Leanne Schulz: “Hi Alexandria, the Inspire Yoga students are dying to know, what is Yoga Physics?”
Alexandria Crow: “Yoga Physics is actually a description of the way that I teach yoga as opposed to a brand. How I teach is purposeful. I break things down into the minutiae in terms of using body mechanics to give people an understanding of what they’re doing with their bodies. I do this to let people have a personal experience and take personal responsibility, so that they take what they know about what they’re doing and put that together into something that’s wise and effective for them. They make personal choices about what instructions they pay attention to, noticing how things feel for them. They are taught to put their focus on something over and over again so that they can make informed decisions in present time, which manifests the purpose of yoga.
I can give you all of this detailed anatomy and mechanics, but I can’t give you alignment because alignment is personal. I can’t make you look like a picture. That’s unwise and irresponsible. I drive students to decide, based on what I said, ‘this is how this should move’, ‘this is how this should move according to science and mechanics’. And you may have injuries, personal trauma and genetics to work around. The way that you move might be slightly different than the person next to you and what you can accomplish may look very different. The idea of alignment bums me out some. We are not one size fits all yoga. The idea of mechanics and then personal responsibility and decision making based on information is much more appealing.”
LS: “I love that! Oh my god, I’m geeking out so hard on you right now. haha. So what is your favorite part about travel teaching?
AC: “Cheap hotels. Extended Stay America. Cottonwood Suites, and mini coffee makers. I’m just kidding.
Honestly, it’s being able to impact and see different populations. I’m a very inquisitive person by nature, and I’m also an intuitive mind type, and so I like coming into a new room where I don’t know people. I don’t know their patterns and getting to watch one unfold and seeing commonalities and differences in populations and then feeling what they’re going through and understanding from that intuitive place what is needed is really appealing for me. I love my students in Los Angeles, but they’re listening all the time, and though there’s a freshness with doing that, my travels outside of L.A. keep me growing in a much bigger way than if I was just here all the time.
What I see is that there’s good yoga everywhere and there’s great yoga some places, but there’s a lot of misinformation out there and a lot of students turning over all of their responsibilities to their teacher. That’s not a good place to be. That was what I did. That’s how I got hurt. I should’ve trusted myself a lot more and expressed myself more loudly when I was told to do certain things that I knew wouldn’t work. I like being able to go out there and say, ‘You have great teachers, and they want the best for you, but you’ve got to start to understand yourself’. It’s a practice about looking at you, not taking what somebody else is saying and just trusting it as God’s word. Once students begin to look at themselves as an individual, they should be more effective in their practice. It really makes me happy to know that when they go back to class they can further their practice, and can go deeper just from this little understanding that they’re the driver of the bus. That’s my favorite part.”
LS: “So you mentioned earlier, “that’s how I got hurt”. Specifically what injury did you have to work through?”
AC: “IÂ herniated three disks in my back, ripped my SI joints and my bottom three vertebrae apart. I did more, but it was something that I’ve since repaired and continue to repair. It’s really changed my perception of the practice and made it something that’s much more deeply aligned with the energetics and what it uncovers emotionally for people. I usually talk in-depth about this injury so if students want to hear more about spine related injuries, they should come to the workshop. Wink, Wink.”
LS:”What was your first “AHA” moment in your Asana practice?”
AC: “You know, that’s the funny thing. I’ll answer this totally differently than you would think. I was a gymnast for 18 years, so I actually never had an “aha” moment with the physical practice. The poses to me were a mild practice compared to four hours a day of conditioning. My ‘aha’ moments came with the mental practice of meditation and therapeutic type work that allowed me to uncover these really deep locked-up issues and held places. I began to notice that I can just lay on my back and pay attention to my breath and do some very therapeutic things for my back. That was way more profound and powerful for me than any of the poses. I was also learning how my mind works and how to be steady without having to have this big fancy practice. The key was understanding sensation and the subtlety. That was the aha moment.”
LS: “Well, that’s beautiful. I love it. Let’s see. Off the mat, what is one or two things that you enjoy doing off of your mat, aside from being a yogi in general. Do you like to watch movies? Do you like to go to dinner? Do you like… just yoga all the time, because you’re hardcore like that, haha?”
AC:” I do…ALLLLL the time! NO, I do not yoga all the time, ha. Most of my life is discussing yoga and philosophy, like philosophizing. I’m actually a real goofball in regular life – even when I teach! I love stand-up comedy. I love hanging out with my friends. I love movies. I love walking all over the place. I love exploring cities. I love learning new things, but mostly from conversations and listening. I love a million and one podcasts and Ted Talks and I love laughing and entertaining people.
LS: “I feel like I might need you to move in next door and be my neighbor. The house is for sale. Just sayin’!”
AC: “I’m IN! Hahahahaha!
LS: “Well, I know that everyone here at Inspire Yoga is super excited that you are making a stop to our yoga home!”
AC: “Oh my gosh, I can’t wait!”
She’s excited too guys!!!! Don’t miss out. GET REGISTEREDÂ now because spaces are filling fast!
