Today we’d like to introduce you to Ashley Hixon.
Hi Ashley, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Ultimately, I came to bodywork through my personal yoga practice. I found Ashtanga yoga in Crestone, CO through Annie Pace. I’m very grateful to her for my entry to the world of yoga. She sat down with me, talked me through the 8 limbs of yoga, explained the invocation chanted at the beginning of an Ashtanga practice, and in a sense, the rest is history. The sanskrit invocation resonated with me in a way I couldn’t explain but felt viscerally and still do today.
In June of 2009 I graduated from a 560 hour Advanced Vibrational Medicine program. This was an extensive training on the subtle energy system of the body and various modalities of working with it. Throughout this time period my Ashtanga yoga practice gave me a great template to observe the subtle and gross representations of what I had been studying on a personal level. The way that our posture affects our minds, the way our internal landscape forms our posture, it felt as though it was all exposed and malleable through asana and breathwork.
In November of 2009 I completed Richard Freeman’s 200 hour Teacher Training Intensive and settled back to my native home of Colorado. In 2012 I graduated from Denver Integrative Massage School with a 600 hour training in Thai and Western massage modalities. In 2015 I took a 100hr training with Maty Ezraty that immensely refined my asana practice. The teachings of Maty, Richard, and Mary Taylor continue to guide the way I practice and teach asana. Together they have brought me to a level of refinement and inner space that I hope to guide students into for their own inner exploration and reflection.
In 2016 I began to teach Mysore, the traditional class structure for the Ashtanga lineage, at the Yoga Workshop. It felt like home to me–the strong emphasis on physical adjustments and one-to-one style of instruction fit me like a glove.
I have held a private Thai Massage practice since 2012, with a base in Boulder since 2016.
In 2019 I founded my own Mysore program, Ashtanga Collective. I’ve filmed several classes with Gaia and been featured in Yoga Journal courses as the talent for Richard Rosen and Tom Meyers to name a few.
In 2022 I became a mother, the most rewarding and humbling experience of my life yet. It has softened me, sharpened me, and reshaped my value of time and presence.
After taking some time off to be with my son, I am currently seeing massage and private yoga clients–some of whom have been with me for over a decade! I teach Mysore on Mondays at Ashtanga Collective–up and running in Boulder.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Oh gee, there have been injuries, slow periods, and frantically busy periods!
Generally speaking, it is vulnerable to put yourself out there authentically, without conforming to norms or what you think will appeal others. With teaching, I’ve been challenged to make what I’ve gotten from my personal practice into an accessible format without diluting it into a marketable consumer good. Yoga, especially Ashtanga, can be confronting and uncomfortable. Mysore is a self-led practice in a quiet room and it takes time to develop. Everyone wants to feel good fast, and teaching them to navigate the confrontations with their own patterns, restrictions, and discomfort can be a hard sell.
We are fed images and dogmatic ideas of what an asana practice or bodywork session should look like rather than honing in on an internal guide. Quieting the noise of what we think something should be and allowing that inner whisper to be the guide is something that requires intentional attention. It’s a difficult thing to practice and even harder thing to teach. It is the relationship to that internal guide that allows sustainability and growth; really allowing the somatic experience to move and release in ways that are difficult to articulate but so worth trusting. Tending that internal relationship, personally and professionally, amidst a fast moving and attention snatching world is, in a word–challenging.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am a Thai massage therapist and yoga teacher with a strong background in Ashtanga..
My work and all my trainings go hand in hand. I can’t quite imagine doing any of them without the experience of the others and I feel this blend is what sets me apart. The agility and body awareness gleaned from my yoga practice informs my bodywork, and bodywork is incredibly informative to giving skilled yoga adjustments and precise verbal cues. My early training in energy work has shaped my perspective of how I read bodies and the capacity to relate to my students/clients on a non-verbal level. I always aim to listen, but I particularly aim to listen to the body.
I have found that small and refined adjustments to pace, rotation, or positioning make all the difference when applying pressure, giving traction, or even holding a still point. Again, it circles back to the internal guide, and letting it unwind somatic patterns that are seldomly consciously understood.
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
I was a raft guide for years and love recreating on a river or near water, far away from everything but wilderness whenever possible.
Pricing:
- rates are on my website
Contact Info:
- Website: https://ashleyhixon.com
- Other: https://www.gaia.com/person/ashley-hixon
Image Credits
Sean Ambrose, Jacob Silverman
