We recently connected with Rachel Wood and have shared our conversation below.
Rachel, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. If you had a defining moment that you feel really changed the trajectory of your career, we’d love to hear the story and details.
In my 20’s, living in NYC during the late 1990’s, friends and strangers alike would notice my body-type (thin, athletic) and ask if I did Yoga. I did not do yoga in fact, I was just predisposed to a thin frame and my youthful activities of running and tennis and swimming had kept me fit. But in NYC during the 90’s, Yoga was all the rage! It was everywhere and everyone was doing it. I finally succumbed after a year of the “do you do yoga” onslaught and took a class. I hated it. It was too slow. It felt boring. It didn’t make any sense to me. I felt I could successfully cross of “Yoga” on my bucket list and go back to my real life as a theatre director and continue on my way. A full 5-years later, I was embarking on a 16-month trip around the world. On a rickety-bus from Thailand to Cambodia, I made friends with an American/English couple living in London. When my trip was completed, I journeyed over to London to visit them. Lo and behold, they were yoga teachers. Could I still be friends with them? They laughed at my yoga eye-rolling and encouraged me to take a class at their shala, or school. Begrudgingly, I submitted. ‘Here we go again’ I thought! I found my way to a little nondescript place in Clapham and opened up the door to their shala. Stepping in, I was overcome. What was this? There were about 18 people on yoga mats, but everyone was doing something unique. There was my friend, Gingi, the teacher, but he wasn’t “instructing”…he was moving around the room having quiet conversations here and there. There were people doing things with their bodies I didn’t think possible. And then, there was The Breath. Everyone was breathing in such a manner that their collective breaths was audible and it felt like the room was both on fire and vibrating. It was completely transformative and more or less, I’ve never looked back. Yoga took over my life from there.
Rachel, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
After experiencing my friend Gingi Lee’s teaching at his yoga studio in London, called The Shala, I tried to learn more about what I had come across. What was this style of yoga called “Ashtanga?” How many styles of yoga were there? Who could practice this style? What did I need to do to learn this? Email had just recently come about, and the internet was in its early stages. So it wasn’t the type of thing I thought I could “look up online” as we hadn’t come to that point in society. Instead, I took what I had learned during my brief time with Gingi in London and returned back home to NYC. I started practicing this Ashtanga thing…in my bedroom, at the gym before my graduate school classes, whenever and wherever I could. I didn’t know the sequence fully, I just kept trying to piece poses together from memory. Eventually, life took me overseas to Cape Town, South Africa. Before moving, I knew I needed three things: a) bakery b) bookstore c) a shala. I was going to commit to this Ashtanga thing and see what came. That was in 2009. Since then, yoga has fully taken over my life. It started with yoga courses and retreats, jumped forward into a 500-hour yoga teacher training, and then teaching. First in South Africa, then upon moving back to the States teaching in Vermont, in Great Barrington Massachusetts, to Chatham, NY. I opened up my first yoga studio in September 2024 in Chatham, NY. My studio offers the traditional form of Ashtanga, known as Mysore classes, which is what I experienced with Gingi in London. This is a self-practice, wherein students learn the sequencing slowly over time. You are taught individually, and the focus is on holding poses for 5-breaths, holding a steady gaze, and holding an internal channel called Bandha. At my studio we also offer Vinyasa Flow classes, Tai Chi, Mat Pilates, Somatic Flow, and Chair Yoga. I want people to realize what I didn’t realize in the beginning, which is that there are many styles of yoga. Finding the right style and the right teacher can make all the difference in the world.
I am most proud of our mysore program and the offering of this style. It’s not always the “easiest” form….people see pictures of ashtanga yoga and think it’s inaccessible, or get intimidated at the idea of not being led. This however is where liberation lies… not being led. Rather, learning a set sequence that you can practice on your own is deeply empowering. You learn to trust yourself, to tune in to your own system and your own rhythms. This is true Yoga.
This description of Mysore on our website might help illuminate this form:
What is Mysore? Mysore is both the city in India where Ashtanga Yoga derives, as well as the traditional form of this style of yoga. In a Mysore room, you’ll see people moving silently, making a sound with their breath (ujjayi), doing a set of poses (asanas) and everyone will be at a different point in their practice. There’s no teacher up at the front of the room, barking out what the next pose is and moving too fast. Instead, some people will be just like you, beginning to learn the sequence. Other students may have been practicing for years and they’ll be doing their own sequence, with the teacher giving them adjustments or answering questions as they come up. Other students may be doing a seated meditation or breathwork (pranayama), before beginning their physical practice. It’s a yoga class unlike anything you’ve ever experienced. The idea in a mysore room is that you have the opportunity to move according to your breath, learn at your own pace, and to ask questions. It’s individual attention in a group setting.
During your first Mysore class, your teacher may give you the first set of poses from the Ashtanga Primary Series, Surya Namaskar A, or in English, Sun Salutation A. You may do that until you’ve had enough. Depending on your experience, you may be taught more than that. Your first class will likely be 30 – 45 minutes. Slowly over time, your teacher will give you more and more poses to work on and learn. If you need a cheat sheet to remember poses, that’s available. But it’s also wonderful to practice using your brain the old-fashioned way, and attempt to remember the sequence, one pose at a time.
Mysore classes are also unique in that you may show up ANYTIME during the stated class time. If the class time is listed 8:30 – 10am, you may show up at 8:40, 8:57, 9:10, as you like!
The beauty of Ashtanga is that your practice builds over time; it is a work in progress. Simply showing up and starting is the most important thing. No particular physical ability or stamina is required, all are welcome.
Mysore classes are the gold standard of what Yoga really is: an opportunity to listen and connect more deeply to yourself.
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start?
This is a good question for me because I had no idea how to pull together capital. I didn’t know how much I would need, I didn’t know how to get started, I just knew I had enough support that I could take what felt like a massive leap. I had been teaching privately and independently for years, renting spaces here and there. Three things happened that made me think I might be able to open my own place:
1) a local studio asked me to run their mysore program. I interviewed with the “cool new studio” in the next town over. What struck me was that they too were just trying things out. They didn’t have some kind of magic ball or master plan, they were just trying things. I knew that I could do that too, so why wasn’t I?
2) a student and friend was going to open up a completely new shala in a town 25 minutes from me. Again, she wanted me to run her mysore program. I was struck by almost the same offer and again, thought to myself, I have a small following myself, and why would I let someone else be in charge when I was quite capable myself? What was stopping me?
3) My teacher, the one I primarily study under, Ty Landrum, was leading a summer teacher training intensive that I was a part of. ON the next to last day, he reached out to all of us and prodded us…”If EVER you are in a position to open up your own studio, DO IT.” Ty is not one for strong directives, and having seen a property in my local town that could be made into a shala, I just knew, I had to take the next step.
I was fortunate in that I had had a run of several private students, the summer had been lucrative, I had a few thousand in savings, so I took all of that and ran with it.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
Prior to my life in Yoga, I was a theatre director, actor and dialect coach. My life was the theatre and the performing arts. Yoga took over slowly and gradually. I don’t think there was ever a completely conscious decision that I made to switch fields. Rather it all happened slowly over time…I saw that I loved yoga. All my trips, all my extra funds went toward Yoga retreats, trainings and gatherings. I wanted it more and more and more. I had a lucrative profession in the arts, and making a living was easy. I knew that as a yoga teacher I would be more prone to poverty! I would be lying if I said I had done it all on my own, my life partner was a financial mainstay and when we began having kids, I knew he would be the primary breadwinner. It’s still a choice that required a great deal of courage and a leap into an unknown…
Contact Info:
- Website: https://chathamyogacenter.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chathamyogacenter/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063493173952
- Linkedin: https://www.instagram.com/rachelwood_yoga/
Image Credits
Keetch Miller Photography