Inform us a bit about your self…
Hiya! 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 previous, so very a lot within the thick of it proper now with childcare and instructing, however can’t say I’d have it every other manner!
What does a typical day appear like for you?
I’m often up fairly early, round 5am, to provide myself a little bit of time earlier than the youngsters get up to floor myself by practising or planning courses for the day forward. I discover that with being a working mother or father, preparation is essential, and helps handle my stress ranges all through the day. So, whereas I get the youngsters up and prepared for the day, I’ll put together a giant smoothie to take with me on the go, and often a light-weight packed lunch too. (My dosha may be very pitta, so ‘hanger’ is an actual problem for me!) On a mean day I’ll be instructing a gaggle class within the morning then maybe seeing a non-public consumer. I’ll try to match a power exercise in on the fitness center, and often 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 youngsters.
My evenings are typically spent both instructing, supporting the Yogamatters on-line group, or having dinner with my household after which placing my ft up. A superb ebook in mattress by 9pm is often how I finish the evening!
How did your yoga journey start and what impressed you to grow to be a yoga trainer?
I made a decision to do my preliminary 200hr trainer 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 figuring out 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 trainer, Claire Missingham, who instilled a precision and self-discipline into my follow, in addition to a love for intelligently crafted and artistic sequencing and music! Claire additionally launched me to the great thing about the Sanskrit language (the language through which many yoga texts are written), which I then studied in additional depth at SOAS throughout my MA and past.
What impressed you to specialise in your follow?
Vinyasa and Restorative yoga practices could possibly be seen as being on two reverse ends of the yoga spectrum, and on this manner really stability one another superbly in my expertise. I’ve at all times been a really movement-oriented individual, and as a younger trainer I cherished the fluid grace of a well-crafted Vinyasa class. However as I’ve grown older, I admire the necessity to stability motion with stillness and relaxation. And as I’ve grown as a trainer, I additionally admire subtly and nuance in my follow, which is one thing that I discovered within the Restorative type, below the knowledgeable steering of my trainer, Anna Ashby. A quote involves thoughts that I’ve been reflecting on lately from the Tibetan Buddhist, Sakyong Mipham, which says that ‘the physique advantages from motion and the thoughts advantages from stillness.’ This can be a reminder to me that I need to honour the necessity to each transfer and discover stillness as a technique to domesticate wholeness.
How have you ever seen yoga profit your college students?
Neighborhood 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 courses after COVID. Individuals coming collectively on the similar time every week to consciously breathe and collectively transfer their our bodies is a robust antidote to the detachment and indifference that we are able to encounter so typically 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 ‘Count on nothing. Admire all the things.’
What’s developing 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 via The Wellness Philosophy that are at all times a pleasure, and one other manner that I attempt to facilitate connection and relaxation as a technique 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 (all the particulars are right here). After all, I’m wanting ahead to collaborating an increasing number of with the great crew at Yogamatters as effectively and connecting with different academics and like-minded peeps on the group platform!
Discover out extra about Rachel:
Web site: https://thewellnessphilosophy.co.uk/
Instagram: @rachelskipperyoga
