Today we’d like to introduce you to Monica Farrell.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I did my Yoga Teacher Training in 2005 in India as an apprentice to my mentor, Barbara Gordon who was one of the first Sivananda graduates under the tutelage of Swami Vishnudevananda. I had already been back and forth several times to India from Sinai, Egypt, where Barbara and I were running yoga holidays and Yoga Teacher Training, Barbara having been the first person to introduce yoga retreats and TTC to Egypt. In India I was learning from renown teacher and healer, Guruji Mohan. During the months and years that followed I learned or rather directly experienced the healing power of an Enlightened person, or energy. I saw directly the falsity of the ego-self and was completely immersed in the consciousness of One Life realization. Soon after, I created Yoga Diving on the Sinai coral reefs in order to marry the art of scuba diving with meditation and yoga practices and in order to teach diving as a means of understanding and protecting the fragile reef ecology. I came to Scuba Diving after a trip to Sinai from Cairo where I was teaching at the American University in Cairo (AUC). In 2013 I became life threateningly ill and had to abandon my life in Egypt and come to the USA for treatment that lasted many years. In my decades-long back and forth trips to India I studied many, many forms of yoga and meditation. My illness caused me to focus on integrating the enlightened state of consciousness with the human/ego nervous system and mind. Consequently I developed my own method of teaching that combines traditional practices with more Western somatic and neurological healing modalities. I currently reside in Virginia, USA where I teach daily. I run retreats to various healing locations around the world focusing on wildlife conservation and nature preservation.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Life is full of suffering and nobody gets to bypass that in my opinion. Struggles have been many and profound for me.: near death experiences, prolonged debilitating illness, loss of home, job, financial stability, country, friends and the loss of unexpected deaths. My relationships have taken a hit, as nearly anyone who has dealt with chronic illness, either physical or mental, will likely tell you. However throughout it all I can say that the feeling of deep peace has never left and infuses the suffering with a different kind of energy. I’d say suffering has awakened me to compassion and patience on levels that yoga and meditation never did. I think Ram Das called this “fierce grace” and that’s been my experience.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
My work is to facilitate greater awareness in the human consciousness-to help people shift from a being run by ego, mostly cut off from the energy/awareness of the One Life, to Be-ing- an intelligent, compassionate facet of the infinite diamond of the universe. In other words, my daily yoga teaching is to help people A. Be more of themselves- more loving and healed inwardly and B. More conscious of the unicity of life and the preciousness of our natural world and all non human species.
Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
Oh yes! To find your tribe first you must find your bestie within yourself. Secondly, your mind should be open and curious and devoid of prejudice. Then your people and mentors will naturally come to you. .
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Www.yoginimonica.com
