Assignments

Session 1

• Find a square cloth for your Mesa Altar Practice and find an item that can represent you as a vessel to be placed at the center of the Mesa. This can be a shell, stone, pottery, etc.

Session 2

Journal: * What is your personal origin story? Where does it live in your body?

• Practice: initiate mesa practice. start relationship with your altar cloth and item 

  Begin the practice of opening your Mesa and activating it with your presence and the placement of the center vessel that is a projection of your being, and embodiment within our Pachamama. After your practice, make sure to close your altar by wrapping your central vessel with the cloth.

Session 3

Journal: * What might a personal and collective “good and beautiful way of life” be like?

• Continue mesa practice 

• Research Sumak Kausay 

• Research Traditional Ecological Knowledge 

Session 4

Journal: * How do you experience your Nervous System? What stories may be anchored in your nerves? What level of “Nervios” do you commonly experience?

Session 5

Journal: * Think about a memory/story from childhood that had a major defining impact in your life.  When you think about this story, where do you feel it in your body?  How does this story currently “sit” in your body? Does it feel strengthening/ uplifting/ empowering? Or it heavy/contracting/ depleting?

Practice:

• Connect with your prayer when you open and sit at your mesa. Let yourself embody the spirit of the prayer. Refine your prayer so that it may be concise and direct. Practice daily and experience that relationship and sense of belonging grow.

Journal: * Write a letter to your inner child, acknowledging their experience and validating their feelings. Share your commitment and new assumed position as their guardian. Affirming that your presence, care and commitment is and will be unconditional moving forward.

Session 6

Journal: * What are/would be your intentions for choosing to go through a plant dieta/plant spirit initiation? How do you imagine practicing “unlearning” through a process like a dieta?

Session 7

Journal: Energetic Hygiene Self Assessment

*Food- Are you in right relation with the foods you eat? Are you aware of their impact in your body, emotions, moods, etc? Are you sourcing your foods from the healthiest, most ethical sources you have access to? Are you in right relation with your food systems?

* Social- Assess your relationships, are they healthy and balanced? Do you feel nourished or drained by them? Are they meeting you and supporting your health and wholeness?

* Media- how often do you unplug and take a break from consuming information? What are you distracting yourself from from you reach for media? Do you cultivate spaciousness and bandwidth to hear and be with your own voice and spirit?

*Medicines/ Drugs-assess your relationship with your medicines. Are you in right relationship? Is there overuse or abuse? Is it (still) serving your health and wholeness? Have you integrated the teachings from the medicine?

*Sex- Are there aspects that are unhealthy in the way you hold or engage with sex? Do you have healthy attachment and/or boundaries around sex?

*Environment- What is your relationship with your immediate space and your surroundings? Is your space supportive to your physical, mental and spiritual health? Are you connected to the spirit beings that live and protect your space. Do you keep your space energetically clean?

*SELF- What is your relationship to your medicine? To spirit? The wise one? Are you in touch and connected to your higher consciousness? Do you have a practice of listening (can be meditation, but not necessarily)? Are there blockages or obstacles that are preventing connection with your inner voice?

Session 8

ANYA/ANJA- relativity of truth and respect

• There are as many different truths as there are points of reference/view  

• We have choice as to what point of view or truth we choose to live from 

• Whatever truth we choose for ourselves is how we will live and experience our life. 

• non-competition- all truths and perspectives are unique and precise. There’s no competition

• Our truth is our contribution to the collective 

• Only when we can consider all truths is when we can choose wisely our own truths

Session 9

Journal: * Where do you know of, your ancestors to have tended an environment? What are the elements, climate, landscape, plant and animal species, bodies of water, mountains, etc?

*What qualities can you identify in yourself that may have been inherited or influenced by your ancestries?

*How could these qualities be a guide and instruct your work and purpose on earth?

*What obstacles are you facing that may be preventing you from your role and commitment with the earth?

Session 10

Medicine Council Initiation- Mesa and Diet Assignment 

• Designate and initiate 8 medicines in your council 

• 9th central medicine is the medicine spirit of you 

• Think about placement, at each cardinal direction 

• 4 non plant medicines (elements, cosmos, animal, stone, place, etc) 4 plant medicines 

• Every two weeks we’ll be initiating a new direction and medicine. Taking time to be with that medicine and dieting it. 

• Plant diet guidelines gives an overview of the dieting process. 

• Recommendation of 1-3 day cleanse or deep dive per medicine 

• Journal on your experience, tracking dreams and insights 

Session 14

Cardiovascular health- Tending to the Sacred Heart

Notes:

Supportive Practices for Heart Health 

• Acknowledging our heart as a point of inner authority and sacred portal 

• Platicas- Heart to heart or heart straightening conversations 

• Opens up space for processing accumulated emotions 

• Supports in identifying the truth at the heart’s center

• Moves and releases energy from the heart 

• Helps us feel connected and supported 

• Helps us feel seen and heard 

• Prevents us from going to unhealthy habits for copping or distracting from hard emotions 

• Staying connected and aware of what we’re carrying in our heart 

• Following passion and joy- doing things that you love

• Engaging and connecting with like minded/ hearted community 

• Nurturing a gratitude practice 

• Following a spiritual practice that connects you to source, uplifts your spirit and allows you experience deep belonging

• Practicing radical self stewardship and deep care and love

• Working with herbal support. 

As well as the healthy diet and lifestyle 

• Diet- following an anti-inflammatory, nutrient rich heart- healthy diet. 

• The Role of Inflammation in Heart Disease

• Inflammation is part of your body’s immune response to an illness or injury. When you have a wound or an infection, inflammation helps fight off germs and facilitates healing. Buildup of cholesterol and other substances in your arteries  can set off an inflammatory response, too.

• For short-term conditions, inflammation is helpful. But sustained low levels of inflammation irritate your blood vessels. Inflammation may promote the growth of plaques, loosen plaque in your arteries and trigger blood clots — the primary cause of heart attacks and strokes

• https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/fight-inflammation-to-help-prevent-heart-disease

•  Diets high in red and processed meat, refined grains and sugary beverages, which have been associated with increased inflammation in the body, can increase subsequent risk of heart disease and stroke compared to diets filled with anti-inflammatory foods according to a study published today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

• https://www.acc.org/about-acc/press-releases/2020/11/02/19/00/avoiding-inflammatory-foods-can-lower-heart-disease-stroke-risk

• Intermittent fasting

• Some studies say that it may decrease low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, the "bad" cholesterol. Intermittent fasting also may improve the body's response to insulin. Insulin helps control blood sugar levels. Better cholesterol and blood sugar levels can lower the risk of weight gain and diabetes — two risk factors for heart disease.

• In general, intermittent fasting isn't recommended for those who:

• Are underweight

• Have an eating disorder

• Are pregnant or breastfeeding

• Take medicine for diabetes

• Have a history of low blood sugar (hypoglycemia)

• Have end-stage liver disease

• If you're considering regular fasting, talk to your health care provider about the pros and cons.

• Staying active 

• When done regularly, moderate- and vigorous-intensity physical activity strengthens your heart muscle. This improves your heart's ability to pump blood to your lungs and throughout your body. As a result, more blood flows to your muscles, and oxygen levels in your blood rise.

• Physical activity triggers changes in your blood vessels, muscles, metabolism, and brain — all of which promote better heart health.

• Together, exercise-induced changes can prevent or improve all the major risk factors that contribute to heart disease, including high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, and unhealthy cholesterol levels. Exercise can also improve mental health problems like depression and stress, which are common but often ignored contributors to cardiovascular problems

• Stress management practices 

• Rest and sleep 

• Exercise and movement 

• Meditation/ contemplation/ prayer/ mindfulness 

• Breathing exercises 

Herbal Support

• Rose 

Rosa canina, Rosa rugosa, Rosa virginiana, Rosa canina, Rosa multiflora, Rosa damascena, Rosa gallica, Rosa centifolia, R. spinosissima...

Family:  Rosaceae

Part used:  Flowers, leaves, hips

Energetics:  Sweet, bitter,  moist

Actions:  Anti-inflammatory,  Antidepressant,  cardiotonic (mild),  nervine

• Hawthorn 

Crataegus oxyacantha

Family: Rosaceae

Part used: Flowers, leaves, berries

Energetics: Sour, sweet, warm, dry

Actions: Anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antispasmodic, astringent, cardio trophorestorative, nervine, vasodilator

• Motherwort 

Leonorus cardiaca

Family:  Lamiaceae

Part used:  Leaf, flowers

Energetics:  Bitter, cool,  dry

Actions:  Antispasmodic, anxiolytic, cardiotonic, carminative, sedative

• Bobinsana

Calliandra angustifolia

Parts used: all parts; stems, leaves, flowers, bark, and roots

Actions: cardio tonic, circulatory stimulant, anti-depressant, purgative,

• Cinnamon 

Cinnamomum  verum

Family:  Lauraceae

Part used:  Inner bark

Energetics:  Pungent, sweet, warming

Actions:  Analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, carminative,  peripheral vasodilator

• Ginger 

Zingiber  officinale

Family:  Zingiberaceae

Part used:  Rhizomes

Energetics:  Pungent, sweet, warming

Actions:  Anti-inflammatory, antioxidant,  carminative, circulatory stimulant, diaphoretic,  expectorant,  nootropic

• Rosemary

Rosmarinus officinalis

Family:  Lamiaceae

Part used:  Leaves

Energetics:  Spicy,  warm,  dry

Actions:  Anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antiviral, carminative,  cerebral stimulant,  nervine, nootropic

• Cayenne 

Capsicum annuum

Family:  Solanaceae

Part used: Fruit

Energetics:  Pungent, heating, drying

Actions:  Analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, carminative, circulatory stimulant, diaphoretic, expectorant

Session 15

Journal: Assessing our four primary lineages 

• Assessment/Inventory of love, gifts, skills, career paths 

• Assessment/Inventory of health and wellness- body, mind, spirit 

• Assessment/Inventory of survival and resilience 

• Assessment/Inventory of unhealthy patterns 

• Assessment/Inventory of limiting beliefs 

• Assessment/Inventory of addiction 

• Assessment/Inventory of violence

Session 16

Journal: Values and Boundaries SELF ASSESSMENT

My values for my time are.... My boundaries with my time are...

My values for my energy are.... My boundaries with my energy are...

My values for wealth are.... My boundaries with wealth are...

My values for my body are.... My boundaries with my body are...

Also with: money, work, intimacy, relationships, personal space, medicine, capacity to hold space for others,etc

Session 17

Medicine Making: Seguro- Wise council water. Please collect the following items and ingredients and combine in a bottle (such as the ones provided in class): 

• Seeds from plant specie(s) with ancestral affinity  

• Handful of soil, sand and/or small pebbles stones to represent your ancestral lands 

• 2 tablespoons of salt (from an area closest to your ancestral lands as possible) 

• 1 cup of an ancestral liquor of choice  

• Cuttings from 4 ancestral plants of your choice, ideally fresh if not dried is ok

• Citrus peel 

• Essential oil, hydrosol of plants from the places of your roots or ancestral perfume (use sparingly as a little goes a long way!)