Lessons from a Curandera: Ancient Healing Traditions for Today with Adriana Ayales

Welcome to this session of the Virtual Herbalism Conference. I'm your host, Lindsey Feldpausch. Today, I have the honor of welcoming Adriana Ayales. Adriana is a Costa Rican-born curandera, a clinical herbalist, a medicine maker, and founder of Anima Mundi Apothecary. She is rooted in her lineage, carrying the plants of the rainforest through the Latin American folk tradition, curanderismo, carving a pathway for healing that centers reciprocity, ritual, and relationship. Adriana's teachings remind us that herbalism is not just a practice of using plants, it is a culture, a cosmology, and a way of being. It's a memory that is held in the body that is alive today.

In this conversation on Lessons from a Curandera: Ancient Healing Traditions for Today, Adriana will share how traditional healing frameworks hold relevance not only in clinical practice, but in how we care for our spirit, our community, and the world around us, exploring the deeper roles of plants as allies, traditions as teachers, and how we can respectfully engage ancient paths of medicine while living in a modern world. Adriana, we're so grateful you have returned for this conference once again, thank you for being here with us today.

Hey, thank you. It's so good to be here. Thank you for having me. I'm really looking forward to this conversation, Adriana. I'd love to start off just sharing a bit about your personal path as a curandera.

That's a very deep question. It all started out very young for me. When I was a little girl, I had very profound abilities with the spirit realm, nature, and it just was a very intense time in my life. Now that I do medical astrology, when I look back at it, it was the biggest Pluto transit, possibly for the whole course of my life happening in the first 10 years. But anyways, other than astrology, I was having really profound cathartic experiences. In other words, mediumship, seeing energy, seeing spirits, talking to spirits and such. And at that time, I mean I was around seven, eight, nine years old. I didn't understand what was going on. It was just really intense. And so thankfully, my grandmother at that time would come over on weekends and she essentially had the language in her tool belt. She was very religious in a lot of ways, and at the same time, a medium in her own way. So she would come with my great aunt that is also a medium, and we would do these spirit invocations, limpias of homes, of the land, clearing energy of the household. And then when I understood what they were doing, I was like, this is exactly what is going on. And so they would really help me understand and metabolize all these cathartic experiences. Although it sounds wonderful to have psychic sight and connection and mediumship and such, it was very intense and scary, especially as a young little one that has no framework, books, research, abilities. You feel lost and alone, and I just wanted to be like a normal kid. So it was really interesting how it all started. And so anyways, as I grew older as a teen and such, I would read these books. It changed my life. I met fellow teachers that guided me. And after doing all these different ceremonies and plant ceremonies even at a young age, I came to find my field as a hierbera, which is a specifically herbalist-type of curandera. So at that time, I was like, no, I want to be a medium like my grandma and my aunt. And then I was like, no. Spirit clearly gave me the path of herbalism and healing of herbs, and so after having a very profound ceremonial experience when I was in my teens with a curandero, Don Jose, which was one of my first teachers from Peru, he showed me through the medicine brews that we made that the spirits of certain plants kind of choose you. I was chosen by specific spirits to carry the lineage and legacy of what I was seeing. So it felt really profound, and I'm so grateful to have carried the lineage of as a hierbera to this day, and I am beyond devoted and committed to all the visions and insights that I was given to carry on. Here I am doing it.

Wow, that's a really incredible journey, Adriana. I appreciate you sharing. I feel like that's something that not many people have in their past. I imagine it guides you still to this day. I feel like you already mentioned curanderismo has many different paths within it and that yours is with the plants. For those unfamiliar with curanderismo, could you describe it as a practice?

So curanderismo comes from the word curar, which means to heal. So it essentially means the tradition of healing or the traditional methods of healing. And this all tunes into the ancient ways of mind, body, spirit healing. And that can mean a lot of things. Even in today's world, you say healing, and it can be like Chinese Medicine, Ayurveda, there's so many wings to the healing realm. So curanderismo is a very generalized term, but a lot of people associate it to the types of healing that we've seen from, let's say, Latin American, Mesoamerican tradition. So curanderismo essentially embodies all the Mesoamerican traditions all the way to South America, and it tunes into this type of healing that is very rooted in Earth folk medicine. And they have a lot in common, even though there's thousands of tribes throughout time that have done all these different forms of healing. There's essentially these main branches that they're all shared amongst the different traditions. So that's very cool to see how there is a general understanding of curanderismo and healing throughout the entire landmass of Central and South America. So of course, there's a lot of many derivatives in each one that spreads out and branches out, but the main branch is very similar. So in curanderismo, you have hierberas, which is like herbalists. You have sobaderas, which are more hands-on healers. You have those that are more like hex-breakers type of medicine people. You have the mediums. So there's all kinds. There's also parteras, such as midwives, and so on. And it goes on into many. There's also santeros, which are more also like hex-breaking energy healers of specific forms, and just that in itself, just the energy healers, have also many other branches that fall underneath it. So the umbrella is pretty wide, and it divides into many realms. But the more common ones, I would say, are the energy healers, the hierberas, sobaderas, and parteras, midwives.

What were your early experiences in seeking out a teacher for your curanderismo practice and the understanding that you gained of plant medicine through this healing tradition?

When I was tuning into these questions and feelings of today's interview, I was remembering two specific instances when I was around 10 years old or so. One of them, I felt, was a true abduction that in the moment I didn't understand it as an abduction, but I felt like a true abduction where my body would just completely shut down and forget everything that would happen for a series of hours. And people would tell me that I would be acting a little odd and different and not myself. And I would be having 100% out-of-body experiences, even in a normal day. Let's say I was cleaning my closet or something, and then I would black out completely. And then I would have these very strange teachers, messages, situations, patterns, symbols, all a mix of things that would come through. And it was really intense. I would go to my mom, concerned. I don't remember the last five hours. What did I do? What happened? And so when that started happening, suddenly I would meet teachers and people in the field that would be working with us, other than my grandmother being a strong safe zone to help contain what was going on. But then I started meeting other curanderos in Costa Rica and then from South America that would travel to Costa Rica to do ceremonies and healing and different offering of their healing tradition. And that's when I started finding people that would help me on the path to understand what was going on. But then I started into the ayahuasca path as well, very early in life. And I'm very grateful for that because that really allowed to understand the light language and the immensity of information that would come through and help metabolize it through the use of different plant brews. And just to be specific, ayahuasca, even though it's associated to being a vine and a plant that are a perfect concoction, there's also many other plants that are used into the brew, for example, that really help tone and purge and uplift and upgrade the body in so many ways. So it really is a truly medicinal brew because so much medicine is added into it. So although it has psychoactive properties, it obviously has a profound effect on the organs to help you really refine and touch up all that needs to be moved through in the system. So that really was a very eye-opening experience for me when I was that age. And thankfully, Don Jose and Doña Juanita, which is another wonderful teacher I worked with, they really helped me spread my wings from there to understand the immensity of these realms and everything that was going through. Yes.

Wow. So how do elements of prayer and ritual and intention weave together with herbs in this practice?

So I feel like herbs are truly—and I love that it sounds hippied out when you read it on social media or whatever, that they're messengers, and they have all these... but truly, honestly, they are messengers. And it's not a cliché. It is literally, essentially compressed vibration that is meeting us in this moment in time that contains so much more than what we really see as, let's say, an almost borderline inanimate, not like an object, obviously, it's living, but we hardly see the growth of trees unless it's for years or plants as well. It takes time to really see just the growth cycle. But there is so much more to what the plant is doing that we understand. And so they carry this vital emotional impulse that matches our frequency in specific moments of healing, maintenance, support, all the things. And so curanderos really understand that, that they are specific messengers that match the vibrational tone of needs that must be fulfilled within the human experience. Sometimes we think like, Oh, it's just chamomile. What can that really do? It's just a little digestive tea. And so no, even like manzanilla, chamomile, is used specifically for profound feelings of empacho, which is a shamanic disease where deep resentment and pain is held in the stomach. So one of the main healers to this day is chamomile, used in so many ways, from bathing with it, baños. You do smudging with it. You do profound barridas, cleansing of the physical body. You do hair rinses. There's all these kinds of applications that just mirror just the tiniest little bit of all the healing energy that this one spirit is bringing through as the name of chamomile. So it's really interesting to understand that because the cosmology of understanding plants as such is so different on such an energetic level that it's just so much more beyond medicinal qualities. It just carries so much more. So that's where a true hierbero understands that they are the medium to this messenger and paring it to the right psycho-spiritual, let's say, imbalance that's going on in someone and matching that so much more beyond just medicinal action. So it's beautiful, and it's profound. We can go through some of the herbs in a bit just for fun.

Adriana, do you pair ritual or intention setting when you are being the medium between the plants and the person who needs it, or is it simply enough to know the plant and to offer it?

Yeah. So plant communication has so many avenues. And of course, everybody has their expertise for their own life. And that's what's important. Your antenna will channel what you need for yourself to understand from this plant for this message for you. Because, again, they're messengers. They're mirroring messages above and beyond just medicinal action for you in this moment in time for whatever you're needing to heal or embrace. So what I love is more dietas, plant dietas, more traditionally in South America, used a lot in plant medicine style ceremonies and such. But a lot of curanderos use it just for cleansing, ongoing detoxes and cleanses. Because as you all know, probably the greatest sacrifice of eliminating food or just doing water to cleanse the vehicle to receive messages is a big practice all over the world. A lot of curanderos of South America have just specific teas, and that's it for 10 days, sometimes a month, sometimes longer. Some of them also just use, let's say, fish from the river with no salt as they learn the language of the plant, just enough sustenance to essentially survive, but still be a vehicle to understand what the plant's message is. There is so much incredible myth and folk, I mean, it's so much more beyond myth. It's like literal reality of what they're channeling and what the plant is bringing and showing their medicine as, so it's like literally meeting a whole new person and understanding their ancient history through these practices. So through these deep communions, curanderos and curanderas have received precious information that, to this day, lab results have confirmed, because some of them are medicinal in nature, obviously. But the energetic results are what really is astonishing for me. It's just really above and beyond what you would imagine that this precious little tree in this third dimensional reality that we observe is doing so much more than we understand. So that's where I feel like the communion through dietas is profound, because the greatest sacrifice of food and daily reality and the hustle and the busyness and the monkey mind is truly shut down. And you're just engaging for one purpose, and it's to meet this one friend in this moment in time. And you get unbelievable information and through it and with it. For people that don't want to go pretty dramatic and go out in the middle of the jungle or rainforest or wherever you are, a lot of people just sit in nature and meditate and connect with it as a friend. So if you're talking, a lot of curanderos, they say, or someone asks them, How do I heal my broken heart? Or, What do I do? I have this life crisis. And they're like, Have you just walked in nature and asked the question under the trees on your own for an hour or two? Have you taken that time and just walked? And so that forest bathing concept is also very classic in curanderismo, where that's how you engage. You're walking in nature, speaking out loud or in silence, and you will receive the transmission much more than you think. It all depends on how strong your intention and focus is, and it really boils down to that. If you're on your phone and distracted taking pictures and like, Oh, yeah, I'm going to meet, let's say, bobinsana today, for sure, might not happen. It might be there, but the monkey mind is on. And so have you been listening? So I think it's just truly silencing to listen and not go with your phone on that hike. Go and learn, observe, bring a notebook, a pen, get creative, do some art, and you'll see that a lot starts coming through. It's just putting the monkey mind aside and just being a vessel in that moment.

It seems like such a simple and beautiful practice, Adriana. So simple. So I'm sure it's also one of those things that is just truly so hard for many of us who live in this very fast-paced Western lifestyle. Adriana, let's talk plants. As a curandera, what are some of your plant allies and can you share some of them?

Yeah, so I wanted to speak about some classic, actually, plants used in curanderismo that have been a deep inspiration for my daily practice. And many of these I wanted to be accessible so you all feel connected wherever in the world you're listening from, because these are basically in almost everybody's kitchen cabinet, starting with chamomile. I think it's to this day, the most sold tea on the planet, which is funny to think, right? Good old chamomile, mansanilla, grows everywhere as a ground cover or as a gentle flower, depending what species you have. But it's just such an incredible plant and it has been for so long. So here, even in Latin American curanderismo, chamomile is like a cornerstone to rituals. It's always present, always at the altar as a tea, even used for beautifying, smudging, like I was saying, and such. And it's really used for digestive-based diseases, energetic disease, where there is that deep resentment or constant irritability in the stomach, old emotions, old frustrations. For that potential of life expression, chamomile can be really powerful to use. Again, any form in any way. There's so many variables other than just T. I love it. Another one in the cornerstone is ruda, rue, which you also see growing in a lot of places. I've seen it even now grown all over the Pacific Northwest, all the way down to Central and South America. Rue is just everywhere. A lot of people consume it in very small doses as an anti-parasitic. It's excellent at eradicating eggs and proliferation of parasites. Witness testament right here to use with other classics like wormwood, which is also used a lot in curanderismo. But as its medicinal action signals, it is a powerful purger, cleanser of spaces. So to me, that's like the white sage, let's say, of Central and South America, because it's used for that, really cleansing a space to reset it from history, pains that are left, land history, bad atmospheres in homes, and things like that. Let's say where there's history even of abuse or trauma, all the dark potentials that you might think of, ruda is one of those allies. Also, cornerstone of the altar that just purges and removes anything and everything that's not functioning in the highest form. It is definitely a low dose plant, by the way, if you're experimenting with it, but it can be used in a very small as an ongoing cleanser of the bowels. Since there are so many also parasites in the rainforest, it's endless. It's so alive. I feel like plants like this are amazing because they grow quite fast and they do so much to survive and stay vibrant and beautiful that that in itself is also hinting at its signature as like, Oh, what chemicals does this plant have that it can survive so much? It's kind of fascinating, right? So it gives a resilience to us, and it's really beautiful in that way. So that's a cornerstone for me as a flower essence, as a smudger, as a barrida for live plant cleansing, to cleanse the energetic body, low dose ingestion. Definitely not as a tea. Don't ever try it as a decoction, of course, or anything. It will be absolutely horrible and not recommended. But in those ways, for cleansing, floral cleansing as well as also great for baths and such, foot baths. Another classic, rosemary, even though it's native to the Mediterranean, it has grown here in the Americas for, I don't know how long, thousands of years. It was brought so long ago that it's borderline a native plant at this point because it's in so many traditions for so long, even pre-Incan traditions, where there is stories of healing cosmologies where rosemary was written about. So how many years is that? It's been such a long time. So it was probably brought in through ancient civilizations. They brought it by boat. Also a resilient plant, but it's a cornerstone to the altar and curanderismo this day for everything, for again, rinses, smudging, any kind of blending, especially for people that are looking to heal bilis—it's another shamanic disease that a lot of people speak about. Bilis is when you have this bile repression in your liver, and they call it crystallized frustration or crystallized anger, where it just sits there. And it's the classic story when someone identifies to this one story of pain, let's say that it happened 20 years ago, but they still use that story as their current personality affirming story of this day. So that's like crystallized anger, like that anger that has become the personality to an extent that it's defining the personality. So rosemary, for example, is used in those instances to break that crystallization. Even though it's not a liver tonic per se, it's definitely a strong microcirculatory plant, so it's bringing a lot of cleansing to the blood, which is connecting to the liver in that way. It's really beautiful to see that bridge of rosemary use in Mesoamerican traditions. Other classics that I absolutely love that are from these areas is bobinsana, used very much for heart healing. I was just giving a class about this the other day, healing the endothelial lining, avoiding the hardening of the cardiovascular system, especially in today's world, due to energetics and also due to a lot of consequences from toxicity in the environment. So this is a plant that really softens the cardiovascular system, relaxes the heart, settles the spirit. And it just feels like a must for right now in this time. It just feels like we all could use that extra heart love, whatever shape or form that that might be. I also feel like there's a lot of heart problems today. It seems to be like a slow growing—I don't know how slow, actually—quite a growing epidemic right now with the heart being a main issue, the cardiovascular system, so we really have to protect our hearts and our energy and bobinsana is one of those that powerfully does it on a spiritual emotional realm and also healing properties. It has that. So it is a little bit stimulating, so if you are drinking heart medications and you don't want to stimulant, it might be contraindicated in that sense. But as an energetic ally that you can use in other forms, other than just teas and menstruums, I really recommend it. Beautiful. And then another one that I love right now is cat's claw. Cat's claw is just a beautiful sight. I saw some recently that was just mind-blowing to see it in full growth. Also such a power ally for right now. I feel like cat's claw is one of those that just targets all the ways. Also very much used with ruda for the more radical spiritual cleanses of spaces and people and diseases. But cat's claws is one of those that really is like a multi-organ master. It just does so much that I feel like it's forgotten about how powerful it is, especially for now. Modern day illness, it feels like it really helps with digestive related diseases, really cleanses the gut. It's really unbelievable. It really helps the walls of the intestines get back in shape, especially if there's a history of chronic inflammation or leaky gut type of situations. It really can be helpful. Blood cleanser, immune booster, very strong, stimulating immune stimulant, so it's really powerful. For respiratory diseases, obviously with COVID and other secondary similar diseases, cat's claw has been powerful in regaining strength. Since it nourishes the blood so deeply, great for the blood-liver connection and kidneys, so it's just one of those that just does it all. So for me, especially with traveling a lot and everything, I'm like, what is going to make me not get sick, stay strong and resilient, and with my heart open without getting too guarded. Anyways, those are at the top of my head for right now.

I love how accessible so many of those herbs are to us, Adriana. And I also am just so in awe of how you're able to balance this deep intelligence with the depth of wisdom that comes from your knowledge base. I want to know, how do you balance the spiritual and scientific aspects of herbalism?

That's such a great question. I would say without getting too hyper-focused to the scientific, it can be used almost as a map to what it might reveal to the energetic. I think that's where you can use it as a symbolic process. Although the scientific is super fascinating, I absolutely love reading all about it all the time. I'm actually pretty obsessed and nerdy with that process, but I do feel like I use it more as a map of, oh, what could that hint on a spiritual emotional level? What could that be really revealing that we might not know as a modern society, what it might be or could have been understood as in the past? Before, it more of an energetic language. Now we have all these terms. It's really beautiful to see that correlation, how there's always a spiritual emotional counterpart to that scientific discovery. I think it's more important to think of the energetic properties because in the end, a lot of disease, according to a curandero's perspective, is spiritual in nature. It is believed that a lot of the emotional spiritual imbalances are born first, and they are found in the field prior to becoming a physical manifestation. So in that case, understanding the plant in that way, I feel like the plant might be easier to understand on that level first, and then using the scientific understanding for just further amazement and possibilities. But I do share that view, that cosmological view, where even when you have a profound reading with a curandero, where they can read the potential of your future directly like that, like nothing in your energetic field. If that's already happening, they can heal it and weed it out prior to it existing, let's say, in your life. So there's, for example, I know two stories off the top of my head. This one dear friend, her sister went to get a reading with this powerful curandero that we've known forever. And he immediately saw that she could have been getting uterine cancer. And so he told her, "Oh, my God, you have to do this, this, and that before it becomes physical, that you have the vibration of this specific cancer in your field." And so she's like, "No way. I'm super healthy. I just got checked. The doctor told me that I was perfect. I work out every day. I eat all the things." And he's like, "It doesn't matter." Disease is a fascinating process. It doesn't necessarily mean because of your lifestyle always. It can also be for other mysterious reasons that it came to your life to reveal hidden doors. And so with that understanding, I can see how, okay, yeah, we can weed it out on an emotional, spiritual level before that becomes a physical manifestation. So I feel like that obsession, the scientific reality has yielded very much like, oh, what is your lifestyle like? What are you doing on a daily basis? Maybe that gave you X, Y, Z. And yes, that can happen. But how much of it is more of a spiritual, psychological process, much more beyond just our daily life? So I do feel like that's the beautiful balance between both worlds, right? I think that we can interweave science and spirituality and energetic understanding of plants so much more than we maybe discuss in our modern herbal practices.

I love that the traditions of curanderismo or also just other Indigenous practices throughout the world do share this connection. I also feel like that's often emphasizing harmony within community, within ourselves, connection to nature. Do you see this playing out in modern wellness culture, or do you feel like this is something that's lacking?

I guess it depends where, but I would say a little lacking because it feels either empty, sold spirituality, and some of it feels very real and powerful. It's a mixed bag. I don't know. I feel like it has both. But the biohacking obsession feels very unspiritual to me. Not that it has to be spiritual in the New Age sense, but in the sense that, how is the soul being integrated into this ritual, practice, regime? How much soul or how is the person finding their own soul practice within that biohacking practice or things like that? I feel like these cool wellness centers, they're amazing. You can measure your telomeres and see your biological age, and you can measure your mitochondrial function to the T. You can also measure all the DNA methylation process, and all these incredible labs. But how much soul is being measured in all this, and how much soul is being left out to achieve this biological age perfection. I feel like I see constant people being like, wow, my test came out and I'm technically 25, but I'm 42. So it's just... It is fascinating, and I've done it and I like it and it was fun. But I do feel like the soul practices will yield a true longevity that is so much more beyond a biohacking lab test type of process. So I think using both is wonderful. But the soul aspect, I feel like, will create a longevity that's not found as commonly in these kinds of places. So I think that's where this whole desire to do these plant medicine ceremonies, which also has a very strong dark side. I mean, not to say that that's the the only way at all. But I do feel like what people find in a lot of these profound Indigenous ceremonies other than plant medicine is that they found so much more of themselves, their family, family lineage that created just massive milestones in healing that no other route would have perhaps been that good. So I don't know if I compare both, but again, both are great if you can. Absolutely. All right. Biohacking plus the soul practice. Yes.

Adriana, what lessons from curanderismo do you feel like are most vital for people navigating the fast-paced, often disconnected world we live in today?

That's a good question. I think there's so much, I would say walking in the forest, not forgetting that sometimes the simplest things are actually profound, just like that chamomile tea. There are very simple practices that actually yield more than we think. And so that's what I love about most curanderos and curanderas I've worked with. They are just like, sometimes a solution is so simple, but the mind is like, it cannot be that simple. It's impossible. I need something more sophisticated. And so I think that's the ultimate lesson, the simplicity of it all, simplifying to the highest level in all the ways, like from excessive communication, excessive need for understanding, validation, information, going back and simplifying. So even to this day, there's so many Indigenous peoples around the world that are still living a very simple life purposefully, and it can be very beautiful and necessary. So, yeah, I think that's one of the main ones, just simplifying, being in simplicity. Yeah.

That feels really true, Adriana. What are your thoughts on cultural preservation and respect when we're discussing these ancestral practices, especially when they're being shared globally?

That is a common question. The appropriation is very strong, definitely, it's disrespectful. It's not welcomed. It also kind of avoids actually specific Indigenous peoples from wanting to share anymore. But I've also seen a lot of Indigenous peoples, like the Yawanawá, off the top of my head from Brazil, that they're just on a mission to share their message all over the world. We just hosted them at our place in LA somewhat recently, and it was just amazing to see them so willing to come to the belly of Babylon and share their message. They just were so willing to be there and share in all the ways and have everybody learn from the rapé, the song, to their ways of life. So I think it's a balance. There's respect. I feel like there's ways you can provide back to them, whether it's supporting physically in person, whether it's financially, whether it's really supporting the right causes and not taking their information, their ritual garments, and making them yours without actual respect and connection, not just ordered online or bought from someone that is not even connected to them. How are you supporting the full chain of where it comes from? And how much are you researching, exploring all the different aspects to whatever tradition you're drawn to? Not that it's bad to learn and attend these ceremonies, but it's more like, how can you give back in that way and stay in that healthy, sustainable cycle with that tribe or person that you're working with? I think there's ways, but as long as it's not taken and then not giving credits and pretending as if you've done it forever and all the things that come with modern day charlatans, if you want to say. I don't even know what word to use. But yes, I think there's so many ways to give back. And we know of so many wonderful causes and initiatives. If you're ever curious, ask us. We can give you a list of what tribe or things that you would feel drawn to. We would be more than happy to facilitate a bridge in that way. And it's more of our purpose for Anima Mundi as well. So we love it. It's really wonderful. Thank you, Adriana. I think that was a really common sense message, but also a really beautiful bridge to offer to the listeners.

I want to hear, what is giving you hope as you see folks returning to plant medicine and their ancestral traditions?

I would say the healing results are mind-blowing. Again, people thinking, let's say if it's something as as deep and serious as cancer to more common things, let's say, migraine or insomnia, it's beautiful to see people giving herbalism a try and seeing results and being open and just seeing it everywhere is making me really excited to see, wow, nature is being respected in this big way as finally the medicine of the people back again into daily lives. Although the trends—can be any trend—kind of like sabotages is the original core, right? But I do feel like the beauty of trends is that it allows people to be like, what is this? I'm going to give it a try, and then they see profound results from it. So that's giving me hope, especially for the newer generation, thinking like, oh, cool. I'm adding mushrooms to my coffee. It's creating a bigger resonance in a bigger way than just the trendy mushroom coffee. So it just feels good. People are really bringing it back to their kitchens, and I think that's a major first step, especially for newer generations and older generations.

Adriana, if you could offer one final piece of advice from your lineage for this modern world, what would it be?

More connection to nature. I know I just said this, but I guess it is very important to bring it back, connect to the soul of nature, taking those walks, pausing, taking care of your heart, rooting down into the Earth, doing your visualization practice. And it doesn't have to be this whole perfect manifestation practice that we see everywhere. It can be as simple as just walking outside, telling your problems to a tree, the tree will respond back. I think the whole point is to just forget all these other things we were taught to believe about our daily life and just leave it aside for a moment and go meet a new sense of self and be open to that and soften into that simplicity. It doesn't have to be complicated and sophisticated. Nothing has to, actually. Boiling it down to just love and for the love of what you're doing is so important. It's so easy to forget why we're doing what we're doing. It happens to me sometimes where I just wake up and I'm like, I'm tired. What can I do that is not the usual thing, even though all herbalists have this strong sense of why every morning, right? But still, we all have those days that we just don't feel up for it. We're tired, we're bombarded with information. All the pains of the world. There's a lot going on. I think social connection, too, is just fundamentally vital. That is more important for your longevity than any other biohacking treatments. What is your social reality like? Are you connecting to people that really speak your same language? And what are you doing, if not to create more of that? Are you attending experiences, ceremonies, new experiences, going to places that you can maybe perhaps find of your tribe and really connect. It can be just such a soul relieving process, going back to those soul purposes. For me, that's huge, even though sometimes I'm just socially hung over. I don't want to see anyone. I don't want to be around anyone. And that really happens also to all of us. It's normal. You can also have those moments where you have those profound connections with dear ones, whether it's a stranger, a new person, a new friendship. It's so important. It's so simple. And we just all get to meet each other and discover. Go on this foraging trip. If you're into herbalism for the first time or new into it or not, I want to go to these foraging groups somewhere that just you meet wonderful new people in the same mission as you are. That really creates a lot of strengthening and fortifies the why beyond just the work why or what you're doing with your life why. It's more like a bigger purpose than that. Those are my two cents right now of how we can reconnect in a bigger way. I feel like the path to wholeness is through connection. Absolutely.

Adriana, thank you so much for your teachings. I feel like the messages you're sharing today are exactly what we need to be hearing in this world. If you could take a moment to tell the audience where they can find you and the work that you do.

Thank you so much. So you can find me in my personal Instagram, Adriana Ayales or Ayales. You can find us Anima Mundi as well. So Anima Mundi Herbals on all the social channels, whatever your preferred one is to engage. We love to keep ourselves as educational as possible and just creating fun content, a little pause out of this crazy matrix of technology to just consider other possibilities in your daily life, other than just news and intensities. You can find us there and just have a little laugh or learn herbalism. So that's more of our purpose. So you can also find us on our website, animamundiherbals. com. And you can also find us in our storefronts, which are super fun. Also great community centers, or what we try to do is just build community as much as possible. So we have a bunch of events in our Venice Beach location, same in our Brooklyn location. We also have a shared collaborative space in Soho with the Alchemist Kitchen. So we have also a great offering of events there and herbalists and tarot readers, and such. So if you're any of these places, come and visit us for some fun community love and herbal mocktail funness, action, or teas. So, yeah, thank you for having me. I'm so grateful to collaborate with the Herbal Academy always.

Thank you, Adriana, so very much for being here with us today. We will make sure that all of those links get in the chat and truly love the work that you are doing in this world and Anima Mundi as well.

Awesome. Thank you.