About Us

Hello World.  This is Ashely.  And while this page was never intended to be a blog, after having this website up for some time, and updating every year, I felt the need to change this about us into a declaration of our story.  Because to understand us, to connect with us, and to really see us, I feel like you need to hear our story.  Our origin so to speak.  To do this I want to speak to you.  Not to write a third person bio like we are some distant figures out of reach from you, or on another planet where we have obtained something that will always be out of reach for you.  The truth is, Samantha and I are humans doing, trying to figure out how to be humans being just like you.  We are perfectly imperfect just like you.  We are still learning and still growing just like you.  We are two people who have fallen, who have gotten lost, bruised, burned, and hurt.  But we are also two people who have survived.  Just as you have survived every moment leading up to you reading this.  Life is suffering.   We grow old.  We get sick.  We experience change.  We experience loss.  We die.  That is the nature of us, and the nature of life.   It is our attachments, and conditionings, and our denials of these natural truths that can hold us in our suffering.  I wish I could tell you that there is a magical cure-all to avoid the suffering of life.  That if you do or take this one thing that you will be a zenned out, cool little cucumber who will never know pain, who will always be at peace.  It would be disingenuous to tell you that. But I can tell you that there are ways to find pockets of sanctuary within that pain and suffering, even if it's just for an inhale and an exhale.  I can tell you that there are ways to meet yourself and explore yourself through that suffering.  I can tell you that even on your darkest nights, your inner light can shine out with hope, and that even those dark nights give us room for self-exploration and transformation.  I can tell you that there is purpose in those dark nights, and that our greatest work comes from our greatest wounds, if we allow it.  I can tell you that you already have all the tools inside of you to get through it, it just takes some re-remembering.  I can tell you that you are not alone.  We can tell you these things because we have lived them.  We have survived our darkest nights, and we have gotten messy and learned (and are still learning) how to break open instead of break down.  It is through our pain that Sacred Liberation Retreats was born.  It is through our journey of healing and re-remembering that we have transformed our suffering into passion for helping others find their own healing, to discover their own tools and inner guidance, and to have the space to do that.  Sacred Liberation Retreats was born from remembering how important it is to play, to share meals with others, to share stories with others, to turn strangers into friends, or to strengthen bonds with the people that are already a part of your life, to seek adventure, to remember how to breathe, to move your body, to be with your mind, to refill your cup.  It was our suffering that led us here, but it has been our decision to heal that has allowed us to create this space.  What a beautiful, challenging, and wild couple years it has been, but our hearts couldn't be filled with more gratitude than where we are right now.  Since first planting the seeds for our dream, Samantha and I have hosted three summer retreat weekends and many small events over the past couple years.  This year, 2024, we are set to offer at least 3 retreats as well as events including some outside of our regular stomping ground.  In March, 2023 I was the cover story for Woman to Woman NWI magazine which was scary and exciting and you may still be able to find the article online.  But if you are still here, this is our story.  Some parts may be hard to read but even though our dark nights were filled with loss, grief, pain, and suffering, they have been even more filled with hope, friendship, love, and inspiration.

 In October 2019, I lost my best friend to suicide.  This loss and the hurricane of grief that ensued led to my own mental health crisis, and suicidal ideation.  As the World collective fell into a mental health crisis during the pandemic, something in me snapped me back to reality.  It was as if my whole world had already fallen a part, and when the rest of the world seemingly fell a part, I knew I needed to figure out how to get through my loss and grief and to begin to heal if not for myself, at least for my daughter.  I tried to find joy in the things and activities that I used to love, like cooking, reading, traveling and being outside, crafting,  but nothing seemed to help.  For years I played with Aerial Arts, taking some classes, but mostly playing around and teaching myself (looking back how unsafe this was but it's where I was at).  When nothing seemed to take the pain away, I took a leap and began going to classes in Laporte, IN at Go Aerial Fitness for Aerial Arts.  I loved the classes, and it eased some of my pain, but after class it did not take very long before the grief and the dark thoughts came back.  So I decided to take more classes.  The next thing I knew, I was at every aerial class offered, but it still wasn't enough.  Eventually I would get home, and the dark thoughts would come back and I would be stuck, until it was time to go to class.  So one day, I decided to stay after Aerial and take a Hot Yoga class.  Little did I know, how much that hour would change my life.  I was stuck in a place that was so dark that I convince myself that the world and my loved ones would be better off without me.  I was fully convinced that my daughter especially deserved a mom that wasn't sad all the time and the only solution to that was for me to not be here anymore.  But when I walked into my first hot yoga class, I felt so much love from the stranger that was leading the class.  I remember thinking to myself "how could this woman love ME?  She doesn't know me, she doesn't know the terrible things I think about when I lay down at night, she doesn't know the chaotic life I have, she doesn't know how broken I am.  She doesn't know that I don't deserve to be loved.  She has no idea that I am not worthy."   In that class, I felt unconditional love, I learned how to breathe as if I was taking my first breath, I moved my body, I had no idea what I was doing, but I just did it, and I cried like I have never cried before.  And then that beautiful stranger read this quote from Thich Nhat Hanh: "When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don't blame the lettuce.  You look for reasons it is not doing well.  It may need fertilizer, or more water, or less sun.  You never blame the lettuce.  Yet if we have problems with our friends or family, we blame the other person.  But if we know how to take care of them, they will grow well, like the lettuce  Blaming has no positive effect at all, nor does trying to persuade with reason and argument.  That is my experience, no blame, no reasoning, no argument, just understanding.  If you understand, and you show that you understand, you can love, and the situation will change."

In this class, I realized how much I was neglecting myself, and in neglecting myself I was neglecting those around me that I loved.  I wasn't taking care of my own lettuce. I was blaming myself, victimizing myself, hurting myself.  That class literally saved my life.  That beautiful stranger, whom I now call friend, taught me in that hour how to save my own life.

After that class, I continued my Aerial practice and built a Yoga practice.  I showed up, even when I was tired, even when I didn't feel like it, and as time went on, I began to notice the changes in myself and in the world around me.  The way I saw the world changed.  What was so empty and dark and void became full of light, and love.  Through this time, I started spending more time with Samantha, as she was a Yogi and not many of my other friends were.  I began to build more body awareness, which led me to switching to a doctor that actually confirmed familial autoimmune issues and got me set up for treatment.  I had asked my original doctor for years to test me for these genetic issues and they would always tell me I was fine.  And this led to a complete depletion of crucial vitamins, hormone imbalances, and insulin resistance that made getting out of bed or doing basic daily functions difficult.  I had suffered with these problems for so long that I truly believed that this was just the life I was given, even though that was not the case.   When I realized the power that Yoga had to transform my pain and suffering, I knew I wanted to be a lighthouse for others.  I went on to find Ohm Yoga Studio in Valparaiso, and went through their 200 Hour Hatha/Vinyasa Yoga Teacher Training.   The Ohm community has given me so much love and support from the moment I walked in through their door, giving me the most amazing environment to heal and to explore the different parts of myself that I had ignored or just didn't even know.  I changed so much during my teacher training as I healed mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually.  When I lost my best friend, I felt like I had a hole in my heart because I had given so much love to him but, with him gone, I had no where else to put that love.  My Yoga journey brought me so many loving and wonderful souls that I could give that love to and fill my heart with.  I have more love and support than I ever could have imagined.  Along this journey, everything has aligned for me right when it was meant to.  Ohm sent me to Aerial Yoga training to be a substitute teacher, and the day I received my certificate, I inherited the class because the previous teacher left the studio.  Shortly after that, I inherited a Yin class, and then a slow flow, and then a Restorative class.  I had been so blessed to take so many trainings and have so much support, creative freedom, and new doors to walk through. 

Prior to finishing up my initial training, Samantha and I began to plant the seeds of Sacred Liberation Retreats.  We knew that we wanted to offer our gifts to the world for more than just a class or a workshop.  We bounced different ideas off of each other for quote some time as we planned and dreamt of what we would offer and how we would offer it.  We knew that we wanted to have our first retreat somewhere that we felt safe and supported, and while sitting at that very place, planting seeds, it dawned on us to offer it at Lake O' the Woods Club in Valparaiso.  We launched our first retreat in the Summer of 2022.  We had an amazing group of individuals who continue to return to retreat with us.  That summer I lost my Dad unexpectedly to a substance overdose.  My practice, my community and support system, and therapy helped me navigate through these new waters of grief.  His loss inspired me to continue learning and growing.  He use to tell me don't go straight, always go forward.  So I did.   I joined Samantha at Hub Coalition as a Mental Health First Aid Instructor at the beginning of 2023 where I teach people to notice signs and symptoms of Mental Health or Substance Use Challenges and how to have conversations or connect individuals to professional help as well as working to remove stigma around these challenges.  In the summer of 2023 Samantha and I traveled to Michigan to join Settle into Stillness for their Sound Journey training.  We had been creating our own sound journeys, but wanted to learn more.  We ended up falling in love with the gongs and purchased our own.  I also began my journey last summer with Blue Lotus Healing Studies and became a Thai Bodyworker in December 2023.  Despite all that this life has handed me, I have continued to move forward, learning, growing, healing.  Some days are still hard, but I now know I have all the tools within me to light up the darkness.  I know that my loved ones passed would be so proud of me, and I know that I have an ever growing list of beautiful people who are grateful that I am still here on this Earth.  Thank you for being here too, and for listening to my story.