About

My name is Monica Farrell. I’ve been teaching yoga for over 20 years all over the world. Yoga for me is an unfolding or a process of awakening. Traditionally one awakens through Yoga and Meditation to self knowledge- to knowing who or what you are beyond name and form. My main awakening events happened over a period of years in India, while on teacher’s training, during Vipassana Meditation and through osmosis from my teacher, Guruji Mohan. During deep Meditations I realized deeply, not intellectually but viscerally, that the ‘self’ or the ‘me’ was false-that who I was could not be contained by identification with the ego. The feeling/belief that I existed in a body/mind separate from all other bodies, minds, energies, elements -in other words from life- was not true. Life became, instead of an individual seeking for fulfillment, enlightenment, achievement and so on, became a felt experience of the One Life expressing itself thought this body/mind. Even though I was still myself to society, I felt intimately and holistically connected to all life. I saw/see that what the mind tells itself, as a programmed upload from the past, is not truth, but an expression that is ephemeral, like all forms.

A few years after these awakenings, I became extremely ill with, what I found out later, was a congenital heart defect. I was working as a scuba diving instructor in Egypt and created the course “Yoga Diving” to remove myself from the environmental damages caused by diving tourism and immerse my students into the life in the coral reefs-practicing underwater yoga and meditation. My heart condition required emergency surgery and I left my business, friends, and life to come back to the States where I remained very ill for many years post surgery.

Because of my body’s years of pain and debilitation, I was forced to integrate awakening experiences into daily life, and deal with my emotional blockages and repressed energy. Daily yoga and meditation practices aided with this. Without the embodiment side of awakening, the emotional body does not heal and chronic pain or illness can result. I don’t think my nervous system could have handled this integration without the somatic and physical movements and postures of yoga nor without the quietude of meditation practices of all kinds. Of course each person resonates differently so my teaching also honors that individuated ‘pathless path’ approach to awakening. In other words, my teaching is student centered, present moment oriented, compassion infused as foundation.