Anne-Tyler Harshbarger
Your Ecstatic Living Guide, E-RYT 500, AIN
My love of movement was innately felt at age 4 when I started ballet lessons. Years of dedicated focus, fueled by passion, ensued and ultimately gave rise to a gratifying 16-year profession of performing on stages across the world with Houston Ballet and Atlanta Ballet as a principal ballerina. This unique career instilled in me a highly developed fluency in the language of movement and soulful expression of the human experience. I gained body awareness and an inner ability to live with grace, in the midst of challenge, and it revealed to me the latent power of infinite potential that exists within us all. I experienced ecstatic, transcendental states while enraptured in flow states of dance, which led me into a lifelong enchantment with spirituality, consciousness, and metaphysics. Also, a world-wide professional DJ for the past 16 years, I believe music (all art, really), is the universal language and is essential to shifting the energetic vibrational frequency of our collective consciousness.
Creating harmonious, loving awareness in the world has always been my mission. Diving deeply into the ancient wisdom tradition of Yoga and it’s sister-science, Ayurveda was a natural progression. Now, sharing it in a way that is relevant to modern-day life is my life’s purpose. Yoga calms the nervous system and brings about whole mind-body-Soul connection and wellness. It also opens the heart into increased feelings of compassion, gratitude, forgiveness, peace, and love, leading to one’s fullest dharma (cosmic design) and unique path of service and purpose.
As a highly sensitive person, I’ve experienced emotions intensely. I was bullied as a child and throughout my life I repeatedly felt misunderstood, taken advantage of, and like I somehow didn’t fit into this world. I often sensed that people were against me and that life was an overwhelming challenge. I sometimes perceived that others did not care for me or only cared for me because of my physical appearance. As much beauty, joyful experiences, and loving supportive beings as I had in my life, the pain and struggle were still undeniable. However, feeling with intensity propelled me into artistic prowess as a dancer and actress, which granted me many meaningful experiences onstage and in life. The perceived ‘curse’ ultimately becomes our blessing, our karma gives way to our dharma. Through it all, love remained my steadfast guru and my inner light, my salvation.
Yoga allowed me to realize that it wasn’t necessary to perpetuate these painful stories and beliefs. It reveals acquired subconscious patterns of the mind, informs transgenerational trauma, and shines a light on illusions related to identity and limiting beliefs, so that we might shed false illusions of self and merge in union with our authentic divine Soul Self. Living a joyful life doesn’t happen by accident. It’s not some special privilege that certain people have been endowed with. We have all been through so much, to varying degrees, and we are all prone to immense suffering, yet we are capable of blossoming and flourishing in ecstasy – in every moment – if we have the tools and resources to support us in our Soul growth. We create our reality.
A Swami gave me the spiritual name, Nataraja, which translates to “the eternal cosmic ecstatic dancer”, whose purpose of dancing is to release all beings from the snare of illusion. Life is a dynamic dance of creation, maintenance, and destruction. Nataraja is the connection between spirituality and the arts. As I embody this sacred archetype, it is now my honor to share the wisdom of my own soulful experience as well as the wisdom passed on to me by many other wisdom sharers. As an E-RYT 500, YACEP, AIN Counselor, Ecstatic Living Guide, Circle Facilitator, and Embodiment Coach, I am truly humbled and honored to guide you into reclaiming your divine essence so you can grow and flourish.
