Allow the Transformation

Yoga has so profoundly affected me and changed my life for the better that I cannot help but want to share it with others.

Seven years ago I had reached a place of stagnation. I could no more easily have decided which way to go along my career path than I could have chosen what to have for dinner. I felt stuck in every way and I was scared. That fear manifested into anxiety and my choice of elixirs were Ambien, red wine and thankfully yoga.

The Ambien only made me forget that I hadn’t slept, the wine added to my depression, but the yoga – the yoga saved me.

Around this time, I had one of those moments in life while driving home from my yoga class – one of those forgotten kind of moments – where I could see clearly and I heard the voice of my heart tell me to move. Not move like pick up your things and move to Ohio… although move that way I surely would. More like, “just move Rachel, one foot in front of the other… it’s time to move again”.

Over the course of the next several weeks I learned to ask myself the hard life-changing questions on my drives home from class – for in that space of calm and centeredness I could actually find answers.

Shortly after, I left to travel the world through yoga. The fear and anxiety that would wake me at 2am – certain that there was an axe murder in my house, or that people would learn that my happy facade was a fabrication and not like me – started to fade.

Day after day, practice after practice and mile after mile I found my bliss and my life’s calling and in every way, mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally… I was transformed.

Now that I live in my hometown again, and I am married to my high school sweetheart and I own yoga studios – I can see where life presented me with two paths and yoga pointed me in the direction of my Dharma, my calling and my joy.

My favorite definition of a yogi is this: A yogi is one who observes. Be observant my friends. Study yourself, come to your mat and allow the transformation to come. You will be so very glad you did and we will all be better for it.

Rachel is teaching her next retreat at ONEWORLD retreats, Flowing Into Grace Yoga Retreat on February 15 – 21, 2015

“Yoga has so profoundly and completely changed my life in positive ways that I cannot help but share it with others.”