Who I am and What I am about

I’m Ashley, and I run this place. I’m a yoga teacher, mentor, coach, and fitness health and wellness educator by trade. Studio owner, creative director, conductor, and program coordinator who is passionate about living life in its fullest expression.

I am dedicated to inspiring authenticity, challenging those whom work with me to take themselves serious in commitment, but playful in approach. Compassionately, when we can drop our limitations, acting from our truest self, we have our greatest strength to create, do, and be anything we put our mind in. Our uniqueness is a gift that we can cultivate, animate, and share as our passion, purpose, natural good, and essentially the thing that we can grow to its highest potential.

I founded Element in 2009 based upon my experience of working in St. Louis in the studio environments and seeing a need here in Columbia for the space we now call hOMe. I had taught in the corporate and gym settings in Columbia, but wanted to create an environment for my fellow yoga teachers and I to hold space for individuals seeking to unify the elements of whole health from within. Element was founded as a space where each practitioner is challenged to reach into what is at the roadblock of their own inner and outer evolution, accept the truth, and illuminate their consciousness.

Whether I am teaching one person or hundreds, the process I teach is one of honor and balance. Playfulness, humor, curiosity, humility, and self-inquiry are the methods I employ for illuminating each unique practitioners assets, innate wisdom, and qualities that make them extraordinary. I connect with each individual and teach them how to customize their practice (on and off the mat) to be a reflection of personal style, need, and desire, to achieve abundant joy and lasting peace.

I love working within a group setting, as it is the breeding ground for the tribe and the community we are developing at Element. I allow the vibe of the group who attends to determine the emphasis in our work together. As we amplify our prana and raise our vibration, I believe it is necessary to individualize and customize the process, rather it is to one student or to many, as I am a teacher who is invested in each student.

My Method

My methodologies are based from my degree in Nutrition and Fitness from the University of Missouri, Columbia and my studies with Manju Jois (Ashtanga), Sarah Powers (Insight Yoga), Simon Park, Gina Caputo, and Shiva Rea (PranaFlow®), and Beth Shaw (YogaFit®). I enjoy practicing yoga with all teachers of Element, in addition to my “om away from om” at Om on the Range in Chicago, a Baptiste Studio.

My Story

My passion to teach and lead others into self-empowerment came from an accident in 2005 that rendered my neck immobile. I was told that to be able to have full range of motion regained that I would require surgery. At the young age of 23, I was not satisfied with this approach. I knew my body had an innate ability to heal and was not prepared for a life of pill popping and the aches of arthritic development in my neck. I had seen too much of what this does to one’s quality of life from working in the pharmaceutical industry since 1997. I was determined to find a better solution, starting with my yoga class. I immersed myself with a Bryan Kest inspired class several times a week. My personal practice grew out of the days that no classes were offered. In 6 months, my neck had regained full range of motion, and no surgery was needed.

In 2006, I began my quest to teach yoga. Two dedicated years later, I was a certified yoga instructor and made the decision to leave the pharmaceutical industry. This was a pivotal part of my yoga process and journey to teach others about “the self” through physical, mental, psychological, emotional, and spiritual techniques and practices. No longer was I the girl who was dabbling in my passion, I had taken my toes out of the pool and jumped into the ocean, wild and free.

Where I am and What I am up to NOW

I live with my youngest sister Chelsea in CoMo, where I was born and bred. I own, direct, and coordinate Element, a yoga and health studio filled with my favorite people (teachers, friends, students, and ‘yoga family’), where no one takes themselves too seriously – laughter is highly encouraged.

When not practicing, teaching, or blogging about yoga, or attending The Crossing + brunch with my sisters, I am busy living up life with Jim (alias’ Jimbo, Jimmers, and “Bear”), the love of my life. We are about travel, and adventures that take us to far away and near destinations, especially relaxing on the Temperpedic watching the latest episodes of True Blood. I love tomatoes, he loves ketchup, and together, we are the perfect sauce!

As for my recent project, I have launched the Element Yoga and Health Studio Teacher Training Program for 2011. The third segment kicks off April 2012 in studio! This program is for those who are done with playing it small and ready to magnify authenticity, unapolegetically, unabashedly, expanding, expanding their edge, infusing their unique talents and strengths, respectfully to the roots of yoga. This is an art and talent that we will cultivate, explore, animate, expand, and unify. Only the seriously playful will apply.