This Article Courtesy Of: The Digi-Zine
Wellness: {Re}building Remotely
Healing From the Ground Up
Reina Prado, Angeleno, former adjunct professor, business owner and healer shares her journey of finding alignment to lead a healer’s life inspired by her ancestral research.
Can you share with us how you pieced together your heritage story to get back in touch with your matriarchal roots, and how that ties in with your healing practice?
Reina: The ways that I am of service has been a personal exploration of reconnecting to practices that my matrilineal lineage did as herbalists, mid-wives, and curanderas (healers who use folk remedies). I am still learning about and from my ancestors. For example, my aunt shared that my grandfather (my mother’s father) also had the gift of a healing touch. Modernization, and possibly censorship or shame of openly practicing these ways, may have resulted in my mother and her siblings not learning these practices. As I embody these ways, it helps me fortify my connection with my ancestors as well as kindred community. My way of practicing may not look or feel “traditional”. It is a mestizaje (a mixture) of my heritage, my family upbringing, modern teachings, and a combination of energy-body modalities.
The Love Limpias, my signature offering, is an example of a blending of traditions. These are energetic cleanses of the heart-space, that invite clients to call-in what they want and to release what is no longer in alignment. The Love Limpias emerged in a moment of self-reflection when I was reevaluating the vision and mission of my wellness practice. I realized that over 20 years ago, through a fictitious character I created in a poem of the same name – Santa Perversa, the patron saint of all things erotic, sensual, and love – I was offering love limpias (healing rituals) through that prayer. The process that a client can experience through a love limpia includes talk-story, guided meditation, and vibrational healing.
After the Love Limpia, clients often feel a sense of lightness in their body and energy field. Now with the pandemic, I have shifted my practice to remote offerings that include workshops, vibrational healing circles, and guided meditations. I have found a greater community to connect with in this time.
Other ways ancestral knowledge comes through my practice is working with plants, essential oils, and crystals. Also, through food cooking and preparation. I connect with it intuitively, and through oral history so that I can keep alive knowledge of my ancestral food ways, as well as those that emerged during colonization.
Zine: How did this change the way you viewed yourself and your role in our modern society?
Reina: With each breath I embrace the “I Am” within. I am not solely the work I do, such as experiencing the daily grind to make a living. It’s a lesson I’m still unlearning as I navigate this current moment of sustaining a business during a pandemic. Nevertheless, I am guided. I strive to walk, talk, and be in community with my family, beloved, friends, and extended networks. There are moments when I am not able to see myself in these ways. It’s okay. I recognize that it is a practice and a process.
Zine: How did you make your career transition to what you do now?
Reina: For over 20 years, I was a full-time adjunct college professor teaching at several colleges and universities throughout Southern California. A time came when I either followed a full-time career as a wellness practitioner or continued balancing teaching and a practice. I felt it in my body and spirit that I was seeking another way to be in the world.
Flashback to 2004 – I believed that if I followed the path of higher education it would guarantee me a comfortable life – in the midst of writing my dissertation I was awarded a fellowship at the Smithsonian. It was then I met a group of folks who seemed to me living their most authentic life. I was intrigued. What were they doing? I found out that many were wellness practitioners in the energetic arts and yoga, others were artists. They reflected the life I sought. Upon returning to Los Angeles, as I finished the doctoral program, I began my training as a cranial sacral/polarity practitioner. While balancing both, I noticed that the ways I taught class had shifted – because I did, energetically. When that fork at the crossroad showed up, I said “yes” to follow my calling. I have not regretted my decision. I established my wellness practice in 2015. It was in 2018 that I moved into my own studio space at Kosha Wellness Center in Pasadena. I deepened and grew as a person and practitioner. It has been an incredible journey. Now with the pandemic, I shifted again by releasing the brick-and-mortar location and moved my offerings remotely. I remembered that energy has no borders. It’s been an extraordinary lesson in trust, committing to my practice, and surrender. I know I am lucky to continue my practice that has expanded to workshop offerings at two locations: Minka Brooklyn and Mostly Angels. I am blessed to be of service in these ways.
Zine: You also run a bakery that always had a “virtual shop” business model. How has that been affected by the pandemic lately?
Reina: Good Mexican Girl was most impacted by the pandemic as we could not set up pop-up shops throughout the city. In 2019, we had an average of 8 to 10 pop-ups a month. In March, the business stalled. It has had the most impact on our production and sales. We do offer contactless delivery to your home for select areas with minimum purchase of $30 or more. We ship our cookies throughout the continental United States but not our vegan empanadas. Our website has all the details (www.goodmexicangirl.com).
Zine: What are your happiest memories of living here in Los Angeles?
Reina: It’s so hard to pick just one since I was born and raised in Los Angeles. I’m the person who tells you that their favorite freeways are the stretches between the 134 West to the 2 North because you can see the ocean on a clear day. The feeling of flying over the city when driving the overpass of the 105 to the 110 N carpool lane. I see traffic as the ebb and flow of the city. I know this city like the back of my hand and still find joy in exploring new areas and routes.
I find great joy when the jacaranda trees bloom because it signals the coming of summer.
I enjoy the smell of masa balls heated up on a comal (griddle) to become freshly made tortillas at La Luz del Día restaurant at Olvera Street.
I feel the love and support of the community when we gather at pop-up events. It is in those moments, where the city feels quaint even if it is large and expansive.
Reina has since expanded into coaching workshops, explaining to us that she must give herself the permission to experiment with new offerings, create recipes, and cook for herself when faced with a downturn in her bakery business during this pandemic.
https://healingqueen.abmp.com/
Workshops and the zine are organized by Slow + Sustain through the volunteer efforts of our contributors. Funding comes from both the contributors and the public.
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