Ep#47 Calling Back What is Yours through Ayurveda & the Elements with Kati Inez Mesa

In this episode of Your Story Medicine, I welcome Kati Mesa, Founder and Owner of Love, Awareness & Purpose Healing Arts, which provides alternative services such as meditation, bodywork, retreats, and community gatherings to help one to bring balance to their mind, body, and essence to achieve their complete potential.

What are you celebrating about yourself today?

Kati: I’m celebrating moving, and just really getting into whatever I go into next. My life has been one of growth and unknowns, but I’m grateful for being able to move no matter what. Movement is pausing and being still, then being to take that next step.

How would you describe your medicine?

Kati: My life journey itself has been an ongoing unveiling of all these many lifetimes coming forth. Putting forth even a title is just limiting it. I assist souls in going beyond their edge, so that they can come back to their body and know that there is something ancient within them. There isn’t just one modality to tend to a human being. I specialize in Ayurvedic medicine because I realize that we are not just one element—we are ether, air, fire, water, and earth. When we bring those ancient ancestors forward, we recognize that there is so much more to us, and there is not just one practice to us.

How has your ancestral lineage influenced your path today?

Kati: I am Cuban and Peruvian, and I am a first-generation American. My parents thought that, by coming to the States, they were saving their children from whatever they were escaping from, from their countries. I wasn’t very aware of my roots, and so growing up, I had no one to guide me but spirit. I was having unknown conversations and being guided into different spaces and toward different souls that put me back in touch with my Cuban roots. Through the years of me just following what was pulling me, and eventually brought me home, brought me peace, I began to learn about Ayurveda. My father never allowed my family to share to me what our spiritual practices were, but I kept showing up. One day, my aunt revealed to me that my father was once a part of these practices, but ever since his mother passed away, he didn’t want anything to do with it. This is just my Cuban side. As for my Peruvian side, this is a long journey of my relationship with the feminine and really witnessing my mother and her blended lineage. It was about creating a connection with the plant beings of the Peruvian jungle, with the essence of the Earth, and just being in the lungs of the Earth which is what the Amazon is known for. That has been, and still is my journey of reconnecting with my ancestors. At the end of the day, it’s really about me getting back to the Earth and allowing the Great Mother to guide me.

How has your journey been in navigating these spiritual training and gatherings as an indigenous woman?

Kati: As soon as I saw how few People of Color were involved in these spaces, I started to think about who actually has access to this work, this study, this medicine. At the end of the day, I knew that I was going into these spaces to make them accessible. I’m making sure I’m absorbing this information to make it accessible to every soul I cross paths with. In order for us to bring this work forward, we need to get into the communities where People of Color congregate, such as yoga studios owned by them, and let them know this work even exists. Collaboration is the first step.

What advice do you have for someone just starting their journey to be able to utilize the elements to call back what is theirs?

Kati: Your body will react to whatever you expose it to, including things as simple as facial remedies. This will assist the soul to be curious. If you have an adverse reaction, don’t ask, “What is wrong?” but “What is happening?” This is the beginning of building a relationship with your body and the elements. How is your body speaking with you?

How do you stay grounded and what is it that you’ve learned to release?

Kati: Staying grounded means stepping away from my comfort zone. It sounds like an ungrounded action, but it actually sets the space for me to breathe. I step out of the noise and just come back to me. My environment affects everything about me, so stepping away gives me that space to let me be me. Then, I go back to the Great Mother so that I can be held. Me being held is the most important space for me to sit in, and for me to honor. This may sound cliché, but I’ve learned to release time. I found myself feeling like I always have to show up, and to show up now. But that’s ego. I have to trust myself and allow myself to be, because by rushing it, I would be half-assing it. Breathing and trusting where I’m at is where the practice comes in.

What would you tell your younger self as a future ancestor?

Kati: Trust and breathe, even if you don’t know what trust is. Breathing is trust. Trust that you’re being held. That’s what matters right now. So, keep going and trusting.

Conclusion: Our outer world is a direct reflection of our inner world, and returning to ourselves and connecting with our ancestors and the Earth is about aligning those two worlds. It all starts with the self-awareness and openness to the changes in your own body embodied in Ayurveda.

Action Integration: As time is a social construct, find relaxation and renew your purpose by releasing all notion of having to act now and simply trust.

Learn more about Kati and her offerings:

Visit her website: loveawarenesspurpose.net

Follow her on Instagram: www.instagram.com/journeywithkati