#40 - Keen on Yoga Podcast with Alexandria Crow

Welcome to the Keen on Yoga Podcast with Alexandria Crow.  Alexandria is an internationally respected teachers’ teacher who leads teacher trainings and workshops around the world. Through her Yoga Physics methodology she aims to clearly explain the what, why’s and how’s of asana, meditation and yogic philosophy making the practice approachable for everyone, of every level and of every walk of life. She shares this knowledge with her students and other teachers so they can practice and teach wisely, sustainably and mindfully. Her in-person continuing education workshops and online DeConstruct to ReConstruct Course, as well as her 300 hour teacher intensive train teachers to be better informed on yogic philosophy and history, the physical mechanics of the body and how to apply that knowledge to asana, as well as how to ethically lead group classes that are accessible and sensitive to all. Her Yoga Physics mentorship program is helping teachers build on their strengths, while discovering their own unique voices. As a former competitive gymnast, the physical challenges of a rigorous and highly technical yoga practice initially provided Alex with a natural familiarity, but it was yoga’s philosophical concepts and their application to one’s life that were and still remain her driving interest beyond the physical technique of asana. Through a series of significant and unforeseen injuries her practice and teaching has dramatically evolved towards sustainability and accessibility. Alex has spent years researching the reasons that yoga classes and poses are often unsustainable and carry risks for the population who can perform them while also being inaccessible to a large portion of the population.  Moving Forward Years of research, scientific inquiry, self inquiry/scrutiny, development and integration have gone into Alex’s work. The result is an evolved set of techniques and approaches that eliminate the problematic components of physical asana practices and group classes while providing an in-depth understanding of how individual teachers situate themselves within these dynamics. In order to move forwards from the current Western paradigm, Alex’s courses add techniques that retain the qualities students love about yoga classes but allow students to engage in personal inquiry with agency at a much greater depth. The class formats and teaching tools that Alex offers are sustainable and accessible for anyone that wants to take class regardless of circumstance and that teach yoga’s philosophy in real time in an experiential way. Alex’s emphasis on paying attention and her insistence on each individual respecting their own uniqueness encourages them to love and celebrate who they are. It’s this love of their own unique perfection that creates true change in her students so they can connect with more grace to themselves, to others and to the world.