Confucius said it best: "Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life." Latinas are taking the philosopher's advice to a whole other level by creating jobs based not only on their passions, but on their beloved cultural traditions. At least that's what herbalist Adriana Ayales did. The Costa Rica native turned herbal healing, a practice that had been passed down for generations in her family, into Anima Mundi Apothecary, a beauty and health brand that offers medicinal elixirs, body scrubs, perfume oils, and more with ingredients sourced from rainforests in South America. Here, Ayales shares how she's turned indigenous Latin rituals into a thriving business. Tell us about yourself. How did you get your start as an herbalist? And what does it even mean to be an herbalist? An herbalist is someone who formulates medicinal tonics with plants to heal ailments. I grew up in Costa Rica where my grandmother was a psychic medium who practiced meditation and herbal healing, so I was interested from a very young age and began experimenting with rain-forest plants on my own. Later on, I moved to California to study Chinese medicine, clinical herbalism, and