Abigail Hatfield is a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT) with Yoga Alliance, which acknowledges the completion of a yoga teacher training with an approved and active Registered Yoga School (RYS).
Abby Hatfield has been studying yoga for nearly 20 years. She took her first yoga class as a college student in Pennsylvania, in 1997. As someone who suffered from mild chronic pain due to scoliosis, and a previous car accident, she noticed the benefits of yoga in her body immediately. She studied with certified Iyengar instructors Dean and Rebecca Lerner, until moving to Southern Oregon in 2000, where she continued her study of Iyengar yoga with Chad Hamrin.
The stretching and strengthening exercises were a great compliment to West Aftican Dance, which Abby studied, performed, and taught for over ten years. In 2001, Abby became a student of Anusara teacher Hanneli Francis. The Anusara principles of alignment, and heart-opening expansiveness that accompanied them, helped Abby to develop a deeper understanding of the heart of yoga; it's philosophy, purpose, and profoundness. Simultaneously, Abby and her husband founded Full Circle Bison Ranch, growing grass-fed bison on organic pastures. She continued her study of Anusara yoga, while managing their business, and raising a family.
Abby trained with Sarahjoy Marsh in Portland, Oregon, to receive her 200-hour teacher training certificate in 2009. She began teaching regular weekly classes in her community of Williams, where she continues to teach classes today. In spring of 2015, she graduated from a 500-hour Training program with Sarahjoy, director of the DAYA Foundation, a non-profit in Portland. She now also teaches Adaptive Yoga classes at the Ashland Yoga Center in Ashland, OR, and gives private yoga instruction to individual clients. She continues to live with her husband and two children on their bison ranch, where she enjoys gardening, running, hiking, and being outdoors.
About Abby's Classes:
Abby draws inspiration from the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Classes incorporate a theme that brings Classical Yoga philosophy to life in an inspiring practice, weaving together mind, body, and breath. Through the use of vinyasa, standing and seated postures, inversions, pranayama, and meditation, students will find greater vitality, stamina, balance, and relaxation. Abby's classes utilize the following techniques:
Ayurvedic Yoga - Seasonally appropriate yoga practice to help strengthen or pacify one of the Ayurvedic doshas, Kapha, Pitta, or Vatta. These classes help to harmonize students with the rhythms of nature and acclimate to seasonal extremes.
Mindfulness Flow - Utilize mindfulness techniques found in Yoga and Buddhist teachings to quiet the mind, bringing awareness, clarity, and a sense of well-being
Strength Conditioning and Alignment - Combine Anusara and Iyengar Yoga alignment principles with techniques from Pilates and Physical Therapy for postural awareness, and deepening of yoga postures.
Abby believes that through regular practice, we carry the ancient yogic wisdom forward into our lives, reducing suffering, improving relationships, and increasing compassion. "Yoga is an amazing tool to get us out of our heads and into our hearts. The physical practice gives us a safe place to work with our strengths and weaknesses, to explore our boundaries, to confront resistance, and to express freedom. When breathing practices and meditation are layered in, the result is a continual unfolding of the heart toward the pure expression of love and wholeness."