Extreme Yoga poses Virginia

Hey there. I’m Ashley Josephine.

I started practicing yoga to release some stress and stay fit in college. I suffered from pretty bad panic attacks and I needed a way to control them. I’ve never felt great about taking medicine, so I didn’t want to rely on Xanax to cure my anxiety. Unfortunately, my life got so stressful that I started experiencing extreme physical pain in my left chest. I thought I was having a heart attack. It hurt to breathe and to laugh and even to practice yoga. Worst of all, I went to multiple doctors who kept telling me that there was nothing wrong with me! I knew there was something wrong.

Around this time I started a cleanse program at my yoga studio and learned more about Ayurveda and yoga philosophy. This program taught me how to heal my body with yoga without the physical postures and breathing exercises. I started to honor my body and gave myself space to heal. I started learning how to let go. I showed up and committed to a meditation practice, to cold showers in the morning, to eating healthier and to practicing gentler forms of yoga. My pain went away.

Over the years, my yoga practice has helped me connect with likeminded people who support me and love me unconditionally, even when I lived in 5 different states over the course of 3 years. More than anything, my personal studies into yoga philosophy and Ayurveda have taught me how to take back control of my life when everything seems to be out of my control.

Today, I teach busy, Type-A overachiever women like myself how to take back control of their lives and live pain-free through yoga lifestyle practices that include yoga poses, breathing exercises, meditation, nutrition, and self-care rituals.

FUN FACTS

• I grew up in Avon Lake, Ohio
• I had pet turtles when I was little
• The neighbor boy tried to steal them once
• I played golf in high school
• I went to Italy once…for lunch
• I got rejected by the University of Colorado English department’s Creative Writing Program…didn’t let that stop me
• I was the president of a fraternity – yeah, you read that right (it was co-ed)
• I want to be an author when I grow up. I AM AN AUTHOR
• I suffer from a severe phobia of throwing up
• I heart cupcakes
• I started a social media company called The Social Shoppe
• I lived in the same house from the time I was 3 until the day I left for college. Then, in the past 8 years I’ve lived in Boulder, CO (6 years); Wichita Falls, TX (1.5 years); Tucson, AZ (6 months); and Washington DC (current).