Dear Corbett and the ThinkTraffic Team,

2012 was a big year for me – a coming of age if you will. I had the opportunity of a lifetime to be part of Jonathan Field’s Good Life Project, and boy did I learn A LOT. In 2012 I:

• Became a certified yoga instructor
• Quit my full-time job
• Started my own social media company
• Moved away from the place I loved for love
• Decided that yoga was my true calling
• Traveled
• Started all over with my yoga and wellness blog, http://ashleyjosephine.com

The blog has now been live since the end of October, and over the last few months of my official time with Jonathan and my GLP tribe we’ve hashed out some ideas and a strategy for me to make a living teaching yoga and spreading the wellness message.

So now I’ve got a plan. I’ve got ideas – WAY too many. I have a purpose and I LOVE what I’m doing. But I need ThinkTraffic’s help to take this to the next level. This isn’t just another yoga blog. This isn’t just a way to make money. I have a vision and I’m on a mission.

My mission is to transform the way an entire generation thinks about wellness.

I had a front-row seat into the lives of tech entrepreneurs in Boulder, CO, and I know you had similar experiences working in the corporate consulting world in San Francisco and in a startup environment of your own. I watched so many people suffer physically, mentally and emotionally from giving it their all to achieve the new American Dream – to build a startup and then get bought out and become a millionaire overnight. Somehow that all-nighter mentality has pervaded into society’s definition of normal functioning.

But I strongly believe (scientific research is backing me up here) if you don’t take care of yourself along the way, you’re not going to be able to continue producing at the same level, you’re not going to make the difference in the world you want to make and you won’t have any time to create a lasting legacy that can benefit others.

Women are especially hard on themselves. In a time when women are still trying to prove their self-worth within a patriarchal society, plus take care of families, cook dinner and fulfill their role as housewife – I do it! – they are guaranteed to take care of themselves last.

This world needs to chill out, otherwise the life expectancy rate is going to keep declining and Gen Y is going to be one heck of a drain on the government when we all turn 65 (if we make it that far)!

Stress is out of control, and I have the ability to help people scrape back to a sane equilibrium that works for them. I have the voice and the drive and the capacity to help the reluctantly healthy (that’s my accountability partner, Jennifer Boykin’s, phrase).

My goal is to create an online wellness community for the reluctantly healthy, modern-day working woman. I’m making wellness accessible, fun, community-oriented and ingrained into the lives of every woman who visits my site. And most importantly, my site is all about taking action. This isn’t just a read-and-wish-your-life-was-like-me type thing. You’ve got to put in the work to get the results, and I’ve got the right kind of life experience, wisdom and energy to inspire, motivate and help women live a more balanced, fulfilling life.

I’m in it for the long-haul. This is my life’s work. This is my legacy and I’m not afraid to ask for help to get me where I know I can and will be someday.

If you’re looking for a mentoring experience that will be fulfilling for you, get you excited and involved in something BIG and provide you with a killer success story case study, then I’m your girl.

Ask Jonathan and Jen. This is for real.

I’d be honored and grateful if you’d be my mentor for 2013 and beyond and I can’t wait to have you in my court.

Namaste,
ashley josephine

Now, 10 Reasons Yogis Need a Guru

1. Credibility & Authority

In the yoga tradition, we ascribe to the idea of lineages. We learn from someone, who learned from someone, who learned from someone, who learned from someone, etc. Lineages, kind of like brands, give us credibility, authority and name recognition.

2. Accountability

The guru teaches the student philosophy, and it’s the students’ job to implement. As with learning any new skillset, it’s helpful to have someone with more experience than you to hold you accountable and offer advice when you stray off the path.

3. Ideas

All yoga teachers get their ideas from other teachers. The really good teachers make the ideas their own and modify them as necessary to make it work for their unique voice and style.

4. Inspiration

Yogis (and gurus) are human. Everyone needs someone to look up to, someone to lead the way and someone to show others that it can be done.

5. Trust

The yogi/guru relationship can be a complex one. Ultimately, the student must learn to trust the guru’s methods, wisdom and experience. This exercise becomes a practice of yoga itself; it may be the most useful lesson a yogi can learn from his or her guru.

6. Patience

Another virtue taught by the best of gurus that most yogis, especially modern-day ones, have a hard time grasping. Patience must be learned for true success to manifest and there is no better teacher than the guru.

7. Boundaries

Any public figure with access to large amounts of people will inevitably (hopefully) become a master at setting boundaries. The guru’s own interaction with his or her yogis becomes a lesson in itself in the proper way to construct appropriate boundaries between teacher and student.

8. Humility

All humans make mistakes. Even gurus. Gurus teach their students how to make mistakes with grace, how to recover and how to move on.

9. Simplicity

A lot of people like to make things harder than they are. Our minds rationalize that if it’s harder, the payoff will be larger, when in fact, we’re more likely to succeed when things are broken down to their most basic component parts. Gurus break things down to the basics.

10. Success

To become a guru, you had to do something right. The guru’s processes and methods become the teachable frameworks that students drool over. The very best students adapt what works for them and evolve the methods to become the next gurus. And so the cycle continues.

What qualities do you look for in a teacher or guru? Let me know in the comments below!