Every single synchronicity, resource, and miracle that cleared the path for this vision to come to life was perfectly perfect and right on time.
Now CEREMNY has become a home for hundreds of individuals' transformation and personal growth; a collective community of like-minded beings on the path to healing, enlightenment, and soul coherence.
and then, the planted seed began to grow. The vision that was already in manifestational escrow for over a decade inside of me rooted down to rise up.
I sought out loans, an architect, construction team, designer, a huge team of skillfully talented facilitators, instructors, and customer experience - a huge, risky, and bumpy road.
CEREMNY started to form as it's own consciousness as an entity with a full spectrum of needs, opinions, challenges, and values.
Every person and experience that interacted it composed it's making and identity in the world - this is where it became obviously so important that it would be an intersection of it's own beautiful essence and the individual life-force that moves through it.
Little did I know that creating a portal of this caliber would ask me to relinquish the internal programming of people pleasing, over-functioning, codependence, and self-abandonment.
I wasn’t truly happy. I feigned happiness for the fleeting satisfaction of being praised, leaving my inner child wounded and ignored for superficial validation.
I tried everything. As a wellness leader, mental health advocate, and yoga therapist, I questioned, if I couldn’t figure it out, then who could?
“IF THIS IS HOW YOUR LIFE WILL BE EVERY DAY FOR THE REST OF IT, WOULD THAT BE ENOUGH FOR YOU?”
This daunting question from my coach left me paralyzed. The answer was no. It wasn’t enough. I had spent years knowing there was more. So, I became desperate for change.
It was time. I took my work seriously, committing to healing my most shamed parts, engaging in daily sacred practices, plant medicine, and somatic therapy. Primarily, it involved being accountable for my healing.
Layers began to shed: relationships, unresolved painful memories, the belief that I was unlovable if people saw the real me, and unworthy behaviors.
I learned to accept myself, reparent my unmet needs, comfort my frightened self, and forgive my ignorance. I explored my coping mechanisms, tested new boundaries, experienced pain, cried, and stood up again. I participated in sacred ceremonies, formed new habits, confronted survival tactics, and embraced both the darkness and light within me. I acknowledged the deep need to be seen and the fear that comes with it. I gave myself permission to be confused and to know.
The Reckoning
Open a business, they say.
It’s not everyday that we have the opportunity to consciously awaken to the reality of our lives. Nor the possibility to renegotiate it’s terms after shedding many dense obstructive layers that paralyzed me into fear and disallowed the full expression of my genuine gifts.
THE REAL TEA OF THE PROJECT
The breath in my body, this presence, this powerful life force, clarified everything. I stopped fighting. I allowed these deep, unmet, and unseen feelings space, validation, and recognition. Facing my inner shadow, I declared,
Finally Acknowledged
“I’m right here with you.”
I'd rather go through the sobering, excruciating reckoning of self forgiveness any day than stay asleep on the pedestal of ego.
Every moment of that brought me into the mending of the painful wounds that I always deeply knew would show me how to free myself.
This meant going in the dark room, it meant owning my perceived limitations and questioning them, it meant rising to the version of me that the world actually needs - and that little Ashley has always needed me right there with her - to hold her hand and guide her.
So here I stand.
playing in my undeniable BIGNESS and the fullness of JOY,
relishing in the lessons of my MISTAKES without a shame based inner shadown,
welcoming the endless gifts of the Guru, the teacher that is life, relationships, and presence,
inviting you to join too. :)
JOIN membership
The Universe has a beautiful way of always supporting without exception, expectation, or conditions - in the perfect amount at the perfect timing.
I am delighted to devote my life force energy into the forward progress and success of this space and I do so through the lens of curiosity, risk, excitement, challenge, adventure, and creation.
So join me now,
As I watch our community grow, our classes thriving with energy, our programs brilliantly opening the souls within them, I am inspired on the daily to see what we can continue to create together - for ourselves, and for the world.
The greatest gift I could ever receive is knowing I am creating something of value that makes the world a better place.