Meet Lily Amiteria Alvarez

We recently connected with Lily Amiteria Alvarez and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Lily Amiteria, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?

My work ethic has been deeply shaped by my parents. My father has always taken pride in his roots on his father’s side — the Álvarez family — who come from generations of ranchero people, working the land in Jalisco, Mexico. He often talks about his upbringing, marked by poverty, with no electricity or running water. He and his eight siblings would play in the dirt and use their shoes as “cars.” He is the hardest-working man I know.

His migration journey to the United States means so much to our family. The life he’s built here has come from a deep commitment to showing up every day and working hard to create stability and opportunity for his children and future generations — something that feels truly sacrificial.

Both of my parents run their own businesses, which they’ve sustained for decades. My mother has also had a huge impact on my work ethic, especially as a woman. She raised four children while working with my dad’s business. Once my sisters and I became more independent, she pursued her dream of opening a coffee shop. She didn’t go to business school (neither did my dad), but she poured belief into her vision and made it happen — despite the fear. She has shown me the beautiful truth that business is, creation. Pure creativity and life force.

With all of this being said, they have also taught me the imbalance that can come through in this area of our life or our life force. I have so much drive, passion and desire to push through difficulty, but in times can pass the whispers from my body or nature to slow down…. I write this now, with a tad more wisdom from a recent injury. I believe so much that I am co-creating with source – the greatness of our universe and existence. To embody this knowing and actual trust, while still working with force is a wild challenge – lesson for me. From my travels and immersive periods of life amidst other cultures, I wanna live in a way that best supports my being. Ways I have seen others flow. and this too is ever changing.

My parents have shown me that I am capable of following my desires and working with real passion. They taught me that if I believe in myself and come from a place of authenticity, then I am already successful. I am grateful for them, for my ancestors. For I know they are all a force within me. I am interested by and grateful for the opportunity to create, share and express.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

I do many things, but what I’m most passionate about right now is sharing the practice of Yoga — through teaching classes, hosting retreats, circles, ceremonies, and workshops, as well as in the way I live my day-to-day life. I also share KaHuna.
Yoga and KaHuna came into my life while I was living in Australia for several years. Both were powerful sources of healing and transformation for me as I began to awaken more deeply in my early twenties. They have been profound teachers for me in this lifetime. Through my own life experiences, travels, and learning from deep wells of wisdom, I now get to practice alongside others and hold space for people to come home to themselves and explore their inner world. It’s something truly special and sacred to me.
KaHuna is a sacred art of bodywork from the Polynesian Islands. It is a unique and powerful approach to serving the body, mind, and soul. Every time I offer or share a KaHuna session, I also receive — it’s a deeply reciprocal practice. I studied Psychology and social work in University so it is really interesting to see how my practice has been carved out by so much living within this life & learning. This form of therapy has been such a teacher to me & to others. It is an honor to be able to practice KaHuna.
Now that I’ve been a practitioner of Yoga and KaHuna for several years, I’ve developed a blend that shapes my offerings and how I show up to serve others. I teach weekly classes at local studios, wherever I’m based. I also offer KaHuna sessions wherever I am living at the time. I love collaboration and working with others, being in Duluth Minnesota for almost a year now has been able to birth & be a part of a lot, which has been special for my nomadic self. At the moment I teach at MOVO Studio, PULSE Fitness & Barre Studio, and Inherent Harmony in Superior, Wisconsin. Retreats have been such a passion of mine as well, and is such a beautiful portal to travel. Travalling internationally and as well as travalling within. I have birthed three international retreats and now day/weekend retreats in Minnesota. I work very closely with the medicine of Cacao and weave that through special events, retreats, circles of sacred connection. A medicine that is so near & dear to my heart, my lineage.
I’ve been fortunate to share and learn in Australia, Bali, Hawai‘i, California, Chile, Mexico, and Colombia. Colombia has been a country that has been most prominent for me within the last two years, alongside Mexico. I’ve just launched my fourth international retreat, which will take place this November in the Antioquia region of Colombia. I am so grateful to this gorgeous country, for opening itself up to me & my dreams. All in all I get to LOVE people and this earth in everything I do, that is the most special role I hold.
If you are interested in the work I share please have a look at my instagram/linktree for reference. I am a student, always but learning to share and express through it all. I also am calling in more collaboration. within and outside of USA. If you are looking for any of the offerings I share – Bodywork, Energy work, Yoga, Sound Healing, Retreats, Sacred Circles, Ceremonial Cacao, Travel. Please reach out!

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

TRAVEL
Travel has served as a catalyst for my self-discovery on a spiritual level — and when I say that, I mean returning to love for myself. I detached from a very familiar environment and was instantly launched into a journey of expansion. I was absorbing so much — through different cultures, long seasons of solitude, and deep connection. I found my connection to self, to Source and to infinite possibility.

Travel has always felt like a rite of passage for me, much like KaHuna. I end up being stripped of binding or limiting beliefs — about myself and about the world I’ve built around me. What no longer is my truth, it is so liberating. I also find that my connection to soul and spirit becomes heightened. I mean, you’re literally flying through time to an unknown land, where no one knows you and you know no one. A desire to go and see and find what has been waiting for you. That’s wild, isn’t it?

Anyway… I could go on and on — but travel.

CONNECTION
This goes hand in hand with travel in my life. Whenever I respond to the inner call to journey somewhere new, I feel this deep excitement about the connections I’ll make. The people I’ve met in my 29 years of life are some of the most treasured gifts I hold in this lifetime. The places I’ve been — and the people I’ve had the honor of loving and being loved by — are simply the best. I feel so deeply we all have something to offer & we also are in a space of receiving as well. We find so much of what that is through connection.

I love love.
I love connection.

Because in connection, I meet myself on a soul level — and it feels so reassuring and so right. Living in my hometown now for nearly a year has also been incredibly special. It’s brought me into connection with my roots, with my family, and with versions of myself I had forgotten.

Through connection, I find understanding — and most importantly, understanding of myself.
After all, I’m the one I’ll spend the most time with in this lifetime.

THERAPY
Having support for ourselves is massive — especially when we’re moving from a space of imbalance (which, let’s be honest, can be often). We are cyclical, natural beings, and nature is always changing. This process of death and rebirth is always unfolding.

My understanding of therapy expanded when I left the U.S., my most familiar environment. I realized how vast the world of healing truly is. There is so much abundance — so many offerings, created by people who have lived through the full range of human experience: the highs, the lows, and everything in between.

Therapy has been deeply rewarding — and at times, actually life-saving — for me. I feel so much gratitude for the humans and practices that have held space for me to feel, experience, explore, and flow through it all.

My advice:
Keep your heart open.
That openness comes from self-love and self-acceptance. And for some or in some seasons, it’s a practice. We need to practice this.
You only have this body, this mind, this heart, and this breath for however long you are destined to. So take the time to practice self-love — so that you can show up in love for others. You’ll see everything magnify.

Live through the pain and discomfort. Witness your ability to alchemize it — with help. There are billions of us on this planet. There are plenty of people here for you to love, and to be loved by. Never give up on love, because it could never possibly give up on you.

What has been your biggest area of growth or improvement in the past 12 months?

I mentioned prior that I have been living now, nearly, a year in my “hometown.” It’s been a massive time of integration, for what feels like the last 7 years I’ve been away. Between July of 2018 & June of 2024 I have lived in a few different countries and moved within those, as well. I learned so much and expanded in many ways that, I know these last 12 months has called me to truly integrate and amongst that shed & unlearn patterns that have been deeply engrained and programmed within my being. I adore my family, I am so grateful for each and every family member that I have & have so much love & appreciation for them. But wooooheeee do these relationships call me to truly see myself, a lot more of “older” versions of me. It’s called me to pour love into some areas of myself that really have been yearning for that attention. I have found my voice, I have needed to live in courage more so then ever… truly trusting the divinity to timeline and to ENJOY the now, to create out of presence. To practice what I found to be to healing in other places and experiences to my now. It feels like a waiting space, but an important space to be in. To be able to still share and create from this space has been so rewarding and life changing for me.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @flow.withlily
• Other: If you are interested in collaborating together. Wether you have a retreat centre or property and want to bring in more community, I am open to chat. I adore more opportunities to travel, share, learn and work together in service. My email is lily.aalvarez96@gmail.com. All inquires for future retreats I am hosting in Duluth MN, and Colombia reach out via email or Instagram!

Image Credits

photos from Ubud, Bali Retreat – Andresa Pesroso @daydream.shots
photos headshots – Nia @sniaphotos