Meet the teacher
Hi, there! My name is Rachel, and I am a certified yoga instructor (RYT-200) based in the Chicagoland suburbs. My yoga journey began in my tween years after routinely attending park-district yoga classes on Sunday mornings with my dad. I earned my dual Bachelor of Science degrees in Biology and Psychology from Loyola University Chicago which briefly pulled me away from my regular yoga practice, but after enduring personal hardships with embarking on a career that didn’t end up aligning with my strengths, I returned back to yoga and developed a more consistent practice to heal from my setbacks. The more I practiced, the more I began noticing gradual, steady, and measurable progress in my physical, mental, and emotional strength, and that is when I realized that what I was doing was meaningful and worthwhile. Importantly, I observed improvements in my relationship with my own self which gave me even more clarity. As weeks turned into months which prospered into nearly three years of consistent practice on my yoga mat, a light-bulb went off in my head and in my heart, and I decided it was about time I combine my passion for wellness and my fervent desire to pursue what I truly felt I was meant to do for the world: become a certified yoga instructor!
I completed my 200-hour yoga teacher training with Yoga by Degrees in February 2020 alongside working full-time as a medical assistant in the field of orthopedic surgery where I am part of a team of dedicated individuals that specialize in joint replacement, sports medicine, and fracture care. I believe that embracing spirituality, positivity, pranayam, and asana practice through yoga can indeed increase the success rate for a lot of the existing orthopedic protocols that doctors prescribe and suggest. I’m proud to be a first generation Indian-American yoga teacher, and I have a special interest in developing classes that emphasize safe anatomical alignment, creative sequencing, and Vedic philosophy all while inspiring students of all ages and backgrounds to believe that they are capable of doing so much more than they can imagine.
I welcome you to my personal homepage where I’ll share my yoga journey, teaching schedule, and sample classes/tutorials. I hope to meet you on your mat soon!
