From Dance to Yoga: Breathwork and Embodiment with Ashley Allard

Meg Kearney (00:00)
Hello everyone and welcome back to the Root to Rise Seeds for Spiritual Awakening podcast. I'm your host Meg Kearney and today we have Ashley Allard on the show. Ashley is a yoga teacher, a somatic coach, she hosts retreats, she has an online community, she teaches breath work, she does all the things and today we talk about yoga,

embodiment, breath work, and the beauty of collective healing as she has seen on her retreats and so many more things. Honestly, Ashley is the definition of embodiment. And if you've ever taken a yoga class with her, you know the experience and the connection with self that comes from her class. So

If you haven't taken a class with her, luckily she has an online option and she also teaches in Worcester. So I hope you enjoy this episode today and enjoy Ashley's wisdom. And thank you for listening.

Meg Kearney (01:22)
Hi Ashley, welcome to the podcast.

Ashley Allard (01:26)
Thank you, Megan. I'm so excited to be here with you today.

Meg Kearney (01:29)
So happy to have you here. So first, I just want to talk a little bit about your background. you're a yoga teacher, you do somatic coaching, you do breath work, retreats, and all of those good things. And I just want to know how did you get started in the healing self-development space?

Ashley Allard (01:51)
Yeah, if I'm going to be totally frank with you, honestly, I feel like that started at a very early age with me. And that's only something that I've come to realize in the last, I would say, like six or seven months about myself is that I have in my own way, or form because of just my whole upbringing have been a healer in some degree. But what set me on the trajectory to this moment, really consciously aware of it.

was in 2017 actually, I had found myself in, I would say one of the darkest points in my life. I was very depressed, I was very anxious. I had gone through some stuff a few years prior and I had gained a lot of weight and I wasn't feeling good about myself, like point blank period at all. I would look at myself in the mirror and I don't know if you've ever had this or if any of your listeners can relate to this but.

you know, like you look in the mirror and you see like a blank reflection staring back at you and you're like, I don't know who this person is anymore. It's like there's nothing behind the eyes. And at that time I was feeling really lost and I was looking to at least at the very, you know, bare minimum feel good in my body. And I found an online fitness platform called Tone It Up and I joined their platform and that started my Instagram account that you know and love so well now.

And that's where I took my first yoga class. I took my first yoga class on their Instagram live. It was probably like two or three weeks into me starting their fitness routines and their nutrition program. And from the instant I took that class, I fell in love with the movement. It reminded me very much so of dance and I'm a dancer by nature. I've been dancing since I, or I did dance since the age of three. And it just gave me this connection.

to my body that I had never felt before. always give the example of it felt like a bird trapped in a cage and someone took the latch and let the door open for me to fly free. And so that was the catalyst. And from that first class, I almost instantaneously knew that like I need to do something with this. This means something to me. And two years later, I got myself into teacher training. Three years after that, I got myself into pranayama training.

which led to my somatic facilitation training and long story short, here we are now.

Meg Kearney (04:22)
That's amazing. And I

definitely can relate to having that feeling where you're just so low and you just need something and you don't know where that something's going to take you. So it's really beautiful that you were able to crawl out of the hole, so to speak, and find things that really resonate with you. Kind of going off of that, was there any one in your life that kind of modeled that for you?

what was the difference between you kind of just staying in the hole versus wanting something different or do you not really know?

Ashley Allard (04:59)
Yeah, I don't I don't feel like I had a model for that if I'm being very honest with you. Like my my mom very specifically has always had a very not healthy relationship with herself and her own body. And so I didn't really have good role models. And I would even say when I was in the dance world, you know, that's. Mid 90s to really early 2000s and, you know.

you're in the same age bracket as me. That was a very toxic time for like anorexia, skinniness, being really concerned about being a size zero and the dance world perpetuates that. And so I kind of had that ingrained in me from a very, very early age. And I honestly want to kind of attribute it a little bit to social media because at the time.

I was on Facebook, Instagram was really, really new. It wasn't like, you know, it was only like five years into Instagram. was before we were using it for monetization and we were just posting photos. And to see the inspiration of Just That Company, Just That Company, sorry, dog barking, Just That Company and the women, because it's a female founded fitness platform. And I was following them at the time and just to see them and their uplifting.

Meg Kearney (06:09)
you

Ashley Allard (06:20)
women in a way that I hadn't seen before was probably the biggest influence for me. And just following them for a little while before I even jumped into their platform and being like, women can support women. women can feel good in their bodies regardless of what size they are. And it's about that wholeness from within as opposed to the wholeness from the outside that's important. And

I just, wanted that. So I think maybe that, I guess the answer would be they were the influence for me, not someone directly in my life that I know.

Meg Kearney (06:52)
That makes a lot of sense and I have a dog barking too in the background if you can hear it. I would love, because I never dance, so I would love for you to share your perspective on your different experience as a dancer versus as a yogi, as a yoga teacher. How are the two different and how are they similar?

Ashley Allard (07:15)
Yeah, I'll start with the similarities. So for me, it's the connection to the body, right? And dance does a really good job of that. Dance is athletic in the same way that yoga is athletic. Dance is artistic in the same way that yoga can be artistic. I always approach the body and yoga movement as an expression of self, and that's exactly what dance is. It's an expression of yourself. Of course, you have a choreographer in dance, but...

you get to interpret that choreography. And the same thing happens when I'm teaching a yoga class. It's like, I devise the movement for you, but you express it in the way that your body wants to express it in that moment in time based on how you're feeling, based on what you're navigating. So I think that's why I correlated so effortlessly into the yoga realm, because that's what I loved most about dance. It was there for me when I was younger, and I didn't know who I was. And I was navigating hard things at home.

and I didn't have an outlet to express myself, the dance floor was where I had the opportunity to do that. And your yoga mat gives you that same space. Now, what makes them different is yoga teaches you to love yourself in the moment as you are. Now, again, I'm very far removed from the dance realm, but when I was there, there was a...

a narrative of perfection, that you're achieving perfection. Be that perfect body, be that perfect lines, be that a perfect dance career. And so you're reaching, reaching, reaching for a goal that maybe you can never quite attain simply because you're you and your body might not ever get there or your career trajectory might not ever get there. Yoga is quite literally the exact opposite of that, which is also why I love it so much is that it

teaches you about your body in a way of gratitude and appreciation for feet on ground right now, not striving to hit a headstand, not striving to do a crazy arm balance, just one inhale, one exhale at a time.

Meg Kearney (09:27)
That's so true. I do love that about yoga. And I'm curious with this idea of perfectionism in dance and you transitioning to yoga, did you find that you had still those perfectionist tendencies in the beginning of your practice of yoga? And how did you work through those and release those expectations of yourself?

Ashley Allard (09:51)
1000 % in me.

Meg Kearney (09:58)
my god, so cute.

Ashley Allard (09:59)
doggy on screen.

yeah, so what and me to also perfectionism is perpetuated just in my family lineage. And so I had it like double, you know, I had it coming from one side of my family and then I also had it coming from the dance realm. And so that is a narrative in my own self that I'm constantly trying to deconstruct. And yes, one thousand percent. And I still have to catch myself like I took yoga yesterday. I haven't taken a yoga class myself as a teacher.

a very long time like in a studio. I'll do it at home, but I took a class at the yoga studio yesterday and I had to catch myself being like, Ashley, you don't have to do that chaturanga. Ashley, you don't have to do blah, blah, blah, blah. Right. If you're tired, just like sit down, child's pose, stay where you're at. And for me, I would say and in this I want to give to anybody listening is just like a gentle guide and a subtle nudge. It's like riding a bike.

It's just the consistency of showing up and listening to what your facilitator, what your teacher has to offer you and really taking in the teachings of the yoga practice and interpreting them for yourself. But yeah, I feel like the dismantling of that for me on the mat came from the consistency. And then also I would say

getting myself into teacher training because we do talk about that, as you know, in teacher training about it's not about the perfect body. It's not about doing a gajillion chaturangas. It's not about the headstand. It's not about the arm balance. It's about how you feel. And when you do teacher training and it invites you to really be with your body, both like on a scientific, physiological level and a spiritual level, and you can start to connect the dots between the two, at least for me, right, a little more cognitively.

I think that was an eye opening for me because I actually got injured during my teacher training. got bursitis in my shoulder, which prevented me from doing a lot of the things that I was doing before. So it was very humbling to be like, okay, well, how do I now do the practice outside of the realm that I've been doing the practice for the last like three, four years? A lot of modifications, a lot of modifications.

Meg Kearney (12:08)
A lot of modifications, definitely.

And that's a practice in itself is to just give yourself grace. And sometimes we do need an injury to stop us from pushing ourselves, but it would be nice if we didn't need the injury to just give ourselves grace if we're tired or we don't want to do that specific movement. And I definitely struggle with that myself and you.

You mentored our teacher training class, you know, a lot of us had that same perfectionist narrative. So definitely can relate to that. One of the important things in yoga is breath and focusing on the breath. So you did advanced certification in breath work. So I'd love to know how you supplement your yoga practice teaching with breath work and how that can help us.

feel more embodied and more able to give ourselves grace when we need it.

Ashley Allard (13:11)
Yeah, I mean, at the very base and foundation, right, when you dissect the definition of yoga, it means union. It means connection to self. so, right, yoga isn't about the poses. It's quite literally one sliver of an eighth of what the practice is. And your inhale and your exhale are quite literally the.

simplest tool to find that connection to yourself. And so that has actually been my yoga practice outside of the movement piece is sitting in a breathwork pranayama every day to connect with myself and what that gives us the opportunity to do coming back to the conversation that we were having earlier is deep presence with self. Right. You cannot move away from yourself.

or avoid yourself when you are sitting in stillness with your breath, it quite literally puts a mirror, excuse me, up to yourself to see, I'm feeling some type of way today. And the breath work can do two things. It can amplify that. It can make it louder. Or it can soothe it and nourish it and heal it. And it can do both at the same time.

It has been a deep reflective experience for me to be trained in Pranayama and to really incorporate that into my practice because embodiment at the end of the day is about being really connected to yourself in presence to feel your human experience every single moment of

every single day and if you do not give your mind the space to connect with your body that's going to be a really hard task to do.

Meg Kearney (15:10)
Yeah, it definitely is. And going off of that, what if, what if somebody has never felt that connection of mind body? Is there any breath work technique that you would recommend for them to start? Like what, what does it look like if you're just starting out and you just want to, you don't want to go to a yoga class and you don't want to, you know, try all those poses and stuff, and you just want to connect with your breath, what would you recommend?

Ashley Allard (15:36)
Yeah, the simple technique of a box breath that's in yoga, we call that Samavrtti Pranayama. And that is actually where I start with all of my one-on-one clients, even if they are the most advanced yogi breathwork facilitator, or they're very much so like ingrained in the wellness space because a simple box breath. And if you're new to Pranayama and you're listening, anybody here?

They actually use this all of the time. It's it's like one of the most common breath work firefighters use this they teach it to I'm pretty sure like EMTs and nurses to help calm people when they're in the hospital and things But it's an inhale for an equal count. It's a holding of the breath at the top for an equal count It's an exhale to the bottom for an equal count and holding at the at the bottom. So it could be like an inhale for four Hold it at the top for four exhale for four

hold it at the bottom for four, right? And so your breath is drawing a box. That's why we call it box breathing or equal ratio breathing. And what I love about that is because it's really simple, really not complicated, right? And it's one of those techniques that kind of fits into like the big circle of everything where it gives you space, it keeps you present. It's said about five to 10 minutes can calm the nervous system.

And it's the most easily accessible. And so if you are curious about what breath work can do for your life, I always say start with some some of Riti Pranayama, throw like a five minute song on, throw a 10 minute song on, do it in silence. And that's going to be a beautiful foundation for you. And that's a breath practice too that I still use like almost every single day, multiple times a day.

Meg Kearney (17:25)
I love that one because it is so easy. Like you just count and you're there. I also love the idea of using a song too. never really, I always think, if I'm doing breath work, it has to be like silent or whatever, but you totally can put a song on like who cares.

Ashley Allard (17:26)
Mm-hmm

Yeah, I almost always actually breathe to music. That's also part of my training is guiding people on breathwork journeys. And it's to the rhythm of the music, which I also love because as a dancer, just, you I love the rhythm of the music. It's like ingrained in me. But yeah, this morning I sat in like a 23 ish minute breathwork and meditation and I had my earpods in. We were jamming out. Yeah.

Meg Kearney (18:07)
my gosh, I love that.

So going off that, what's your current favorite breath work technique or do you have one or do you kind of just switch with whatever you're feeling that day?

Ashley Allard (18:19)
Yeah, no, so I actually do do that. You're very correct. I do kind of go based off what I'm feeling, but I have been doing breath work now for two years consistently and been in training. But my favorite of all time when I'm just like, Ashley, let's just go is Kabbalah Bhatsey, Breath of Fire. And we learned that in teacher training as well. And so that's just an inhale into like middle of your belly right below your rib cage. And it's a sharp exhale out of the nose. We call that a sharp.

and that is just a cleansing of the mind. So what I love to use that for is typically first thing if I'm noticing like I'm agitated or I woke up feeling some type of way and I'm like, yesterday and whatever went on yesterday sort of matriculated its way into my morning. I'll use it to cleanse that out of my system. But I also love to use it to like energize and to like.

activate some manifestations and like I get very fairy with it. And so that is always my go-to and consistently, you know, number one on Ashley's list of favorite breath work practices.

Meg Kearney (19:26)
Love that. Love the fairy manifestation vibes and that breath work technique is very intense. You can feel the energy building, which is really cool. A couple minutes ago, you mentioned that box breathing was good. Well, all of this breathing is good to regulate the nervous system and you do one-on-one work with clients. And I'm curious, how important is it to have the nervous system regulated to

maybe face those parts of ourselves we don't want to face or sit with those uncomfortable emotions. How do you see that helping people work through whatever they're coming to work through?

Ashley Allard (20:09)
Yeah, 1000 % for me and my very humble opinion is the most important thing for us to have. And what we mean by a regulated nervous system is not that you feel, let's say, unquote, good all of the time, right? The human experience does not offer us the opportunity to feel the best all of the time, right? Life be life in. It's about having the capacity to hold.

the good with the not so good, the effortless with the hard. And all of that comes from and this is where I start with all of my one on one clients, a cohesion of safety in your body and safety looks very different to everybody simply because we all come from different walks of life. it means feeling. Secure in your life.

the idea that there's choice. I always love that word choice, that that I get to choose to sit in this reflection and that it is not just a byproduct of the way that I have been raised or a circumstance that I have been dealt that I had zero control over in the past. so any time a one on one human comes to me and they're like.

Hey, I'm tired of feeling X, Y, Z. I'm tired of feeling anxious. I'm tired of feeling disconnected. I'm tired from picking shit people in relationships. I'm tired of being stuck in the dead end job that I know doesn't align with me and my wants and my needs. We start from safety, right? Where are you? Where or why don't you feel safe? What does your body feel like when it's not overstimulated, when it's not?

Meg Kearney (21:48)
you

Ashley Allard (22:06)
quote unquote anxious, because anxious can also have a definition to different people in different ways. So yeah, a regulated nervous system and letting yourself, I love to call it an unraveling from life and the way that it's kind of just like embedded itself on your body and your mind is the foundation to be with the harder things. Does that answer that question kind of long?

Meg Kearney (22:32)
It does. Yes, it definitely does.

And I'm curious for you, because you've been doing this work, so you probably have some awareness here. What are some of your signs of, my nervous system is unregulated right now. And besides breath, what are some things that you do to help you come back to center in your own life?

Ashley Allard (22:58)
Yeah, I would say for me.

The easiest way is to notice your breathing first and foremost. Do you even notice, like a lot of people will just be sitting and working for let's say like 30, 45 minutes and they haven't taken a single breath. Do you know what I mean? Like a full inhale and a full exhale. It's also noticing, do I feel like my shoulders are creeping up to my ears all the time? Do I notice the way that my mind is like racing thought all the time, all the time, all the time? Does my chest feel heavy every single morning? Do you?

Meg Kearney (23:13)
Mm-hmm.

Ashley Allard (23:29)
I feel anxious and what does anxious feel like to you? So for me, anxiety always felt like my heart was like on seven cups of coffee, even though I maybe only had one cup of coffee and it felt like bugs crawling underneath my skin. And then for me, it also felt like I had a massive ball in my throat and you know, just to throw that out there to anybody who's curious, that's cause I didn't know how to express myself and.

really advocate for myself in ways that I needed to. And so a lot of my anxiety came from not having the conversations that I needed to have with the humans in my life that I needed to have And my own unraveling has come from, of course, breath work. I started with Equal Ratio on my own. And I was working with a mentor who I still work with at the time as well. So I also got myself into a one-on-one space with a somatic facilitator.

Um, but I also always start my clients with stillness and that can be really hard for people. But what that means is give yourself like 20 minutes in the morning. Don't grab your phone. Don't hit social media, Facebook, Instagram, check your email. Don't put out a podcast. Maybe throw on some like nice ambient music, but like literally just let yourself sit for 10 minutes in quiet.

with your body and get curious about what you're feeling. And so the two questions that I always say are, or the two statements that I always tell people to use is, in my body, I feel. And so that invites you to notice your sensation. So from a physiological level, what textures in your body are you feeling? And there's charts that you can actually use online if you want to look them up. That'll give you just some descriptive cues that you can.

use as like an example, but I always tell people use your own verbiage because that's going to better give you an idea of what it feels like in your body. So all of those words that I just described to you, the the bugs crawling under the skin, the seven cups of coffee in my heart or like a big rock sitting on my chest and my ball of my throat. And then the next one is the emotion I'm witnessing because you're not the emotion, you're just observing the emotion.

And there's actually a beautiful wheel of emotions, which is very popular. I'm sure, Megan, you've seen it before, that anybody who's listening, can Google that as well. And so it's like, am I angry today? Am I anxious today? Am I frustrated? Am I happy? Am I elated? Am I curious? Am I tired? Am I sore? And it's just observing the way that you're feeling. And then what we do with

with my one-on-one work is like we start to notice is there a thread between how you're feeling every day? Where is that coming from? And you can just start to like very gently like pull the threads apart. And then that always leads to a lot of information on where we go next.

Meg Kearney (26:27)
love that. That is so cool. Do you find that there usually is a common thread when people start tracking how they're feeling? That's so interesting.

Ashley Allard (26:37)
Yeah,

yeah, there is. it's dependent on either it can be dependent on like a whole slew of things, right? But it can be dependent on what's the current thing in your life that you're navigating, like what's really true and alive right now. Or again, going back to past versions of self, what from five year old you, six year old, seven year old, 10, 20 year old you has very silently or very below the surface sort of followed its way into your current state of life. And how is that affecting you?

in present time type of situation.

Meg Kearney (27:10)
a little

Ashley Allard (27:11)
Mm, a lot of

inner child work with with the humans who get with me. it's I always find it very interesting because I have people who come in not expecting that to be the case. Like I just wrapped someone not that long ago, right before the holidays. And her intention was she was having trouble connecting with her heart space. And she used to be very deeply connected to that. her.

her intention was to reconnect with her heart space and not thinking that like we would go into inner child work. And she's just like, I had no idea that the things that I thought that I had reconciled with, right? Cause cognitively you can reconcile with the things from your childhood, but it's like your body still stores that. And if you don't let yourself sit with where that's hit you in a physiological nervous system form.

Meg Kearney (27:41)
you

Ashley Allard (27:59)
it's going to just run there and be there, excuse me, on a subconscious level that you don't get to control. And so it was really great to see her be like, wow, I had no idea that that stuff was still here with me, you know, way later in life.

Meg Kearney (28:17)
Yeah, oftentimes it is our inner child just running the show or wanting to get their needs met. And what you said is so true because we can understand cognitively, yes, X, Y, and Z happened, but it really does come from that embodied feeling of sitting with the emotion and giving the inner child whatever it needs emotionally, spiritually, know, whatever it is. But,

Ashley Allard (28:24)
Mm-hmm.

Meg Kearney (28:47)
Yeah, that's so true. And I'm sure I know I have a bunch of inner child parts acting out all the time. So definitely can relate to that. And so with your one-on-one clients, we kind of talked about how they need to have a sense of safety within themselves to work through these things. And I imagine they also need to have a sense of safety with you as a one-on-one coach to

be vulnerable and share some of this stuff with you. So what are the benefits to having a coach to work through this stuff with and how do you cultivate that relationship where there's trust for somebody to open up to you?

Ashley Allard (29:30)
Yeah, I love that question and I, that question and just that statement of like, you have to trust someone to go there resonates so deeply with me because the only reason why I started working with my mentor is because I trusted her implicitly. Before I started working with her, I had tried traditional cognitive behavioral therapy. I tried your traditional talk therapy. I got myself in one of those apps, right, that you pay the monthly subscription and you.

You answer the questions and they match you with a therapist. And yeah, that just didn't work for me. As someone who is in the wellness space and who, again, coming back to the conversation a couple of minutes ago, like knew my shit, right? Like I know my triggers. I know why I am the way that I am. I do not need to talk through that. I needed something deeper. needed someone who was quite literally gonna hold my hand.

Meg Kearney (30:06)
you

Ashley Allard (30:28)
almost every moment of every day. And so that is exactly why I got in with my mentor, Lexi, because I already knew her. She had done my, she was one of the facilitators of my trainings that I've been doing. And so when I saw her have a window for one-on-one space, I was like, hey babe, I'm ready. Like, can we do this? Right? And so,

Meg Kearney (30:50)
Yeah.

Ashley Allard (30:58)
What I will say to that is in order for you to go there with yourself, there has to be this level of understanding and readiness to be like, I don't want to do this alone anymore because I feel like a lot of the humans who do get into spaces with me, because generally speaking, my audience is women. We have found our way into this very, I would say, toxic hyper masculine way of creating safety for ourselves that.

Meg Kearney (31:26)
you

Ashley Allard (31:27)
Hyper independence that I don't need a man. I don't need another human I got myself so if the shoe drops I know I can pick myself back up and there's a lot to be said about giving yourself space to like Take a whole body breath and let someone catch you Trusting that someone else can catch you and can help you pick up the glass pieces when everything breaks

Meg Kearney (31:38)
Mmm.

Ashley Allard (31:56)
And that doesn't happen for women a lot in our lives where we don't have to go home and do a million things, right? And so I always tell the people who want to work with me that like your 60 minutes with me in session once a week is your operative. Of course, we're working, right? But it's an opportunity for you to rest, for you to not have to do this life alone.

And then with that in my one-on-one space, it's not just a 60 minute session a week. We have a one-on-one voxer space. And so you quite literally have access to me. I wouldn't say 24-7, but you know, within reason to be like, I'm navigating something right now and I cannot wait until Wednesday to like talk through this. Please hold my hand and be with me here. And that's when transformation happens. Again, coming back to yoga, yoga means union. We as humans have been in communal.

communal spaces since our onset of evolution. And we've become so individualized and pulled apart and the deep healing happens when we all come in communion together. That's also why I love the retreat space as well is the holding of the hand and the opportunity to rest and let someone else do the work with you. That's where that safety piece comes in.

Meg Kearney (33:15)
I love that. And that's a perfect segue because I do want to talk about your retreats as well. Because one on one work is great, but there's also this idea of collective healing. And when people are together with the same intention, mean, anyone who's ever gone to a yoga class can feel the ohm at the beginning versus the ohm at the end. And it's just so powerful. It's probably one of my favorite parts of the practice. So

I'd love to hear about your retreats and how they're structured and how they facilitate this collective healing among people, the groups that you're bringing.

Ashley Allard (34:00)
Yeah, it comes back to the, are not alone. When I first conceptualized my signature retreat called Soul Stripped and what this retreat space is, it's meant for women, again, to pull out of that hyper masculine independence and that uncovering, okay, well, what does it actually mean for me to be a woman in a world? Who do I want to be as a woman in the world? what does that?

then offer me on this like really unique path of life that I am on. But when I conceptualize it, we were one year into the pandemic and I was feeling like very disconnected from community because when I joined Tone It Up in 2017, they had fostered a really massive female community base that like.

They did tours and so they toured the country in 2018 and they did like stops in all of the major city hubs. came to Boston and so, you know, hundreds of girls went to the Laund-On-Dee in Boston and we all worked out together and then we had Rosé and we ate food and it was like a little fitness festival. They did the same thing in 2019. They did LA and they did New York. So same thing, like a bunch of us went to New York and we went.

And we did the same thing and we spent weekends and then like the local communities did meetups. And so like for the first time ever in my life, I had found this really strong and empowering and loving connection with women, especially coming from like mean girl era of the early 2000s. And so as a woman adult to like find friends in that way that I could like.

Meg Kearney (35:32)
Mmm.

Ashley Allard (35:39)
Lean on who I'd realized were going through the same things as me who had similar backgrounds, who had similar insecurities was so healing for me and my body and my nervous system. You know, at the time I didn't know that because I wasn't in this line of work, but I was missing that so, so deeply when the pandemic happened, because, as you know, it all shut down. Everything stopped. And so.

Meg Kearney (36:04)
Mm-hmm.

Ashley Allard (36:08)
I was like, I want to do retreats as soon as we can do that. I want to do a yoga retreat. I hadn't even done my breath work in my advanced practitioner training yet. I was just like, I want to do a yoga retreat. And so I started planning that and then got myself into my somatic training. But the idea is that like, when you can hear from someone that your experience.

is not a singular experience, right? It's not gonna be 100 % identical, but that like, there are fragments and pieces of your experience that mirror another human's experience. We can collectively come together and be like, I can reconcile that then. I can then pull maybe a lesson that you took out of that and then how do I integrate that into my life or how it's back to your point, Megan, do you just feel the energy of each other?

laughing over a cup of coffee or like laughing over a situation in a relationship that is like not singular like your partner leaving a sock on the floor five you know five inches away from the hamper like do you know do you know what i mean and so yeah it's just and in the healing that does happen there it's always so beautiful to witness because

Meg Kearney (37:17)
Yes. Yes.

Ashley Allard (37:28)
People don't expect it to happen. You have people who are coming in and they just want like a reset. And then to hear women say, I don't look like her and I don't have the same exact experience from her or as her. But I learned from her and I healed with her and now she's my best friend is like chef's kiss. Yeah.

Meg Kearney (37:51)
so beautiful.

One of the things that you do on your retreat, which I'm so curious how you came up with this idea, but the photo shoot, I'm curious about this because I could see myself being so self-conscious to do that. So what was the inspiration here? I love the idea. And can you like explain how it sort of builds confidence?

Ashley Allard (38:09)
Mmm, yeah.

Yeah, that was actually like the one thing that I knew when I started conceptualizing this retreat that had to be a part of it. And it came from my own experience because in 2018, I actually, did a boudoir shoot for myself after I had lost a bunch of weight and I was feeling really good in my body. And it was such a liberating and empowering experience for me.

And that is also something that I know isn't like the easiest accessible, let's say, financial thing for a lot of women. That is an investment in and of itself. If you were to book a private boudoir photography shoot with someone, that's going to cost you a couple grand easy. so and I also have never seen that in the yoga.

retreat space before. And so I was like, well, if I'm going to do an empowerment retreat, what is the most empowering thing that you can do for yourself? That is to have photos that represent you in your power. And so at the time I had just wrapped up a social media training with an I you might know her. She's like a pretty big influencer on Instagram. She's called Jerebean.

Um, so I had wrapped up, um, her like second round of her social media training and inside of that was actually our photographer who comes on a retreat with us, Stacey. And so I met her through there and what I love about her photos are they are not your traditional, when you think of like the boudoir photography with like the lace negligee and like the thigh high stockings, like that very male gaze perspective. It's actually like a high, high.

and like Vogue photo shoot where you just have like denim on with like a white top or you have a bodysuit on. It's very much so feminine gaze perspective. And Stacey is just fucking incredible. Sorry for swearing, but she is like, she is like the most beautiful human. to your point, it is normal if you've never had that experience before to

Meg Kearney (40:07)
Mm.

it's totally fine.

Ashley Allard (40:24)
be nervous about it, but the great thing about Stacey is not only does she hype you up and play incredible music, like Beyonce will be there in the background with you, but she also takes all of the work out of it. She tells you exactly how to point your toes, exactly where to put your hand, exactly where to look, you know. And the work that we do on retreat is to get you feeling good in your body. So by the time that you hop into a photo shoot with her.

You're already feeling good, but of course there's gonna be some of that anxiety, but she literally takes all of the mind work out of it so you can just like have fun and by the time you're like five minutes in you're like free flowing and living your best life.

Meg Kearney (41:03)
I love that and I've seen some of the photos and they look like a magazine, like you said, like just so cool. I think that's such a great element because I haven't seen that in the retreat space either. So it's just very unique and it's like a good concrete thing that you can take with you and hang up as a reminder of the healing of the sisterhood, you know, those good vibes on the retreat. So I love that.

going off of that, how do you, how do you recommend you go on this retreat, you do this healing, you feel so connected. Sometimes you get back to your regular life and you're like, there's the dirty sock next to the hamper again, or you know, there's my dog barking in the background, whatever it is. How do you recommend continuing to have that feeling of connection with people who maybe are in different.

spaces than you and how can you continue the healing for yourself as well.

Ashley Allard (42:08)
Yeah, we actually on retreat give you very concrete tools that you get to take off the mat with you or off of the experience with you. Because I don't want that to happen, right? Because as you said, it does happen so easily to be in a portal and a bubble of like beautiful, perfect energy. And then life happens when you get home. And so we want to ensure that the healing and the work that you do when you're on retreat with us is very sustainable and long lasting.

And so we do give you like very concrete tools and it's not just me by the way, and I know that you know this, but to anybody listening who's unfamiliar with this space on a retreat with me, it is quote unquote my retreat, but it is not just me facilitating. We have four other facilitators. So there's Stacey, your photographer, who is also a mindset coach at the same time. So you got her and all of her beautiful wisdom in between when we're just like having conversation. We have a sound healer, Nicole.

Who also is incredible with just like wisdom and like sage energy. She's like Quite literally our sage queen just like in her aura We also have a personal development. She's a coach in the corporate space so she goes into businesses and trains businesses and employees how to not only diversify their workforce, but also have

a really like nurturing workforce environment that's going to sustain employers and employee relationship. So she comes in and she brings that more of like, I don't want to say business element, but like you can approach your life like a CEO, right? So she kind of, gives that element, which gives you some very like concrete foundational, let's say communication skills that you get to take off of this retreat experience with you. And also me and like my one-on-one work, we also infused that in.

And then my dear friend from high school, she's a published author and a feminist. And so she brings a lot of her journaling aspects into the space. So we give you all of these like concrete implement tools that you can take out of the experience with you. But on top of that, we have a group chat and our group chat, even from last year, is still popping off. And like we're all from different areas of Massachusetts, from the country. We have a girl from Wisconsin, a girl from down in Tennessee. So.

We don't talk as frequently as maybe we did when we first came out of the retreat space, but we we all pop in there still consistently so that connection It's not gone. You still have all of the humans you still have access to me and to Stacey and to Nicole and to Sam and to Lindsay and to all of the you know, Beautiful friends that you made on a retreat to help you navigate things when you need it is that reminder that like hey, babe You got it

You know, you're not alone. We're all still here walking every single day, hand in hand with you.

Meg Kearney (45:02)
Love that. And that's just a testament to how powerful the healing on the retreat is. The fact that you're, still stay in touch and you can reach out, you know, with things in the group. I love that. A couple of final questions here. So you mentioned one of the facilitators on the retreat, she brings like, you know, journalism aspects. And I know that you like to write as well. So how have you used writing to

facility healing.

Ashley Allard (45:34)
Writing is such an important part because it comes back to expression. Right, expression is a part of your somatic experience on how do you take the things that you are witnessing in your own body and one either share that with the world for healing because I think there's power in sharing your experience for others to heal or to even just express it so that maybe it's not living in your body anymore. And so

whether it's with one-on-ones, whether it's with my own healing, journaling and expression is such a vital component. And for me, it happens in two ways. And I'm also not someone that's rigid with that. I haven't actually really, let's say, unquote, journaled consistently, probably for the last four-ish months. But I do write. That can either be pen to paper in my journal, or I love.

the notes app on the iPhone. My notes app is like full of shit. And it's just like, I'll get him. I'll get like an inkling of something. I grab my phone. I write it down. I'm like, I'm going come back to that. Like I saw something the other day that I wrote the other night and I was like, I don't even remember what that meant. But we wrote it. And so it's fine. Right. But just giving yourself the space to express. so with my one on one work, that can come into I'll be like, write a poem. If you're someone who's like artistic like that, I tend to have people in my spaces who like to write in that way. So I'm like.

Meg Kearney (46:32)
you

Yo.

Ashley Allard (47:01)
write a poem about it. It doesn't have to make sense. Write an expression and a piece of art with it. Or write a letter to yourself or write a letter to the human that you need to say something to and burn it if you need to. just like, maybe if you want to send it, send it, but you don't have to. Like it can just be for you. Or then there's like the just free write. And if it's not legible, that's OK. You don't need to know what came pen to paper. You just gave yourself space to dump, right? Whatever it is. But.

I feel like people when they when they think of journaling, especially like the journals that are all planned out for you and they have like all of the the what is that that really popular journal? I had it for a long time. It's like Tan. I can't remember what it's called, but it was really popular journal during the pandemic. And it keeps it so rigid, right? And the same thing could happen with like a yoga practice and a breath practice. It comes back to that like.

more toxin and masculinity of needing to do the thing, the perfectionist, right? I got to check the list and got to check it off the box. But that sort of thing is really for me just meant for you to express your experience and to give yourself space to unravel from whatever your thinking mind is looping you through in real time.

Meg Kearney (48:01)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, it does kind of facilitate that mind body connection automatically too, because you're thinking something and you're physically using your body to write. And I used to be somebody who had this rigid journal practice and you need to do it. And now I'm a lot more like you where put something in my notes up. I have like a million little notes that are just random sentences or I'll write it here or there.

Ashley Allard (48:41)
Mm-hmm.

Meg Kearney (48:44)
It's more fun that way, because then you look back and you're trying to piece it together and you're like, I don't know, it doesn't really matter, but I put it out there and it's fine.

Ashley Allard (48:53)
Yeah,

I also have a friend too, just before you ask the next question, she also does like a voice, she uses like the voice memo on her app and she'll just like work, like she'll like, because a lot of times, and this might be for you too, I'm the same way, it's in the car, I get that thing that happens in the car and so instead of like having to pull over and write it down, she'll like quite literally just take like her voice memo and she'll record herself and like, because using your voice too is also very, very powerful to speak it.

Meg Kearney (49:00)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Ashley Allard (49:20)
out loud into the ether. And so I think both are great writing it down or speaking it. But that's just another option for the for the people listening at home.

Meg Kearney (49:20)
Yes.

Yes, and the iPhone has the journal app now too. So it has the date and I've done that and I'll listen back and sometimes listening back, you can almost get the perspective as if you were talking to somebody else directly. You know, it's kind of helpful to have that. So love that idea too. final question. I've taken your classes. Anyone in the Worcester area should take your class at least one time because they are so

Ashley Allard (49:31)
Yes!

Mmm. Mm-hmm.

Meg Kearney (49:58)
creatively crafted with the music, the things you say, the poses. It's an experience. Your classes are a yoga experience. And I would love to know how you go about creating your classes to be so intentional. I love them.

Ashley Allard (50:18)
Yeah, and thank you for showing up to Jess's birthday class on on Saturday. That's so hard. I'm sore. My quads are still sore from that. So like you are not alone. Yes, and thank you for noticing that as an experience, because that's my intention is for you to have an experience. And I have to laugh at myself because even when

Meg Kearney (50:22)
I was so sore, but it was amazing. Yes.

Ashley Allard (50:43)
I gave myself permission to be like, because that was one of my intentions for the beginning of the year was like, Ashley, doesn't always have to be an experience. Like less can be more. Let's keep it simple, stupid. So I started like I call it back to basics classes. And so I started teaching back to basics classes. And even when I do that, I'm like, bitch, it's still an experience because that's just like who I am now. I can't not do that. Part of that comes from my level of embodiment. Part of that comes from my own level of healing. I always

Meg Kearney (51:02)
Yeah.

Ashley Allard (51:13)
firmly believe that if you're a facilitator of any kind, that can be a nurse, that can be a teacher, that can be a fitness instructor, that can be a therapist. The level of depth that you can take other humans depends on the level of depth that you've gone within yourself. And I have spent some time going deep and I continue to go deep. But that's also just a journey that I'm willing to take and open to receive for myself. And so my own level of embodiment gives

you coming into class with me the space to go there because I can hold that for you because I know what it's like because I've been there. So there's that piece. And then when it comes to the movement, it's interesting because I just move with my own body and I and I understand and I understand the body very, very well. So thank you, dance for for that. Thank you being in fitness for so long without even

the training of it, but lifting weights and doing, you know, movement for so long to really understand the nuance of the body and muscles. I'm very attuned to that to be able to say, this pose connects to this pose, and so I can put them together. I can use this to build it up to this.

also is dependent on my level of like understanding the body. So I have to thank dance and like just my experience from my childhood for all of that, because that's why my movement feels so different, because I interweave the things that I wouldn't say interweave dance into yoga, but the same level of expression I interweave into it. So the movement doesn't feel choppy.

Meg Kearney (52:58)
Mm-hmm.

Ashley Allard (52:58)
Like you're

taking a crescent into a warrior too. There's a fluid sucking you into the next movement, into the next movement, or a transition that takes you around into the next movement without your mind comprehending how I got you there. And I do that intentionally because I don't want you in your mind, I want you in your body. So if I can have you thinking less because you don't know where I'm gonna take you next, your body is intuitively gonna lead you.

and your mind is gonna be like, what the fuck? Exactly. Wait, how did she get me on the left leg? Wait, how am I now facing backwards? I don't understand. I don't understand. And so that's kind of how I integrate that experience piece is like, how do I keep you on your toes all the time?

Meg Kearney (53:30)
How did I get here?

Hmm. I love that because it's so easy to when you find a teacher that you like to take their classes a lot you can kind of predict what's coming and with your classes I literally never know what's coming and I was never a dancer, but I always wanted to be and so in your classes I literally feel like I'm like, I'm flowing like I'm a dancer like, you know, I have a similar experience. So it's great. I love it so much

Ashley Allard (54:12)
good. Yeah. And I think that also comes down to just like my most of my classes also follow the rhythm of the music. So it's not just me and like my energy pulling you. The music is also pulling you into the movement because as the movement lets me maybe the movement intensifies, the song intensifies or we pick up the pace. The song picks up the pace or the music slows down and we slow down. So it's a lot of moving parts and

I also think that's why I love when I get a lot of people who do come into one-on-one spaces. I mean, I do have the people who just want the healing, but I do tend to have a lot of yoga teachers, facilitators in any capacity. I happen to have a lot of nurses who come in and work with me, previous yoga teacher trainees, because when you be with yourself, it also unlocks this, okay, well, how do I want to hold space for other people?

and you get to start to craft your own unique way of teaching classes and all of that stuff. So yeah, that's the magic of the work. It's so much fun for me.

Meg Kearney (55:15)
I love it, it's so inspirational and you've shared so much wisdom, so much good stuff today for listeners that are resonating and wanna work with you one-on-one, wanna check out your retreats, wanna check out your online community, where is the best place for them to connect?

Ashley Allard (55:32)
Yeah, I would say the easiest, most accessible where I am all the time is my Instagram. And that's quite literally my name at Ashley Allard. I tried to keep it as simple as possible. And I am very accessible. So if you got something out of this podcast and you don't follow me, follow me there. But you want to have a conversation. I like live in my DMs and I love having conversation. I'm very connected to my community.

And when you get over there, you'll see I actually offer a free community class every other Friday in the morning. And that's recorded and you get access to that for the weekend. And so if you've never taken class with me before, that is like the best way because it's the same work I do at the yoga studio. It's the same work I do with the one-on-ones. It's the same type of movement we do on retreat spaces. So yeah, come join me in my lifted community and yeah, shoot me a DM if you want to chit chat.

Meg Kearney (56:24)
Awesome, thank you so much Ashley.

Ashley Allard (56:27)
Thank you.

Meg Kearney (56:39)
Thank you so much for listening today. I will put the link to Ashley's website and her Instagram in the show notes. And I would offer for you this week to try one of those breathing techniques. Maybe you could Google some different ones and try out a few to see what resonates with you. Or you can just start with the simple yet powerful box breathing technique.

That one is my go-to when I really just need some centering and it's a really easy one to incorporate into your daily life. So I would definitely recommend trying a breathing technique this week. Let me know how it goes. And as always, thank you so much for listening. Much love to you all.