Filming My 10th Episode for Yoga Today

This past Monday I filmed my 10th episode with Yoga Today. It's my 3rd year joining the Yoga Today team in the beautiful state of Wyoming - a magnificent place I may otherwise never have had the pleasure to see and experience as much as I have! Jackson never fails to take my breathe away - the nature here is spectacular, and I am overwhelmingly grateful to be a part of Yoga Today and have the continued opportunity to keep spreading yoga around the world via the world wide web! Visit www.yogatoday.com for full length classes!

www.beyondbeing.com.au

www.theyogamatoc.com

www.yogatoday.com

www.monalisagodfrey.com

My annual Yoga Today van photo.

What is important to you?

As I handed the officer my licence and registration yesterday, I knew one thing - the Universe was asking me to slow down. I wasn't speeding, but I heard the message right away; slow down MonaBear.

It has been an fiery whirlwind from the moment that my plane landed at LAX over a month ago - from  a cross country trip that ended in an accident, to playing the most ruthless game of catch up ever + the array of emotions that came along with finally coming back to visit. It's been all-consuming. 

The people-pleaser in me has been struggling to find time for everyone and everything, and all things considered, I've been doing alright. However, yesterday I heard the alarm sound off. I was sleep-deprived, disoriented, and out of sorts. And as I watched the officer walk away with my information, I caught a glimpse of myself in the side-mirror. I looked exhausted. I am no good to anyone like this.

I'm listening. I am listening.

I've been practicing, reconnecting to the studios, but meditating very little. I've been hiking with friends and relaxing in many ways, but spending very little time alone, which I have learned that I absolutely need in order to recharge and thrive. It might seem off, but sometimes relaxing with other people still takes it out of me. So today I have locked myself in my old bedroom to write and give myself some tender love and care. 

As I gain awareness through my ongoing years of practice, I've naturally become more sensitive. It's a sensitivity I worry other people will perceive as selfishness or lack of care. I think this is what stops me from taking care of myself. But again, how valuable  is my service if I am not really there - physically, emotionally, with 100% of my heart. The reality is, I am not going to be able to do everything I wanted to do. There will be people I will not have a chance to see or not see as much as I would have liked to. And then there are things I don't want to do and need to learn to say no to.

I am grateful for this beautiful time back home. I have been showered with love. Stepping away from the life that I created and then stepping back into the residual waves of it has shown me how powerful every seed we plant is. It is also teaching me how to manage my energy and where I tend to be most rattled and rocked. As the wind has picked up, and I feel swayed in every which direction, it has challenged me ground my feet, to dig my roots into the earth, and ask myself, but what is important to you?

On a more logistical note, I am excited to announce that I will be reconnecting with the Yoga Today team in Wyoming before I fly to Sydney on the 22nd of July. This leaves me very little time in California. I have made the promise to myself to slow down, so that it doesn't pass me by, with me not really being here here. In result, I suspect that I may appear even more MIA. I ask for understanding, from others, but mostly, mostly from myself.

With love, I leave you with this: 

“That is why it is so important to let certain things go. To release them. To cut loose. People need to understand that no one is playing with marked cards; sometimes we win and sometimes we lose. Don't expect to get anything back, don't expect recognition for your efforts, don't expect your genius to be discovered or your love to be understood. Complete the circle. Not out of pride, inability or arrogance, but simply because whatever it is no longer fits in your life. Close the door, change the record, clean the house, get rid of the dust. Stop being who you were and become who you are.”
― Paulo Coelho, The Zahir 

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