Get through your day with Ally Bogard’s unique take on meditation Get through your day with Ally Bogard’s unique take on meditation
Ally Bogard
20 Jan 2019
Based in New York, Ally leads yoga and meditation classes, retreats, immersions and also trains yoga teachers. She first came to yoga and meditation through her mother’s practice while growing up in Canada and quickly integrated it into her everyday life.
A lot of the techniques we use for meditation are the ‘keys’ for the ‘lock'. When thought drops, we are just left with the sensation of being alive.”
“I had always had a real fascination for the spirit and the invisible and what else was possible in this life,” she told Well Aware, “and when I was 17, my mom put me and my sister in a meditation class. I started to practice a lot of yoga and it snowballed the way it does!”
Ally describes her yoga and meditation practice as “trying to find center in any experience”.
“It’s really always been a quest for that,” she says. “It’s always taught me that it just works, this practice of self-observation; I’ve trained thousands of students and teachers and I’ve never seen it not work. My own meditation practice is daily, sometimes twice daily.”
Collaborating with sound therapist Jessica Caplain, Ally co-created SoundMind, a practice that combines sound therapy with meditation and breathing techniques. But even as a teacher, Ally is adamant that there’s no “good” or “bad” meditation.
Ally encourages prospective meditators to focus on the present moment, rather than looking forward or visualizing goals. “The present moment is all we’ve got,” she says, explaining that by focusing on the present moment, meditation can help people unlock what they truly need.
“A lot of the techniques we use for meditation are the ‘keys’ for the ‘lock',” she says. “When thought drops, we are just left with the sensation of being alive.”
Image Credit: allybogard.com/about
