Today we’d like to introduce you to Jodi Rose Gonzales.
Jodi Rose, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
My journey to “here” started about a decade ago with a cross-country drive in my pickup truck. Having sold most of my belongings, I carried with me just a few remaining possessions including art supplies and a yoga mat. My only companion was a 180-pound Great Dane named Prescott.
The next few years reads like a novel: first stop, Middle Tennessee, where I started an art/yoga studio and was instrumental in founding an economic development office. Then, I moved to the Berkshires, where I worked in a former Ashram called the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health. Meanwhile, I completed my master’s degree in Counseling Psychology and Expressive Arts Therapy.
After Kripalu, I moved to Casa Grande. There, I provided art therapy to children of jailed gang members and meth addicts, helping the survivors of horrific traumas. It was tough work—internally and externally—but through it all I stayed grounded by using the simple practice of doodling and writing, alongside yoga.
That same art-and-yoga practice has since guided me through falling in love, caregiving for a parent, starting Jodi Rose Studio, filing two trademarks with the USPTO, and writing a book!
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I choose to see obstacles as opportunities for adventure and personal growth. 2013 was particularly “adventurous”. Within about a year’s time, my mom was diagnosed with lung cancer; I experienced a long period of unemployment after leaving my job to care for her; and I developed a debilitating health condition that necessitated major surgery.
Yet, those challenges strengthened my art-and-yoga practice, the practice that had always served as a trusty form of reassurance and inner navigation.
I was reminded that the practice had always allowed me to rise above my life’s hardest obstacles. That is why I chose Jodi Rose as my brand name: it’s not because I love the flower. Jodi Rose is a past-tense sentence. Jodi Rose is my chosen name because through the practice of art-and-yoga, I conquered it all.
Jodi Rose Studio – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Although I had shared art-and-yoga techniques in various capacities through the years, it was alongside recovery from a major surgery that I decided to formalize the practice and share it with the world. What evolved is called the YogaDoodles.
I have since shared the YogaDoodles with veterans and active military members; non-profit and academic leaders; people with chronic or terminal illness including HIV/AIDS and cancer; and everyday people who just want more from life or their yoga.
The YogaDoodles are effective because they are based on your mind-body biology. Informed by a unique fusion of art therapy, positive psychology, neuroscience and yoga, they help you address chronic stress and stress symptoms; anxiety; depression; overwhelm and burnout.
The YogaDoodles also support any type of mental health recovery work including substance abuse and eating disorder recovery; PTSD and trauma recovery; and general self-care and personal development.
The YogaDoodles work for people at any level of yoga practice, as well. They help the beginning student to “get” what yoga is about beyond the poses, and they help the more experienced yoga practitioner to take yoga’s teachings off the mat and into life.
The YogaDoodles are explained in my new book Drawn to Yoga: How to Combine Creativity and Yoga for a Deeper Connection to Your True Self. The book was recently a #1 New Release on Amazon, where it reached #2 Best Seller.
Is there a specific memory from when you were younger that you really miss?
Not surprisingly, it was road-tripping across America with my family as a little girl! Those travels taught me that life is about the journey, not the destination.
Pricing:
- Grab your signed copy of Drawn to Yoga: How to Combine Creativity and Yoga for a Deeper Connection to Your True Self for $16.95 at https://jodirosestudio.com/
The book is also available on all major distribution channels including Amazon and BarnesandNoble.com.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://jodirosestudio.com/
- Phone: 5202369748
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jodirose.studio/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jodirose.studio/
Image Credit:
Jodi Rose headshots by Jacqueline Buck https://www.jacquelynnbuck.com/
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