Ann’s mindfulness journey and teaching….
My life’s passion is practicing, studying, and inspiring a deeper sense of connection with ones’ true nature.
I became a devout student of yoga, meditation, and all things healing after my first yoga class at 18 years old in 1995. This was a new world for me as I grew up in a conservative farming community in Northern Indiana where I had NO exposure to anything Eastern at all.
A year later, my father and I took my first trip to Nepal where I was able to witness cultures approaching their life from a place of sacred reverence. This mind blowing travel exposed me to Buddhism, Hinduism, Chinese medicine, and the amazing energy of the Himalayan mountains. I was really never the same after discovering yoga and visiting Asia. In spiritual circles, it would be said that I had a soul-awakening.
It became clear to me that life was more than chasing money, accumulating things, and looking for happiness to come from the outside of me. I knew in my heart that I wanted to be in deeper connection to the sacred aspects of life and to inspire this in others.
30 years later…….I’ve made my life a practice of using whatever shows up on my path as an opportunity for spiritual growth and deeper connection. Professionally, I have dedicated my healing practice to help others awaken to the gifts of their lives.
I’m incredibly grateful for my many teachers and community!! I have studied and been inspired by the great traditions of Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Zen, and Indigenous Earth Wisdom. I do not consider myself a certain religion, but simply that my religion is kindness. I believe we are each sacred beings with an innate goodness to our hearts.
The great teachers that have specifically influenced my life are; Amma, Neem Keroli Baba, Buddha, Jesus, Ram Dass, the Dalai Lama, Jack Kornfield, Tara Brach, Jill Satterfield, Adyashanti and Laura Roe. I have also been deeply touched by the teachers in my life who have shown up as my husband, daughter, parents, family, friends, healers, patients, pets, antagonists, and all of nature.
We each need one other to help us remember our basic good nature, the interconnectedness of life, and to use whatever shows up in our life as an opportunity for growth.
By now…you are probably getting the picture that I am kind of crazy for all things sacred….which is all things, if you practice the perspective of holding this very moment as sacred.
I believe and try to emanate that we are spiritual beings having a human experience. That our basic nature is to be loving.
And just like you, I am human, I forget and get caught in my thoughts, the dominant cultures ideas of how I should be, I have my triggers, baggage from my upbringing, and moments of holding too tight. However, every morning I start again by dedicating myself to cultivating self awareness, to serving others, and to being kind with the clunkiness of being an imperfect human.
I have been teaching yoga, meditation, qigong and healthy living since 2000.
I currently am a co-practice leader for the Dharma kids program at Kagyu Sakyu Choling in Ashland, Oregon and just finished a 2 year mindfulness meditation teacher training with Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield.
Thank you for reading about me and I wish you many blessings.
I have been practicing meditation for over 30 years. What began as a curiosity in my childhood as a student of martial arts, expanded into a passion as I grew into an adult. I have always been interested in the taoist idea of balance as the guiding principle in life.