About Me
Yoga teacher. Cat mom. Vegetarian. Tree hugger. Bookworm. Amateur baker. Live music enthusiast. Peacemaker. Lover. Fighter. Warrior.
Hello! My name is Alexandra but for as long as I can remember everyone has just called me Al, the nickname my parents dubbed me with as a baby (technically, “Big Al” since I had big and round chubby cheeks!) I was born in Florida but lived in Massachusetts for the majority of my childhood and all of my adult life.
Yoga came to me while I was studying at the University of Massachusetts. I ambitiously pursued and earned my bachelor’s degree in molecular biology, but it was no easy feat. During my college years, I became very stressed and overwhelmed by the pressures of my coursework, which was accompanied by a lot of hopelessness and uncertainty about my future as I faced the major life changes of adulthood!
The first time I can remember taking a yoga class was at the gym on the UMass campus. I felt so light and energized afterwards, that I began studying and practicing yoga on my own, watching YouTube videos and following along with sequences I found through various apps and Google searches. Each time I practiced, I felt more and more connected to my body and my inner world, providing me with an increasingly solid foundation to keep me grounded through the strong emotions I was experiencing.
During my last year at UMass, I took a course (off campus) called Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), which formally introduced me to the art of meditation. It was around this time that I also began to commit to a regular journaling practice and learned to sit in stillness. It was also when I connected the dots that meditation is not just this practice of sitting still for a long time. Meditation could be in my movements. Meditation could be in writing, reading, dancing, communicating, making music, running, and exploring. Perhaps most importantly, meditation could be in the way I process and respond to the curveballs that life would throw my way.
My yoga and mindfulness practice has turned me into a warrior. Someone who can look hardship dead in the eye. Someone who can ride the waves of my emotions and come out on the other side of the storm stronger than I was before.
Yoga and mindfulness have become such a big part of my life, and as my practice deepened, so did my desire to share it with the people in my life and beyond. I finally took the plunge and completed my 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training with Common Ground Yoga, which I completed in June 2020. My YTT was such a transformative experience in which I began to see my practice in a whole new light. I have been truly blessed by having a handful of people in my life (Al’s Yoga Pals - you know who you are!) who have been so supportive of me through my journey into teaching, and I am so excited for this group to transform and grow along with me.
Little did I know during those days at college that my mounting assignments were just the beginning of the heaviness that would lie along my path. Over the past 5+ years since I graduated, life has found new and creative ways to challenge me. But yoga has remained the most empowering and assuring part of my life. I can always come to the mat to find exactly what I need, whether that be strength, inspiration, courage, or simply rest.
As a yoga teacher, my hope is to give this gift to others. I aspire to share this beautiful tool that could help someone else manage their anxieties and grief. I want to show you that you are strong, resilient, beautiful, powerful, and capable. I wish nothing more than for you to find and get to know your inner warrior.