Inform us a bit about your self…
Good day! I’m Rachel. Yoga Trainer of 10 years, specialising in Vinyasa and Restorative practices, graduate of SOAS College with an MA within the Traditions of Yoga and Meditation, and co-founder of The Wellness Philosophy. I’m additionally Mummy to Flo and Ted who’re 4 and 1 years outdated, so very a lot within the thick of it proper now with childcare and instructing, however can’t say I’d have it another means!
What does a typical day appear to be for you?
I’m normally up fairly early, round 5am, to present myself a little bit of time earlier than the children get up to floor myself by working towards or planning lessons for the day forward. I discover that with being a working father or mother, preparation is essential, and helps handle my stress ranges all through the day. So, whereas I get the children up and prepared for the day, I’ll put together an enormous smoothie to take with me on the go, and normally a lightweight packed lunch too. (My dosha may be very pitta, so ‘hanger’ is an actual difficulty for me!) On a mean day I’ll be instructing a gaggle class within the morning then maybe seeing a personal consumer. I’ll try to match a power exercise in on the health club, and normally have some admin to do for upcoming workshops or retreats that I’m working with my enterprise accomplice whom I began The Wellness Philosophy with. Then to choose up the children.
My evenings are usually spent both instructing, supporting the Yogamatters on-line neighborhood, or having dinner with my household after which placing my toes up. A very good e-book in mattress by 9pm is normally how I finish the night time!
How did your yoga journey start and what impressed you to change into a yoga instructor?
I made a decision to do my preliminary 200hr instructor coaching again in 2013 on the age of 23, after travelling round Australia as soon as I’d accomplished my BA diploma in Movie Research. I don’t bear in mind a selected light-bulb second, solely the sense of understanding a 9-5 workplace job wasn’t for me, feeling a bit disillusioned, and intuitively searching for out one thing extra. I skilled firstly with a deeply educated Vinyasa yoga instructor, Claire Missingham, who instilled a precision and self-discipline into my follow, in addition to a love for intelligently crafted and inventive sequencing and music! Claire additionally launched me to the fantastic thing about the Sanskrit language (the language during which many yoga texts are written), which I then studied in additional depth at SOAS throughout my MA and past.
What impressed you to concentrate on your follow?
Vinyasa and Restorative yoga practices may very well be seen as being on two reverse ends of the yoga spectrum, and on this means really stability one another superbly in my expertise. I’ve at all times been a really movement-oriented individual, and as a younger instructor I beloved the fluid grace of a well-crafted Vinyasa class. However as I’ve grown older, I respect the necessity to stability motion with stillness and relaxation. And as I’ve grown as a instructor, I additionally respect subtly and nuance in my follow, which is one thing that I discovered within the Restorative model, beneath the knowledgeable steerage of my instructor, Anna Ashby. A quote involves thoughts that I’ve been reflecting on not too long ago from the Tibetan Buddhist, Sakyong Mipham, which says that ‘the physique advantages from motion and the thoughts advantages from stillness.’ It is a reminder to me that I have to honour the necessity to each transfer and discover stillness as a method to domesticate wholeness.
How have you ever seen yoga profit your college students?
Group and connection might be the most important profit that I see. And I solely actually recognised this as soon as going again to in-person lessons after COVID. Folks coming collectively on the similar time every week to consciously breathe and collectively transfer their our bodies is a strong antidote to the detachment and indifference that we will encounter so usually in fashionable city environments. The softer, extra open expressions on folks’s faces as they end follow, and the pleasant conversations that quietly buzz on the finish of sophistication is a valuable reminder to me that the yoga is most profound when you step off of the mat. In order that’s an enormous profit I’d say!
What’s your favourite quote or life motto?
There are such a lot of! However one which involves thoughts is ‘Anticipate nothing. Recognize all the pieces.’
What’s arising for you in 2024?
I’ll be working my first workshop for Yogamatters, Deep Relaxation: Restorative Yoga & Breathwork for Nervous System Well being, on June 30th which I’m very excited to share. I additionally run month-to-month Reiki & Restore workshops by way of The Wellness Philosophy that are at all times a pleasure, and one other means that I attempt to facilitate connection and relaxation as a method to elevate my college students sense of wellbeing and wholeness. I’m additionally co-hosting a weekend wellness retreat at Florence Home in East Sussex this December (the entire particulars are right here). After all, I’m trying ahead to collaborating increasingly more with the great crew at Yogamatters as nicely and connecting with different lecturers and like-minded peeps on the neighborhood platform!
Discover out extra about Rachel:
Web site: https://thewellnessphilosophy.co.uk/
Instagram: @rachelskipperyoga
