Firstly, I want to acknowledge all of my teachers who have educated me in the dismantling of racism, cultural excavation, and trauma informed care within healing spaces.

A resounding thank you to Michelle Cassandra Johnson, Ana M. Hill, Penny Lyon, Sunny Healy, Rebeka Rose, Resmaa Menakem, Eutimia Cruz Montoya, Dr. Samuel Nez, and Dr. Lisa Martinez. Thank you for teaching me to walk well and with integrity.

I identify as a Xicana Mestiza woman, artist, activist, and recovering career yoga teacher.

I spent most of my 20s working to burnout for corporate wellness entities. What kept me there, besides a really tight hand-to-mouth paycheck cycle, was how much I loved connecting with my students through somatic and sensory healing.

I always knew that I was fighting a beast bigger than myself, especially when I had to advocate to the bone for BIPOC specific wellness events and cultural representation in yoga trainings. It was always clear to me that there was a deeper problem with the yoga industry, and for a long time I saw myself as someone who could rectify it from the inside out. It took me 6 years and many episodes of burnout to finally grasp that what was really needed: an industry wide culture shift.

Enter: the Covid-19 pandemic, George Floyd riots, and the Great White Awakening in the west.

This time period wiped out many large yoga chains and called corporate wellness officers into high accountability. Like many others I was newly unemployed, and honestly joyful for it. For the first time in years I found myself with my time back in my own hands. I was 26, exhausted, and I knew I had a unique opportunity to craft a space where I could center restorative and accessible wellness.

Grounding Down was born in August, 2020.

In the time since, Grounding Down has served hundreds of people in the US and globally.

We’ve hosted sold out domestic and international retreats with a focus on community care, land reverence, and plant medicine. We have offered our signature course, Be A Better Ancestor, 7x to help people connect with their ancestral medicines, and have branched out significantly to serve people in their fertility, pregnancy, and postpartum health. Grounding Down has collaborated with several local organizations that share its vision, some of which are Latinas First Foundation , Better Buzz Yoga, and Servicios De La Raza.

A bit about me? I’m a Cancer Sun, Aquarius Rising. I’m a multifaceted practitioner, artist, photographer, community organizer, and practitioner of Mexican Curanderismo. I walk with the medicine of my Indigenous and European ancestors.

I live with my fiancé, our pup, 11 chickens, and a newly established beehive in the hills of the Rocky Mountains.

I’m out here learning, growing, and always seeking ways to walk with you and my mission in a good way.

Welcome to the Grounding Down fam :)

Morgan

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