Energy Alchemy

Energy Alchemy is the process of transforming dense, stuck energy into calm, clarity and lightness.

Through movement, breathwork, chanting and visualisation, you will learn to channel stress, anxiety and stuck emotions into fuel for a quieter mind, a calmer nervous system and a deeper connection to yourself.

The world is not okay right now.

The stability most of us grew up with is gone.

And you are not okay either. Not really.

You’re functioning. You’re getting through it.

But there’s a version of you that used to feel steady, and you haven’t seen that version in a while.

Join the waitlist to be the first to hear when enrollments open and save $200.

What changes when you do this work

Energy Alchemy is an eighteen-week, in-person program that teaches you to work with your energy directly, so the change happens at the level where you actually feel it.

Within the first few weeks, most people notice a quieter nervous system. Clearer thinking. Better sleep. Less reactivity in the moments that used to tip you over the edge.

As the work deepens, your relationship with your own mind changes. Anxiety, heaviness and the harder emotional states stop being things that happen to you. They become energy moving through a system you know how to work with.

People around you will notice before you do. You’ll be kinder to yourself and less at the mercy of your own internal weather.

Imagine getting to the end of a hard week without it costing you the whole weekend. That is where this work takes you, and it stays with you long after the program ends.

This is an energy problem

Most people assume the way they feel is just who they are. Anxious by nature. Easily overwhelmed.

That’s not a personality. Your energy is running the show. And until you work with it at the level where it actually lives, nothing changes at the level where you feel it.

Why nothing has worked

You’ve tried all the things. The books, the podcasts, the workshops, the courses.

You felt something shift. But it didn’t last. The knowledge never got embedded. It stayed in your head instead of changing how you actually function.

That’s not a willpower problem. It’s an energy problem.

The scattered thinking and overwhelm aren’t personality flaws. They’re symptoms of rajasic energy. A system running too hot, with nowhere to discharge.

And then the crash. The heaviness, the dullness, feeling stuck and the inability to start anything. That’s tamasic energy. The opposite state, but the same problem. Most people swing between the two and assume that’s just how they are. It isn’t. It’s what an unworked energy system does under sustained pressure.

You can’t think your way out of an energy problem. And you can’t fix it by adding more information. It needs an energetic solution.

Yoga understood this. It’s a system for a reason, designed to work through the layers of our being in a specific order. Most modern wellness culture skips straight to the mind and wonders why nothing sticks.

Energy Alchemy doesn’t start with the mind. It starts underneath it.

This is the work of transmuting energy, not managing it.

Yoga recognises five layers of being.

Most of us only work with two: the body and the mind.

Between them sits the energy body, governing your nervous system, your breath and your emotional states. This is the layer most people never work with directly. And it’s the reason working on the mind alone rarely produces lasting change.

The energy body has a structure. The lower centres govern survival, desire and personal power. When this foundation is unstable, your system runs on reactivity. You push too hard, then crash.

A lot of modern spiritual work skips straight to the upper centres.

At first it can feel profound. But if the foundation isn’t solid, expanded awareness has nowhere to go. You feel more, but you can’t hold it. And then you wonder why you feel anxious and overwhelmed.

Think of it like an electrical system. If you increase the current without upgrading the wiring and the earthing, you blow a fuse.

We upgrade the wiring first.

Your body gets stronger and your nervous system more resilient. Your mind becomes easier to direct, and when awareness expands, this time it has somewhere to go.

Now is the time for Yoga

There is a way through this. Not around it.

The Yoga Sutras open with two words: atha yoga.

Now, yoga. Not when things settle down. Now.

When things feel uncertain, the instinct is to wait. To sit it out.

But waiting is not neutral.

The cost of waiting isn’t just time. It’s who you become in the waiting. More uptight and more exhausted, until you start to believe that’s just how you are now. It isn’t. It’s what happens when your energy is running the show and you don’t yet have the tools to change that.

Certainty isn’t coming. The people who thrive in uncertainty won’t be the ones who waited until they felt ready. They’ll be the ones who built the internal capacity to meet it.

You were not made to sit on the sidelines of your own life.

You were made for these times.

This is how you show up for them.

Why I Teach This

This is not theoretical for me.

I dug myself out of a cancerous hole with this work. Not as a wellness experiment, but because I needed something that actually worked when my life fell apart.

This is the work I used to manage my emotions, my energy and my nervous system when the stakes were as high as they get.

It’s what helped me get beneath the surface layer of my mind: the part that wants to judge, control and make everything a certain way just so I can feel okay.

It didn’t fix everything. But it gave me something to stand on when the ground disappeared.

I created this program because I couldn’t find anything like it anywhere. Most programs either stay on the surface, feel-good yoga with a bit of breathwork, or go so deep into spiritual theory that there’s nothing practical to take home. I wanted something that was both rigorous and grounded.

Something that worked in real life, when the shit hits the fan, not just in a retreat bubble.

I also created it because of what I see happening to people right now.

We are more scattered, more distracted and more addicted than at any point in human history.

Our attention is being pulled in a thousand directions simultaneously and most people have no idea how to pull it back.

They have lost contact with their own energy.

They are running on empty, reactive, and disconnected from themselves, and no amount of scrolling, Netflix or online shopping is filling that hole.

People need practical tools to reclaim their energy, harness it and direct it. That’s what this program teaches.

And I created it because of what I watched happening in Yoga Alchemy. People were showing up for the deeper work but they weren’t ready for it. Not because they weren’t committed, but because they lacked the energetic groundedness and nervous system foundation required to access higher states of consciousness safely and sustainably. They needed this first.

Energy Alchemy is that foundation.

Monica Rottmann

Monica founded Cultivate Calm Yoga in East Brisbane in 2013 and has been teaching for over 14 years. She is a Senior Level 3 Yoga Teacher with a Bachelor of Behavioural Science (Psychology), an NLP Practitioner, and a Reiki and Ashati Master.

Her particular knack is weaving ancient yogic wisdom with modern psychology and neuroscience, so the practices make sense to your rational mind while working on the parts of you it can’t reach.

Nothing she teaches is theoretical. Monica has used this work through the hardest chapters of her own life, and it shows in how she holds a room: compassionate about how hard it is to be human, and firm about what it takes to change.

If you want a teacher who will meet you with kindness and still tell you the truth, you’ll like working with her.

Let’s Be Clear

This is not talk therapy and it is not a sharing circle.

There is no group processing. No one will ask you to share unless you want to.

What we are doing is transmuting energy, and that happens inside you, not in a room full of other people’s problems.

If you’re someone who finds group work draining, who leaves workshops feeling like you’ve absorbed everyone else’s energy, this is structured specifically so that doesn’t happen.

The group provides accountability and momentum. What you do with your own inner work stays yours.

There is no 1-1 support and no support between sessions. Questions are welcome in the room. Outside of that, the work is yours to do.

That’s not a limitation. That’s the point.

This program is about building your own capacity, not your reliance on me.

This is for you if you’re ready to go within.

If you’re ready to stop numbing and managing, and start doing the work you’ve been quietly avoiding.

Energy Alchemy helps you find your way back.

Join the waitlist to be the first to hear when enrollments open and save $200.

The Investment

When you join, you get a private portal with guided video practices and every session recording, so you can practise whenever and wherever suits you. You keep lifetime access to all of it, and you walk away with a daily practice that’s yours long after the program ends.

For those who are ready, this is $3,000 upfront, or a $500 deposit followed by $140 per week for 20 weeks. Longer payment plans are available on request, so we can find something that works for you.

This is an investment in the most important infrastructure you have, your own inner stability.

Who This Is For

You’ve touched that place of stillness within. Maybe at the end of a yoga class, maybe in a moment of unexpected quiet. A fleeting sense of bliss, of coming home to yourself. And you want more of that, as a way of living rather than a reward at the end of a hard week.

You’re ready to go beneath the surface. Beneath the job title and the persona you’ve built to get through the demands of daily life. You want to know who you are under all of that.

You want to immerse yourself in the philosophy of yoga because something in you recognises it as true. You want to understand what you’re actually doing on the mat and why it works.

You are ready for the next level of your practice. Not more advanced postures. More depth, and more access to the awareness that was always there, waiting beneath the noise.

You are done with the revolving door of new things. You are ready to go deep into one system and stay there long enough for it to change something real.

This program is particularly well-suited to empaths and introverts who have struggled with group work in the past.

This is not for you if:

You crave novelty and get bored with repetition. The work is deliberately cumulative. If you need things to keep changing to stay interested, this will frustrate you.

You are in acute distress or in the acute stages of PTSD or CPTSD. This is not trauma therapy and is not designed to replace it.

You are looking for a quick fix or a peak experience. This is slow, deliberate work.

The Guarantee

If you complete the program and do the work without experiencing a meaningful shift, you can repeat the program at no cost the next time it runs.

The work works when you do it. I’m that confident in it.

The Three Phases

Phase 1: Stabilise the Foundation

Before energy can move, it needs somewhere safe to ground. We begin with the body and the breath, learning to read the nervous system and work with it rather than against it. From there, we move into the architecture of the energy body: the lower triangle chakras, the nadi system, the koshas and the gunas. This is the map. By the end of Phase 1, you’ll have a working language for what’s happening inside you and the first tools to do something about it.

Phase 2: Opening the Flow

This is where things ignite. Stuck energy has a history, and Phase 2 goes into the mechanics of that: what samskaras are, how they form, and the emotional patterns they leave behind. We work with the emotional body directly here, learning to identify what’s running underneath and how to transmute the heavier emotions so they don’t get stuck. This is where kundalini moves from concept to lived experience, and where the energy body begins to open in ways you can actually feel.

Phase 3: Master Your Energy

Awareness without discernment only gets you so far. Phase 3 is about developing the skill of reading your own energetic state in real time and knowing what to do with what you find. As your energy stabilises and clears, your awareness sharpens with it. You see your own patterns without being run by them. This is where everything you’ve built starts to feel like yours.

Dates

18 July to 13 November 2026

Weekly on Saturdays, 10.30am to 12.00pm, in the studio.

Monica facilitates all sessions, except the last Saturday of each month, which is led by Ruth Warren.

All sessions are recorded if you can’t attend live.

The next round commences in  2027.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is this different from coming to classes?

A class is a standalone experience. There is no curriculum and no daily practice building between sessions.

Energy Alchemy builds week on week over 18 weeks. You leave with a daily practice that is yours permanently, and lifetime access to all recordings and materials. If you’ve been coming to classes for years and feel like something is missing, this is probably what’s missing.

Is it worth the investment?

This program is not for everyone, and it’s not priced for everyone. If you are in genuine financial distress, come to classes and return when you’re ready.

For those who are ready, consider what you are actually getting: eighteen weeks of structured in-person work, a daily practice that is yours permanently and lifetime access to the portal and all recordings. Most people have spent more than $3000 over the years on things that gave them a temporary lift and left them back where they started. This is a different kind of investment.

And it is backed by the guarantee above.

I can’t make every session.

Life happens. We don’t expect you to attend every session; that’s why we record them.

The recordings will be yours to keep, so you can do the program over and over at a time that works for you.

Do I need to be an experienced yogi?

You don’t need to have been practising for years or know your Sanskrit. What you do need is a basic familiarity with showing up for yourself on a mat. You’ll also need to be able to sit comfortably on the floor. More than anything, you need to be ready to commit to a regular practice.

How is this different from therapy?

This is not therapy and it is not a replacement for it. If you are in acute distress or the active stages of trauma processing, this is not the right program for you.

Therapy works top-down, through conversation and insight. This works bottom-up, through the body and the energy system. You can understand exactly why you’re anxious and still be anxious.

Many people who’ve spent years in therapy find that this reaches places talking never did. Not because therapy isn’t valuable, but because it operates at a different layer.

What does a session actually look like?

Each session is 90 minutes. We open with breathwork to settle the nervous system, move through a kundalini-style kriya sequence, and close with chanting, meditation or visualisation. Theory is woven through, so you understand what you’re doing and why. There will be time for questions.

You leave each session with something to take into your daily practice that week. Over 18 weeks that accumulates into a complete practice that is yours to keep.

I don’t have time.

If you genuinely don’t have 20 to 45 minutes a day and 90 minutes a week, this is not the right time.

But if you’re honest with yourself, time is probably not the real issue. Most people who say they don’t have time have watched television this week. They’ve scrolled. The question isn’t whether you have time. It’s whether this is how you want to use it.

What most people find within the first few weeks is that the daily practice makes the rest of the day function better. You get the time back in focus and in the absence of the low-grade mental churn that was quietly eating it anyway.

What if I sign up and don’t like it?

The best way to make sure this is the right fit before you commit is to meet me first. Come to a class or workshop at the studio.

Listen to the podcast to get a feel for the philosophy and how I think.

If after that something resonates, you’ll know.

Who else will be in the room?

The program is open to men and women. These people are committed to showing up for themselves.

That’s the calibre of person you’ll be working alongside.

Now is not the right time, when will you run it again?

If you’re thinking of leaving it until next year, one thing worth knowing: this is the only round in 2026, and it’s the last one I expect to run on a weekend for a while. My daughter starts school next year, so from 2027 the program will be delivered in school hours, which might not suit you.

That’s not meant as pressure. If next year is genuinely the right time for you, it’ll still be here, just on a different day. I’d rather you choose to wait knowing what it actually involves than assume there’ll be another easy weekend round in a few months.

A Final Note

You have been looking for a long time. The books, the retreats, the therapy, the courses. Each one promised something. None of them gave you the thing you were actually looking for.

Here’s what nobody told you: the thing you’re looking for isn’t out there. It never was.

The peace and clarity you’re after is not something you find. It’s something you uncover. It’s already here, underneath the accumulated years of stress and noise.

You don’t need another program to add something to you. You need a process that strips back what’s in the way.

That’s what this is. A revealing.

This is a living, in-person program held by someone who has spent over a decade refining this work.

If you’ve been practising with me for a while, you already know what I mean.

If you’re new to my work, the best way to get a feel for how I think and teach is to listen to the podcast or come to a class or workshop. Both will give you a sense of whether this is the right fit before you apply.

This program is the foundation. It is the prerequisite for Yoga Alchemy, the deeper, longer program for those ready to go further.

You’ll feel it if this is right for you.

Join the waitlist to be the first to hear when enrollments open and save $200.