Helena Monica

Helena Monica is the owner of True You Hot Yoga in Stockton, California. Helena’s passion for yoga is infectious. When she teaches yoga, the room radiates with her vivaciousness. Helena’s energy brings out the best in people and her teaching encourages her students to go beyond their perceived limitations. Helena has been practicing and studying the physical culture of yoga since 2002. But she has been on a healing and poignant path of self-discovery through physical fitness and spiritual work since the age of 24. In her 20s, Helena was an avid runner and a weight lifter working closely with a personal trainer on a consistent training regime. In her 30s, Helena was in pain and felt out of balance, so she decided to try practicing yoga at home. She started traveling to studios in Los Angeles to practice Vinyasa and learn the art of yoga. In 2002, Helena was introduced to Bikram Yoga and instantly knew it was the path for her. After four years of practicing Bikram Yoga, she attended Bikram Teacher Training in 2006. In 2008, Helena opened her first studio, Bikram Yoga Stockton. She opened her second studio in the nearby city of Lodi in 2013. (which closed four years later) As a studio owner and yoga teacher, Helena’s passion for teaching and developing teachers has evolved over the years. She designed several different continuing education programs for her teachers so that the communities of her two studios would receive superb instruction from a broad point of view. As a result, both her teachers and students are stronger, wiser, and more motivated.

Since 2002, Helena’s consistent yoga regime has helped her to manage and heal her scoliosis, candida, and anxiety. As such, she is a firm believer in the therapeutic value of yoga. She has attended countless workshops and events to continue her yoga education and to deepen her understanding of the medical and spiritual value of yoga. Helena has worked under the strict guidance of a yoga guru since 2008. She is also currently training under another teacher to further her education in anatomy and physiology while continuing her own path of health and healing. In 2016 Helena studied Vinyasa under Bel Capenter incoorperating the Gosh lineage into her Vinyasa practice. Helena’s passion for and understanding of yoga is comprehensive. Helena is trained and certified in Bikram Yoga (her passion and area of deepest understanding), Vinyasa, and Yin Yoga. She has coached a number of nationally and internationally ranked yoga competitors and has hosted two successful regional yoga competitions for Northern California. Helena has two children, 10 brothers and sisters, two grandchildren and little dog Duffy, and has lived in Lodi since 2000.

5 Questions, Answered From Helena

Describe yourself in three words:

Genuine, fun and driven

What is the greatest challenge you have overcome/are overcoming?

My upbringing. I was raised in a family that I felt very separate from and there were things that happened with me, while being raised, that should not happen to a girl but I was able to embrace my own identity and find my own path with a happy heart.

What is unique to you about your work?

Owning a yoga studio holds the important responsibility of protecting the community as a whole and setting the tone for behavior. I have had to make some tough decisions to protect the community over the years. I feel like I am the mother to hundreds of people in which I embrace. Also, my energy is very strong so just being in my business is important. People feel safe and grounded when I am in my building.

How do you guide clients into their own healing/inner freedom?

I teach purity and discipline as a means to freedom and peace of mind. In the end having a mind that knows how to equanimously take responsibility for all that is happening in ones world is the key to inner peace. That takes practice and discipline. It is the highest form of meditation.

Purifying your vessel, physically mentally and emotionally is vital to personal freedom. It’s like wiping the lenses clean on your glasses so you can see clearly and move forward in wisdom.

What tools have you found least/most effective in your work?

The blend of teaching discipline while exercising compassion. It’s tricky at times. Discipline is the foundation of harmony but compassion is required so you can let people have their experience. It’s important to fall so you know how to get up.