Rachael Holmes

Senior Yoga Teacher

Incoming Steward of Heart Center

E-RYT500, YACEP

Rachael attended her first guided yoga class in 2010 and something clicked into place; this experience was already embedded in her cells. She has steadily become more and more fully immersed in the yogic path, particularly the practices of asana, pranayama, meditation, and Vedanta study. Rachael has received 3 different 200-hour trainings - Hatha in 2014, Vinyasa 2017, and Classical (Sivananda) in 2019. She has lived at two different yoga ashrams for 2-year periods, and is a lifelong student of the Sivananda lineage.

Rachael offers a practice that is easeful for the body with some healthy challenge, and a strong emphasis on self-reflection and self-love. She firmly believes if we practice more self-love, the world around us can transform. In reverence of yoga’s ancient and transformative power, her life is committed to sharing the profound practices with others, to help ease this awkward yet beautiful experience of being human. 

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In 2026, Rachael takes a more active role in supporting the sangha as well as our practice center, under the guidance of Meg Lucks. In time, she will ease into the stewardship of our beautiful center! 

An open letter from Rachael to the Heart sangha:

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Om Namah Sivaya!

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Hello Beloved Heart Sangha. Allow me to introduce myself…

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I’m Rachael. My heart and soul have been committed to the yogic path for lifetimes. In this iteration of life, a friend invited me to a yoga class in college & it was an immediate feeling of “Yay! It’s back!”. I was gifted with the experiences of yoga, mindfulness, and meditation all around the same time while in my final years studying Psychology at UWM. 

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After college I taught yoga and mindfulness to children for 2 years until I hit a point where I yearned for a spiritual community. That led me to attend grad school at Naropa studying Contemplative Psychotherapy. I found community but realized Psychology was not the route for me to take so I left after that first life-altering year. I had a clearer understanding that the Eastern Wisdom practices were a direct means to help people experience less enduring sadness and more enduring contentment, which had been my goal in studying Psychology. I became more committed to exploring the depths of yoga.

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My formal 200-hour trainings encompass Hatha Yoga (in 2014 with Pamela Bliss), Vinyasa Yoga (in 2017 through CorePower), and Classical Yoga (2019 with the Sivananda lineage), and over the years I’ve taught in Canada, Chicago, Seattle, San Diego, and our beloved Milwaukee. 

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After my second 200-hour training, at Core Power, I knew there was an aspect of the practice that I was missing while living in the world. Through synchronistic meetings and conversations (as these things go!), ashram life was revealed to me.

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I spent two years at the Sivananda Ashram Headquarters in Val Morin, Canada, where I met my teacher and the depth of that entire experience sealed the deal. Discipline became a best friend, sadhana became the magic key, and Sangha became the breath that animates it all into a living purpose.

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I was privileged to run the Sivananda Center in Chicago for 6 months before and during the transition into Covid, during which I discovered I love even the behind-the-scenes operations of teaching yoga. After traveling and teaching on the West Coast, I returned to another ashram (Yogaville in Virginia) to spend two more years from 2023-2025. Upon leaving the ashram this time, I was ready to commit wholeheartedly to serving and teaching back ‘in the marketplace’.

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My hope, for the last 15 years, was to help foster and support a space where yogis could gather in community and honest simple love, and practice sadhana with reverence for the ancient teachings intact. Meg and I reconnected (again synchronistically beyond what the mind can ever plan or really fathom) and it is with a gracious full heart that I will ease into stewardship of the beautiful space and wholesome community of Heart.​