Ann-Marie Phillips

E-RYT500, iRest Yoga Nidra Level 1 Trained Teacher, Professional Explorer

In the late 90’s I began practicing yoga in my living room with Rodney Yee VHS tapes. This was my first experience with any yoga practice. I can’t even remember where I got my hands on this VHS. It was so calming with him on these mountainous red rocks breathing and teaching me yoga. I didn’t know it yet, but I was on my path. The fire had been stoked.

It wasn’t until college, I found more of a regular practice and continued going back to yoga time and time again. 2003 I stumbled upon a wonderful teacher at UNCW that had 6am yoga classes and I started getting hooked. It was then I started branching out and practicing around Wilmington and found amazing Live Music Drumming classes, vinyasas, and hot yoga. From 2003-2010 I varied from daily to weekly, to whenever I needed my “fix” type of practice. I kept coming back to my mat over and over. Seeking more. Diving deeper into myself each time.

It was 2010 when I started to get serious again like I had in college. I was fresh off a bad break up and turned right to yoga. I started practicing all the time, even teaching some yoga to my beach volleyball team once a week in exchange for supper :) (I literally worked for food). Then my favorite studio was like “hey we’re having a YTT, you interested in learning more?! ‘F*** Yes I was! I”m a life path #7 - of course I want to learn more - TRUTH SEEKER.

I had started my new “big girl” job on base at Camp Lejeune at the Naval Hospital while enrolled in my first ever 200hr YTT program! My main job at the hospital was Psychiatric Nursing Assistant during the day and Yoga Teacher in Training at night and weekends. It was intense, and I LOVED every moment. I am so blessed for all the experiences during this training as it planted this seed of Yoga. Yoga has changed my life and so many others too. It’s no longer a practice, it’s a lifestyle. It’s like breathing...wait it is BREATHING!

I had the opportunity early 2011 to fly to California and get certified in iRest Yoga Nidra. So on top of my already 200hr training, I took a week and flew to San Francisco to train, meet and study with Richard Miller, PhD completing iRest Yoga Nidra Level 1. Once I had added this meditation practice into my life I was able to serve our military members through yoga and iRest. For the next 3 years my job on based turned into a case manager of the inpatient psych ward, leading inpatient and outpatient yoga and meditation classes as medical appointments. I loved working with our military yoga and meditation to help with anxiety, depression, chronic sleep disorders, PTSD, TBI...I saw over the next 3 years how powerful this tool is we call yoga.

2014, I set out to pursue teaching yoga Full-Time! It was Scary, amazing, and Liberating. I let go of stability, threw caution to the wind, and started following my path, my north node. I started to awaken and realized THIS is what I’m suppose to be doing in the world - sharing movement, breathing and exploring moving with others and the world. I was starting to do it. I was teaching yoga full time. It started with one class a week at the gym (Cape Carteret Aquatic Center) -- Monday Morning Chair Yoga. It was beautiful, amazing, and way outside of my comfort zone. To this day, I am still teaching this class and others like it at the same gym! I love my gym yogis aka the yoga mafia. Xoxo

As a person always seeking more knowledge, more truth, more.. It wasn’t long before I found myself enrolled in my second 200hr YTT program as a student again :) 2015 I deepened my knowledge and teachings with Caitlin Casella from NYC. She would fly down to Morehead City every other weekend from NYC!! WOW! I know! New York CITY!!!! I love love love her. This is a magical journey with amazing magical, talented, smart, down to earth, real amazing people. She is one of those people in my life, on the my path. Today she is still my teacher, but now so much more. Mentor, Teacher, Cat-Loving Friend.

The journey continues as I continue to step outside of my comfort zones and study, travel and keep exploring moving through this body and this world.

2019 I enrolled in a few more of Caitlins classes and courses, but this time online. I flew to NYC for a weekend with her and her badass friends/teachers then enrolled in her summer program called CrossFade. It’s a blend of kinesiology, movement, FRC, Yoga, lots of anatomy, mobility, questioning everything, marketing, all the things. I’ve also created my own YTT this year and I’m excited for the journey to continue teaching the teachers and the deep divers. (deep divers is a term I like to borrow from Angelic)

I’m so in love with this journey and all of you I meet along the path. I am so grateful for all my teachers and all of YOU- showing up - sharing your practice - and being real. It’s because of y’all I can keep learning, growing, laughing, traveling, and evolving into the best version. I’m constantly moving, learning new ways to move my body from my teachers and my STUDENTS. I’ve been saying for years, my students have been my best teachers of the body.

I started teaching movement, yoga, and things for one simple reason...to make this moving practice accessible to everyone. To set you up for success. To help you feel. To help you move in your body, to explore...those of you who have taken my classes or trainings or traveled to far away places with me, I thank you.

Today you can find me teaching a few public classes, private sessions, Teaching YTT, and Retreats all over the world. As Mary Oliver said, “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

See you soon.

~Ann-Marie