Harmony and Russell are at heart amateur archivists of the emerging yoga punk scene that grew up in the heart of Generation X. For us Lisa Schrempp embodies everything that is cool about how we did things. Angry, disaffected, latchkey kids, having to make dinner by ourselves; we made everything in our world by hand because no one else was around. That’s punk. And that is Lisa Schrempp to a T.

Lisa was a 17 year old human gazelle and modern dancer in Chicago. She received a scholarship to dance with the Alvin Ailey dance company, so she left Chicago and took off to the East Village Alphabet city (Needle Village), finding odd jobs, like working as a bartender, to help pay the bills. She didn’t take any shit and partied hard — living the way she wanted. Eventually, she found her way to a 10 AM yoga class, (although 10 AM was a little early for her) and found herself practicing next a couple of sincere seekers: David Life and Sharon Gannon. Through her journey of over 35 years, in the ancient sciences of yoga and Ayurveda, Lisa found what she was searching for all along.

“If I’m prepared for the world, I can be a healing balm.” - Lisa Schrempp

Lisa walks us through her NY story and so much more in our podcast called “Can’t Cheat Karma.”

Hear her thoughts on Gurus, Cancel Culture, Yoga Scandals, and the importance of the weekly oil bath, she weaves a beautiful lesson of how we each have our own Karma to live out and how it effects our behaviors, but also gives us agency in the world to change our actions.

Lisa Schrempp began her studies of yoga in 1985 with David Life and Sharon Gannon of Jivamukti Yoga and has been practicing Ashtanga Yoga since 1992. She made her first trip to Mysore, India to study with Sri. K Pattabhi Jois and Sharath Jois in 1993.

After several trips to Mysore, Lisa received Sri K Pattabhi Jois’s blessing to teach in 1997. In 1998, Lisa moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico to study Ayurveda with Dr. Vasant Lad, and continue her Vajrayana studies with Geshe Michael Roche. She taught daily until she relocated to Tucson, Arizona in 2002 and ran her Ashtanga Mysore program there. She began a formal Ayurveda practice and taught healing practices from both sciences . In 2012 she founded Ashtanga Yoga Tucson.

While in Mysore, India in 2009, Lisa was blessed to be with Sri K Pattabhi Jois just days before he left his body. During this trip she received authorization from R. Sharath Jois to teach the full Intermediate Ashtanga Series. She continues to visit India regularly to continue her studies. Lisa is the only Authorized level 2 teacher in Arizona blessed by Sri K Pattabhi Jois.

With over 20 years of experience in Ayurveda, Lisa is a seasoned practitioner and has studied extensively with Dr. Vasant Lad, Dr. Sunil Joshi, Dr Anil Kumar and Dr. Robert Svaboda. She holds a Yoga Therapy Certificate from B.K.S. Iyengar which was granted in 1996. Lisa is extremely grateful to her teachers and their teachers for passing on the sciences of Yoga and Ayurveda.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT LISA

WEBSITE I INSTAGRAM I ASHTANGA ARIZONA

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Join us for our Online Autumn Retreat October 2-4.
Where I will be joined by Russell Case, Lara Land and Thimo Wittich.

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Opening and closing music compliments of my dear friend teaching Ashtanga yoga in Eindhoven, Nick Evans, with his band “dawnSong” from the album “for Morgan.” Listen to the entire album on Spotify - Simply Click Here.
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