aasne daniels is one of the three owners of Ahh Yoga. She began her yoga practice in 2001 and started teaching five years later. She has completed teacher trainings in Ashtanga yoga with Tim Miller, David Swenson, and Lino Miele; and has also studied with Kino MacGregor of the Miami Life Center. Aasne completed her 200 hour yoga alliance training with Suddha Weixler in Chicago. Aasne loves how yoga helps her cultivate awareness and gratitude and gives her the tools to deal with life’s everyday craziness. She lives in Springfield with her husband James and their daughter, Willa.
denise gibler is also a co-owner of Ahh Yoga. Denise trained for eighteen months in Pilates before discovering yoga and was immediately captivated by the inward focus of yoga in addition to the physical practice. Denise is a registered Yoga Alliance Teacher and has continued her training by attending workshops focusing on anatomy, alignment, yin yoga, vinyasa flow yoga and asthanga yoga. Although she has attended workshops with some of the most respected teachers in yoga, during the past year and a half of teaching she has learned that her studetns are her best teachers. Through her own yoga journey over the past few years, Denise has realized the positive impact yoga can have on our physical, mental and spiritual well-being and seeks to share that through her teaching. Denise shares her life with her husband, Mike, and their dog Boo and is very grateful to them for their support on her yoga journey.
ami flammini is the founder and one of the three owners of Ahh Yoga. She was first introduced to yoga in 1994. She is certified in Integrative Yoga Therapy and is a registered Yoga Alliance Teacher. After completing her training in yoga therapy, Ami fell in love with the physically challenging practice of Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga. She then completed a forty hour teacher training with David Swenson and Shelly Wasthington in Ashtanga Yoga at Yoga Vermont. She later completed a teacher training with Tim Miller. She has attended workshops with Manju Jois, Richard Freeman, David Williams, Beryl Bender Birch, Sri Vatsa Rama Swami, Cyndi Lee and Anna Forrrest. Ami has most recently completed teacher training with Sri Vatsa Rama Swami at Chicago Yoga. In addition, Ami has completed over 65 hours of training in Thai Yoga Bodywork with Chuck Duff in Evanston.
Ami believes the practice of yoga has the power to turn you onto your head, both literally and figuratively. She recognizes and honors in her teaching that you don't need to be a skinny pretzel to practice yoga and there is a type of yoga for any-body and every-body who is interested. Ami has seen first hand (especially after breaking her hand) how the practice of yoga changes our physical body and changes how we function in the world, both psychologically and spiritually. The continuous practice and study of yoga seems to find it's way into our lives and open not only our hips, but our hearts.
In addtion to teaching yoga and co-owning the studio, Ami works full time for the Illinois Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports Network. In her free time, she loves to spend time with her husband, Vince, and her girlfriends. She also likes to read about, think about, write about, talk about, and most importantly, practice yoga.
judy riedl has been practicing yoga since 2003. Her introduction to yoga began with a vinyasa flow class at a local health club. It was the fall of 2004 that she first experienced the power of Ashtanga Yoga. She has been practicing Ashtanga Yoga ever since. Judy has experienced many types of physical activities in her lifetime including teaching Cardio-Kickboxing and Pilates for seven years. However, she finds that Ashtanga Yoga balanced with Yin Yoga provide her with the overall balance of physical, mental and spiritual well being that she had been looking for in her life. In December of 2009 Judy completed her 200 hour Yoga Certification with Suddha Weixler at the Chicago Yoga Center. Judy is a (RYT) Registered Yoga Teacher with the Yoga Alliance. In addition in 2006 Judy also completed her Ashtanga Yoga Teacher Training with Tim Miller. In the fall of 2009 Judy completed Teacher Training in Yin Yang Yoga with Master Paulie Zink. She has attended numerous workshops in Ashtanga with Manju Jois, Beryl Bender Birch, Danny Paradise and David Williams. She has attended Yin workshops with Paul Grilley and Sarah Powers.
ruta kulys was certified as a Hatha yoga teacher in 2006 and as a Prenatal yoga teacher in 2007. In 2009, she completed an additional 200 hour teacher training in Vinyasa Flow yoga with yogi and author Rolf Gates. A licensed psychotherapist for over twenty years, she found a way to bring together the benefits of yoga, meditation and psychotherapy seven years ago, after completing professional training in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT). She completed Level 1 and 2 training in Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy ( www.pryt.com ) and is a member of the International Association of Yoga Therapists. Her work as both a yoga teacher and therapist has shown her the importance of the mind-body-heart connection in health and happiness. Her CD, "Guided Relaxation for Health & Well-Being" helps people slow down, unwind and experience that nice shavasana feeling at home. Ruta lives in Springfield with her husband and their three amazing children.
julie slack has always loved doing things that involved skill in using her body, whether it was taking ballet lessons, hiking, swimming or long-distance biking. She came to yoga in her early 20's when she was seeking a new way to "keep in shape." Inspired by her sister who had been on a yoga retreat, she took her first lesson with her mother at a small yoga center in Washinton D.C. She was "hooked" from the first class. She found a practice that not only challenged her body in interesting ways, but left her feeling deeply relaxed and peaceful too. Julie had no idea that physical fitness regime could yield such benefits. Of course, she was to learn and continues to learn, that yoga is so much more than a fitness program.
She has been practicing yoga for 30 years to hep her stay healthy and sane while managing a full-time career in continuing education and raising two children with her husband, Larz. For the past 20 years she has taught yoga on a part-time basis in Springfield. Recently retired from the University of Illinois at Springfield, she is delighted to be joining us at Ahh Yoga.
Julie completed a 200 hour course as a yoga teacher from the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Lenox, Massachusetts. Her studies inlcuded yoga, philosophy, Kripalu teaching methodology, the benefits and contraindications ofyoga postures, how to adapt yoga postures for people with differrent body types, pranayama, the science of breath and meditation.
Ten years ago, Julie completed an intensive course on mindfulness-based stress reduction with John Kabat Zinn, author of Wherever You Go, There You Are and Full Catastrophe Living. She has been teaching mindfulness-based stress reduction for the past 13 years with Dr. Eva Muller, a psychologist and director of the Springfield's Stress Reduction Clinic. Yoga is one of the four minduflness practices they teach.
Over the years, Julie has attended workshops and studies with work of nationally well-respected yoga teachers such as Donna farhi, Richard Miller, Richard Shiffman and Judith Lasater. For the past three yerars, she has continued to deepen her mindfulness practice through studies with John Welwood, Ph.D., clinical psychologist, and pioneer in integrating psychological and spiritual work.
ruta
jessica ralph recently returned from India in Aug 2008 where she studied Hatha yoga. She acquired 250 hours of training from the Yoga Vidya Gurukul in Trimbak,Maharashtra, India. Studying yoga at an ashram was the most amazing spiritual experience for someone with a passion for yoga. Prior to obtaining yoga certification in India, her yoga experience consisted of 4-5 days a week of a disciplined home practice. Since starting a physical yoga practice and over the next 3years evolving and learning all aspects of yoga including breathing, meditations and chanting, her whole world has changed into a more positive and confident outlook on life. Jessica has worked as a Physical Therapist Assistant for Memorial Medical Center for the past 10 years. She is currently working part time at the Koke Mill Outpatient Rehab and raising a family with her husband Mike in Springfield. Her goal is to bring awareness to everyone on the far-reaching benefits of a yoga practice.
kris
kristin
kristin ettinger took her first yoga class here in Springfield ten years ago. After living in Denver and studying yoga there for eight years, she’s back home and excited to help others cultivate deeper awareness of body, mind and spirit through the multi-dimensional practice of yoga.
Kristin’s experience of yoga is steeped in the Iyengar tradition, which is known for its emphasis on correct alignment and use of props to explore and fine-tune postures (which is why it is great for beginners as well as students of all levels). The Iyengar method’s careful attention to detail provides the foundation for a safe and mindful practice, which Kristin believes helped keep her muscles and joints (especially knees and ankles) healthy on the field as a competitive ultimate player. In 2007, Kristin started phasing out the intense physical practice of team sports to shift her focus inward and deepen her yoga practice through a Hatha yoga teacher training at the Denver Institute of Yoga. She began teaching yoga for stress reduction at a medical center in 2008 and moved on to teach basic yoga at a recreation center in Lakewood, Colorado.
Kristin recently broke free from her desk job as a play editor in Denver and set off on a solo journey to India, where she studied yoga with renowned Iyengar teachers Rajiv and Swati Chanchani at the Yog-Ganga Center in the Himalayan foothills. Kristin enjoys learning about all eight limbs of yoga, and tries to bring yoga’s timeless wisdom into her everyday life. She’s happy to be a part of the Ahh Yoga community and looks forward to meeting you!
Kris Timme recently moved to Springfield from Seattle with her husband and daughter. She has been practicing yoga for 11 years. Her passion for yoga is deeply rooted in the principles taught by Beryl Bender Birch, yoga therapist and founder of The Hard & the Soft Yoga Institute. Kris is a nationally certified aerobics instructor through the Aerobics and Fitness Association of America and has been teaching a variety of group fitness classes for over 10 years. She firmly believes that yoga is for every *body*, all ages, abilities, shapes, and sizes. She recently graduated from the University of Washington with her Masters in Public Health Nutrition and will soon be certified as a Registered Dietitian. She believes that the benefits of yoga are far reaching and have the potential to promote mindful eating, reduce stress, and prevent chronic disease.
Amy Madigan Brown has always been active, like fast active, like couldn’t slow down …ever. She talked fast, walked fast, finished high school early, finished college early hurrying life by. So always slightly stressed and a little frazzled, a dear friend asked if maybe she'd like to try yoga. That was almost 10 years ago. She liked it so much she thought other people ‘in a hurry’ might like it. So she started sharing yoga by teaching her co-workers on the lunch hour. They liked it and they still like do 7 years on. For more than 16 years, she has spent her days at the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. The last 12 of which have been happily promoting greenways and trails throughout the state. Amy has received training through YogaFit and aspires to continue yoga education as life permits. Amy is married to Jim and they have a 3-yr old son, Declan, two cats and a fish. Amy is still active, but values yoga as a time to be still, yet in motion and deeply appreciates the welcoming philosophy of yoga.
