Hello … My name is Mia Kelly … My birth name is Maria Kelly but I go by Maria … I was born in Lagrange Illinois but was raised in Lyons Illinois … Now here I am in the city of Chicago … I’m 28 years old … and I love travel because I was born and raised in a rather small suburb just south west of Chicago … I always had big dreams of seeing the whole world and I absolutely  love travel … These last couple of years I’ve been to Central America … I’ve been to Canada … I’ve been to Mexico and I most recently came back from India … I think I’ve been … and I saw a little bit of  Europe on my way to India … So I think I’ve been to a total of ten countries which I’m very … very … thankful for … So … it’s always been my little girl dream to do art as a living and to travel … but little did I know I would become a yogini in the mix of it all … So here I am doing yoga and meditation every single day … It’s my practice and it’s changed my life … As far as modeling … I more so consider myself an art model … because I’m always posing at either the Highland Park Art Center … Platform studios … Palette and Chisel … I have this shoot and I have one shoot lined up for next month … But what I’m saying is it’s rare that I do shoots now … it’s more that I’m live modeling a lot … So I still have my work out there … It’s Mia Kelly Art Model … That’s how I like to term it now … but I can talk about the transition of  how I was more burlesque dancer … pin up model … fetish model … and transitioned into a yogini … Like mud with a lotus flower …  and now I’m like fully bloomed …  Yeah … I definitely consider myself an art model … If anyone was to check out my instagram page it says my name and it says that I’m a makeup artist … it says I’m a yoga instructor … it says that I’m an art model … That’s what I always like to put myself out there as … That’s the work I hope to always see come in and manifest in my life … I absolutely love doing makeup … I love art modeling … and I love teaching yoga … My big goal is to continuously do what I love … I had a series of years in which I was stuck working in restaurants or at one point I even had an office job … I was doing these different jobs just to get by … A lot of artists do what they need to do to get buy … And I saw that wearing and tearing on my sole … constantly doing these things that I didn’t like just to get the money … So I’m really trying to brand myself as a yoga instructor …makeup artist … art model … and hoping to manifest that into my life continuously … But it’s definitely not easy … So … that’s career stuff … What had happened with the transition in my life … I basically came to a point where I was living in a house full of artists … Again … I was born and raised in the south west burbs of Chicago … and eventually … because I was doing burlesque all the time … I was averaging two to three shows a week … I was always doing photoshoots … I was in the peak of my career …I even landed myself in a magazine called Show Class magazine … I was really like living it … So I got this opportunity to live in this house full of artists in Logan Square in Chicago … I lived with them … I loved them … They were family to me … But towards the end … I lived there a total of two years … Towards the end … it was just too much chaos … Working all the jobs I was … living  in this house filled with people … there was just too much going on … Basically there was no peace … and that’s what I had been looking for … I knew it was possible … I knew that I saw people who were happy all around me all the time … And my lifestyle at that time was just not peaceful … I guess looking back on it … wow … what I was looking for was peace … I didn’t know that at the time … but I was defiantly looking for some peace and some inner tranquility … some inner calm … I was looking for real happiness … What had happened with the transition was the very first place that I found … thinking back … was the Temple of Kriya Yoga … and that was just walking distance from my house at the time in Logan Square … Maybe just a five minutes walk … So … As soon as I found that place … and I went in and I sat down … I was also raised strictly religious and then I rebelled against the religion … I was a party animal … The first concert that I ever went to was just around the block … at the Aragon Ballroom … It was to see Rob Zombie … I became … like a groupie for Rob Zombie … I totally had rebelled against religion … I never thought I’d find myself in this … again … temple … But what drew me there … and what I found solace in … was … I walked in … and no-one  approached me afterwards … or was trying to push anything on me … in fact … nobody talked to me at all … and I actually liked that … I liked this feeling of not being recognized … I liked the feeling of … yeah … just being alone … and being in this dark … Buddhist temple … just being able to sit there … with thoughts … or no thoughts … or whatever came up … I started to feel a little bit of peace … and I felt the general peace in the room … So … That was my first taste of what peace might be to me … And I knew it was just a five minute walk from my house … So … I started going more and more … and eventually I just knew that I needed to quit my jobs … I needed to move back to … move back to the burbs … I needed to start traveling … I just knew that these things in my life just had to change … And I made some major … major changes in my life at that time … And that was about three years ago … So around that time … once I moved out of Logan Square … I stopped drinking alcohol … I stopped eating meat … I fully submerged myself on the path that I saw was truly bringing me this inner calm … this inner peace … It definitely … again … scared me … because I was raised super religious … and that was something that I had rebelled against … did not find comfort in … did not find peace in … or did not find love in … It was hard for me to make this transition because it took a lot of … the ego falling away … Ok … Just shut up ego … Just shut up whatever you’re saying … Whatever you think those people are … There was a lot of … Oh … What if this happens … I was just so hesitant to even get into this culture … I just knew in my heart … If I could just drop the ego … If I could just drop that talk about what happened in my childhood … If I could just drop that all … and surrender … and trust … there might just be a better life for me … So I continue to follow this path and … and follow this path … and follow this path … Eventually … I found … The beginning of last year … Its called Sat Nam Yoga Chicago … It’s in the west loop of Chicago … It was January of 2017 … Again … I had already been on the path for a couple of years … of self improvement … doing a lot of hard work on myself … I just happened to find Sat Nam … And what I love about that place that not a lot of other places had was a true sense of community … Everyone gathered around after they did their yoga … and they specialized in Kundalini Yoga … So … everyone would gather around after they did this very intense kundalini  yoga exercises … and they would gather around for tea time … and people were just talking … they were talking about life … they were talking about their dogs … they were talking about traveling … and I just met a lot of like minded individuals … I truly felt a sense of home … So … I kept on going … kept on going … went all last year and basically … And … the biggest transformation in my life has just occurred … in which I just came back from India … from studying in India … And … if it wasn’t for that yoga studio in the west loop of Chicago … I swear to this day … I say I would have never went to India … but … because of that yoga studio in the west loop … They’re so traditional … and so true to the practice … in the sense that there’s chanting … there’s mediation … there’s mantras … It just really had the traditional aspect to it … and the spiritual aspect to it … So … Yeah … My whole mind was blown … And I’m … ok … if I love it this much … and I’m not inspired to study in Chicago … because I’ve been here my whole life … and if I’m not inspired to study yoga here … I’m going to go study where yoga came from … which is India … I’m going to go there … Plus … I met a woman on my path … and she told me … You’re interested in yoga … You’re on the path … You love meditation … Go to India … And she had already been on the path … so to speak … for several years … she’s maybe in her early sixties … and she came upon my path … and she’s like … Ok … If you’re so passionate … So inspired … You have nothing holding you down … You’re not married … You don’t have kids … Go to India … She just reassured me … It will change your life … just go … and it was really just a matter of ok … shut up ego … shut up fear … I’m just going … I’m doing it … Don’t get me wrong … It was one of the scariest experiences of my life … and I was there for five weeks … It was definitely not easy … There were a lot of  hard parts  …  I made a whole YouTube video about this … All the pros … I listed three pros to India and then three cons … because with all the ups I had … there were an equal amounts of downs … It’s not an easy country to travel in … In fact … I just had this conversation with someone … and they’re like … Oh man … I’ve been in India several times … He’s like … that’s the hardest country to travel in … And I’m like … Yeah … Again it was hard … but that’s what … that’s what built my character … I came back a totally new person … Little things don’t stress me out anymore … oh … ok … my check engine light is on … Whatever … Things like that used to get under my skin … Now … things might be happening to in my personal life … and I’m able to let it go … let it go … let it go … It furthered my Yogic practice by simply letting things go … Because things can always be so much worse … I saw people whose conditions were a lot worse … and I felt such compassion … such love … I really felt for everything I saw out there … It definitely brought my ass down to earth … I’m very glad to be back … and to be teaching now … and my whole life is totally transformed … And I want to go back … it was an experience that changed me … and shaped me so much … that I know it would only benefit me to go back to that country again … I would highly recommend anyone from the USA to go to India … I loved it … That’s the transition in a nutshell … And here I am … As I said … I did make YouTube videos … I go by Devine Healing Arts now … My healing business … Not only do I teach yoga privately … I also offer Reiki healing sessions and card readings as well … My business is now known as Divine healing Arts … because my stage name used to be Mia Divine … So … I wanted to keep that thread alive … I think it’s super cute … So yeah … I was inspired to make a YouTube channel because a lot of my other friends … who are also healers … they have You Tube channels … and … it’s definitely helped them … So … I made this one video … and in this video list three pros and then three cons about my … or three really really great things … and three really really bad things about my trip overall … because it was five weeks … I did so much … Not only was I there studying yoga … but I ended up traveling outside of Rishikesh … Seeing Buddhist monasteries … temples … I hiked 4000 feet up a mountain to see the Himalayas … I saw waterfalls … I crossed bridges every single day to see all different parts of town … I did a lot … other then just being stuck in a building studying yoga for four weeks … Thank goodness … I was so ambitious to get out there and really explore and see the land … So … With all that I did in five weeks … The one con … or the one downside that comes to mind … which actually had me cancel one part of my trip … because again … I was there a total of five weeks and at the end of the forth week I graduated … So I knew I had one full week to do whatever I wanted … Whatever the hell I wanted … and this one down side to the trip actually got me down so bad … that I actually cancelled that part of the trip … I was going to go from the west side of India to the east side … to this area that’s called Bodh Gaya … and I’d heard Bodh Gaya was the place … everybody’s heard of Buddha attaining this enlightenment underneath a tree … Bodh Gaya is where the actual tree is … And everyone takes pilgrimages there … You know … it’s a sacred site … Ok … If I’m in the Holy Land … Who know’s if I’m ever going to be here again … I want to take the flight and see the place … The point is … I ended up cancelling the flight … I may have only gotten $50.00 back … I definitely did lose a lot of money … But I was so petrified when I first arrived … because everyone had warned me that I was going to get sick … in fact … I was working at a yoga studio before I went out there … It’s called Nature Yoga Sanctuary … My friend working there … Nicole … She looked at me and said … Do not drink the water … You will get violently sick … She wasn’t just … Don’t drink the water … She emphasized … You will get violently ill if you drink the water … She looked me in the eye’s … She was vey serious … and I’m … Ok (laughter) … Because people had warned me … Don’t drink the water … You know … You’ve been to Mexico … You’ve been to Central America … Don’t drink the water … I thought … ok … Just don’t drink the water … And I thought … I should probably make a mental note of this … and I should probably get that life straw water bottle that everybody’s been telling me about … It’s built in with a filtration system … I’m ok … Easy peasy … I’ll buy the water bottle … I’ll be fine … So … This is what happens … I go there … I’m prepared … I have my filtered water bottle … I’m there for the first three days … Everything’s going groovy … It’s now the forth night … and everybody’s gathering up to meet each other … It’s the forth night leading up to the very first day of yoga training … So everyone around the table … loud chatter … again … 15 to 20 of us … I remember we were all eating the same thing … I remember specifically what I was eating that night … I go back to my room … And I was excited … slash … nervous … First day of school feeling … I went to lay down … and I remember this stabbing pain in my abdomen … I was violently ill for hours into the night … Thank goodness it was a passing thing … I did miss the first full day of class … Totally sucked … But I was back by the second day of class … It was a passing thing … but for those 24 hours I was petrified because I had never been that ill before in my life … Ever … It got to a point where others had to help me … Thank God I was by my phone … I picked up my phone and we were messaging in a group … We had this group thread going on … I’m … Hey guys … you’re going to have to come into my room and help me … I was so debilitated … They had to bring me toilet paper … They brought me herbal remedies … They brought me water bottles … They brought me food … I couldn’t do anything … So … What went wrong? … I was drinking from the filtered water bottle … I did message the group and ask … hey … did anyone else get sick? … We all ate the same thing … Just a couple of hours after I ate with everyone was when I became violently ill … Even one of the teachers asked if I wanted them to take me to the hospital … And I was … absolutely not … I just got to India … I’m not going to the hospital … training is starting today … It was just my mentality … But again … it was a whole situation … They messaged back … and all fifteen of them were on this thread … And all of them confirmed … no one else got sick … So it wasn’t the food I ate that night … I was the only one that had gotten it …  So … I’m convinced that it was just maybe how I was brushing my teeth with the sink water … Which I do  remember … Thinking back … The sink water did kind of smell like rotten eggs … I shouldn’t have gone near it … But I think that maybe it was the three days brushing my teeth with the sink water that eventually caught up to me … I don’t know … I went there … I was very smart … I was highly warned … Do not drink the water … I had my filtered water bottle … I don’t eat meat … I know a lot of westerners get super sick when they go out there … they get some bad meat or something … I don’t eat meat … It’s one of those things that’s kind of unavoidable … My friend … Roman … He laughed with me … “You got your India initiation” … Again … You go out there … You’re going to get a little sick … it’s going to a passing thing … But yeah … I cried … I was petrified … I cancelled that one part of my trip … I was like … whoa … If this is this intense … and this is just the  fourth day … I’m not going to the east side all by myself … That’s what I thought … Maybe I had a partner … a boyfriend … a husband … a lover … Maybe if I had someone to go with me … I’m not going to the east side of India all by myself … That’s how scared I got  within those 24 hours … But then again … it was a passing thing … the rest of my trip was amazing … There were some hard moments with the yoga course itself … because I was waking up every morning to do ashtanga yoga … so there were some mornings where it was just … I can’t do this … And actually … a lot of people started feeling that in the training … Everybody was … Oh … Everyones feeling … ten … twenty years older then what they actually are … The training was just so intense … So other then the physical aspect of the training and the physical part about getting violently ill … The physical element in India … was kind of difficult … But in terms of the emotional … mental … like spiritual aspect … that stuff was at a new high … I had never been so emotionally … spiritually … mentally clear in my entire life … Again … Physically I was kind of  … uhh … this trip is kind of hard … Plus I was walking around town everywhere … Here in the midweek I’m used to driving my car everywhere … so when I was in India … I was walking … walking … walking … There was one time I was walking … walking … waking up a hill … and everyones riding their mopeds and their motorcycles … and I remember yelling at this guy … Hey … Hey … Help (laughter) … and he comes back on his moped … and he has me just hop on the back of his moped … and he just … rides me up the hill … because I had just maybe … I don’t know … another 10 or 20 more yards … just a little bit further … It was this hill that I was hiking every single day … and finally … it was almost the last week of my trip … I’m just … Screw it … I started feeling so comfortable in town … You really do get to that point in Rishikesh at least … Rishikesh is super safe … I got to that point … being in that town … I just felt comfortable … I felt it was like home … and I was like … Hey … (laughter) … and he comes back around … And he takes me back up the hill … And I’m… ok … cool … namaste … blessed … And he continues on the way … So everyone there is super helpful … super friendly … I didn’t see any ounce of crime … There’s no gun violence there … There were just so many more beautiful things about it … that … again … things you don’t get here in Chicago … That I knew not to take those beautiful aspects for granted … as much as it was physically … very physically hard … Of course … it was just hard seeing and being around … a lot of poverty … just seeing all this poverty all around you … so much trash … There’s a lot of garbage … There’s cow poop all in the street … There’s dogs wandering around without homes … So … You’re seeing a lot of stuff … But … ultimately … the good … I came back … and I was … I would absolutely do that trip again … because the good absolutely outweighed the bad … like 100% … So that’s what also made me think … In Hinduism there’s non dualism … and if I’m really tapping into that more neutral mind … or that non dualistic mind … nothing is good … and nothing is bad … everything just is … If I really tap into that mindset … India helped me tap into that mindset because you’re immersed in that … and there’s so much bad … “Bad" … that you see all around … But … Again … It felt so good … (laughter) … How can this experience … That was so hard on me physically … sometimes emotionally … How can it be so good … And that’s when I really started tapping into the branch of non dualism … Nothing is neither good nor bad … Everything is just … is … And as soon as we step outside of those mental labels that we are always placing on things … That’s when we can really attain this inner bliss … inner peace … Yeah … Namaste … So … Being a woman in this world … I feel … When I was in India … I understand that … people can see it as a more patriarchal society … I felt … that things are shifting there … as much as things have shifted here … have … have been shifting for a while … But things are definitely shifting there … I was hanging with some younger people … maybe people three … four … five years younger then me … And they seemed like … and they’d never been in the US before … They’d never been to Europe before … They seemed like … they were like me … And it’s … it’s … it’s just really bizarre … I really think that it’s this internet culture … and Facebook … Instagram … it’s connecting us all globally … as one consciousness … I think that is a huge aspect of it … again … I didn’t feel a huge sense of separation … If you’re asking me … as a female … how I felt in a completely different culture in India … I mean … Yeah … There were definitely some people that I interacted with in which their English was so broken … I couldn’t hold long conversations with them … and then there’s going to be a huge barrier … But the locals … The local Indians I met … They spoke fluent English … I felt a bond instantly … It was just so … It was so seamless … And I also felt very safe … As long as I’m not walking around … This is a thing … as long as I’m not walking around … like … the burlesque dancer … It’s all about projection … If you don’t go there as a burlesque dancer … or as a stripper … you’re not going to be approached that way … and that obviously goes in general in life as well … So I went there … I had my white shawl wrapped around my head … I was very modest … I feel the most immodest I was … was when I wore a tank top … something like I’m wearing now … Like a spaghetti  strap top tank top … That was absolutely the most immodest I was … And there was only a problem with that once … And that was when I happened to come across a Sikh temple … I was on the back of a motorcycle with my new friend … Anil … Who is a male … And again … Everything is fine … He happens to be an off duty tour guide … He had told my friend Brenda … who was the woman I meet here in the States … She was the woman who told me to go to India … She ends up going to India herself … There’s this whole story there … Anyway … She’s in India … She’s standing on the street … And Anil comes up on this motorcycle … He’s like … Looks like you need a ride … You need a ride? … Come … Get on my bike … And she’s like … Ok … Again … She was kind of at the point … like I was just describing … when I was going up the hill … and again … it’s so hard to get around there … If you’re a westerner … and you go there … and you’re used to driving a car … you go there … and you’re like … Damn … I have to literally walk everywhere … You’re just walking everywhere on a daily basis … So she was probably at the point I was at … And she got on the back of Anil’s  bike … and that’s when he reveals to her … Oh yeah … I’m an off duty tour guide … As in … like … I work a couple blocks down that way … Basically he know’s everything about India … He speaks perfect English … He’s very cool … He has an awesome motorcycle … He’s just giving her a free ride … No catch … So she tells me all about this story … I end up linking up with Anil … As a friend … because I knew he was a very trustworthy … reliable … local … who knows all about India … and also speaks fluent English … So …I end up hanging out with him my last five days in town … and that’s when I got this chance to go to this Buddhist monastery … maybe an  hour and a half … two hours … from Rishikesh … So that was the furthest I went outside of Rishikesh … And I really got to see rural India … Rural … middle of nowhere … like … how people live in the middle of nowhere … Which was a shock … But we’re kind of just cruising through it … Going super fast … We get to the Buddhist monastery … and it was getting late … and I was getting hungry … Actually … I think it was three hours on that motorcycle … Which … by the way … I would never do here in the States … Motorcycles and me … Um … Not so much any more … But in India everyone rides motorcycles … everyone rides mopeds … It’s just like the culture … It’s just how you get around … And here’s my friend Anil … He has a motorcycle … Alright … It looks like I’m on the back of a motorcycle for three hours … just cruising through India … And so anyway … We go to the monastery … we have a great time at the monastery … I’m coming back … This all goes back to my tank top … What had happened was … very randomly … on the way back … when I was on the back of his motorcycle … He’s like … Hey … Do you see that crowd up there? … I’m … Yeah … What the hell’s going on … This is some kind of annual festival … Everyone waits for this huge festival … Once per year … It’s held at this very traditional Sikh Temple … And we pull up to this Sikh Temple … There’s all these … almost like Christmas lights … just totally enveloping … That’s another thing about India … It’s not just like … oh … someone is having a wedding … It’s so … over the top there … It’s unbelievable … And their temples … And their monasteries … Again … Things that I had never seen before … So I see this grand Sikh temple … lit up in all these lights … Thousands of people outside … Thousands of people inside … and not a single westerner in sight … I was the only westerner in a sea of … because again … we are three hours away from Rishikesh … In Rishikesh you’re going to see a lot of Westerners … You’re going to see a lot of people from all over the world … Because Rishikesh is the yoga capital of the world … so people go there for yoga … or for spiritual purposes … or for whatever … But here … since we’re three hours away … I was the only Westerner … So I will say … It was shocking being treated like a celebrity … And not in an offensive way  … I was not … as a female being there … I was not offended … Everyone wanted a photo with me … Everyone was asking for selfie … selfie … selfie … Because of the blonde hair … Because of my white skin … A lot of them might not have ever seen a white person before … And that’s when I started sensing towards the end of my trip … When I went towards these more rural … of the beaten path places … people were just staring at me … Just … Staring … I was … What the hell … I really want to get to the bottom of this … I understand that it’s maybe my hair … But seriously … Why are you staring at me … And one of my friends just jested … “Dude … They live in the middle of nowhere … They probably have never seen a white person before … that’s why they’re just staring at you” … And other then the staring … I did not feel personally offended when hundreds of people were asking for selfies with me … I was just … great … I’m just grateful that I had Anil there … And Anil is super trustworthy … And he ended up taking me by the arm … And he’s ok … we’re going to beeline straight  through this line … we’re going to zip right through this crowd … It’s the entrance of the temple … and you wont have to worry about any selfies … He started acting like a bodyguard towards me … Which was great … It was definitely what I had needed at the time … or else I would have been swamped if I was by myself … And who knows … who knows … But yeah … I’m very thankful for Anil … and everyone was very respectful … but it was a little bit too much with the selfies … I’ll say that … And also before we officially entered the temple … Because Anil saw that I just had spaghetti straps on … He’s here … put this over you … And he put his jacket over me … He wanted to make sure that my shoulders were covered … That’s something in the temple … you always have to be covered up here (referencing the shoulders) … But again … As a female … Who is a retired burlesque dancer … I’m a Westerner … and I’m used to just wearing basically what I want … Again … Even that wasn’t offensive to me … I understand that being submerged in a different place … you’re in a different culture … country … It’s hard enough that I don’t speak their language … I wish I spoke their language … But … If I can’t do that … I’m at least going to abide by their dress code … You know … That’s how respectful I am … I mean if there’s a certain tradition that they’re following … I will absolutely try my best … But … Yeah … It’s unfortunate that i don’t speak their language … I know one word “Achchha” … And that means good … So I know one word of Hindi (laughter) … But yeah … It was an amazing experience … I didn’t have one … quote on quote … asshole experience the entire time … I have nothing to say that would be negative …