New Class +New Quick Tip!

For full length classes visit www.yogatoday.com. I am also happy to announce that I will be rejoining my Yoga Today team in BEAUTIFUL Wyoming to create some new material in a little less than two weeks! So excited for this time, and unlike the last two years, my goal is to be a little more diligent about blogging whilst there! Can't wait to share this experience!

The Microscope

Ever since yoga first entered into the West, its teachers and practitioners have been scrutinized, and the more mainstream it becomes, the bigger the microscope. The business of yoga, and in many ways rightfully so, is on an even tighter public surveillance. The cold-as-ice truth is, the judgement within the yoga realm runs thick like molasses, no different from other businesses or niche communities. It's far beyond discussing ethics, ancient traditions, or correct anatomy:  it's too this, or too that, the music, or the lack of, her shorts are too short, the chanting is weird, no, that's NOT how you pronounce shavasana, oh, and apparently, he eats meat. I'd heard it everyday, and I'm no saint. Most of us don't mean any harm with our insignificant comments, but in the end they add up, and it made me want to stay small. For me, this is often the root of my hesitance to grow, my shame, and my irrational worries. I've needed to face it.

The microscope.

What I've realized is that whenever you stand up, you're going to be judged. Point blank. Have you seen the comments on celebrities' IG's or FB pages? They're painful to read! The disconnect that the modern-day means of communication harbors is massive. There is little to zero accountability, which makes these media platforms a bloody massacre. So, the question is - can you stand up anyways - especially if it's something worth getting on your feet for? I know I don't want to live my life on my bum bum. Most of the time I prefer to stand vs sit and run vs walk. And that was that.

All this resurfaced again as I've been working on the launch of my new facebook profile (check it out: www.facebook.com/monalisagodfreyyoga) --- I asked myself again: Who do you think you are? And this is my answer.

I'm a young woman who loves yoga. It changes me, for the better, everyday. When given the gift, the opportunity, to share this love, I am elevated. I only teach what I practice and what I've personally experienced. I am a student, first and foremost. I certainly don't know everything. In fact, I don't know the half of it, and maybe never will. I'm far from the best or the most seasoned, but I am passionate and willing to share my humble experience. I'm not the most advanced or flexible, but I'll fall and laugh with you. I am on the same journey as you, and willing to share my path. And I want to learn from yours, and learn with you.

New Gentle Vinyasa Class released with Yoga Today!

For full length classes visit www.yogatoday.com :)

Quick Tip Released on Yoga Today :)

"There are many ways to transition from one pose to another in yoga. Mona Godfrey puts the fun in fundamental by showing you a playful way to move from standing poses to your seated practice. Jumping through to seated takes as much arm strength as it does core strength. And with this quick tip you will come that much closer to mastering this move. Knowing these fundamentals and incorporating them into your routine will lead you to a stronger, safer, and healthier yoga practice. For full length classes visit Yogatoday.com"

Planting Seeds Tonight

We have to view darkness with greater respect, and learn to appreciate not only its capacity for destruction, but it's capacity for vitality, growth, and transformation - David Tracey

Planting seeds. I have never done this before, but tonight I decided to make a little vision board for the transformation, vitality, and growth that I want to witness. I am in a suitable place in my life to grow an entire new garden. I am also mindful to take into great consideration the parts of me that I have tried to suppress in the past. I am giving my shadows the respect that they deserve. An example: vanity - or my personal stigma and struggle with the idea of vanity. On a core level, I don't believe there's anything wrong with desiring certain materialistic things, or dipping your feet into a certain kind of indulgence i.e fashion, expensive dining, and so forth - I certainly am very accepting of it in other people, and even view it was an expression of oneself - why not myself. I find that I hold myself up to some unrealistic standard, and am hard on myself for certain types of behavior that I barely observe in others. I am not holier than thou, and must stray away from those tendencies and notions within myself. 

"Our civilization is courting disaster. By refusing to accept that the human psyche is complex and paradoxical, we have no way of reconciling the opposing forces that gather momentum in our psychic interior. By clinging to ideals of goodness, by assuming we can remain innocent, we have no way of integrating the dark and ambivalent." - David Tracey

All of what I am reading right now from a book that Lionda gifted me with in Bali is speaking loud and clear, and I sense that the timing is immaculate. These concepts that David Tracey touches on is the foundation upon which I built this blog - the idea that we are not one sided, the idea that we are fragmented and dualistic. In the yoga community [which is clearly something that rattles me, as I frequently return to this subject] we seem to repress the dark side of us, the beast, the monster, the shadows, the artist, whatever you may call it, and hyper-focus on the "light." However, I genuinely believe that if we neglect the "dark" parts of ourselves, we will be destroyed by outbursts of irrationality and unreason. We need to understand the forces that arise in ourselves. That is why I continue to challenge myself to be sincere and open, not just about my triumphs but also about my trials and tribulations. I am whole, but my whole is mosaicked, diverse. And I want to create a framework where all parts of me are invited, explored, understood, transformed, elevated -  never suppressed, ignored, or misguided. 

"Our time requires a fundamental rebirth of the dark side as cosmic principle and not merely as a nuisance to be expunged." -  David Tracey

[...] the most important act for the future is to become aware of our darkness, to lower our moral sights, to resist the desire to be perfect, to recognize our complexity, to become critical of conventional morality, and to search for new balance that includes our dark side as well as the light." - David Tracey

New Release with Yoga Today! :) Exciting stuff!

Post by Yoga Today.