User:Vritti17/Monica yearwood novak

Monica Yearwood Novak is the founder of Dragonfly Ayurveda, where she practices Ayurvedic treatments, and gives consultations in Chicago. Monica is an Ayurvedic Practitioner, Certified Panchakarma Technician, and Licensed Massage Therapist. She had interest in healing and sprituality from a very young age and grew up interested in metaphysical and religious studies. She was digging through the new age section in book stores when she was just eleven, and challenging her Pastor through confirmation classes for more answers. Monica was practicing meditation by the time she was in her teens, and reading books by Buddhist writers such as Jack Kornfield. She had a hard time concentrating in high school, as all of it seemed to pale in comparison to what she thought were the bigger questions of life. All of this surmounted in an inexplicable quest to know the truth of who she was in her early twenties. Inspired by beatnik writers and a philosophy major, she had visions of wondering off into the mountains in a quest for enlightenment.

Instead, her quest for enlightenment became deeply entangled in an illusion of being separate from the world, deep seated depression, and a hollow longing that never seemed to be satisfied. Everything in life seemed sad, impenetrable, and extraordinarily fast while it moved without her. These feelings coupled with a growing addiction to drugs eventually overwhelmed any sense of purpose that she had. In 2001, she found herself in rehab, foraging through ideas of enlightenment for places they had failed her. She questioned much of everything that she had believed, and stood fearfully on the threshold of change.

Monica explored many realms of healing at that time in her life, however, nothing seemed to resonate as true as the practice of Yoga. From her mat, she began to understand the fluctuations of consciousness. She began to realize that thoughts make great servants, but terrible masters, and she came to believe that she was more than her thoughts. Beneath the layers of all her thinking and desires she found a stillness, which enabled her to be a witness to her thoughts, able to choose which ones to act upon. Inspired by this experience she went on to study Yoga further and became a certified teacher through Nosara Yoga Institute in Costa Rica.

In 2002, she started studying Ayurveda at Maharishi University through the introduction of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and the Transcendental Meditation technique. While there she was fortunate to study with world renowned physicist and Vedic Science teacher, Dr. John Haeglin. Since then, she has studied with one of the foremost Western Buddhist Scholars and best selling author Lama Surya Das, Vaidya Rama Kant Mishra, Dr. Mark Halpern of the California College of Ayurveda, and most recently Drs. Brian and Light Miller of the Florida Vedic College, where she was individually selected as a Pancha Karma apprentice. She is the recipient of a degree in Dhanvantari Ayurveda from the Florida Vedic College.

Currently she practices Ayurveda in the Chicago area, and helps to promote this ancient science through workshops, classes and the introduction of various teachers from all over the world. She is dedicated to sharing this modality with others and encouraging the cultivation of inner awareness and outer radiance.