Episode 4: Nayeli Bernal
Title: The Power of Unconditional Love

This conversation feels like the smoothest silk velvet, so soft and loving, it is sacred. If you are in need of some soul soothing, this conversation is meant for you. Let yourself be wrapped in the absolute unconditional love that is Nayeli; a magnificent human being so grounded and solid in her core, and so gentle and spacious in her existence.

Here is a little more about Nayeli!

Nayeli Bernal moves through the world guided by courage, kindness, and wholeness. Born in Michoacán, México, she carries the legacy of her P’urhépecha and Afro-Mestizo ancestors, people shaped by resilience, resistance, and an unwavering commitment to liberation. She immigrated to California at age eleven and became the first in her family to attend and graduate from college in the United States. Nayeli holds a B.A. in Psychology from UC Berkeley, a certificate in Translation from the National Hispanic University, and a Master in Public Health from San Francisco State University.

She currently serves as a Community-Engaged Researcher at Stanford University’s School of Medicine and is the founder of Papalotl Consulting, a community-based research, evaluation, and strategy practice. With a career spanning two decades, she is proud of the ways her work creates space for voices too often dismissed, and of the relationships she’s nurtured with partners navigating complexity with courage, humility, and care.

But what she’s most proud of lives outside of any job description.

She loves the life she’s built along with her wonderful partner and children, a life that honors inner compass, curiosity, and collective possibility. She finds meaning in spaces where joy and transformation go hand in hand, and believes her life purpose is to love and dream freely. She’s proud of learning to listen to herself. Of speaking up, even when it’s hard. Of making room for softness, creativity, and connection.

She finds joy in movement, time outdoors, tender friendships, and the quiet rituals of everyday life. She loves crisp walks, warm hugs, thoughtful questions, slow mornings, and the kind of laughter that makes you forget what time it is. She believes in showing up messy, honest, and full of heart. And above all, she moves through the world with a quiet insistence that joy, love, and justice belong to all of us.

I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as we enjoyed having it! And I hope there’s a little sprinkle somewhere in here that gives you hope, fosters your light and supports you in whichever way you need to be supported in this moment.

Learn More: https://www.equityfirstconsulting.com/my-healing-nook