Matilda Juliette has a pixie haircut and a smile that takes up the whole Skype screen. This is a woman who dropped out of college in her sophomore year: “I was a spring breaker and I decided to stay!”
Now decidedly more adult and “part of the daytime,” Matilda compiled some of her experiences of finding herself through yoga, dating and even drugs.
The book is titled Eeny Meeny Miny Moe: Dating and Sexcapades of a Yogi. The character in the book is named Matilda, yet all other names have been changed. Is it fiction? Is it nonfiction? Matilda will never tell, but she did give us some clues:
So nomad yogi wanderer…where are you living right now?
This is the third time that I have lived in Mexico. There is ancient connectivity around the Mayan Pyramids and I really feel it!
As you move, do you find it hard to be gainfully employed or do you integrate easily?
It does take adjustment. You can’t just arrive somewhere and be like, “I’m Matilda! I’m going to teach you!” You have to ease your way into the community and find your niche and how you fit in with them. You have to learn from them even more than they learn from you. That has landed me a lot of opportunity in Mexico.
“Matilda” your protagonist (or you) moved to Denver at the end. Was this true?
I did move to Denver. There is a bigger dating pool and a bigger yoga community. It was a very interesting and fun experience and it will all be in the sequel. I also lived by myself for the first time. It was a nice step in my life of finding myself and not being influenced by any outside expectations. I was becoming myself and unbecoming everything else.
So “Matilda” and Matilda both moved to Denver. Curious overlap…
It is a fiction book. Some of it is based on truth. I know what did or didn’t happen. On the back it says, “Perception should never be interpreted as truth.” Just because it is my side of the story doesn’t mean that it’s true. Once we realize that our past, or our story, doesn’t dictate who we are, we can disconnect from it. It was three years ago. I’m a totally different person now.
What is different about you now than at that time?
I am now a laughter yoga teacher. I just wanted another certification and I almost didn’t care what it was about. But there is a crazy energy around laughter yoga and that’s been thriving more in my life than asana. I have slowly realized how the past experiences in our lives have built up to these moments. I was a cheerleader in high school and now I cheer on in laughter yoga. Muy bien, muy bien, si!
And your past experiences also led you to being an author.
Sometimes it feels like a dream. I think I will look back in my 80s and think, “In my twenties, I wrote an erotic romance novel about yoga.” Who does that? I felt like it would help people. It’s very uplifting and pretty positive. It was my book of what I wanted to share with the universe. Plus, sex sells! I gave people what they want with the underlying messages of acceptance and love and peace and cleanliness for the planet.
It was brave of you to put yourself out there as the yoga community can tend to sway towards the pure.
My book might be a little risqué, with the drug use and sex, but it opens up people’s minds and lets them see what they judge. It can teach people about themselves. A lot of times there are expectations that we are perfect in certain ways when we do yoga. I mean, I try everyday, but I’m not perfect at anything!
We have a lot in common with you, Matilda and “Matilda.” Perfect in our imperfections!
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