Yoga Saved My Life. Twice.

How Yoga Helped Me Find Strength and Self-Love - By Naomi Rachel

Reading time: 4 minutes

For those who don’t know me (which is pretty much everyone), I am Naomi Rachel from the UK, a newbie yoga teacher.

During the lockdown, I was made redundant for the second time before I turned 25 and was in a relationship that made me feel incredibly low. I only realised then that I was deeply depressed and had been for years. A little bit of poetry… the best way I can describe it is that I felt like a piece of dust in a hollow body, screaming for someone to help but no one could hear me.

I felt so alone.

The only thing that got me through the day was yoga. I had many dark days, but they would have been even darker had it not been for my practice. I’d get up and force myself onto the mat; it became a lifeline, giving me a sense of stability and routine. Each practice was a fight for my mental health and, honestly, my life.

Breathing and moving, even just a little, gave me enough relief to continue taking each day at a time. By being consistent with yoga and eventually talking to someone, I began to pick myself up and turn my life around. I found the strength to leave my partner and finally set boundaries with those around me.

In the midst of all this, I suddenly developed a serious infection, which quickly led to sepsis. I was in bed for days believing it was just a bad flu. However, I finally decided to ring for help and was rushed to the hospital. I was told if I hadn’t gone in that night, I would have died.

From that point onwards, I had to begin almost from square one to regain my strength because I became so weak in the hospital that I couldn’t walk. To get me through, I held onto the belief that I had the courage to become stronger, both physically and mentally. I adopted two mantras that I would repeat in my mind on loop, on and off the mat.

Those mantras were “let go” and “go with the flow.” By using these, I took the pressure off myself to get better and allowed my healing to flow naturally. I began to get stronger and healthier at an incredibly fast rate, which is remarkable because many people who get sepsis take months to recover. Instead, it took me around two months, and I genuinely believe it was because of the mindset I adopted that originated from my yoga practice.

A few months later, it was a beautiful sunny day in Lincoln, where I lived. So, I treated myself to a book and cake, sat in the sun at a cafe, and read. I felt so incredibly proud that I was doing exactly what I wanted to do, being truly myself in that moment.

So much so that after, I walked home swiftly to write how grateful I was in my journal. I let the pen take over and write whatever I was feeling. Then I looked down and realised I had written, “I love myself.”

My mind was blown. I had to read it back to register it. It was as if something inside me took over and said exactly how it was because when I did comprehend it, I knew it to be true. That, to this day, has been the most triumphant moment of my life because I had never believed I’d love myself. Yet I had got there, I’d built my strength up, and was healing and recognising who I am on a deeper level.

At the time, I was a designer creating children’s outdoor play areas. It began to dawn on me that I wasn’t making much of a difference in life. I wasn’t helping enough people. So, I did something crazy: I quit my job and decided to start a business in mental health and well-being, with yoga as a main priority.

I travelled to Thailand, earned my 200-Hour Yoga Teaching Certification, and continued exploring countries alone for a few more months (which again was astonishing for feeble little me). This was all within a year of nearly dying and wanting to take my own life.

Yoga* transformed both my mind and body. It allowed me to gain an understanding of how to improve quickly, get stronger mentally and physically, and it gave me the mindset to begin to love myself. I am now beginning to teach beginners Hatha Flow Yoga.

I admit I am not a perfect, bendy human with mad core strength, but instead, my mind is aligned to proving we can all do it. I believe, and I am living proof, that when we tap into our breath and stretch our body, phenomenal things can happen. We can gain strength and courage much quicker than we would without yoga.

My classes aren’t about being perfect; they are about exploration so my students can develop an understanding of who they truly are. This authenticity is who I am and how I aim to teach: someone who wants to help anyone and everyone.

Yoga got me through depression and illness, and I learnt how through my consistent practice. I know what it is to struggle as well as how to grow through it. Therefore, it is now a personal mission to show each student that joins me on the mat how to do the same.

The main aspect I gained from yoga that saved my life is the ability to strengthen my mind and use positive thoughts that built up my belief in myself. So that is what I aim to teach my students now.

I am so incredibly grateful for having found yoga and for the fact that I am still here today, aiming to make a difference and I hope I can help as many people as possible.

Thank you for reading my story; however, I sense this is only the beginning of my journey.

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