Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jodi Carey. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Jodi thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

Does this have to be related to teaching? or anything?
Here are two and you can choose:

Born and raised in NYC, when I turned 18 I was the epitome of a teenage independent thinker/artist with unconventional aspirations; attending college was not on the of my list. However, I did end up at a university in the midwest, not based on my grades and SAT score, but with a recommendation letter based on my role in a performing arts company affiliated with the university. My mentor at the time was the theater director there and I was just beyond grateful for this relationship and opportunity, as for the first time in. my life I started enjoying “school”. I was about to declare a major in Anthropology/minor in the performing arts & religion. I was like, yes I am finally zoning in on what I want to dedicate my life purpose to within the scope of institutional learning, and then I received a call. I was asked to perform the female lead in a new theater production in London. I remember calling my mom with excitement and a conflicted heart.
I finally started feeling passionate about getting my college degree, and n0w I must choose. She said, well, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, you can always finish school later. I ended up moving to London, lived an exhilarating year of performing and exploring..During that phone call I knew I was probably not going to go back and get my. college degree, it was a risk I felt was worth taking anyway. Today at 43, being a self-learned entrepreneur, I celebrate that risk, those years performing felt like a lifetime of invaluable Phd programs and more!

After September 11, 2001, the towers came down and many broadway theaters/show closed, including ours. Just before this time I had already been captivated by the yoga practice, taking classes around the city and dosing on these grand spiritual awakenings in every style, from old school sivananda yoga, kundalini, tantric practices, etc. One day, I came out of shavasana and had the instant, most clear message that I will teach yoga. And not just will, but I have to. It was as if something was transferred to me about the secret of the universe, and I would die if I did not share it. That same moment took me to the front desk where I put down my deposit for my very first teacher training.
I was still dancing on contract at the time, and was debating on taking a break from it all. It was a huge risk, to end this exciting career as a young performer in this non traditional Broadway show, to suddenly become a yoga teacher. But guess I was listening to something much bigger than mind as one week later the towers came down and Broadway went black. Our show ended up closing. I shortly after flew to Mexico and spent a month there immersed in the teaching of yoga. Here I am 21 years .later.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I have always been drawn to the mystic arts and spirituality since early childhood. A lot of it started in church too where I felt the healing in the room, people spontaneously possessed by the spirit of God, and through song and prayer had the undeniable force of light and love shoot through my body. As young as 8 years old, I was involved in some kind of performing arts, from my tribal dance classes and ballet, to indoor competitive pageantry. I knew a combination of body discipline and spirituality would be a part of my life’s purpose.

In 2001 I was gifted a short-lived career on Broadway as a performing artist and began following an inner calling for self-healing and metaphysical studies., became certified in yoga and holistic nutrition counseling, and pranic healing. I would spend weekends at the ashram chanting at strange hours of the night and early mornings, meditating in caves and experiencing what some describe as a Shakti/kundalini awakening. at the time I had no idea what was happening until my mentor started showing me books, and I started to get some framework and ground on what was going on. After I decided to no longer pursue dance and the arts, I dedicated my life to teaching, learning yoga.

I had always bee drawn to teaching from a more healing space, rather than a purely vinyasa type-physical one. Although love that flow too! Having had my own share of early childhood traumas, I started to unravel many of those dark spaces within my practice. I started noticing that the students with perhaps a heavier load of mental illness or PTSD would gravitate to my teachings. And one day I was offered the opportunity to come and teach at a trauma center where they studied the effect on trauma on the body, with a host of neuroscience, clinical experts in the field there facilitating these cutting edge programs, I was one of the first to bring in non Phd program material into the space, and with just a dance and yoga background held space for people with unspeakable, paralyzing PTSD symptoms among other mental/physical disease.

This was the start to my upgrades in the ability to intuit and connect with people through a kind of vibrational soul- consciousness, leading me to more intuitive, holistic approaches to teaching yoga and empowering people to heal themselves. These days I have stepped out of the public 20-23- people vinyasa classes and now run a private practice where I work with clients one on one working with the vibrational field, helping people to stay in their body and stabilize the mind through posture, breath, and passive stretching. I still use yoga forms and principles, yet these are just access points to a magical invisible source of healing we can connect to sometimes ancestral, sometimes through mediumship, shamanism, and sound healing. Basically, when you show up, the modality to use shows up with you.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

honestly, I still have a lot of growth to do here, I am just stubborn and old school and believe that too much marketing is unecessary! Perhaps I just believe in intention, the quality of my service and the faith that if its needed they will come. So far it has worked! So my main strategy has been just that, and through word of mouth new clients reach out every week. I don’t have newsletters anymore, and mainly use social media for more of a personal story rather than advertisement. I recognize this may not always been a sustainable strategy for some, and also for myself as we get more technical in the world and so much of this industry is now digital. I am open to evolving, yet committed to the path that has show me so much abundance already.
Know yourself, know your product, know your worth and it will come.
But hey, maybe next time you interview me I will have an online membership !!! wink wink

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

big question for me as I feel like this whole journey up til now at 43 has been a series of resilience stories… you know I was always very shy, introverted, had to consciously learn and practice how to be social, had close panic attacks almost every time I would have to perform in front of people even though that was something that I hid very well, and also something that made me communicate something very unique on stage. I think my whole life has been a game of transmuting. Transmuting discomfort to comfort, dark into light, anxiety to connection, unworthiness to confidence….

Becoming a mother 3 years ago was a jolt to my entire being…to say the least, the entry into motherhood was shattering. Physically, the healing I undergone post labor surgery, and then the emotional. Postpartum depression, anxiety imbalance is not a clear subject because the one who is experiencing it is not in that part of her brain to remember the experience she is having. But it was seeing my students and clients that made my healing that much easier, to focus my mind, to be in my heart, to help and guide others made helping myself more doable.
Many of my clients now whose children are already in their teens, still suffer from postpartum depression and lack of that post healing process. Today, women are forced back to work only 2-3 months after giving birth. This is detrimental to our nervous system, let alone these young babies. I think this is still an under-researched topic and is a huge contributor to mental illness as a whole today.

I am still just “coming to” it feels. Like a coma of sorts. Along with a new separation, and an unexplainably challenging relationship in the middle of finding myself as a mother, raising a human to find herself, as I find myself again and again. Yet through it all I almost never stopped working. When the pandemic hit, I actually worked more than I ever have. And to do it on the computer no less! Anyone who knows me knows that online stuff is not my shtick. Over and over again every as I write this I am reminded of the resilience we all possess. And now most especially mothers. I see you, I feel you, I hope you are finding support, self-care, and a partnership that emotionally listens and loves and nurtures. Blessings.
Contact Info:

• Website: www.flowintuityoga.com
• Instagram: flow_intuit
• Other: Just my email! [email protected]

Image Credits
@Nkosi Nkosiart