Podcast Highlight: Ana Lilia
Ana speaks about how many people who struggle with anxiety often feel shame in both acknowledging their anxiety and addressing it. It's one of those societal contracts we've all agreed to. To never speak of the anxiety that suffocates us under our very westernized, and busy lifestyles.
Ana Lilia’s voice has a tempered cadence that oscillates between relaxing kindness and compassionate gentleness.
Which can be palpably felt and I immediately am compelled to relax my body and my mind--reminding myself we have this hour together and there is no rush.
Perhaps this is why she's the leading expert and healer in the breathwork space. She effortlessly imbues every breath and moment as it unfolds--without rushing or passing through it mindlessly.
Ana and I share a similar upbringing, in Catholicism and in our Mexican heritage. She feels so familiar, in only a way your kindred Latino cohorts can make you feel.
Ana says something that I've been holding in the depths of my being secretly. She discusses priests getting shuffled through her parish, without notice, incident, or explanation. The abruptness and secretiveness of the whole ordeal leaves her with sadness and unprocessed grief.
Ana says "The Catholic Church did not create a container for the pain we felt."
She's right.
The church has asked all its congregants to never ask what happened.
We were all expected to move on without healing or questioning.
We were not even allowed the right of reconciliation, which is a sacrament in and of itself in the Church.
When Ana says this, “I'm filled with sadness too and can feel the collective sadness of the of every person who once identified as a Catholic who had been asked to ignore what cannot be ignored.”
Ana's life work is centered around breathwork, healing, and embodiment practices.
She has a soft spot for those of us in the collective who suffer from anxiety in it's many shapes and sizes.
Ana speaks about how many people who struggle with anxiety often feel shame in both acknowledging their anxiety and addressing it. It's one of those societal contracts we've all agreed to. To never speak of the anxiety that suffocates us under our very westernized, and busy lifestyles.
As Latinas, we connect with the cultural norms of staying busy, all the time. Idle states of being are not something our Latin culture practices, just the opposite.
We are industrious to a fault.
Ana says to the audience: "Our lives in general are not designed to have our nervous system in a relaxed state."
She is spot on.
Everything about the world we've created around us, is meant to initiate a false senses of urgency, impatience, and importance that keeps us agitated with not doing enough.
Not being enough.
And always, keeping us and our nervous systems activated.
It is a radical act of self-love, to push against the pressure of our societies' inclination to keep us distracted, overloaded, and outside of ourselves.
Ana's work is vital in building internal restoration and cutting the cord between external stimuli that keeps our internal systems on high alert, entrenched in stress and hypervigilance.
One deep breath at a time.
In the gospel of Mary Magdalene, Jesus points to God existing to the in between space of our very own breath.
Teaching us in that one line about the sacredness of our life force--that many of us take for granted.
How often do you go through your day, without breathing deeply?
Have you ever placed your hand on your diaphragm to feel the power of your lungs, heart, and stomach muscles spring into action as you build the fullness of an expansive breath?
This is where we find alignment.
This is where we find our innate holiness.
