#followfriday 4 Indigenous Healing Practitioners
This week on the blog we discussed shadow work, the process through which we can uncover repressed parts of ourselves with the goal of healing the harmful aspects that shape our thoughts, emotions, and behaviours. Shadow work is a very personal journey and there is no one face or method for healing.
Each of the following creators is sharing their wealth of experiential knowledge about healing with the collective through social media, courses aimed to reveal and empower, and conversations that highlight the power we each carry to create beautiful lives. Sharing their tools for shedding harmful beliefs and histories and redefining the self to embrace one's highest potential, these healers are decolonizing wellness. Their vulnerability inspires us and we are grateful for the ways they prompt us to do the work necessary for achieving connection and peace. Check out these 4 Indigenous healing practitioners.
Boundless Warrior
Myranda Bennett is a spiritual wellness guide and the owner of Boundless Warrior. Carrying teachings from her elders, Myranda’s goal is to help people understand their medicine, purpose and highest potential. She is an advocate for living in integrity, love, and responsibility and offers professional guidance in doing so. She hosts retreats centered around various healing modalities as well as offering individualized healing programs. Her podcast Boundless Warrior Transmissions is a well of useful information about spiritual wellness, personal empowerment, and understanding ancestral connections.
Myranda’s mission to help guide her clients to heal their whole self, and to facilitate change in their energy to heal the ancestral, and programed trauma that blocks the human path to awareness. By going into the depths of shadow work, she works to help others reclaim their sovereignty. While you can work with Boundless Warrior through their website, Myranda's Instagram page shares moving and thoughtful reminders about living in alignment, reminding us that we are defined by our hearts and our actions. She also prompts us toward our own shadow work journey, Myranda says: “ Take a moment to see where you are projecting, following group think mentality, or giving your power over to external influence. Be humble to the lessons that are needed.” Myranda’s message is that sometimes in our darkest moments we find our purpose.
Follow her on Instagram and check out her website.
Dr. Rosales Meza
Dr. Rosales Meza is a Xicana/Mexicana Indigenous woman in diaspora. She is a Seer, Medicine Woman, Counseling Psychology Ph.D., and an unschooling mama. With 21 years of experience in conducting cultural, social, and psychological research, 18 years of experience as a healer, and 17 years of experience teaching courses in anti-oppressive work and helping skills, her wisdom runs deep.
Dr. Meza offers a selection of courses on her website such as Healing and Liberation for Black Indigenous Women & Femmes of Color as well as live guidance and teaching sessions. She explains that her work is “at the intersections of decolonizing, spirituality, and wellness.” Her multitude of spiritual gifts translate well to Instagram where she writes motivational and thought provoking text emphasizing that we are loved and part of rich and wise ancestral lines. She believes that decolonizing is essential for the personal healing journey as well as meaningful change to the collective.
Follow Dr. Meza on Instagram and check out her website.
Cheyenne Leskanic
Cheyenne Leskanic is of Mvskoke and European ancestry and she is the founder of Three Medicines Longhouse, a community based on circular wellness. Utilizing a wholistic approach, her organization offers yoga, breathwork, meditation and courses in reclaiming birthing. Cheyenne is a certified Ashtanga yoga teacher and speaks often to the healing power it has held in her life .
On Instagram, Cheyenne frequently shares her thoughts on healing, community connection, and mothering. Cheyenne is open about her struggle with addiction and regularly writes out her experiences and lessons learned while getting sober. Cheyenne is the creator of the Underground Recovery Podcast. On her podcast, she gets real about hard topics like assessing one’s own relationship with alcohol, and how to speak to those in your life that are struggling with alcohol and substance use. Her extensive experience as both the healed and the healer echo powerfully in her relatability and love for community, that she carries out through her diverse healing programs.
Her vulnerability is powerful as her storytelling acts as medicine for both her and the collective. She inspires us to own our personal stories, release shame, connect with others who have had similar experiences, and welcome healing.
Follow Cheyenne on Instagram.
Owen Unruh
Owen Unruh is a role model in self-love, working through and shedding shame, and appreciation for life. His sobriety journey plays a key role in how he presents his journey through the shadows, inviting others to join him in self-acceptance and healing.
Owen’s TikTok is a mirage of inspiring wellness videos that remind us that there is power in experiential knowledge, and that healing does not have to look one way. His humour shines through the screen via his Instagram vlogs bringing light to the joys of daily life. His post captions are abundant in personal reflection and food for thought. Through story, he advises us against shaping ourselves according to how others will perceive us in hopes of external validation. He says: “You've worked bet hard on yourself and your energy and as a result sharing space with you is privilege”
Not only does he ask that we show love to ourselves but also care for those around us encouraging us to "hold the people around you with more compassion, and to try to look beneath peoples conditioning and see the soul in them that is the same soul in you.” We love this loving energy.
