#141 - RYAN ASHTON - Grief, Identity and Going Viral
Ryan Ashton isn’t a yoga teacher, therapist or neatly packaged wellness expert. He is someone who arrived in this world from the outside, found genuine value in the practices, and began sharing the experience of being a fairly inflexible bloke trying to understand yoga without pretending he had already mastered it.
Then one unusually honest video changed things rather dramatically.
Ryan shared the story of losing his father following a long and painful journey with Lewy body dementia. He went to bed with roughly 300 Instagram followers and woke up on his way to 39,000, now almost 150,000. What might look from the outside like winning the social-media lottery quickly became something far more complicated: thousands of people sharing their own trauma, brands appearing in his inbox, strangers asking him for guidance, and an unexpected pressure to turn one vulnerable moment into a career.
We talk about the pressure to turn vulnerability into a business, protecting people’s trust in a world full of grifters, and how yoga offered Ryan a presence of mind he hadn’t found elsewhere—until filming it began to turn practice into performance.
A moving, funny and refreshingly unpolished conversation about identity, loss, masculinity and learning to sit beside someone without trying to fix them.
Follow @ryanashtonwashere
NOTABLE QUOTES
“We connect best with each other when we take down the barricades and say: this is who I am—take it or leave it.”
“I’m trying to navigate this in a way that feels right for me, rather than in the way that’s expected of me.”
“You only get one shot at people’s trust. Abuse it once and it’s gone.”
“Art expresses human pain, love and loss in a way that words alone sometimes can’t reach.”
“Yoga gave me a presence of mind that I hadn’t achieved through any other means.”
“Filming yoga took away the very presence that made me fall in love with it.”
“They didn’t solve the problem. They simply sat with me in the trenches.”
PERKS FOR YOU
10% off Liforme yoga matswith code HUSLER10
10% off expert validated wellbeing brand at Healfvia this link
10% off Colorful Standard clothingwith code ADAMHUSLERCS10
20% offVivobarefoot shoeswith code ADAMHUSLER15
15% off premium activewear brand Now You Live with code HUSLER15
THE HOST
@adamhusler - Fuelled by a fascination with anatomy and a desire to ask ‘why’, Adam specialises in a signature style of Alignment-Based Vinyasa— inspired by decades of study of anatomy, mediation, yoga and mobility . He’s taught classes, workshops and trainings in over 60 studios across over 20 countries, along with countless conferences and events. You can find him chatting on the Honestly Unbalanced podcast, consulting for studios and brands, co-leading one of Europes largest teacher trainings, writing for the likes of Yoga Journal and trying to be an awesome dad.
For workshops, trainings, events and retreats, find out more here.
