Dunedin Yoga Teacher: Rachel Dalley

Otago Yoga Teacher Rachel Dalley

It’s been great moving down to Dunedin because I’ve had the opportunity to meet a whole new crew of yoga teachers.

Rachel is one of those teachers.

She first got interested in yoga at the young age of 14 years, but didn’t feel comfortable in her first class so it was many years before she went back.

Now, a few decades later, Rachel is passionate about teaching yoga, and can be found in a variety of locations around Dunedin city.

1. What style of yoga do you practice and where do you teach?

I teach Hatha yoga at a variety of venues within the wider Dunedin area. My style is Iyengar based with a strong emphasis on correct alignment within the capabilities of an individual’s anatomy. To more fully integrate the breath into the poses however, I often move the class between poses, in a flowing vinyasa style.

Teachers who work from a physical therapy point of view such as Donna Farhi and Judith Hanson Lasater have inspired me.

2. How did you come to yoga?

The first class I ever went to was in the 1970s at a local YWCA. We worked on a towel (which I hadn’t bought) and the class was made up of old ladies or younger women who all seemed to be there with a friend. I fitted neither category as a lonely 14 year old and never went back. What had I wanted of it? Companionship, fitness and a beautiful strong body that I felt I had some connection with I guess.

It was not until I became pregnant with my first child and chanced on a slim paperback titled Yoga with Swami Sarasvati that I was inspired to begin a home practice of my own. For the first time in my life I felt that I could achieve a degree of physical competence in a ‘sport’ of some sort.

My practice was sporadic however and an over-ambitious workout late in my second pregnancy resulted in an audible (or so it seemed) tearing of my rectus abdominus muscles and I was scared back into yoga retirement. The 1980s craze of aerobics and running eventually took its place.

Quite some years later my own daughter expressed an interest in yoga. Swami Sarasvati was retrieved from the bookcase and I was off again. Working together provided a new experience and with my daughter’s youthful enthusiasm and encouragement I eventually joined a yoga community class and have not stopped since.

3. When did the yoga bug really get you?

It was an incremental creep, first I began to tune into my body and gain a degree of physical competence, next came the new experience being able to ‘live’ comfortably within my body. What hooked me was an experience while meditating at the conclusion of a wonderful yoga workshop led by Dunedin teacher Barbara Whitehouse. Having offered up a personal grief to the wisdom of the Universe, a totally unexpected wave of forgiveness flooded me and allowed me to deal with the issue in a way that was personally transformative.

4. How has yoga transformed your life?

In this way yoga has transformed my life. It has shown me the inter-connectedness of things and that there is wisdom available to us when we open ourselves to it through an embodied practice of yoga.

That yoga can bring us balance, harmony and happiness, if not all the time, at least some of the time.

5. What is your home practice like?

It varies hugely. Most days involve some asana (yoga posture) work but this is frequently off my mat and undertaken when the feeling literally moves me. Often times this develops into a sequence of poses and to an exploration of specifics and sometimes from there to the development of class plans.

I also work hard to maintain the mindfulness required to achieve an embodied practice of yoga’s ethical precepts the Yamas and Niyamas, which guide our social and personal behaviours.

6. When people ask you, “What is Yoga?”, what do you say?

For me, yoga is a both a philosophy and a way of life. It offers me physical health, mental stability, emotional joy and the potential for spiritual advancement. It is something that inspires and sustains me.

7. What can people expect from one of your classes?

They can expect personal time and space, community, friendship, laughter and physical movement with an awareness and integration of the breath.

They can expect poses that are designed to stretch and to strengthen, invigorate and relax as well as the space and time to become truly present within their own body and being.

They can expect a practice that takes into account their individual needs, abilities and anatomies; a practice that allows them to work at their own level while still being challenged gently towards their own potential; a practice that extends their understanding and knowledge of their bodies in a world that is appearance obsessed; a practice that enables them to find comfort and ease in the wonderful structure that is their own unique body; a practice that is invigorating, exciting, relaxing and ultimately rejuvenating.

8. What do you love most about teaching yoga?

That I can share what I love, that I can teach what I know and that I continue to learn through the generosity of my student’s practice.

9. What do you wish everybody knew about yoga?

That anyone can do it no matter what their state of health or flexibility!

10. What role do you see yoga playing in our world?

Yoga has the power to connect us with each other. It allows us to access the wisdom that enables us to make our own unique contribution to this wonderful but challenged world.

11. Anything else you’d like to say?

Do it! Do it for yourself, your family, your community and for your planet.

12. And finally, how do people find you?

I currently take community classes at St Clair and at Mosgiel, classes at Configure Express and corporate classes by arrangement. I can be contacted by email at dalley.rachel@gmail.com or by phone at 03 481 1825

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