Manjari Gopika is a passionate teacher and practitioner of yoga asanas and Bhakti Yoga. After twenty-something years of feeling unconfident in her body, Manjari Gopika found herself in a yoga class, and very shortly thereafter experienced a shift in her mind and body. Ten years of practice, four trips to India, countless Bhagavad Gita classes, alignment lessons, and one 200 hour teacher training later, Manjari is more in love with yoga and more in touch with her true self than she ever thought possible. Manjari's mission is to help others be their strongest, boldest, authentic selves through the tools of yoga practice.

After 11 years in New York City, Manjari moved to Dallas with her husband and four year old daughter in May 2020, where she continues to teach yoga group classes and courses on zoom. She is the founder of Real Yoga, a facebook community where she offerspose tutorials, classes, short meditations and philosophy talks that help people incorporate yoga into their everyday lives. Her students are curious individuals of all ages, sizes, and professions, who appreciate that yoga is something that enhances their relationships--with themselves and others--and their experiences in the world, and who enjoy learning the profound alignment of classical poses, while understanding that “perfection” is not “one size fits all”.

In today’s episode, Manjari shares her personal journey with yoga and how it got her to unlimited joy. Her mission is to show you that yoga is right for every body, gender and age, and provide you with the tools to live in rhythm of life and grow into your boldest most authentic self. Manjari’s story begins in 2011 where she was an actress working by day in a hip New York City hotel. She had recently gone through a breakup and her confidence was at an all time low. Growing up she didn’t enjoy moving her body, she avoided athletics at all costs, and safe to say growing up she was picked last for every sport. She knew it was time for a change, and she decided to sign up for a yoga class. It was hard work, but she enjoyed it. She slowly realized that she was much more capable than what her mind would let her believe. It got her thinking, if she had no idea that she could do this one thing, what else could she do that she wasn’t aware of? Yoga has transformed her life, given her the tools to be her most authentic self, and opened her up to a world of possibilities.

“My mission is to show everyone that I meet that yoga is for you! Yoga is not just about the poses, they are part of it, they are a vehicle of learning, but yoga is much more about shaping your inner world, about creating a vast landscape of possibility.”

— Manjari Gopika

Tune in on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7bZHrtjAzbksbLWNaak1NM

Tune in on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/stories-of-inspiring-joy/id1510488632

To learn more and connect with Manjari visit her website www.manjarigopika.com/shop and use the FREE4ME discount code to experience one free group yoga class as her gift to you and you can find her classes here plus you can find her Facebook group called Real Yoga here and on Instagram @manjari.gopika.yoga

Stories of Inspiring Joy is a production of Seek The Joy Media and created by Sydney Weiss. To learn more and submit your story, click here.

*Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this episode are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Stories of Inspiring Joy.