Stay up-to-date on the latest from Asheville Yoga Center with our blog! Meet our teachers and hear them share more about their lives and yoga practice. Read tips on how to integrate yoga more deeply into your life off the mat. Learn more about inspirational teacher training programs, and discover new ways to deepen your practice!
Self-love is the practice of connecting to your True Nature. It involves seeing yourself and others as more than this body-mind complex. It involves seeing yourself and others as Brahman.
This month at Asheville Yoga Center, our Teacher of the Month is Ashlee Dunn.
Ashlee has been a yoga teacher for 25 years. She has taught classes, developed yoga programs, and guided workshops and retreats throughout the United States. Ashlee has also studied yoga extensively in India and has certifications in multiple forms of yoga.
Drishti is a Sanskrit word meaning “gaze” or “sight”. During a yoga class, drishti represents a visual point that your eyes can focus on during asanas.
Sharing yoga allows me to share a part of who I am. A part that brings me to life, each time I step on the mat and then off.
This September at Asheville Yoga Center, we turn our focus to “Honoring the Elements.” In yogic tradition, there are five main elements: Earth, Air, Water, Fire, and Space. Each carries its own unique qualities, yet they work in harmony to form the building blocks of the Universe. We too are composed of these elements, intertwined with the oneness of all existence.
Teaching and sharing yoga is an integral part of my personal yoga practice. Not everyone needs to teach and share yoga in order to practice yoga. After years of teaching yoga, it’s become a discipline, and in some ways has informed how I understand myself and the world around me.
The journey of yoga has helped walk me through the valley’s, showing and gifting opportunities of patience and humbleness. It helps me learn and teach within all ages and stages, all walks of being and really assists in preparing all of us to be ready for anything. It is a choice and it is work. Diligence and radical kindness is beautiful. I am love and strive to continue to be a sanctuary for all to be supported.
What I love most about teaching yoga is that it opens up a world of self-discovery and wonder. This journey isn’t just about exploring the Self and recognizing one’s worth and uniqueness; it also unveils hidden potentials that can heal, inspire, and contribute to a better world. As a Tantra yoga teacher, I believe that offering the right techniques and practices can empower anyone, enhancing their lives and benefiting our community. When a student connects with the timeless beauty and bliss of Nature and their own true nature, or when their Inner Sage awakens, I feel that I am truly serving a greater purpose. This brings me immense joy.
My initial experience with Yoga was a class with Jonny Kest back in 1999 in Royal Oak, MI. It was a Vipassanā meditation combined with what is now called Yin Yoga. We held each posture for about 3-5 minutes while focusing on the breath until we chose to rest. It helped me focus my attention and develop impulse control in a way that inspired me immensely. I went on to sit three 10-day Vipassanā retreats, traveled to India and completed many Yoga teacher trainings to teach it full time for the last 20 years.
I find the sacred union that we experience through yoga to be the most sensational feeling. To be able to hold space and honor these ancient practices in a safe and loving community is incredibly rewarding. I love supporting people as they grow and evolve, and sharing this sacred practice and goal of self realization.
– Mary Oliver
Sign up for our newsletter
