Hi, I’m Celia Raquel.

I am a mother, a sister, a friend, a teacher and a student. A lover of plants, of yoga, of meditation and birth. I am passionate about all things woman. I believe in magic, and I believe in the profound depth of love existing in each and every one of us. That our birth right is JOY. That love is vertical, and within us at all moments. We always have access to this love, sometimes we just simply forget and we search for this love outwardly. Sometimes we get lost on our path and think this path has some sort of boundaries, stopping us from achieving something. When in reality, we are the path, this moment we are living is exactly where we need to be to step into our truth, our power, and our capacity to expand and give and live from the heart. 

Attention will follow intention. In our society, from a very young age in school we are taught to not follow the heart, but follow some type of curriculum so that we can “make money” and the irony in that is if we follow our hearts, we can “make money”. Point is, we need to unlearn this necessity to please other people, or that we need to do something simply because “we have to”. And to move from the heart, from joy, from our birthright. 

I grew up to an immigrant family from Guatemala. I was the only one in my family to be born Canadian. For the longest time this was my identity, until I realized that having this identity was a false story, trying to make me feel little or different or anything else that made me “not good enough”. To most Canadians, I wasn’t “Canadian” because I always had a tan, because I had thick hair, and because my parents English had an accent. I was never “Guatemalan” because I was born in Canada and I have an English accent when I speak Spanish. So I have always been in this in-between boarders hazy area, and no one knew where to put me. All of this makes me who I am today. My curly hair, my personality, it gives the flavour, the colour of who I am. In university a professor had invited me to listen to and help translate a talk from a Chilean artist. And it was there where he mentioned this idea of being a citizen of the world, and that really interested me.

Moving forward into spirituality, I find this identity to be more of a barrier to the ever present love that exists within us. We are just simple expressions of the divine. This life is a play, and we have the choice to see it as a battle or a dance. I mean we are human, and the train of comments is always talking inside our heads, but it is learning to not embark on the train, rather watch these emotions arise, and let them go. (And sometimes we hitch a ride, to then later jump off). 

My mother was a midwife, I was always surrounded by other midwives, and I was surrounded by all that is perinatal. My family trips were usually based around workshops on midwifery, or about women’s health. In fact, she used to work at a women’s health clinic and that’s where I would usually spend my afternoons after school when I was young. So it is of no surprise that it is something I feel so passionately about. Being a woman is something that means so much to me. Our bodily chemistry is different than that of men. Our hormones are different, we have periods, we grow breasts, we have wombs and can carry babies inside of these wombs. We are strong and capable of so much. Our society has spent the majority of its time under a patriarchal regime, and so has the system of medicalized birth. My desire to serve woman as a doula comes from this place of listening and deep loving presence. It is your body, and all the choices are yours. I am here as a support for those choices. 

Dream

Allow yourself the gift to dream. Allow yourself the gift to let go of anything holding you back, so you can step into your truth. You are allowed to be 100% yourself . Step into the power of love that resides in you.

SLOW DOWN

Listen to your heart. What is she saying? Take the time for you. The most challenging thing for a woman to do is slow down. Self care is necessary for healthy relationships with yourself and others.

I grew up under the influence of plants. My mother would heal me with plants, whether topically or internally. When you’re born into plants, they exist as a part of this whole to heal us. My love grew even deeper when I would spend my summers in northern Canada working as a tree planter. I planted trees for 7 spring + summer seasons, planting more than 1 million trees. I then transitioned to Chef, and cooked for the tree planters for 5 more seasons. My tent would be surrounded by fields of Labrador tea, wild rose, horsetail, yarrow and fireweed to name just a few. At this point I started cultivating a relationship with the plants, following their spiritual connection, and knowing when I needed to harvest or rather when they needed to be left alone. I am now currently studying Herbal Medicine for Woman with Aviva Romm. The immersion into plant life is a natural choice for me, and I am loving this deeper knowledge. Especially this connection again to the Woman. Learning to heal ourselves from the inside out.

I love yoga, mantra and chanting, it is like a wave of healing that sweeps over the body and connects you to your inner truth. I want to share the power of what it means to keep evolving, to keep pushing our ego. The yoga I teach is an integrative practice that includes a combination of pranayama, kriya, mantra, asana and movement. I specialize in Sattva yoga from the Himalayas, steaming from the yoga-vedantic tradition. Sattva, meaning whole, and yoga meaning union, it is holistic yoga. The practice of kriyas is a type of himalayan kundalini, and its purpose is to move in the direction of evolutionary action. It pushes our boundaries, drops the ego, and moves us towards unity and love. Working with repetitions of breath, movement and mantra to activate every part of the body, and to find the strength to come into our truth.

Trainings :

  • Yoga teacher training, RYS 200hr, Sattva Yoga Academy, India, 2016

  • Prenatal yoga, RPYS 85hr, Sattva Yoga Academy, 2021

  • Accompagnement à la naissance (Doula), Alternative Naissance, Montréal, 2019

  • Currently studying Herbal Medicine for Women.

  • Photography BFA from the Ontario University of Art & Design, Toronto, 2006.