How I came to yoga…
Taken from an interview for Dorset & Hampshire Iyengar Yoga Magazine, Autumn 2020
When did you first start practising yoga and what was it like?
My first class was at 14. I went to the local village hall in Kingsworthy, near Winchester, with my mother who had started yoga at the age of 40. I remember there was a lot of lying down and all the women participating were very relaxed and focused. It certainly made an impression on me. My mum has continued with her yoga and now comes to my classes twice a week. At the age of 88, that’s quite an inspiration! So it’s really my mother who started my yoga journey. Later, I travelled to India when I was 24, and while on a long and arduous bus journey to Mysore, I saw two western women sitting bolt upright with great posture and presence. I asked them where they were going and they told me that they studied yoga with Pattabi Jois in Mysore. When I returned home, I was determined to improve my posture and find a class to take me there.
How did you come to study Iyengar yoga?
Purely by chance. I was taking a class with a “hatha” yoga teacher, lovely lady called Carol, in Winchester, but I felt that something was missing for me, I wasn’t quite reaching that “spot” and needed something a little stronger for my stiff, inflexible body. So I asked her if she knew of other classes and she gave me a list of names and number, very kind. The only person who answered the phone was Julie Smith, an Iyengar Yoga teacher. The first class I went to, she told me, “Rachel, stop looking out of the window, you are here to do yoga, not to day dream,” That was the focus that I was looking for and the teacher, Julie was inspirational. From that first session, I was hooked. Although I was told by others that Iyengar Yoga was “purely physical”, for me, that discipline, attention to detail and person-centred practice WAS the spirituality I had been looking for, with focus - a spiritual discipline if you like.
What do you like about practising yoga?
To be honest, it was not about liking but about feeling like I’d found something that felt like, how to put it, a homecoming. It still does feel like coming home even after 25 years of practice. In the beginning, I struggled immensely. I was stiff, the poses did not (and some still not) come easy to me and I was an introvert. Everything hurt! But Iyengar yoga gave me a way to express myself in every way. Once you understand what yoga is, then you realize that it’s about detaching yourself from the likes and dislikes and looking at yoga as a way to understand yourself through your attachments to certain poses, certain teachers, certain methods or approaches. The creativity, exploration and curiosity never stops. It is a life-long path.
What do you like about teaching yoga?
It’s a creative process. Everything you have learned, absorbed and understand comes out through the teaching and you give that to your students so that they can also learn and absorb in their own way. It’s hugely rewarding in that way. Not through the ego of forcing your opinion on others, but in just sharing the little that you know and perhaps seeing that ignite a spark in others.
What is your favourite story or memory of studying at RIMYI? (Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute, Pune where the Iyengar family and our hub of learning is based.)
I have been to RIMYI 4 times only but it feels like a spiritual home for me. The first time I went was in 2006 with Philippe Harari and we wrote the IYAUK magazine from there, a special Pune edition! And to choose one story or memory? That is a hard question! In 2014, I travelled there with my sister Hannah, also an Iyengar yoga teacher. Sadly, Guruji had died only 4 months before. I had been blessed to meet him twice, my sister not, so I was hoping that the experience of being in Pune would be a good one for her. It was, she loved it. It coincided with the first Yoganusasanam, so we had 10 days at Balewadi with the glorious Geetaji Iyengar followed by the rest of the month at RIMYI itself. It was just incredible. But, unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on which way you look at it) I became ill with a severe respiratory disorder and as we began the remainder of our month at RIMYI I had to resort to 2 weeks in the medical class. However, there I got a first hand experience of the amazing work, the dedication and the healing that went on there. The lessons I learned from being in those sessions have helped me to help others. When finally I was allowed back into general classes, I was delighted and I remember a particularly emotional class with Sunita, one of BKS Iyengar’s daughters, expressing her love for her father. His spirit felt very close that day. It was just such a special visit, so many things happened in that month and you could feel the love and the grief and the closeness of all the teachers, staff and family at RIMYI.
What benefits do you attribute to your yoga practice?
My practice has helped me to navigate through a sometimes turbulent life. It has brought me so many treasures and continues to nurture my body, mind and soul. Without my practice, I am lost, ungrounded. With it, I am self-sufficient, grounded and connected to my inner most self. It is an incredible gift and I am in daily gratitude to Guruji and Geetaji and all my teachers.