I was a tomboy growing up and then fell into the world of theatre and musical theatre. A girlfriend introduced me to yoga in college and I was hooked. I didn't really know anything about it except that it was the highlight of my week. I ended up graduating from the University of Virginia and moving to Los Angeles where I could continue acting and do a yoga teacher training. I went from practicing once or twice a week to several hours everyday. I loved it.
People who tap the kundalini and are able to release it are more successful. Anyone who is really on top has some access to the kundalini. They have learned somewhere down the line, in this or other lives, ways of releasing power.
The teacher doesn't teach, not really. The teacher offers stimulation and ways in which the person can educate himself or herself. At best the teacher wakes up that person and makes a person hungry.
My yoga teacher is a guy from Michigan. 'Yoga Dan' - that's what he calls himself - he's been a big help for me.
Have you ever seen the stereotype of the angry yoga teacher? There are some people that are at an 11 and yoga takes them down to a nine. That's me.
I love Bikram Yoga. I tend to move and think at a fast pace, and the heat forces me to slow down and just focus on my breath. I'm also a fan of Kundalini yoga. It's still a new practice for me, but I've found it infinitely helpful in getting me present.
The power that enables us to transform our awareness is the release of kundalini. All yoga, either directly or indirectly, all Buddhism, relates to the release of the kundalini energy.
I used to be really into Kundalini yoga, and all the teachers show up, and they always wear white because they say it expands their aura by several feet, so I thought, 'If it works for them...'
I think that the Me Too movement, which in some ways has been very good, in other ways, as with everything else, has been very damaging. Because really it has immobilised men. It has really prevented men from being men.
I get really bored really easily, so I'm a big believer and advocate of changing it up. One day, I'll do a power yoga or hot yoga day, and then go into a more intense day of HIIT training or boxing. I always have a bit of dance in there too.
If I'd loved my chemistry teacher and my maths teacher, goodness knows what direction my life might have gone in. I remember there was a primary school teacher who really woke me up to the joys of school for about one year when I was ten. He made me interested in things I would otherwise not have been interested in - because he was a brilliant teacher. He was instrumental in making me think learning was quite exciting.
About a year into my training, I got a call from WWE, and they signed me. I got signed right away to FCW, so my whole career has been pretty much in FCW and NXT.
What I get on a yoga mat, and from a yoga teacher, has been more beneficial onstage than any other workshop I've ever done.
There's many kinds of kundalini, just as there's a spectrum of light. Put light through a prism and you get different gradations. So there are different gradations of kundalini. Some gradations of kundalini are darker, some are lighter.
What I get on a yoga mat, and from a yoga teacher, has been more beneficial onstage than any other workshop I've ever done. And it starts with that breath; it starts with getting out of my head and really just slowing the system down and being in a true present moment with each and every breath. That then allows me to be a more balanced and focused individual onstage.
The yoga of love is for those who want an all-consuming relationship with their teacher. They see the teacher as an extension of God, of eternity - which all of us are.