Akala Le’Ahi (uh-CALL-uh Lay-Awe-He) is my given birth name and means Pink Fire From Heaven. Growing up with such a different name was something I grew to appreciate as I began to truly connect to myself and my purpose in this lifetime.
I have shown up in life in many ways, but I have consistently seen the good in people, and beauty in the world even when others can not. I am always evolving and learning from my mistakes, and I feel strongly that all of my experiences, the good, bad and ugly, have shaped me into the unique woman I am today.
I am a mixture of the Hispanic, Native, and Spanish blood of my father. And the Scottish, English, Danish, and Norwegian blood of my mother. I come from a lineage of strong men and even stronger women, and I feel honored and blessed to be alive; continuing the evolution of the peoples I came from.
I spent my early childhood in Hawaii which taught me reverence for the ocean. However, I lived most of my life in Golden and Durango, CO which gave me a deep and profound appreciation for the mountains, the cycles of nature and CO is where I learned the importance of conscious consumption. I was lucky enough to learn Spanish by studying abroad in Spain and to travel around Europe, and also doing a few mission trips in Costa Rica and Nicaragua. In 2012, I graduated from Life West Chiropractic College in Hayward, CA, and moved to Austin, TX to start a career as an Upper Cervical Chiropractor.
My 30’s have taught me how much more I still have to learn about the impact I can have in this world, and have challenged me beyond what I thought I was capable of. I have had the opportunity to experience great success and tremendous loss, trauma and incredible love, and I am grateful for it all!
I am: Persistent, Self Driven, A Good Cook, and Creative
In December of 2013, I made a decision that would forever change the way I understand what love is. Atlas, a red merle Australian Shepherd, came into my life and taught me that I had much to learn about love and what it means to be loved unconditionally. I had always been a cat person. Austin is a city full of off-leash dog parks and it felt like everyone had a dog. Being the traveling nomadic kinda person I am, starting a practice was a hard commitment for me to make. The thought of staying in one place for longer than a year at a time made me nervous. Getting a dog seemed like a good way for me to trick myself into stability. I made a very shallow decision to get a dog and name it Atlas so I could meet people and market my expertise as a NUCCA Chiropractor who helped people realign their Atlas (C1, the top bone of the neck).
Well, that did end up working, but Atlas ended up working on me more than I could ever imagine! I spent months trying to find an Aussie at a shelter and had no luck. After my boyfriend’s brother, at the time, came home with a new puppy! It was too precious!! I lost my patience and searched online for my new Aussie companion. Atlas was not the Aussie I was looking for, because I wanted a blue merle, and he was a red merle. But something about him stood out to me, and I couldn’t stop thinking about him! He ended up being near my hometown in CO. When I drove home for Christmas that year from Austin, to pick him up, he jumped straight out of the little bin they had him in, walked over to me, sat down at my side, looked up at me and I could feel him tell me “Yup, you’re my person.” His companionship has taught me things about myself – good and bad – that I will never be able to repay him for. His love for me is incredible and has completely changed my understanding of love. He is going to be 9 this September 13th, and I couldn’t be more grateful for his big Virgoan heart. For anyone who has experienced the love of a dog, I know you feel me 🙂
“..every time someone has supported, encouraged me, gifted me with anything, or just held space for me to be open and vulnerable, has helped me get to where I am today.”
– Akala Lemus
Transmute Negativity into Positivity One Package at a Time
I will for 2022 to be a year where I continue to enjoy growing awareness about Positive Packages in order to spread positivity to those in need, and to show up fully in this life for myself, for those I love, and to be able to continue to work on my other projects that will also have a big impact in the world. I will also spend much-needed quality time with my father and 97-year old Gma, my mother, sister, and brother, and truly be present with them.
I absolutely believe in the power of love and kindness! When I was a little girl, my neighbor gave me a Christmas! I love my family and my parents very much, but I grew up with a lot of trauma – foster homes, drug-addicted parents, sexual abuse, neglect, verbal abuse, abandonment. That year, in particular, my mother was not able to do Christmas. A neighbor, whom I had no real connection to yet, came the week of Christmas and left an entire box of presents for me and my mother on the porch. Kay became a very big inspiration to me as I grew up. Along with the presents, she baked a loaf of banana bread that I still have the recipe for to this day! She also gave me a gigantic bag of peanuts that I learned how to make homemade peanut butter with. She not only changed my childhood memory of Christmas that year, but she gave me gifts that have inspired me throughout a lifetime. Gifts can truly leave a lasting impression.
I honestly have had so many encounters of love and kindness in my life, it is hard to choose only one story to share. But every time someone has supported, encouraged me, gifted me with anything, or just held space for me to be open and vulnerable, has helped me get to where I am today. There have been many times when I didn’t know how I would be able to continue on emotionally, financially, physically and someone has always been there and been willing to be kind and loving towards me. And I am incredibly grateful for every act of kindness and love I have received!
However, the greatest gift I have ever received is self-love. Because a lot of times, there isn’t anyone around, and the only one there to be kind and loving to you – is YOU!
Positive Packages was created from my desire to transmute negativity into positivity one package at a time. I had to leave a relationship, a company, and a life I had created for myself in Austin, TX to be of service to my mother who had to have an emergency hip replacement in CO. While I was there, I ended up having to install a security system on her property because I felt that the people who had gained access to her rental were up to no good. That security system camera caught a murder they committed. I witnessed it as a result of the camera footage.
I was so overwhelmed with the sadness of being away from someone I loved, putting up with other people’s drama and the overwhelming negativity of the situation I found myself in, that I decided to create a gift package for the person I was missing and loved back in Austin to take my mind off of everything.
The morning I was collecting the final items to go into the package, he sent me a message that said “sending positive thoughts to you.” When I went to mail the package, I was filled with all this love for CO and I felt so good supporting the local businesses and artists that I had purchased goods from that went into the package. I replied back to him, “sending you a positive package” along with a photo of the tracking info.
At that moment, I thought to myself, what if I became The Curator Of Positivity and I went around to all of my favorite positive places and supported local artists and businesses by buying their art and then put them all into a positive package to spread positivity to the world!? I saw that the domain was available and that’s how it all got started! I designed the logo myself and paid a friend to digitize it for me. I found a local packaging company in Aurora, CO that makes their packages from a regenerative tree farm, and the first package was born! Positive Packages went from an idea to a reality in less than 30 days! And the first package that was sent out was done so via the 2020 Christmas Eve Raffle Positive Packages did on Instagram!
I am looking forward to collaborating with People Spread Love because our visions are so closely aligned. I also think that it is interesting that both concepts were born out of wanting to resist the impact of gun violence by increasing more love and positivity. I feel honored to have crossed paths with Heather DeVine, the creator of People Spread Love, and I feel that being able to contribute to her cause by offering Positive Packages in addition to the love letters they send will increase the feeling of love and kindness felt by the recipient. As we continue to get to know each other, I can sense that there will be more collaborations. But to begin, offering Positive Packages as gifts for those who could use a little extra love is exactly what I was trying to achieve with Positive Packages. It feels like an incredibly synchronistic fit!