Keeping Ashland Healthy - Episode 121 – Partnering for Change | Jennifer English

Keeping Ashland Healthy - Episode 121 – Partnering for Change | Jennifer English

What drives someone to seek a life without alcohol? For Ashland University yoga instructor Jenn English, it’s been “small, sustainable choices” that reshaped her whole way of living. In this chat with host David Ross, Jenn shares how a simple fitness class turned into more than two decades of yoga practice and a near three-year stretch of sobriety.

She laughs about goat yoga (“Is that the most ridiculous thing?”) and trendy campus classes, but underneath the humour sits a serious message about mental health, stress and finding your “noise”.

As she puts it, “My life, I could not make space for alcohol and the yoga practice that I wanted to develop.” You’ll hear how yoga shifted from exercise to a daily toolkit: breath, movement and awareness that anyone can use, even if they never set foot in a studio. Jenn tackles the classic excuse, “I can’t do yoga, I’m not flexible,” by stressing modifications and accessibility for all levels, whether you’re a student athlete or a busy parent.

A big focus is how simple practices change your response to stress. Jenn talks about checking in with your body – dropping your shoulders, unclenching your jaw, planting your feet – to create a gap between reacting and responding. She calls the breath “the ultimate biological hack”, something everyone has access to, even in traffic or during a tough day.

There’s plenty here for anyone curious about non‑drug approaches to support mental and emotional health, and for people in or considering recovery who want gentle, practical tools. By the end, you might find yourself asking, as Jenn does, “What’s your noise?” – and wondering what one small change you could start with today.