Native-owned wellness center focuses on whole-person health
Good health isn’t just physical — there is also a spiritual and emotional component, says Little Bear Maestas. As a result of this belief and a series of visions he said he had while critically ill, Maestas has converted his personal training gym into a spiritual wellness center supporting all aspects of individual and community health.
Little Bear’s journey
In the spring four years ago, Maestas opened a gym on the south side of Taos to work with people one-on-one who were trying to improve their health. Having weighed more than 300 pounds at one point in his life, he understands that not everyone feels comfortable going to a gym full of already-fit people.
After he improved his own health, many people asked him how he managed to pull it off, which is part of what inspired him to become certified as a personal trainer with multiple National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) Certifications, including specializations in women’s health, youth training, nutrition, personal training and exercise science.
For 24 years, he has been participating in sun dance ceremonies, including six years as a leader. The sun dance is a ritual form of prayer and self-sacrifice. He’s also been involved in sweat lodges. Learning about his own Lakota and Crow ancestry inspired him to explore his own spiritual path. While sun dancing many years ago, he said he had a vision that the time would come for him to help people.
Then, in May 2019, Maestas took a bad fall and developed extensive blood clotting along with other life-threatening conditions like kidney failure. He experienced a rare condition called compartment syndrome, which is a painful and dangerous condition caused by pressure build-up from internal bleeding or swelling of tissue. The pressure decreases blood flow and deprives muscles and nerves of needed nourishment, producing severe pain and weakness in the affected area. For severe cases, emergency surgery is needed, according to Mayo Clinic. Maestas was told by his surgeons that many people with this condition lose their lives or limbs.
He spent much of the next two and 1/2 months in and out of hospitals, where he said he had many spiritual dreams and began to understand that it was time to start sharing all he has experienced in his years of sun dancing and pouring water for sweat lodges, as well as what he learned from his Lakota/Ogallala Medicine Men teachers. “In my visions, I saw my grandparents and my sister, who passed away 17 years ago. In the traditional ways of belief, I knew that meant they were coming to get me. I have two daughters that I need to stay alive for and take care of so I said I couldn’t go with them.” After he was home, he consulted with a medicine man in South Dakota, who helped Maestas understand that he had made a direct deal with God and must share what he had learned to help others.
Maestas began the process of converting his gym into a spiritual and physical wellness center, just before the pandemic hit. Since that time, he has adapted to new circumstances by offering ceremonies in a COVID-safe way. Rather than in the sweat lodge, the ceremonies are held inside his large indoor space, where people can be more comfortable, masked and spaced farther apart. His experience has been that this new way of holding ceremony is just as effective in bringing in the spiritual aspect of healing that is experienced in the sweat lodge. With so much loss in the past few years due to COVID and other circumstances, people are approaching Maestas for help in interpreting spiritual messages from people who have recently passed.
In addition to the advice, ceremonies and personal training that he offers now, Maestas is starting an after-school Teen Fit program that provides instruction to teens who then follow a self-guided circuit of exercises.
Maestas has invited others who have a healing or fitness expertise and a commitment to community health to share space at the wellness center. “I’m just one person. I know I can’t do it alone. I need the help of others that have a vision of offering not just fitness, but other services that support the health of the whole person.”
Health for the whole family
One person who shares his vision is trainer Kristen Rivera. She has been teaching strength and conditioning classes at other locations in the community for the past several years. But, with those other spaces no longer viable due to the pandemic, she began holding classes in her backyard. Looking ahead to cooler weather, she went searching for a new indoor space and met Maestas.
“I started offering strength and conditioning classes at the wellness center in July,” says Rivera. “I’ve just received my certification in kickboxing and want to try to offer that in the evening. I’ve also invited others to participate offering Zumba and yoga, including yoga for kids.” Future collaborations may bring classes in hip hop, flamenco, hula hooping, chair fitness for those with mobility impairments and several therapists to the center. “Our goal is to meet the needs of our community, so please reach out if you have a need,” she says.
A wellness fair was offered last weekend to give the community a chance to see what classes and services are available. The next wellness fair is planned for Saturday (Feb. 26), with demonstrations and possible initial wellness assessments of weight, body fat and other metrics that will allow participants to track their progress with fitness training over time.
Rivera has seen how health programs can help improve people’s lives, especially if the programs are undertaken with a supportive group of people. “Being in a community where other people are thinking the same way is really important and helps you to stay on track and feel supported,” she observes. “Our goal is overall wellness. With the kids we stress the importance of nutrition: why food matters, along with social and emotional components. Some of the moms that come in say ‘This is exactly what I need.’ ”
Childcare is also offered during programs. “I like that our programs include moms, kids, and families as a whole. Having childcare and programs for kids eliminates a barrier to wellness and benefits kids. It is a way of investing in our children and supporting the entire family.”
Rivera credits Maestas for starting the space and being so open to sharing the opportunity with other instructors. “It is very generous of him. None of us can do it alone,” she says. “Together, we want to provide not just physical fitness, but also social and emotional support.”
Higher purpose
As Rivera and Maestas have collaborated over the past few months, they’ve discovered that they share the same goal and same mission. “Everyone who is drawn here and stays with it is on the same path and same mission,” says Rivera. “I feel that offering these programs has a higher purpose and is bigger than just us.”
Maestas points out that they are not professional athletes, they are moms and dads. “Rivera and I ask people what they want and need, about their dreams and then we work on it together,” he says. “We help people to take baby steps; like the alphabet, we start with A and work towards Z. We help people at any stage of fitness and health.”
For more information
To find out more on schedules and pricing, visit littlebearspiritualwellness.com or find the center on Facebook. The next wellness fair is currently scheduled for Saturday (Feb. 26). A Zoom drumming circle is in the works, along with an inperson outdoor circle, when the weather turns warmer.
If you would like to help support the center, including their efforts to offer scholarships for kids, visit the website to make a contribution. There is still room for additional like-minded instructors to offer new programs.
The Little Bear Spiritual Wellness Center is located at 1350 Paseo del Pueblo Sur, Suite A.