Greenfield Family Cacao Ceremony

My audience would be impressed.

Awesome. So how did the preparation go?

Yeah, it was good.

We didn't know any special cacao mixing songs, but other than that, it was good.

I was hoping that you would take out your guitar and start jamming.

No, it's kind of more like, oh, crap. We have our cacao ceremony in 10 minutes. We better get this stuff mixed up.

But you got it.

Put some attention into yes now.

We did put a little bit into it. We just got done saying a prayer that God would open up our senses and allow us to just savor this wonderful sacred plant that's come so far for us to enjoy. So we're excited.

Beautiful. Well, let's settle in the space we might be, especially if we're, like, trying to get the screen going and technology. Sometimes we get a little in our heads. So let's just take a moment to drop in. Let's bring one hand to the heart, one hand to the belly. And as we close our eyes, just tuning into the breath, feeling the crown of the head rooting up towards the heart of the sky, and feeling the sit bones connected to the heart of the earth. As we have our hands on our heart space, just feeling this internal music that is continuously playing within us.

As we keep our eyes closed, let's bring the palms of the hands to connect at the heart. We'll begin just to create some friction through the palms of the hands. We'll be doing a lot of exploration of the heart space this evening. Feeling the fire igniting in the heart, dancing through the arms, arriving in the hands.

For many indigenous communities, this fire represents the channel of communication between the physical plane and what's beyond. This energy also reminds us of our passions, our courage, our strength, and transformation. So feeling that fire, that heat activating.

And then as we begin to slow down the movements, let's begin to bring the palms of the hands to the eyes, the fingertips towards the head. We'll just take a deep breath in through the nose.

Whatever happened before you showed up, open up the mouth.

Allowing ourselves to fully arrive. Feeling the vision drawing inward, igniting the imagination. Feeling the fingertips, softening the mind, massaging the thoughts.

When you feel ready, we'll bring our hands onto our thighs, Just opening the eyes, coming back to the space. Welcome back. So let's take our cups of cacao and we'll bring them into the heart space. I'm really excited to hear what element was chosen by each one of you. But we'll just take a moment to honor this beautiful plant that for many indigenous Communities all over Mesoamerica is understood as a sacred food that brings us to connect to the divinity, to the light that's within us. And many of these communities also understand the universal language of earth, of water, fire, of air, the energies that move within us, but also outside of us. So they're an extension of who we are. And the moment that we begin honoring and respecting these energies, we can continue to honor and respect our own being, our own essence. So we give thanks to the element of earth for allowing us the stability, the. The foundation, the structure, the nourishment. Thank you for allowing us to rest our roots, explore the shadow work, the mysteries of the unknown. It is through this exploration that we allow ourselves to move closer and closer towards the light. We give thanks to the element of water for the fluidity, the connections, the relationships, the change, the creativity. Thank you for allowing us to flow in the rhythm of change, letting us swim in the unlimited possibilities of creation, finding the wisdom, the stillness when the waters are tamed, knowing that this is just a play, it's a practice for when the waters get rough. And even then we continue finding the wisdom, finding the stillness, because we know that the clarity is waiting on the other side of the wave.

Thank you to the elements of fire for the passion, the courage, the strength, the transformation. Thank you for allowing us to burn all the toxins that lay in the physical body, in the emotional body, in the mental body, so we can transcend to the spiritual body. As we move through the smoke, we connect deeper with the confidence that lays within. Thank you to the element of air for the openness, the vulnerability, the trust, the acceptance. Let's take a deep breath in together and find how the breath nourishes each and every cell of the body. Then, as you exhale, find all that space that's created within you, is through that space that we open our wings and we take flight. We take flight into those desires that we have for ourselves, knowing that these desires will bring us closer to. To the mission that we have in the here and now. Thank you to the essence, the spirit of Cacao. Thank you for allowing us to dissolve all the barriers that we have set against ourselves, so we can remember the language of the heart and begin to listen, but also speak from that space. Thank you to Nana Marina, Tata, Pero Manari, the elders, the ancestors who have passed on this wisdom from generation to generation, letting us receive the knowledge along with the experience, so we too can share this wisdom with the rest of the world, becoming the leaders that we were born to be. Thank you to all the guardians and protectors of the sacred lands and those who have been protecting the fruit of cacao so we can enjoy here today. And lastly, thank you to all the courageous voices that are speaking their truth and using their creativity and their platforms to bring forth a change that we've been calling in.

So as we drink the cacao, I would love for us to maybe go around and share what you would like to receive today as we set an intention. It's really allowing us the opportunity of opening our hearts to receive. So how would you like to feel?

I.

First of all, would like to also thank the Creator for creating everything, but also this wonderful plant that I personally derive a great deal of enjoyment from and absolutely love. And I'm so grateful for in this hour and especially in this season because it's just such a. Such.

An integral part of our culture.

And.

My intent is to mindfully part of this blessing and to be mindful of how my body receives it and to use this as an opportunity to truly savor God's creation with pure presence and mindfulness.

Thank you.

Thank you for your beautiful words.

What's your intention?

I want to.

Taste the chocolate. Truly, I guess so the cacao. And not just, I don't know, chew it without respect and just kind of taste it like how it actually is.

Enjoy. Did differently than the average cup of hot chocolate. Yeah.

Yeah. Mine is to explore something that I think a lot of people don't even.

Think about much, especially in America and probably most of the Western world. We could just consume it and know nothing about it, really. The complexity of it and its origins and the background in history and whatever else is there. So I would like to just experience.

I guess, cacao in its truest form that I can experience.

Beautiful. Thank you.

Mom took mine away.

Cacao.

So I guess, yeah, learn more about it and try it in a different way. Beautiful. Thank you. Thank you for being open to this so we can drink our cacao. And I'd love to hear.

What elements you guys have chosen and what made you go for that element.

I chose the element of air.

And my reason for choosing the element of air was twofold.

First of all.

My Chinese and Ayurvedic medicinal typing tend to be a little bit more shifted towards air and wind as my type. And also because obviously my son river gets water and Terran gets earth, because river is the water element and Terran is the earth element. And my wife, Jessa is a very fiery.

And brave and courageous and bold woman, and so fire seems to be the logical choice for her.

Beautiful. I love that. I'm also having fire.

So tears.

And I guess air. I didn't look too. So air is hibiscus and cardamom with the cacao.

And what is earth, moringa and chipotle.

Mine is turmeric and black pepper.

Cacao, coriander, and maca. Beautiful.

Do you know what maca is?

You're more than welcome to drink your cacao. And I love that you all have. From what I've seen, you have some deep experience with cacao as a beverage. And we understand how amazing it is. Right. On a physical level, how it really opens us up. So did we put any sweetener? And did you guys put any sweetener? I.

One of those guys who likes my.

I actually don't think it needs it at all.

I tried a little taste prior and decided I would like a little bit of sweetener. So mine has a little bit of stevia in it.

Okay.

Amazing. And you, you both are able to have it without sweetener too. Like, that's awesome. Most of the times I do have to add sweetener for kids, but you guys are really good. You get it.

This is really good.

I didn't try it before, though, so I didn't know.

I think it doesn't need it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It really is on its own.

Should we. Should we try each other's also?

Why not? If you feel comfortable.

Anyone, like, try earth? This is. This is so rich and creamy. And now I use the blender on mine. What did you use on yours? This is earth.

I just whisk it with a pork.

You don't like it or you do like it?

Earth is very. What's in earth? Moringa and chipotle. It's. Yeah, it's nice. Got a little bit of a spice. Which one's water?

This one.

That one's water. And what's in water?

Cacao, obviously. And coriander. Maca. Sure. That one is really one of my favorites. The water. It's really nice water.

That's your favorite?

Yeah. You can taste a little bit of the earthiness of the maca.

River says mom. Tastes like avocado pudding. And this is. This is fire.

Heavy on the stevia.

What's fire? Having it again?

Turmeric and pepper.

I like fire. That's good.

My previous experiences with cacao, I've found it in its purest form like this to be very energizing.

I like mine better.

Really beautiful. Really allows the blood vessels to dilate. It stimulates blood flow. So there is this energy. But when you have heirloom strains. Arrio Nacional is an heirloom strain from Ecuador and the Mayas, the Aztecs, the Olmecs, they all use Criollo, which is also an heirloom strain that is very mild in caffeine, but it is stimulating due to the theobromine.

What makes cacao an heirloom strain?

It's like the trees that have been passed down by generations. So like Aruba Nacional is an heirloom strain. There's CCN51 that you may have heard of that is genetically engineered for. So that would be more of like a conventional cacao.

If it's been modified genetically or been bred with other variants, it's not considered to be heirloom.

Exactly.

Okay, interesting.

Yeah.

River and Terry are going to be working on a superfood farm in Kauai in April, and one of the. One of the plants that they grow, cacao.

That's amazing. Have you, have you guys seen the fruit? Yes, I have.

I love it.

I feel like I've seen it.

I love to dig. Dig through the little slimy innards and eat the beans. They're so good.

I've never seen them.

I like them roasted, too, the cacao beans.

Roasted, they're really tasty, but the fruit is delicious. This is the shell of pataste, which is a cousin to cacao. It's Theobroma bicolor.

And.

And it's kind of. It almost tastes like melon, but it's very similar to the texture of cacao. And this is what the Mayas use as well as cacao in their beverage.

Now, theobromine, you guys, the neurotransmitter dopamine is the chemical that makes you feel good whether you've eaten a good food or had a wonderful experience or anything like that. And theobromine, it causes your body to basically have more dopamine. And so it's a very. It's considered to be like a very feel good, happy euphoric compound.

Yeah, yeah. And there's also anandamide in cacao, which is known as ananda in Sanskrit is known as the bliss molecule. So there are all these components of why we give chocolate on the holidays and Valentine's Day. There is this understanding of that essence of love, like the phenyl ethylamines as well. It's a big word for pa, meaning that same feeling as when we fall in love.

I can feel a little bit of the energetic euphoria from mine already.

Beautiful.

Wow.

I feel this is why it's important to set intentions and just being observant of how the body is receiving it. Because we set an intention, it's really creating that commitment to amplify the observation of the moment and so see the subtle changes happening. And it is very subtle for most people, but it's this really beautiful balanced energy where we are activated by the theobromine or the theobromine. But at the same time, there's so much magnesium in the plant that it allows to relax the muscles, the joints, the nervous system. And. And many of the indigenous communities in Mesoamerica understood the power of this. Right. So they were able to focus for long periods of time in ceremony and ritual. And we bring that into the modern world. That can allow us to really activate into our creativity as well.

So before you guys go do your art, you can maybe have a little piece of your chocolate. You can nurse that chocolate throughout the week and use it to spark creativity tomorrow. Mondays are always our free art morning or creativity morning. So maybe you guys can have cacao for breakfast.

And where do you live? Florencia.

I'm based in New York, but I travel a lot. I study with a community in Guatemala, May institute community. So I go there a lot. And I also study under a Zapara community in Ecuador in the Amazon. And so I'm based here, but I do a lot of visits to them. I'm actually heading next week to the Amazon to spend New Year's.

Wow, that will be cool. I want to go, but.

It hasn't called me heavily enough yet. But I would imagine I'll probably take these guys when that happens.

It's a beautiful experience. The community that I work with are known as the Saparani.

I'm losing you guys a little bit for some reason.

Our Internet is very slow at our house.

Yeah, we don't have WordPress. That's probably a nice thing because then you can actually be present.

Yes, yes.

Sometimes it's a little bit of a pain, but ultimately it's nice to not be hyper connected.

Yeah, it's.

It's really thick at the bottom. Do you really stir it while you drink it or is it. Is that the way it's supposed to be?

When I. Did you blend yours?

No, I whisked it.

Okay. So when I blended, it usually stays creamy. But if I mix it by hand, what I usually do is like, I'll add a little bit of water, almost like how you would make the instant coffee. So like add a little bit of water, mix It. And then add slowly more water, so that allows the. There's a lot of fat in cacao. There's about 50% of the bean is fat, so sometimes it separates from the liquids.

It probably emulsifies if you use it in a blender.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love those. Like the, like, canned frothers. Those are amazing. To make your cacao beverage, I have.

To get every last bit of goodness out of mine. I blended mine.

I could tell a difference in the texture.

Drink.

Yeah, I like it blended. It's so good.

Yeah, it's. It's super creamy. I feel that Rio Nacional is one of my favorite strains because it's such a delicate fruit, and it's been used for. For chocolate making for so long that they really have learned how to roast it in a way where it doesn't. You don't taste like burnt cacao, but it's still roasted, and it carries that such delicious taste.

And the brand that you sent up to us for this is Cacao Lab. You like that as a good source.

So that's my brand and my brother.

I love that source.

Ever seen?

Well, I'm sure if I. If I publish this on my newsletter because others might be interested in a ceremony, maybe afterwards, if you supply me with some kind of, like, a code that my audience could use, we can send people to your website to go get bars.

Yeah, I would love that.

Wow.

Love to send that your way.

So easy. Boil the water or not boil. Yeah, Heat the water. Yeah.

I love that your kids are also having, like, their own podcast and you guys are doing your own thing together. Because my brother and I started this brand about five years ago, and I learned so much about my sibling in the process of working together.

So if somebody buys these.

Do you.

Provide, like.

How a ceremony will they.

Know what to do to a specific meditation relevant to that element?

Okay.

Could someone make their cacao and then they could just listen to that meditation? Whether.

Yeah. So the whole purpose is. I mean, I do virtual ceremonies, but I also love for people to experience this on their own. Like, today, a full moon is an amazing day to do a ritual. So I'm glad that. I'm sorry that you had to go through surgery, but I'm glad that it worked out where we can actually have ceremony.

Oh, yeah. We had to cancel the last one because I had a surgery. Yeah. Yeah.

Glad that it worked out.

Well, I would much rather have been having chocolate, but.

We were able to connect. Well, thank you so much for teaching us about this and for sending us These bars and opening up our. Opening up our world to yet another wonderful, wonderful piece of creation we can enjoy. I've. I've heard about cacao ceremonies before and high quality cacao and, and, you know, heirloom chocolate, but I've never really, actually, at least as far as I'm aware of, tried it. Nor have I have. I probably blended it properly. So now I know exactly what to do. Although I might do for my next one, because I have. I have like 2/3 of a bar left. Is. I may. I may scan your meditation and try my next one with the, with the meditation that you have.

Really quick question.

Yeah.

How often do people do this? This is it like a daily practice or like once in a while or.

I usually. I usually do it daily. I start my mornings with cacao. I used to be a big coffee drinker, but I find that cacao actually allows me to stay focused where caffeine makes me a little jittery. So I do it every morning. I have friends that do it maybe once a week or on special occasions like the full moon or things like that. Doing it in circles. I mean, ceremonies in person are really beautiful because we can tune into sound. And what cacao does is it really opens us up. There's about 30 to 40% more oxygen going into the brain, the skin, the heart. So when you're tuning into sound, you're much more sensitive and you're hyper aware of your surroundings. So it's really beautiful to have a moment where we tune in and we check in. I was actually listening to one of your podcasts because I always like to check in where people are at, and I'm actually really happy to see that you guys are really already doing a lot of the practices that come with cacao. The idea of sitting with a cup of cacao is really creating a moment of connection with ourselves. Cacao is opening our hearts so we can really check in on how am I doing, how am I arriving and really giving gratitude. My teacher always says that the connection to cacao and cacao ceremony is a moment to really give gratitude for the life that we have and for all that we are. And at the same time creating that commitment, setting that intention for what we are becoming. So when we start the morning in that way, I mean, the whole day is really preparing you for being open and being receptive, rather than just.

You.

Definitely would not need to twist my arm to have a cup of cacao in the morning. And furthermore, because of the vasodilatory properties and the magnesium that you alluded to and the theobromine, etc. During the latter part of December and much of January, river and Taryn and I, we like to have certain parts of the year where we get a little bit more intentional about our breathwork and do more breathwork practices. And so I may have a cup before our next breathwork session because I would imagine it would pair quite well with the sauna and the breath work and the sound and the meditation from that. So what do you guys think? Should we do a little cacao before our breathwork session next time? Sure.

Yes.

Yeah. It's a beautiful pairing. I do rebirthing, which is a breathing modality that was discovered in the 70s and it's been in my family for over two decades now. But it's a circular breath shamanic breathing, inhaling and exhaling through the nose. And so you're focusing what you're bringing in and allowing the exhale to naturally flow very similar to holotropic breathing. But instead of doing it through the mouth, it's through the nose. And it's such a powerful practice of just observing how much we're carrying without even realizing and creating so much space through the exhales. What do you guys normally practice when you do breath work?

We have a wide range of practices, although nasal circular breathing I actually have on a list, I have an ever growing list of things I want to try, my bucket list. And on one of them I have bookmarked to myself to get a didgeridoo someday and learn how to circular breathe by playing the didgeridoo. But the type of breath work that we do yesterday was, it was very Pranayama esque.

It was basically a holotropic session. And then in the summer we'll often do, you know, Wim Hof style breath work with cold soaks. I do some alternate nostril breathing. We do some. Some box breath work. We do a lot of locks and holds, you know, a lot of, a lot of energy. Locks up to the chakra and the crown and pretty wide variety. But I would say that probably the person I've learned the most from is a guy named Niraj Naik, who goes by the name the renegade pharmacist online because he used to be a pharmacist. And he discovered that he could affect a lot more healing for his patients and his clients with breathwork and then developed all these breathwork practices. And so river and Taryn and I have taken a couple of his courses. And right now, the app that we are Using for our breathwork practice that we're experiencing was just launched by one of my friends and that one's called Otherwise. And it's a range of 6 minute up to 70 minute breathwork sessions that also play binaural beats through headphones into your ears to help shift you into a different state while you're doing the breath work.

That's really powerful.

The breath rebirthing was usually done in water. And, you know, if you do it in a hot tub, it's that warm water. It's the same feeling as being in the womb. And it would be really interesting with having like binaural beats playing while you're also in that experience. I don't know if that's a little dangerous, vibrating headphones in water, but you.

Could pull it off, especially if you use like a Bluetooth headphone. If you have a particular rebirth breathing practice that you think would be nice for us to experience. We happen to have a hot tub and so maybe, maybe we can go out and do a rebirthing breath work in the hot tub. If you ever have any, just email me and we'll totally try it out.

Yeah, I mean, the sessions can be a little intense, but the person who discovered it, he did 20 connected breaths that he would use in order to prepare the body because it is going into our. When we have a certain experience. Right. It stays with us on a cellular level and our body begins to respond from that space. So this breath is supposed to bring us into many of the traumas that we have experienced so we can release them. So oftentimes it is said to do it with a practitioner for the first 10 sessions, but you can do these 20 connected breaths that really help us just come back to the moment. I'm sure you all have other tools that you have when you're getting in your head, but this is a really simple 20 connected breath that brings you right back to the heart and right back to the present moment. It's just inhaling and exhaling through the nose. So four short breaths and one long breath five times.

Well, maybe I'll get myself one of those little travel didgeridoos for myself for Christmas and start to. Maybe the three of us can learn how to play it and teach ourselves a little bit of circular breathing.

Well.

This is just so cool. I'm really happy we discovered this. And.

We often do different things on Sunday night. So we're having dinner and a dinner movie theater in the basement tonight. And if we're all bouncing off the walls during the documentary that we're going to watch tonight, we'll blame you.

Sorry, not sorry.

It is a beautiful experience to be with an open heart and as you are all sharing cacao already, when you're tuning into the awareness of what's happening in the body, you'll feel the shift. You know, it's easy to just drink a cup and feel the energy levels, but when we're drinking it with intention, it's really opening ourselves to something much bigger and just understanding the subtleties and hopefully the documentary is a happy one so you can have your open heart in a good way.

Thought provoking.

It's an informative and thought provoking. I don't know about fun, but we'll. Either way, either way. I feel great after drinking this chocolate. So thank you so much. Thanks for bringing through this and if you. If you email me the recording of this, I'd like to put it in my newsletter to show people how cacao ceremony goes. And yeah, if you have any, any links to your bars or anything like that that you'd like me to share with people, I'll be happy to do that. So. So yeah, you know how to get.

I would love that. Let's just close this space. Every door that we open, it's always important to close and to bring back in. We'll just take a moment to close if you don't mind. Just bringing one hand to the heart One hand to the belly as we started Just feeling the crown of the head rooting up towards the heart of the sky and just feeling the sit bones deeply connected to the heart of the earth.

Bringing our awareness up above we give thanks to the heart of the sky De amojracias encorezon del cieno down below we give thanks to the heart of the earth De amojracias el corazon de la tierra Bringing our awareness of the essence of the sacred waters we give thanks to the heart of the water De amojoracias el corasanden agua Bringing our awareness of the essence of the sacred fire we give thanks to the heart of the fire De amo gracias a corazon del fuego towards the center we give thanks to all four winds that we breathe De amo gracias a los cuatro vientos carraciramos Bringing the awareness to the heart space we give thanks to the light within the heart of life De amo gracias an estad Luis interior Ay corazon de la vida. Thank you Maltioch Huitaha means thank you in Mayan and Huitzaja means thank you in Zapara. So thank you so, so much for trusting me, trusting your hearts, and to share this beautiful experience together. I hope you have an amazing documentary.

Thank you. And I hope you have an amazing Christmas and wonderful New Year.

Yes. Thank you so much.

All right, Goodbye. Thank you.

Thank you.