Consider me a guide whose multicultural and diverse socioeconomic background, multidisciplinary education, formal and informal health and wellness training over the years, and varied interests can help address the questions and challenges raised in what can seem to be a very volatile world. Do I have all the answers? Hardly. And you probably have most of them without even knowing. But we do better than survive around here.
Where am I coming from? As an adolescent, I was a first-generation Mexican immigrant growing up on the Southwest Side of Chicago in a neighborhood of working-class Poles, Italians, and Irish neighbors. Aside from the financial difficulties that our blue-collar family faced, some members of the community also provided their own brand of obstacles, xenophobic and racial in nature, but of course deeper underlying issues were at play. Some of these hurdles were not always met gracefully by me. Even so, epiphanies came and so did successful coping mechanisms, some of which are still in use today, permitting at one level healthy personal development and at another level the capacity to teach others what was learned. While I no longer identify with those days, I retain the education I received then.
My scholastic teen years were spent in a high school seminary. There I studied major religions
and the concept of developing the person via the physical, intellectual, emotional, and
spiritual aspects of the individual - our "P.I.E.S." personal development program.
The Indian yogi and guru, Sri Aurobindo, once said of yoga that it is, among many things, "a methodical effort towards the self-perfection by the development of the potentialities latent in the individual" and that yoga is an all-around personality development. So it was that this methodical seminary program began the formalization of what self-care and overall spiritual path had begun to emerge for me at an
earlier point in life from my parents' leanings, from formidable life experiences
that included two revelatory near-death experiences at ages 9 and 13 (I would go on to have another one at 18), from what frequent conscious-raising discoveries came about from being an illegal immigrant from the 1970s to the early 1980s in Chicago, before the internet age when insularity was more acute, and eternal doings. So the path went from being haphazard to systematic and planned.
To deepen my early understandings of healthy personal development along the lines of emotional intelligence and healthy human interaction, I had the opportunity to teach catechism at 13 and work with at-risk youth in my senior year of high school, further informing me of concrete steps needed to induce holistic care and progress.
I hold a Bachelor of the Arts (B.A.) degree in the Social Sciences
from The University of Chicago, with the concentration being Latin
American Studies. The academic and social challenges of UChicago - from
day one - stirred and encouraged the creation of comprehensive critical
thinking skills. Once heralded as an institution that produced "the
teacher of teachers," it was at The University of Chicago where a keener
understanding of a multi-perspective world and various ways to "go at
it" came into broadened consciousness and ultimate practice.
It is also at The University of Chicago where I came to keenly realize the limitations of the intellect and clearly understood that one must also develop the intuitive, emotional, social, and spiritual aspects of oneself to maintain optimal levels of a healthy, peaceful, and evolving life that flourishes and is vibrant. For what is the "life of the mind" without the well-calibrated "life of the heart' "the life of the body" and "the life of the spirit" in sync?
All of this may sound like a lot to achieve. But one is not built up nor torn down in one day. Like the various roots of a tree, these various aspects of oneself need to be nurtured steadily for auspicious outcomes to occur in a balanced way.
I also hold a Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) from National Louis University, with a concentration in the teaching of languages. Five years of field experience with low-income communities consisted of independently designing and developing an innovative mixed-methods curriculum that was partly informed and guided by Social Emotional Learning and research into Emotional Intelligence that tied directly into language acquisition (versus language learning) and a progressive system of learning. Using a Restorative Justice model for classroom management, I took into account and appreciated the culture I worked in, viewing teachers, students, administrators, and guardians alike as integral and contributing stakeholders in the educational process. It is this holistic perspective that informed my curriculum and pedagogy then and now.
The teacher in me (just as it has done for myself) works towards delivering the guidance, tools, resources, and continued support I think, feel, and intuitively understand will best benefit the student and will eventually lead the individual to complete Self-reliance - because the goal of the program is for you to not stick around with the guide. And even as an experienced guide, I continue to receive, learn, and enhance my own teaching.
My first major public attempt to pass on earlier insights came in the form of a memoir, Gabriel's Fire (The University of Chicago Press, 2000). There I partly explored what worked and didn't work for myself in a sometimes troubled, sometimes delightful urban environment and what "takeaways" could be put down on paper for the benefit of the reader in other settings. Today, I teach a multidisciplinary program for overall wellness that benefits the Body, Mind, Heart, and Spirit.
As of 2019, I have practiced various asanas (i.e., yogic poses) for 13 years at two main yoga studios in Chicago, Nature Yoga and Moksha, for the first half of those years.
I am blessed and fortunate enough to have learned from these fine teachers in the field: Mark Lerro, Erica Rumpel, Jessica Wilson, Lani Granum, Lyndsae Rinio, and Wade Gotwals.
That time period also included one year of practicing Aikido that I consider brief but highly educational and have integrated some exercises from that discipline into my own program.
Today, I have a home practice that is Hatha Yoga-centered but eclectic in discipline style that includes introductory level Tai Chi practices, Tibetan exercises, and Zazen practice. I continue to study various inexhaustible spiritual texts such as The Bhaghavad Gita, Tao Te Ching, The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha, and The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. And in February of 2019, I completed a 200-hour Hatha Yoga Teacher Training Course intensive at Akshara Yoga School (India) from the wonderful teacher, Saurabh Chaudhary, and am now a certified Hatha Yoga instructor. All of this has only helped enhance the awareness needed to better appreciate the insightful silence that comes before, during, and after chanting OM. And yes, I am registered with Yoga Alliance.
It cannot be said that my current spiritual
practice and the Full Spectrum Wellness Program I have developed is a result of one path, but various paths that this person whom my friends know
as "Luis" has so far experienced. This is what I partly bring to the table as a guide. But the real footwork comes from the student. And I look forward to become but a vanishing reflection in time eventually - nameless for eternity.
Thank you,
Luis