ASHLEY STEVICK, E-RYT 200, RYT 500

I've been teaching yoga in John Day since the spring of 2018. While I'm presently on a sabbatical from teaching to care for my body and vitality, I do plan to return to teaching when the time is right.

Please see Brash Yoga — mine and Brandy Berlin's love child — for current classes led by Brandy and Justina.

My relationship to yoga changed quite a bit during 2022.  My pregnancy and subsequent miscarriage got me moving more slowly and tenderly with myself. Then a few events shook my foundation and opened my eyes to the state of ongoing burnout that had become my normal for the last decade. So I'm doing things a bit differently these days.

Initially a power yoga instructor, I've shifted toward gentler practices that support nervous system resilience and trauma healing.  I still love a sweaty vinyasa class, and (not but) my experiences and interests have taken me in other directions. I'm loving what I'm learning as well as the grounding and healing I'm experiencing in my own body.

Lately, I've been studying with Hilary Jackendoff and diving deeper into the practice of Yoga Nidra, a beginner-friendly guided meditation practice that addresses the common pain points of anxiety, stress, and troubled sleep. (If ya want to, check out my blog post Rest is the Best! A Tale of Burnout, Trauma, & Yoga Nidra.) I'm following along with teachers such as Kimberly Johnson and Kristine Weber and their work around nervous system resilience. These practices and teachings layer on nicely with a particular style of Yin called Evoke Energy Yoga, developed by Brandy Berlin and Suzy Aragon, that has been present in my personal practice and teaching since the beginning.

I moved to John Day, Oregon from Montana in 2016. I feel at home among the mountains, and I love being on the water. I am dog mom to Miles, partner to Kevin, and an amateur gardener. 

I'm also a human rights activist. Prior to yoga, I worked on reproductive rights and general healthcare reform professionally in Montana. Since moving to John Day, I've organized a handful of visibility events, including our BLM March in July 2020 which had more local attendees per capita than New York City.

Turns out yoga goes hand in hand with community and activism. Susanna Barkataki states it best: "Practicing Ahimsa is ensuring others have the right to life, safety, happiness, liberation, and body autonomy. As a yoga practitioner, living by yoga ethics like the Yamas ensures I will do all I can to support rights for all. We will not cooperate with the coercive policing of reproductive rights. And we will stand for these rights for all. Patriarchy, misogyny, and supremacy harms us all. Inside a system of structural violence, being nonviolent actually looks like speaking up, standing up to harm."

• BA in Communication Studies & Psychology, Carroll College, Helena, MT, 2007

• Helena High School, Helena, MT, 2001