04/08/2026
🪷 TEACHER FEATURE 🪷 SAM RAPH 🪷
What first brought you to yoga and how has your practice evolved over time?
I didn’t come to yoga through movement at all, I was actually drawn in through philosophy—the questions it asks about suffering, awareness, and what it means to live with intention. When I was 16, I happened across a copy of “The Yamas & Niyamas” by Deborah Adele in a little free library. I remember reading and feeling like something very old and true was quietly rearranging how I saw my life. At the time, I wasn’t looking for a physical practice; I was following curiosity and looking for clarity.
After finishing the book, I knew I had to begin practicing physical asana. I started doing a Yoga with Adrienne video first thing every morning—nothing elaborate, just a simple way to stay consistent and embody what I’d been reading. Over time, that morning rhythm became non-negotiable. It wasn’t about discipline in a rigid sense; it was more like returning home to my center each day before stepping into the world.
In the early years, there was still a subtle striving—wanting to “get better,” to understand more, to refine the shapes. But I noticed a positive shift through all facets of my life, and the longer I’ve practiced, the more the edges have softened. The evolution hasn’t been about adding complexity; it’s been about subtracting noise. The poses became less performative and more like conversations with my body and spirit. Breath became the teacher.
Twelve years later, teaching came naturally out of that shift. Not from a place of having mastered anything, but from wanting to deepen my own practice/understanding, and recognizing how powerful it is to hold space for people to listen inward in a world that constantly pulls them outward.
My practice now feels quieter, more spacious. Some mornings are strong and fluid, others are slow and barely moving. Both feel equally complete. If anything, yoga has become less something I do and more something I live. It continues to meet me differently as life changes, but that original thread—the philosophical inquiry, the curiosity about being—that has never left.
freckled.heron
