Holistic Healing Arts UK, London (2026)

Ashley Cruz is a teacher, guide, and lifelong student of healing arts, known for weaving together ancient wisdom and modern science in a way that is both grounded and soul-stirring. Her approach to self-awareness and transformation is rooted in lived experience, deep study, and a devotion to presence.

She draws from a broad and integrative background—Anatomy, Traditional Indian Ayurvedic Medic

ine, the Yoga Sutras, Buddhist Psychology, Internal Family Systems Therapy, Mindfulness, Reiki, and Medicinal Aromatherapy—to create a practice that is holistic, intentional, and trauma-informed. Ashley Cruz, Yoga & Ayurveda practitioner, invites you to explore personalised paths to wellness. Her teaching blends these disciplines with the embodied practices of Yoga, Pranayama, and Pilates, offering others a path toward healing that is both empowering and compassionate. Her mission is to support individuals in reconnecting with their innate wisdom and self-healing capacity.

Ashley Cruz is a Senior E-500 Yoga Teacher with advanced training in:

▪️Hatha, Kriya, Vinyasa, Ashtanga, Restorative, and Pregnancy Yoga
▪️Yoga Nidra, Children's Yoga, Pranayama, Vipassana Meditation and Mindfulness Meditation
▪️The Shatkarmas (yogic cleansing techniques designed to purify the body and mind) and Ayurvedic Cooking

She is also certified as a:

▪️Yoga Therapist
▪️Ayurvedic Practitioner
▪️MBCP Teacher
▪️Reiki Practitioner
▪️Medicinal Aromatherapist
▪️Private Personal Trainer

Ashley is currently training as a Birthing From Within Doula and Childbirth Educator, a program offered by Pam England (MA, CNM) that bridges ancient inner knowing with evidence-based care. She is also a graduate of Nancy Bardacke’s Mindfulness-Based Childbirth and Parenting Teacher (MBCPTT) Program, which she credits with transforming her own birth experience and deepening her commitment to mindful parenting and women's health. Her offerings include support in Pre- and Post-Natal Yoga, Womb Yoga, and Menopause Yoga—practices that honour the full spectrum of womanhood.

With a Master’s in Comparative Literature from King’s College London—focused on Decolonial Feminism and Postcolonial Theory—Ashley brings a critical awareness of how systems impact wellness. She founded the Community Care Program to offer free classes to individuals affected by the intergenerational impacts of colonialism and patriarchy, with a mission to restore equity, dignity, and deep belonging in the field of wellness.

20/03/2026

Eating as a Radical Act: The Yamas, the Niyamas, the Body, and the World We Inhabit

In 2012, I wrote a blog post about yogic diet. It was earnest and sincere — a list of questions organised by principle, the kind of thing you write when you are early in your teaching and trying to make ancient ideas practical and accessible.

I still believe in those ideas. But when I returned to that post recently, I found myself wanting to ask more of them.

Because the Yamas and Niyamas were never designed to be a personal wellness checklist. They are an ethical framework — one that begins with our relationship to the world before it ever asks anything of our inner life.

And when I hold them up against the world we are actually living in, they start to say something quite different from what the wellness industry has made of them.

Ahimsa — non-harming — is not just about what we choose at the supermarket. It asks whose hands harvested this food, and under what conditions. Aparigraha — non-hoarding — is not just about portion sizes. It sits uncomfortably alongside a food system where scarcity is manufactured, not inevitable. Sauca — purity — cannot be separated from the reality that environmental toxins accumulate disproportionately in the bodies of those with the least power to avoid them.

And then there is Ishvara Pranidhana — surrender to something greater — which asks us to remember, before we eat, that every meal is an act of receiving.

That we are held inside a web of life we did not make and cannot control. That reverence is not a luxury. It is an orientation.

I rewrote the post. Not to discard what I originally wrote, but to let it grow up a little — to let the practice meet the world as it is.

The essay is linked in my bio, if you’d like to read it in full. I’d love to know what it stirs in you.

16/03/2026

“There is deep wisdom within our very flesh, if we can only come to our senses and feel it.”
— Elizabeth A. Behnke

When I find myself caught up in current events — the genocide in Palestine and Sudan, the ethnic cleansing in Lebanon, the carpet bombing of Iran — I sometimes begin to feel physically ill. My energy drains quickly. A deep exhaustion sets in, and it can feel difficult to cope.

Yesterday I was speaking with my best friend about this. I told her I had begun to wonder if something might actually be wrong with me, because my energy seems to be waning more each day.

She shared that she has been feeling something similar.

We noticed our physical symptoms — fatigue, depleted energy — and our first instinct was to locate them within the body as a medical question. Perimenopause, perhaps.

Then, through conversation and mindful reflection, we relocated them in their actual context — collective trauma, political overwhelm, the somatic burden of bearing witness to genocide.

That process of relocation — from individual pathology to collective experience — is itself a decolonial act.

We refused the individualisation of a systemic wound. And then we responded not with withdrawal, not with radicalisation, but with solidarity and embodied practice.

In that moment we shifted the frame: from individual pathology to collective experience.

We laughed — that kind of sad, knowing laugh you share when the world feels too heavy — and joked that perhaps women feel it more often because we are so often taught to care so deeply.

And then we did something simple.

We kept talking.

We supported each other.

And we decided to move our bodies — a little yoga, a little mindful breathing, a little intentional grounding — just to help metabolise the sadness and anger we were holding.

It reminded me that our bodies are not broken when they respond to injustice with grief, fatigue, or overwhelm.

Our bodies are wise.

They are sensing, feeling, bearing witness.

Sometimes the most radical thing we can do is listen to that wisdom… and tend to ourselves and each other with care.✨

08/02/2025

✨ To be attentive requires tremendous love of living. ✨

Mindfulness is often thought of as a practice of stillness—of sitting in meditation, of moving through yoga with careful awareness. But in truth, mindfulness is an act of love. It is a devotion to life itself.

When we study the mind, when we bring awareness to our breath, our thoughts, our movements, we are not just practicing presence—we are cultivating a deep reverence for existence.

We choose to be mindful because we want peace to prevail, within us and around us. Because we seek the joy of love—not just fleetingly, but as a constant presence in our hearts. Because we care, deeply, about the world we are shaping with each thought, each action, each moment of awareness.

This is not always easy. It requires patience. It requires a willingness to meet ourselves as we are, again and again, without judgment. But most of all, it requires a tremendous love of living.

Mindfulness is not confined to a cushion or a yoga mat—it is how we meet the world. It is the way we listen when someone speaks, the way we savor a meal, the way we pause to feel the sunlight on our skin. It is how we notice our reactions, our patterns, our emotions—and choose, again and again, to meet them with understanding rather than resistance.

Through this practice, we soften. We open. We learn that to be truly present is to love life as it is—not only in moments of joy, but in its rawness, its uncertainty, its unfolding.

✨ Today, let this be your reminder: attentiveness is an act of love. May we wake up to our lives with tenderness. May we meet this moment with presence. May we study the mind, not to control it, but to understand it—and in doing so, may we create a more peaceful, compassionate world.

How does mindfulness show up in your life? Share in the comments—I’d love to hear.

25/01/2025

✨ Sometimes my students are small and bendy ✨

Yoga and mindfulness are wonderful tools for children, offering them a space to connect with their bodies and minds in a playful and intentional way. In a world full of stimulation, yoga provides a much-needed moment of calm, helping children develop focus, balance, and emotional regulation.

For this little one, butterfly pose isn’t just about flexibility—it’s about building a sense of inner peace and learning to tune into the body’s signals. As children grow and face new challenges, practices like these offer them the tools they need to navigate life with resilience and mindfulness.

I’m passionate about bringing these practices into the lives of both adults and children, and I offer private sessions designed to nurture the whole family. Whether it’s for stress relief, emotional balance, or simply a way to move and breathe with intention, I’d love to guide you and your little ones on this journey.

🌿 DM for more details about private sessions, for yourself or your child!

P.S. Did you know: The yogic term for Butterfly Pose is Baddha Konasana (pronounced bah-da koh-nah-suh-nuh). It translates to “Bound Angle Pose,” referring to the way the feet are brought together and the knees are bent out to the sides, resembling the wings of a butterfly in motion.

Address

London

Website

http://www.ashleycruzyoga.com/, http://www.holistichealingarts.co.uk/

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