Why it’s all yoga.

What I love about yoga is that it isn’t about downward dogs and being flexible.

It’s not about being able to stand on your head, or touch your toes. It’s not an exercise, but it helps with health and well-being. It’s not a medicine but it soothes and calms the mind, which heals the body. It’s not a religion but it has a deep connection to spirituality and faith.

You can do it on your own or as part of a community. You can delve deep into 8000 year old teachings or know nothing about it, and still have a profound experience.

It really is for everyone and every body.

One of my teachers at The Practice in Bali overheard me saying to a fellow student whilst we were training, ‘we’re not doing yoga this morning’ because we were about to start a philosophy lecture. What I meant was, we weren’t doing any physical yoga, but my teacher looked at me and said, ‘it’s all yoga, Rach’. 

And there the penny dropped…

What many of us Westerners think about Yoga stems from our conditioning and what we have seen in marketing, in studios or online. That yoga is an exercise regime for hippies burning incense, showing off their many pairs of jazzy leggings and using fancy names for elaborate poses. 

But yoga is so much more than that. It’s a science. A series of techniques that enable us to harness our ability to channel our inner voice, and bring goodness into the world. 

It is true that Yoga can help to keep us physically strong. It can help with core strength and overall physical conditioning. It can purify the body of toxins. Breathing techniques help to oxygenate the blood and support a healthy immune system. There are so many benefits to having a regular yoga practice. Meditation helps to soothe anxiety and mental health symptoms. Chanting mantra exercises the vocal chords, building confidence and creating a sense of well-being through song (Bhakti Yoga) .

There are many forms of practices. It’s finding the one that works for you.

Our goal with yoga is to be able to come to a place of stillness in the body and mind, that helps us to connect to our inner teacher; that all-knowing voice of wisdom.

Yoga’s strength lies in its capacity to support our body’s natural ability to heal and nourish.

In 2018, when I was 39, I was diagnosed with Stage 3 Colorectal Cancer. It was a huge shock, I was busy running a charity 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? In truth, I wasn’t listening to my body. I chose to ignore the deep sense of ‘dis-ease’ that I was experiencing. 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’.

Upon hearing the diagnosis, I knew instinctively that something had to change in order for me to heal. I needed to slow down and rest. With such a short amount of time from diagnosis to surgery, I had little time to prepare and so surrendering was the only option. There was a deep sense of letting go and allowing my body to be taken on this journey.

I felt very strongly that I wanted to have alternative treatments over chemotherapy post surgery. In spite of the advice from my (amazing) cancer team. It felt natural to give my body the opportunity to cleanse. I researched into how cancer develops and explored many different alternative treatments including aromatherapy, Bowden technique, Reiki & Reflexology. I radically changed my diet, deepening my knowledge of nutrition. Thanks to the wonderful Chrissie Chung, I was introduced to Traditional Tantric Hatha. Chrissie so generously came to our home and offered me a beautiful nourishing practice.

I slowly began to shift the focus to self healing, self-compassion and forgiveness as opposed to my usual hamster wheel of never ending to do lists! I hadn’t realised, or truly observed, my constant and internal negative narrative. My constant need to be busy to feel in order to feel of value and have a sense of self worth. It is a daily practice still, as I let go of old patterns. Our mind and body fight the letting go - it can feel like we are losing our sense of self, our personality! Our conditioning is deep and 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. What yoga does is to purify our thinking so we can allow the brightest versions of ourselves to shine forth.

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. But it’s life. Hilarious and ridiculous. Full of opposites and things that don’t make sense - things that we can’t seem to work out in the moment but fall into place eventually. It can be challenging and impossible, but full of ease and compassion. There are moments of discomfort and sadness, but ultimately it’s full of joy, love and contentment - if we are open and present enough to experience it. 

This is why I love yoga. Because we all experience these things. Yoga is the practice of cultivating trust and faith in ourselves and our own capacity to transform from where we are to where we would like to be. Yoga helps us to remember where we are going, and most importantly to relish the journey.

Qualifications & Teachers

I qualified for my initial 200 hours at The Practice in Bali, with teachers Karina Guthrie and Keli Dierings. I have a further 300 hours of training through the Embodied Shakti course, delivered by Karina Guthrie and Natalie Backman (whose teacher is Tracee Stanley). I’m committed student of the Sri Vidya tradition.

I have over 580 hours of Accredited Yoga Teacher Training - including 500hr Yoga Teacher Training, Yoga Nidra training 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’m a committed student to practice and my personal development, I continue to deepen my learning and believe in sharing from a place of lived experience and knowledge.

I currently practice with the incredible Karina Guthrie on her Embodiment Project.

It’s an honour to share my experiences of Yoga with you.

- Rach Adams