'I was a teenage tearaway before I discovered yoga'

Rachel says that yoga changed her life

She is one of the world's most respected gurus but RACHEL BRATHEN says her life could have turned out very differently if she'd continued on her self-destructive path.

 

AS teenage rebellions go, Rachel Brathen's was up there with the best of them. 

"I got drunk every single day, got pulled over by police for driving over the limit, shoplifted and lied so much I didn't know what was real anymore," she says. 

Now 26 and with sun-kissed skin, a toned body and long golden locks, it's hard to imagine Rachel as anything but the healthy, clean-living yoga guru she is today.

"I was a mess and created chaos wherever I went," says Rachel, who credits discovering yoga with helping her to get her life back on track. 

Known in the industry as 'yoga girl', Rachel teaches all over the globe and has one of the largest yoga accounts in the world (1.6million followers) thanks to the beautifully shot pictures she posts of herself doing poses on the beach near her house in Aruba.

Her devoted fans look to her for inspiration on how to live a healthy life. 

But as a teenage tearaway, there were times when Rachel thought she may not live to see her 18th birthday.

I got drunk every single day, got pulled over by police for driving over the limit, shoplifted and lied so much I didn't know what was real anymore

Rachel Brathen

Born in Sweden, Rachel's turbulent childhood began at the age of two when her parents divorced. Two years later, Rachel's mother Margareta remarried a Swedish fighter pilot called Stefan.

It was a happy time for the family but, just as they began to settle into their new lives, Stefan was killed in a plane crash. 

"Our lives were turned upside down again and the years that followed were extremely dark and difficult," says Rachel, who's mum was so stricken with grief that she attempted suicide shortly after.

"I remember going to see mum in hospital. There was lots of crying and she hugged me so hard I couldn't breathe. I didn't find the suicide letters she'd written until much later." 

When her mother and father both remarried and divorced once again, it proved too much for the then 10-year-old Rachel.

"It angered me. I thought' what's wrong with my parents?'" she says. 

"The pressure of it all became overwhelming and I began to turn away from my family." 

Rachel started shoplifting, smoking and drinking and was rushed to hospital with alcohol poisoning for the first time at 13. 

"I had older boyfriends and started hanging out with the wrong crowd," she says. 

Soon she was drinking on a daily basis and after one particular binge, woke up to find she had been drugged and robbed. 

And then there was the time she almost died in a car crash after getting a lift with a drunk friend. "Driving at 90mph, we rammed into another car and flipped over," says Rachel. 

"Amazingly though, I walked away with a few broken ribs and internal bleeding." 

Watching their daughter continue in a downward spiral, Rachel's parents grew increasingly worried for her and health and safety. Yet the more they tried to curb her behaviour, the worse she became. 

In a desperate bid to save her, they threatened to send her away to boarding school at the age of 14.

A defiant Rachel refused and instead ran away from home and slept rough for two nights in a Stockholm train station. 

"My mum would try to ground me for months at a time but I'd just jump out of my window," says Rachel. 

"And if they took my allowance away, I would shoplift even more than I already was."

 

She even stole money from her parents to buy alcohol and would drink their vodka and replace it with water. After spending a night in jail for drink driving, her parents pleaded with her to make a change. 

"I remember my dad lecturing me with tears in his eyes," she says. 

"But I was determined to be destructive and there was nothing anyone could do to stop me." Refusing to give up on her daughter, Rachel's mum decided to change tactics. 

After reading about a one week therapeutic yoga retreat in northern Sweden," she asked a then 18-year-old Rachel if she would like to go. 

"I don't know how on earth she convinced me to go but I found myself on a train heading north. I didn't admit it at the time but I was terrified.. 

"Out of all the things I had done - and at 18 I had already done it all - this was more out of my comfort zone than anything I could possibly imagine.

"I had taken one yoga class the previous year while on holiday in Thailand with my family, but that was it."

Once at the retreat, Rachel attended two group meditation sessions a day and was forced to spend the rest of the time in silence.

"No phones, no computers, no talking. Just silence," she says. 

It gave her time to think and reflect on the person she had become and to work through some of the issues causing her anger.

"I realised I was angry at my mother for being so fragile when I was little. I was angry at my father for being distant. And I was angry at myself. 

"It also dawned on me that I hadn't properly mourned the death of my step-father. 

"I got a glimpse into what life could be like if I wasn't so preoccupied with smoking and drinking myself to death. 

"I started looking at the bigger picture and all of a sudden I realised I wanted to be happy and left the retreat a different person." 

Back at home Rachel distanced herself from the bad influences in her life, quit her vices and continued to meditate daily. 

Wanting a new environment and to be among like-minded people, Rachel booked a one-way ticket to Costa Rica and took up yoga. 

When she wasn't working as a waitress, she was practicing yoga on the kitchen floor of the tiny beach hut she rented.

While on holiday with her dad on the small Caribbean island of Aruba, Rachel met her now husband Dennis, a manager of a local surf shop. 

The pair fell in love and it wasn't long before Rachel was calling Aruba home. 

"I found stability for the first time in my life," she says. "It was here that I also became a full time yoga teacher." 

Devouring every book she could find on the subject, set up her own class. 

She remembers her excitement when four people turned up at her first session, which she held under a grape tree on the beach.

However word soon spread and before long she was teaching 24 packed classes a week. Setting up an Instagram account, Rachel began to post yoga poses to motivate the masses and shared words of wisdom.

"I started writing about my feelings and instantly I started getting a big response," she says. 

As Rachel's following grew into their hundreds of thousands, she was invited to teach at retreats and festivals all over the world.

"It's been a long journey to get to where I am today but I know I am not alone and I hope my story inspires others," says Rachel. 

"Yoga brought me peace. I found that even in darkness there is light. Quite simply, it has saved my life."

Yoga Girl by Rachel Brathen (Yellow Kite/ £16.99) is out today. To order a copy visit amazon.co.uk. Rachel will be signing copies of her book at Whole Foods Market, High Street Kensington on Monday 10 August from 5.30pm.

Interview by HANNAH BRITT