Alex Medin's guest appearances

Alex Medin

Finding Harmony Podcast

Keen on Yoga Podcast

David Swenson

Robert Moses

Richard Freeman

Eddie Stern

Kathy Cooper

Guy Donahaye

Taylor Hunt

Mary Taylor

Dena Kingsberg

Kate O'Donnell

Stephen Porges

David Robson

Luke Jordan

Bryan Kest

Kiki Flynn

OwlTail

It is our great pleasure to introduce you to our old friend (and living legend) Certified Ashtanga Yoga Teacher, Alex Medin.  Unfortunately this sentence doesn’t do him justice! He’s an excellent and exceptional student in so many walks of life: a boxer, ballet dancer, a Sanskrit scholar, entrepreneur, and humanitarian to name but a few.  In fact, if there is one allegory to describe Alex, it's that after our interview he immediately wanted to do it over so we could do it better the second time around! Alex Medin is a native of Olso, Norway, and is the byproduct of an unstable and violent home. Discipline, breakdancing, and boxing began to transform his life from one that was recklessly circling around drugs and crime, to one that led him on an unexpectedly beautiful adventure of self discovered. The impact of this unfolding of Self, is a man who is focused on helping youth recovering from their own substance abuse issues and inmates in prison through his charity organization, Back in the Ring. Alex stressed to us the importance of freewill as it imparts the weight of responsibility to make good choices. “We are spiritual beings trapped in our karmic patterns,” he said, threading in verses from the Yoga Sutra and Bhagavad Gita to contextualize our present-day circumstance effortlessly through this ancient wisdom like a kind of Sanskrit-Sage Savant (though, we’re pretty sure he would insist otherwise.) “There’s plenty of madmen in the world and the enlightened ones are few. We live in dualism and although we sometimes feel glimpses of the purity of Supreme Consciousness, we are still ruled by our inner psycho-physio patterning, and this is our starting point for yoga. We interpret life through our various samskaras.”  Taking ownership, being responsible, doing the very best we can is our starting place in life. Prakriti (material nature) is for our enjoyment, development, and benefit. The patterns are always changing and through exploration it's up to us to figure out what creates lasting happiness. This is why we have to start with the patterns that drive us to work. It’s this urgency in Alex that makes him strive to be his best self. “The only way to find freedom is through finding harmony within ourselves. Yoga is finding unity within diversity.”  The real grace of yoga happens in the letting go. When yoga meets the man of Action, all good things flow towards him. Alex holds his MA Thesis at SOAS University of London on the lineage of Krishnamacharya, which included interviews with T. K. V Desikachar, B. K. S. Iyengar, and K. Pattabhi Jois, as well as their lineage holders, Kausthub Desikachar, Prashant Iyengar, and R. Sharath Jois. Towards the end of our lovely interview, Alex mentioned the multiple schisms that occurred within the Ashtanga Yoga Community near the end of 2017, and the deep heartbreaking disappointment that he felt when Sharath Jois removed of a whole generation of teachers from the “official” KPJAYI’s Recognized Teacher List. “Yoga is a release. A cure for a pain we have not yet fully accessed or discovered.”  And, here we have discovered yet another wound… FIND OUT MORE ABOUT ALEX WEBSITE  I  INSTAGRAM I  PERSONAL I BACK IN THE RING FIND OUT MORE ABOUT HARMONY &amp; B-SCHOOL: HarmonySlater.com

It is our great pleasure to introduce you to our old friend (and living legend) Certified Ashtanga Yoga Teacher, Alex Medin.  Unfortunately this sentence doesn’t do him justice! He’s an excellent and exceptional student in so many walks of life: a boxer, ballet dancer, a Sanskrit scholar, entrepreneur, and humanitarian to name but a few.  In fact, if there is one allegory to describe Alex, it's that after our interview he immediately wanted to do it over so we could do it better the second time around! Alex Medin is a native of Olso, Norway, and is the byproduct of an unstable and violent home. Discipline, breakdancing, and boxing began to transform his life from one that was recklessly circling around drugs and crime, to one that led him on an unexpectedly beautiful adventure of self discovered. The impact of this unfolding of Self, is a man who is focused on helping youth recovering from their own substance abuse issues and inmates in prison through his charity organization, Back in the Ring. Alex stressed to us the importance of freewill as it imparts the weight of responsibility to make good choices. “We are spiritual beings trapped in our karmic patterns,” he said, threading in verses from the Yoga Sutra and Bhagavad Gita to contextualize our present-day circumstance effortlessly through this ancient wisdom like a kind of Sanskrit-Sage Savant (though, we’re pretty sure he would insist otherwise.) <blockquote>“There’s plenty of madmen in the world and the enlightened ones are few. We live in dualism and although we sometimes feel glimpses of the purity of Supreme Consciousness, we are still ruled by our inner psycho-physio patterning, and this is our starting point for yoga. We interpret life through our various samskaras.” </blockquote> Taking ownership, being responsible, doing the very best we can is our starting place in life. Prakriti (material nature) is for our enjoyment, development, and benefit. The patterns are always changing and through exploration it's up to us to figure out what creates lasting happiness. This is why we have to start with the patterns that drive us to work. It’s this urgency in Alex that makes him strive to be his best self. <blockquote>“The only way to find freedom is through finding harmony within ourselves. Yoga is finding unity within diversity.” </blockquote> The real grace of yoga happens in the letting go. When yoga meets the man of Action, all good things flow towards him. Alex holds his MA Thesis at SOAS University of London on the lineage of Krishnamacharya, which included interviews with T. K. V Desikachar, B. K. S. Iyengar, and K. Pattabhi Jois, as well as their lineage holders, Kausthub Desikachar, Prashant Iyengar, and R. Sharath Jois. Towards the end of our lovely interview, Alex mentioned the multiple schisms that occurred within the Ashtanga Yoga Community near the end of 2017, and the deep heartbreaking disappointment that he felt when Sharath Jois removed of a whole generation of teachers from the “official” KPJAYI’s Recognized Teacher List. <blockquote>“Yoga is a release. A cure for a pain we have not yet fully accessed or discovered.” </blockquote> And, here we have discovered yet another wound… <h3>FIND OUT MORE ABOUT ALEX</h3> <h3><a href="https://www.nosenyoga.no/en/home" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">WEBSITE</a>  I  <a href="https://www.instagram.com/nosenyoga/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">INSTAGRAM</a> I  <a href="https://www.instagram.com/alexandermedinyoga/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">PERSONAL</a> I <a href="https://www.backinthering.no/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">BACK IN THE RING</a></h3> FIND OUT MORE ABOUT HARMONY &amp; B-SCHOOL: <a href="http://www.harmonyslater.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">HarmonySlater.com</a>

Alex Medin: Relax Into Life

Alex runs a yoga retreat for those in recovery from drug and alcohol addition up in the Norwegian mountains, which is where he was when I interviewed him, so excuse any small sound blips.   This is just another incarnation of what has been a most remarkable life, starting off as a national boxing champion in his teens he then became a professional ballet dancer, before finally discovering yoga and literally living in Mysore, India for many years, where he bought a house and completed a Masters in Sanskrit.  Alex is both an advanced yoga asana practitioner, as well as a most knowledgeable yoga scholar. He was Certified in 2007 by Pattabhi Jois to teach the Ashtanga method. 

Alex runs a yoga retreat for those in recovery from drug and alcohol addition up in the Norwegian mountains, which is where he was when I interviewed him, so excuse any small sound blips.  This is just another incarnation of what has been a most remarkable life, starting off as a national boxing champion in his teens he then became a professional ballet dancer, before finally discovering yoga and literally living in Mysore, India for many years, where he bought a house and completed a Masters in Sanskrit. Alex is both an advanced yoga asana practitioner, as well as a most knowledgeable yoga scholar. He was Certified in 2007 by Pattabhi Jois to teach the Ashtanga method.

#12 - Keen on Yoga Podcast with Alex Medin