Instacart or whatever. You have the groceries you need, you know, you click, the heater is on, the air conditioning is on, you run to the store. I mean, there's so many things that I'm not saying they're bad things.
It's just when we have so much, you, you sort of forget what you're made of and what the capacity that you have to do certain things, which is one of the realizations of this trip, you know, how, addicted, I guess, or how used to, not really addicted, how used to we are to instant gratification, comfort, also, you know, numbing out. Here we had to walk literally six to 10 hours a day, mostly uphill, in extreme weather, super cold or super hot or raining.
And physically, I knew we would be able to do it. I have friends that have done it. I've seen people do it. I knew, but mentally it was very exhausting. It was a constant, I don't want to do this anymore. I can't, like the first two, three days. And then after a while, like everything else in life, when you're doing something that's challenging and when you're pushing yourself, you realize, oh man, it's not even that bad. I mean, my mind is a lot more, I mean, it exaggerates, right?
And it's the mind's job to protect us. So of course, it's going to want to find excuses to get out of there and leave or complain. But what I did notice the entire, at least, I mean, the entire journey, but the first day, which was the hardest, what I could hear, because of course, you don't play music. You're just walking in the silence of the mountains, of the forest. You talk a little here and there, but I mean, it's hard to talk for six hours running up, walking uphill.
So a lot of what we did, what I did was return to the breath that I do at my yoga practice. Deep inhales and longer exhales on and on and on. We started at, I think it was like 38 meters of altitude. I don't know how much that is in feet, but it was pretty high. It was hard to breathe. And so these long, deep breaths kept me calm, kept me focused.
And I just, I mean, if any of my yoga teachers are listening out here, or you, Andre, it's just, I'm so grateful that I could show up at a community where you practice, I practice every day. I went this morning and I thought, damn, I mean, the way that, I know, you know, of course I teach yoga, I practice yoga, I'm going to propose that you all do yoga.
You can do anything else, you can work out, you can swim, you can dance, whatever, But there's something about breath to movement and stretching and twisting the spine in certain ways and holding these poses in awkward positions where you're breathing through it. And then afterwards, you realize that you can breathe easier, that your heart is open, that you can walk taller and that everything seems brighter. And so, and yes, I have some videos coming out.
If you guys are listening or if you went to my last retweet, I did say I'm going to be posting some videos that are maybe a little bit more accessible than going to Rocket or Ashtanga if you don't want to do that right now. Even though everybody can do it, you just modify. The main thing is to show up and breathe. But the videos are coming because it's very important to realize how...
How easy it is to work with the mind. You know, I just saw a poster earlier today that said, the chingona people aren't just chingonas, they have discipline or something like that. I'll post it. So the discipline of showing up, of constantly showing up, you don't wanna go every day, you don't go every day, you go every other day, at least three to four times a week, to whatever it is that you're doing with your body.
Because movement is the medicine and breath is also the medicine or the cherry on top. Especially with you know the elections and the elections in mexico and this and that and everyone we always find an excuse to talk shit we're always going to find an excuse to sort of fall into like oh i can't do this anymore and honestly our ancestors our parents grandparents, they've been doing it and doing it and doing it for hundreds and thousands of years.
So you we can have all the excuses like I had up in the mountain I can't do this anymore why did I sign up for this fuck this shit I'm just gonna sit there but you but you know you can't I couldn't just sit there there was a line of 10 people coming up the little tiny little, trail and we were gonna fall off the mountain if I sat and so the same is it is with life we have to keep going until we understand that we get to keep going
because there were some times that I was in the mountain thinking, I cannot believe I'm doing this. What the hell? It's so hot. My knee hurts. I'm carrying this backpack. And then all of a sudden I would see a little libelula, which is, oh my gosh, I forgot the name in English. These little bugs that fly over the water. But that's what my dad used to call me when I was a kid.
And it was almost like if he was there giving me a message and I thought, okay, okay, he's gone and he would have loved to this hike and I'm still alive and I'm still in this body and I'm still on this planet and I can breathe. And I would just get the second wind and I would just keep on walking, keep on walking, keep on heading up the mountain until you got to the top. And it was like a relief. I'm a couple of times I cried when I got to the top. I'm not going to lie. Yeah.
Like I couldn't believe we made it. And also the fact that, you know, that I was walking this hill and my dad is it's he's dead. He's gone. And. You know, it's like, how do we give, how do I make this mean anything that he's dead? Besides, I have grief, I'm tired, life sucks. What the hell are we doing in this planet anyway? And all of a sudden you're going to die. But if I turn that around to allowing myself to be in the present, which is what happened in this mountain.
There was no other way to go but the next step, the next breath, the next step, the next breath, turning around, talking to the person besides you or the one in front of you, or sometimes I was walking alone and just listening to the silence of the forest, the leaves, you know, crunching underneath my feet, the wind blowing, some birds flying. Oh yeah. Even at one point we had like these scavenger birds flying around, fly around.
I'm like, no, we're not dying you little, but you know it was it almost felt like I was but back back to the back into the track about what I was talking about which is I hope this podcast is encouraging to whoever's listening if you're listening you know that you can place your hand on your heart and breathe. And remember that no matter how tough this moment is you're built for it you have the capacity we have this resilience inside of us that helps us keep going.
And we need to find things that are fun, things that we want to do, things that, you know, that, that help us play. We have to play a little. I mean, after those hard mountains, we'd sit by fire and crack up and laugh and talk shit and just remember, you know, what we did and just, and so having your friends around talking, playing and doing something that you love, which is for me, honestly, I love doing this podcast. It's super fun. I love having guests over.
Right now it's kind of a disaster because I haven't figured out the exact connection of the audio and the video to the audio and the podcast so that it sounds exactly as powerful as it does through Podbean.
So if anybody out there is a tech and wants to hook us a stirrup, let me know what equipment to get or what microphone we need to get for Paula's camera so that we can connect it directly to this piece right here, this microphone, and so that I can get the actual videos to sound just as good as this podcast because they look good, but they can sound a little better.
It's a whole thing to do this on your own because where I am a solo entrepreneur, I, And talking about fun, I have a lot of fun doing this. Also, Gloria is coming over. Maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow, we're going to do another podcast talking about, well, there's two things she wants to share about her post-healing cancer journey because nobody really talks about that.
And I had a ceremony a couple of days ago with two women that are breast cancer survivors and when nobody really talks about the PTSD after you're healed, people are like, okay, you're done. You don't need help. You don't need me to call you every day, check on you. So now, and now what? What do I do with this new life after this?
So that'll be one of the topics. And the other is really talking about the ceremonies that we host for healing with psychedelics, with plant medicine, with magic mushrooms, with MDMA, assisted therapy, which is really another, I mean, it's such a powerful modality. I know it's not for everybody, but if you want a boost, if you want a heart opening, if you want a reset of your nervous system, these are great opportunities. And we do offer group ceremonies where we have three to four people.
And Gloria and I just hold space for you. It's not like the big 20 people with the whole band because Lucas is in Brazil right now. But those are coming. Those are coming next. We begin in spring. These are more intimate. They're still beautiful music, a beautiful container of supporting energy so that you can do your work with these beautiful heart-opening medicines. The heart-opening medicines also show you the capacity that you have to feel and sort of fuel you to keep on going.
They heal trauma. They heal physical disease. They heal the heart. They heal the mind. It's incredible. Which is probably why it's so popular i mean it's always been popular right now it's just more on the mainstream media but i do i have to say and i'll say it again that i think and i know that they work better than any ssri or any other pharmaceutical it's just that's just the way it is, That's just the way it is, and for a long time I wouldn't say it, but now I'm saying it.
I've seen maybe five years of straight-up data of person after person after person, every month, every two months, every week. And it's very transformative. Of course, of course. It's not like a little happy pill where all your troubles are over, right? It's a stepping stone to continue in this journey of figuring this shit out, which is what we're doing. We are trying to figure this shit out. We're figuring out what it is like to be a human being.
I think about a couple of weeks ago, we had a little ceremony, a little journey with a group of ladies. And one of the girls was about 20 years old, maybe 21.
And one of her realizations, like one of her, what happened to her is she, which happens a lot in mushrooms you turn into into dirt you're under the ground you realize sort of what it is to be dead you know that's why they call them the little deaths in when you sit with psilocybin magic mushrooms which is what are all the studies began to like all the studies that are that have been legally done here over here at all these hospitals and clinics for depression that you're using psilocybin
instead of antidepressants, the beginning of the studies were for people that were going to die. So end of life, patients that had a lot of anxiety about dying would get five, three, five, I don't know how many grams of psilocybin they each got. And they would have these tremendous experiences where on the other side, they had no more anxiety and they were okay with dying. So one of the things that the mushrooms show you is sort of like a mini death.
A lot of people see, they feel like they're underground or you're part of the roots of the garden, of the tree, wherever you're at, which is, of course, the mycelium. There's little connectors underneath the ground. So you turn into that and you realize, and I've had this experience too, that you can stop breathing and there's nothing. There's like peace. And then you wake up again and you're like, wait a minute, where am I?
But it just shows you, I mean, it's going to show everybody something different, right? But to me, it's shown that it's okay, that no pasa nada. And that also, we don't know shit, you know, it's just an experience. But also, this young girl was very, very, I mean, one of the things she said was, I kind of wanted to stay there. I didn't really want to come back, like, and I've had people say, I don't want to come back. I want to stay in this nothingness.
And, well, you have to come back. But sometimes I think we don't give the young people enough credit about how hard it is. To become a human, you know, to understand that you're, whatever your belief system is, some people think or believe that you come in here for a journey, right? To take care of some type of homework that you had from some other past life or for this life or whatever. For whatever it is you're here to learn, to love, to learn to do something and
to learn to be a human. So when you're 17, 18, 19, 20. It's hard for, I mean, there's so much pressure to think that you can have your shit together or decide what you're going to study in school or decide what you're going to do about your life. But more than that is to be comfortable in your body and in the world that we're living in right now with so much information, with so much stimulation. And fear. Basically, there's a lot of fear. Oh, there's a kitty around here.
What's up, dog? We have a visitor. Aresi Llega. So the thing is, if you're listening and you have young ones, because I have young ones, it's important to remember, I think, that they need so much more compassion than we give them. It's a constant pushing them, you know, to do what they need to do. But also, I mean, it's got to be rough. I mean, when I was their age, I was, oof. I mean, I was in a different place.
Numbing out and partying until I turned 25. And then I began to understand what it is. And I'm still trying to understand, but I think I have understood a little bit more what it's like to be, what it is to grow into this humanness, right, into these bodies that we're using to be here or that we're breathing through to be here. Vendor, come on. Oh, man, he's going to escape. Every day is a shit show with the cats in this house because we've got to put them inside so the coyotes don't eat them.
Then we let them out in the morning. Then in the night, we're literally wrestling cats to come inside. Four cats, four cats. Pues hay puro brujo aquí, ahora tiene que haber gatos. They clean the energy. They're gorgeous animals. I love our cats. I should do a podcast just about the cats. But so, you know, so compassion, compassion for the young ones. After a few hours, I have to say, it was fine. There was a different understanding.
It does take some time to integrate, which is another important part of this. And when you sit with Gloria and I, we do integration the next week and the week after if you want. I mean, part of the ceremony is preparation and integration after. There's always this opportunity, of course, to keep going in somatic therapy, working with me, or art therapy with Gloria. So if you're listening to this and you're having a hard time, reach out. You're not alone.
Everybody's kind of going through it right now. And there's solutions and there's breath and there's yoga and there's doing fun things like this podcast and posting videos and connecting through social media and through. The phone and in person. I encourage you to meet people in person for fun. just to fuck around, you know, just to have fun, just to talk, just to have some tea. Light a fire and look at the flames.
That's it. That's all we have. That's all we have is hanging out with each other and, you know, in our breath and a realization that, like I always say here, is that we're going to die. But right now we're not dead. We're in the land of the living and we We have the opportunity to love and heal and share and connect and encourage each other. This is an encouragement from me to you.
I almost was dying last week, but now I'm here encouraging us because I realize the beauty and craziness of being alive. Crazy beautiful, most people call it. I get those words a lot when I'm sitting with people on my show. This is crazy beautiful. Yes, it's crazy. and it's beautiful.
And this is where we are, figuring out how to nourish ourselves in all aspects so that we can nourish our families and our friends and that we as a community and as a village can live lives of possibility and hope and not just see, oh, well, what are the politicians going to do or what is this guy? I mean, I guess all of that is important, but if your heart and energy are all about who won, who didn't win. There's something else that you're trying to work through using that outlet.
I think that's just how it is. So it's important to look deep, to sit in silence and really see, okay, why am I getting so crazy about this? It's good to have a passion and to, you know, but, I mean, it doesn't really help in the end your well-being. And so you can think of a thing and do what you need to do, call your council members, you know, grow your plants.
But in the end, it's about healing our hearts and using Mother Nature, connecting to Mother Nature, talking to her so that we can be of help. I mean, one of the things that happened here in Oaxaca was, you know, when I felt like I have no more energy or Julio was like, what are we doing? I said, listen, feel the energy from nature and it's going to infuse us with power. And it did. It really did.
Most of the time that I was walking, I was really praying to the tree, to the wind, to the bird, to whatever was in front of me that I saw, and it just gave me energy. And I mean, literally, when you're outside and your peripheral vision has a view of 180 degrees, well, maybe half of that, you're not going to be twisting your head like the exorcist, but you get what I mean. Your body calms down and it has a specific energy to keep going.
Nature is very regulating for the nervous system. I mean, how could they call it forest bathing? I mean, you're just going to go outside by the trees, by the water, touch the earth, you know, feel the sun in your face first thing in the morning. Take care of yourself because you're worth it. We're all worth it. And there might be days where you get a pass to just watch Netflix and say, fuck it. But we have We have to keep on going.
Don't let that go more than a day or two. Maybe if you have a cold, you can let it go. But if not, you have to, we get to keep on going. Because everybody else does. That's what we do. That's what we do as humans. We keep on going. We laugh and love and hold on to life. Hold on to life. Even if we're grieving, I know a lot of us here are grieving.
You know, we can hold on to life, maybe not be pretending we're all happy, but are still holding on to life, still smiling, still thinking of the opportunity to have loved whoever is even gone, or whatever experience that you had that's not over. Because life, that's what it is, right? Memories. Memories and this breath and the present moment. So thank you for listening. I mean, if you're all the way here, this is really cool. Thank you for listening. Please share this podcast.
Reach out. Go to my webpage, grisalves.com. Reach out if you want to work with me. if you would like to have an intake call for intake call. That sounds so, just like a discovery call or a questions call about how you might be able to benefit from going into a ceremony. For me, I'm heading down to a ceremony in Mexico this weekend and I need to reset my nervous system. So I'm going to sit with an amazing teachers down in South of Mexico.
I will let you know how it goes of course next week, and for now may we all connect to our breath and find peace and calm and gratitude, take care of yourselves and thank you for listening to Tells of Recovery I'll see you next time.