Small Shifts Create Growing Habits

Discover what Crystal Love has to offer on Wanderlust TV: Purifying Barre & Core, Quick FIIT and their brand new Posture Lab series!

What challenges did you face in 2020 that strengthened your learning as a yoga student?

Going through life with intent, integrity, inquiry, service, and compassion is the daily practice that guides me forward today. Moving my body and repeating personal mantra, affirmation and prayer is the door I found this year. After years of physical and psychological dissociation, today I find solace in myself as I walk through the unknown, separated and yet so deeply connected to myself and others.

F.or me, 2020 brought me more opportunity to practice witnessing and mindful data gathering: appreciating the brilliant strategies of old behavior that kept me from moving forward in the practice of investigation. I now recognize behaviors that are no longer relevant, nifty, or helpful, and realize that I can change my brain, body, and behavior. I can pan and I can move. I can hold out … as long as I stay true to my heart and real.

What inspired you to start your yoga teacher training and when (and why) did you decide to pursue forms of exercise training other than yoga?

Whenever I roll out my mat, I am reminded of my first discovery of yoga and its many healing benefits. I started practicing Kripalu Yoga 4.5 years ago because of pain and discomfort from having lived with neuromuscular disorder and MCAS due to trauma in the past.

Understanding the underlying causes of my illness has enabled me to claim my own healing – holistic, alternative, preventive – and return to an active and healthy lifestyle without medication.

As a trauma-trained educator, I hope to inspire individuals to live with the agency of their movement. My goal in coaching is to teach how to control daily shifts and flows of physical and energetic experiences in the body from an examination lens instead of a judgment lens.

Based on personal experience, exploration is a choice that helps me identify what to learn and what my blind spots are to develop resilience to change, perseverance and healing.

As a retired athlete, my love for exercise and coaching is rooted in optimal performance training. The thing about athletes is that often due to the stigma of perceived weakness they do not seek support and it may negatively affect their team placement. They need this support not only as competitive athletes, but also to manage and withstand a broader range of stress factors outside of their athletic careers among their peers, especially when they adapt to new norms at school and with themselves after Covid 19.

Mental health management helps cope with high stress situations, can reduce anxiety and create optimism – which is why my resilience training programs are beneficial. My program offerings include experimental activities for college sports teams and scenarios for young adults to anticipate and improve their problem-solving skills both as individuals and with one another. This creates trust!

What benefits do you find that fitness and exercise have in students who are normally only associated with yoga?

Learning to navigate and celebrate all facets of life in recovery has been essential to my own healing. Understanding the disease that shows up in my physical body from a functional or holistic perspective led me to yoga. Yoga inspires me to live in connection with my body, mind and breath to stay healthy and pain free.

The everyday practice of surfacing; because my body requires – with gratitude – a committed and authentic attitude (s)! Gratitude for what my body is capable of reminds me to make good choices for my health. It motivates me to inspire others to do the same. The disease that is in my body is something that I navigate with conscious breath, vision, choice, grace and patience. When I choose to work in small layers, my habits of self-love and non-judgmental observation grow. I am able to move through sensations in my physical body: shame, doubt, stagnation, loss, fear … I have learned to accept what is real and true to me and I have come to believe that that every moment is an unrepeatable miracle.

What would you say to someone who hasn't tried online fitness classes at home?

In my own experience, autonomy in deciding to initiate the process of changing physical wellbeing is critical to realistically bringing about a change in mental and emotional wellbeing.

My practice, Loveinmvmt Living, invites you to learn and relearn the conditions that will enable you to regain the freedom of choice in your exercise and self-care rituals. Learning to use the necessary knowledge, tools and skills within you to help you have a richer and more authentic everyday experience is the most powerful thing you can ever give yourself, and a really important part of the honor of your body and all of what he does for you.

My exercise sequences are designed to support all age groups, all levels and every body. I offer a lot of variations and modifications. Injury prevention is one of my top priorities which is why I focus a lot on alignment and foundation. For me as a trainer, part of the ultimate goal is to keep you safe and connected to your strength. My role as a coach is to keep you motivated, accountable and inspired in your movement, your personal intentions and personal rituals. For many of us, our daily plans are structured in such a way that not much personal commitment is possible. Weekly check-ins and virtual practice lessons are a great way to pamper yourself. You redirect, redefine, realign, and most importantly, revive! This is the part that I love! It's the part that you are going to love too! As you practice your exercise and gain confidence in your fitness routine, you can experience a different strength, not just physically but mentally as well.

What bigger role do these online courses serve for you? How would you like the Wanderlust community to internalize your teachings?

The mission behind Loveinmvmt Living is to regain the freedom of choice in your life and to use the necessary knowledge, tools and skills in you to support you in living enriched and authentic everyday experiences. Beyond speaking, we must allow the basic yogic practice of service to guide us into action; change our own behavior, organize ourselves peacefully, and heal ourselves with compassion to inspire others to do the same.

My mission: “I choose to serve. As a trauma-trained educator, ally of recovery, and kripalu teacher, I choose to be helpful and live in connection with others. During this time of physical separation, I choose to be part of a solution. "

What is your favorite teaching that you keep coming back to?

"The highest form of spiritual practice is introspection without judgment." – Swami Kripalu

Swami Kripalu's core teaching gives me access to non judgmental testimony and compassionate observation. By admitting my fears and making friends with them – observing them without judgment – I can rely on my doubts, my insecurities, my limiting beliefs, and my weaknesses. That way I can gracefully take care of myself and my own healing. I can come back to the moment: the present and the reality of what is real and true for me. I create changes in my brain and keep creating a path to relaxed compassion. With a peaceful heart, everything that happens can be filled with wisdom and peace.