Today we’d like to introduce you to Melanie Yetter.
Melanie, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
As a child and young adult, I struggled to find my path within a broken family.
I was eventually relegated to the foster care system. Because of my unconventional upbringing, I didn’t have the emotional tools to work through my grief and anger.
Diagnosed with depression in 2001 after the loss of my grandmother, who was my source of safety, I entered the process of daily medications and weekly therapeutic alliance. Two years later, I was still unable to cope and self-regulate. Seeking a better path, I found my first yoga class. Breath Work and Guided Meditation were also components of my new practice. Due to physical activity and finding a connection with a community, I discovered that I could sit with an emotional aspect during meditation. These first steps toward healing were nurtured through my community.
In 2011, I traveled across the world to Mysore, India to be trained by a yoga master. I had never traveled alone and was ready to explore…to deepen my love for yoga and meditation. The journey changed me in ways I had not imagined. From the first moment I stepped off the plane, I had to learn to trust myself.
The moment that my heart first began to open was during a meditation. I cried and hated myself for being there, for being me, for being Melanie the poor girl from Indiana who had no father, a mother who didn’t love her enough to get clean, and a grandmother who departed too early and left me all alone.
That deep despair was followed by a clarity and acceptance I had never experienced before. I was Melanie the warrior, the survivor, the daughter, the granddaughter, mother, wife, but most of all I had discovered the first glimmer of becoming my own best friend. I was home. My life has never been the same since that sitting and for that, I am blessed.
I began studies with a Zen Master with Five Mountain Zen Order and entered into seminary in 2012. Within seminary, my formal training in Mindfulness, Zen practice, Buddhist studies, Koan practice, and clergy studies expanded my vision of what a meditation practice could be.
I am grateful to the teachers who have guided me along my path. I did my clergy training with the Ven. Sunyananda while attending seminary at Five Mountain Zen Order. I was honored to be his student for he is a brilliant teacher and a compassionate man.
My formal Zen teacher, Venerable Charama Bhavika taught me what it meant to have a direction with my spiritual practice. He is the reason I became a Dharma teacher. I took precepts and was ordained under him. I learned to open up to other people through that relationship. A Zen teacher-student relationship is a very sacred bond.
I had seen Josh Korda (Dharmapunx, NYC) on a Tricycle retreat and instantly gravitated toward his teachings on addiction, neuroscience, and Buddhist psychology.
We chatted through Facebook and I joined him at a sitting in 2013. He helped me deal with my mother’s addiction and subsequent passing. That same year I founded a weekly sitting group called Open Door at Buddhamouse Emporium, a community center in Claremont, CA. Open Door moved to its current location in Pomona during August 2014 and I began formal mentoring with Josh Korda in August 2015. My neuroscience work with Josh has opened new facets of mindfulness.
Through my studies, I have learned the tools and techniques needed to self- soothe, self-regulate emotions, increase self-awareness, and enhance interpersonal and intrapersonal relationships and conflict-resolution skills. I saw that I didn’t have to be anyone else but myself. True spiritual practice is finding great comfort in one’s own skin. It is my goal to help others achieve this goal.
Please tell us about Open Door Pomona.
The seeds of Open Door were planted when I took my first yoga class in 2003. I was dealing with clinical depression and hoping to find an alternative to medication. I recognized my path in yoga. I traveled to Mysore, India for training, and through meditation practice, my yoga became more spiritual. Upon returning to California, I began to teach a traditional form of yoga, meditation, and prānāyāma (breath work).
I had seen Josh Korda of Dharma Punx NYC online and read his articles in Tricycle. At the time, I didn’t know exactly what it was about him, but I had found my inspiration to enter seminary and become a Buddhist monk. I was ordained in the Zen Buddhist tradition in 2013. I am thankful to Josh Korda for being my mentor as I follow my calling to teach the Dharma.
Our group grew quickly and we needed more room. Although I wasn’t actively looking for a space, I trusted that when the time was right it would come. One afternoon in the Pomona Arts Colony, with my son Jude in his stroller, I saw a For Lease sign. The agent was there and she let me in. The space wasn’t right but she asked if I would like to see another spot across the street. As soon as I walked in, I sensed that I had found home. We signed the papers two weeks later. We had nothing in mind, nothing in place, no schedule, just loving intention. The doors opened to all on Friday, August 15, 2014.
“Open Door is a welcoming space. The aspiration of our community is to be all-embracing of each member on their own path, their own journey, whatever that may be. It is about hope. Here is a place where you are free to be vulnerable and accepted for who you are. I have hope for the future of Open Door, but I never put my expectations in growth. It will become what it is going to be.”
“It is the sum of the Community, so it is up to the Community. It is the sum of All of Us. That is what makes it Open Door.” – Melanie Yetter
Pricing:
- First Time Student Introductory Package, $35, 2 Weeks Unlimited Classes
- Drop-In Class $14
- Monthly Membership $89
Contact Info:
- Address: 163 W. 2nd St, Pomona, Ca 91766
- Website: http://www.opendoor2yoga.org
- Phone: 909-620-9642
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/opendoorpomona/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/opendoor2yoga/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/OpenDoor2Yoga
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/open-door-pomona-meditation-and-yoga-pomona
- Other: http://www.melanieyetter.com
Image Credit:
The PhotoShoot Factory
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