Why it’s all yoga.
One of my teachers at The Practice in Bali overheard me saying to a fellow student, whilst we were doing our 200 hour teacher training, ‘we’re not doing any yoga this morning’ because we were about to start a philosophy lecture and didn’t need our mats. My teacher looked at me and said, ‘it’s all yoga, Rach’.
And there the penny dropped.
What many of us think about yoga in the UK is often based on physical activity that is rooted in the health and wellbeing industry - fancy poses in jazzy leggings. So many gyms and studios offer yoga classes, when you want to experience the basics it can feel overwhelming. Or maybe it feels a little too esoterical and woo-woo to resonate or find a way in to learn more. It can feel jarring, elitist and exclusive. The exact opposite of what yoga is trying to offer.
Yoga means to yoke, or unite.
It’s true that yoga can help us to keep physically strong - gentle weight bearing poses and stretches help to build strength over time. These can be modified to begin with to suit any body’s ability and lived experience. Over time, it will build our core strength and overall physical conditioning, with a regular practice.
It’s true that yoga can help build our lung capacity, and help our keep our hearts healthy through regular breathing exercises. This also stimulates the blood flow which helps to purify the body of toxins. We know that these breathing techniques help to oxygenate the blood and support a healthy immune system. Meditation helps to soothe anxiety and relieve mental health symptoms related to stress or peri-menopause. It helps us to shift into the parasympathetic nervous system and balance our minds and bodies.
Once we have a regular practice, there are so many more benefits.
Yoga stop life being stressful, or make us better humans but over time, it helps to provide a framework and a series of techniques that we can remember - when we are in times of stress.
Bessel van der Kolk book The Body Keeps The Score speaks about the body’s ability to remember. Yoga’s strength lies in its capacity to support our body’s ability to remember how to heal and nourish itself inherently. To help to bring us back together so we can feel fully whole and re-balanced.
There are so many forms of yoga practice - physical postures (asana), breathwork (pranayama) and meditation. Many others include chanting or sound healing as a central focus to help to rebalance. Walking mindfully in nature is a practice. It’s finding the one that works for you. Through the many forms of yoga practices we create the right conditions for our bodies and minds to come together in a place of stillness. To help us connect to our inner teacher - our intuition.
My personal experience of Yoga as healing practice.
In 2018, I was diagnosed with stage 3 cancer. It was a huge shock, I was 39 and had been a vegetarian for years. I practiced yoga daily and swam 3 times a week. I considered myself to be healthy. How could I have cancer?
When I heard the diagnosis, I knew instinctively that something had to change in order for me to heal. I knew I needed to slow down and rest. There was such a short amount of time from diagnosis to surgery (huge thanks to the amazing team at Cheltenham Hospital), I had little time to prepare, so surrendering was the only option. There was this deep sense of letting go and allowing my body to be taken on this journey.
I had an amazing cancer team and I’ll be forever grateful for their care and support. I also researched into how cancer develops and explored alternative cancer treatments including aromatherapy, Bowden technique, Reiki & Reflexology and CBD. I radically changed my diet, deepening my knowledge of nutrition. It felt natural to give my body the opportunity to cleanse.
Thanks to the wonderful Chrissie Chung, I was introduced to Traditional Tantric Hatha. With this new gentle practice, I went on a journey of inner-healing and self discovery. I slowed down. I realised I hadn’t been listening to my body. I had been so busy running a charity - trying to balance so many things, saying yes to everything. I hadn’t realised the deep sense of ‘dis-ease’ was something I needed to address. I put my weight loss and stress down to having a busy schedule, and thought this was what life expected of me in order to be successful and happy. Over time, I slowly began to shift my focus. Our conditioning is deep and it can take years to re-wire. But as we know, what is learned behaviour can be unlearned. If we are willing to let it go.
Qualifications & Teachers
I qualified for my initial 200 hours at The Practice in Bali in 2020, with teachers Karina Guthrie and Keli Dierings. I have a further 300 hours of training through the Embodied Shakti rogramme, delivered by Karina Guthrie and Natalie Backman (whose teacher are Tracee Stanley).
Further training with Yoga Campus in the History of Female Yoga Practitioners and Dysfunctional Breathing, plus the Somatic Psychology of Yoga with Sandy Anderson and Carrie Demers from the Himalayan Institute.
I’ve also completed the The Science of Touch Masterclass with Eddie Ulm and studied Devotional Sound (Bhakti Yoga) with Ellen Arthur, plus Keli Diering’s Beyond The Veil course and Mentoring programme.
I have further studied breath work with the brilliant Karina Guthrie and have over 650 hours of Accredited Yoga Teacher Training - 500hr Yoga Teacher Training, which includes Yoga Nidra.
Last thoughts
Dylan Moran said in a sketch on yoga... ‘breathe in as you breathe out...what’s that about?’
I often find myself chuckling at this. Because this is life. Hilarious and ridiculous. Full of opposites and contradictions, and things that don’t make sense - experiences that we can’t seem to fathom in the moment but fall into place eventually over time.
Life can be challenging and impossible, but full of ease and compassion. There are moments of discomfort and sadness, but ultimately life is full of joy, love and contentment - if we are open and present enough to experience it.
One of my favourite Shakespeare quotes is in Twelfth Night when Viola says,
“Oh Time. Thou must untangle this, not I.
Tis to harder a know for me to untie.”
Because yoga also encourages us to let go and trust at the deepest level. Sometimes having faith is the greatest gift we can cultivate, and in turn offer that to others.
I’m committed student of the Sri Vidya tradition in both my personal daily practice and in developing my theoretical and philosophical understanding. I continue to deepen my learning and believe in sharing from a place of lived experience and knowledge.
It’s an honour to share my experience of Yoga with you.
- Rachel Adams