Our story

Everyone has a yoga story…I’m pretty sure yours is unique and magical and probably not without its twists and turns.

Likewise, this is our yoga story— mine and my best friend Tania’s—and it explains a little about the winding path we’ve been on as yoginis for many years.

First, my name is Rupali—a Sanskrit name meaning “beautiful light,” given to me in 1991 by my first yoga teacher.

In order to tell you my yoga story, I have to go back to 1985, the year I met yoga.

At that time, I was part of a zen meditation group, and after hearing me whine about how much my back hurt from our two-hour meditations, a fellow meditator said to me, “You should try that yoga stuff…it’s supposed to be good for your back.”

So off I went to the only place where I could find “that yoga stuff”—the Kripalu Center in the Berkshire Mountains.

In those days it was a full-on ashram and I loved it. From my very first yoga class, I knew I would do yoga for the rest of my life. My day was filled with pre-dawn pranayama, chanting, meditation, yoga and then a healthy breakfast in the SILENT dining chapel (a revelation to me!) before heading off to seva duties. I did more practices midday, and reveled in satsanga at night.

My yoga honeymoon was sweet.

Reality hit me when I left the safety of the ashram walls nine months later and headed back to California to deal with the ‘full catastrophe’ of daily living, to borrow a term from Jon Kabat-Zinn. Struggling to find time for practices, getting emotionally triggered, not having the support of a community and numerous relationship dramas were some of the many roadblocks I experienced for the first time as ‘a monk without a monastery,’ a term coined by another early favorite of mine, Carolyn Myss.

Teaching weekly yoga classes helped. My students were learning and enjoying the benefits of yoga for the first time, which kept me inspired and grounded in daily practice…and taught me—not for the first time—the value of CONSISTENCY and COMMUNITY along the path.

Tania entered the picture a few years later when I moved to Hawaii—after what I then considered a “failed” relationship—and taught my first Hawaii yoga class in the living room of some dear friends.

Here’s what she has to say about her first yoga class:

Taking Rupali’s Kripalu class in my friend’s living room opened my eyes and my mind. I was about 30 years old, very Type A…competitive…intense, and when we finished the yoga class with pranayama, I experienced a quiet mind for probably the first time in my entire life. I was hooked on breath…how easy it was!

A consistent, almost-daily practice built from there, leading to a visit to Kripalu with Rupali for an initiation retreat with Yogi Amrit Desai. At that retreat I experienced mantra and kirtan and my mind was opened further, as well as my heart.

The feeling of openness and love during kirtan was a new experience for me, and one in which I still find great joy and connection. We were given the Kripalu “guru mantra,” Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya, which became my daily japa practice for years, giving me the experience of the power of mantra practice, which remains part of my daily sadhana.

The asana practice kept me mostly injury free as I continued my journey as a competitive triathlete and coach. But at this point I saw it as merely a tool that would serve other “more important” aspects of my life.

Things changed when Rupali introduced Ashtanga to our shala, Yoga Hawaii, which we opened together in 1999. I was hooked…and triathlon was history! Within months I raced my last race and turned all my type A focus on getting flexible…haha. Oh, what I had done to my body over the years of sports, carpentry, life! Now I started the serious unwinding process.

A visit to India came later, to study with Ashtanga master Pattabhi Jois and his grandson Sharath…more unwinding and unraveling! I’m pretty sure that part never ends.

You never know what’s going to happen when you begin the messy process of undoing, dissolving, releasing and letting go of your previously held illusions.

Fast forward 29 years…

We hadn’t planned to own a yoga studio or travel the world teaching yoga or teach loads of yoga teachers or create lives that are fulfilling beyond what we could’ve possibly imagined. Or even to still be best friends after all this time.

Along the way we’ve studied with fantastic teachers, done a ton of sadhana and made all the mistakes that most spiritual aspirants make, in spades. And we’ve been very blessed to have found a beautiful yoga partnership that holds and supports us as we move through the different phases of our yoga lives.

This is where we currently stand:

• Yoga works (who knew?)
• BUT you have to DO it—consistently. Unwaveringly. With great devotion. (See Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra 1.14)
• COMMUNITY is critical (one of my early teachers would say, “Community is more powerful than intention.” So right.)
• Showing up is a big part of life….ummm, yep.
• You must construct a PERSONAL practice that serves the highest in you, regardless of whether it has a name or fits anyone else’s idea of what’s good for you.
• A PRACTICE is something you do when you feel like it, and when you DON’T feel like it—building tapas, focus and stamina on the path is über-important.
• Joy, fun, laughter are all key to sustaining your efforts…if it’s not fun, you won’t continue!

In this new phase we are committed to being a contribution to the planet, choosing our adventures by how much fun they are and shining a light for those who want to join us.

Let us know how we can personally assist you by dropping us an email anytime. Seriously, we’d love to hear from you.

This community of BlissfulYogini.com is what guides the instructional materials that we give freely on this site. We listen to your feedback and it’s important to us.

We love to provide awesome stuff that helps guide you towards being the best yoga teacher and practitioner you can be by honing your skills, deepening your understanding of this yoga life and developing the necessary business skills to build a sustainable yoga business.

We’re thrilled you’re here and we’d love for you to join us in whatever way feels right for you.

~ Best yoga buddies, Rupali and Tania

The nuts and bolts of our backgrounds…

Tania Jo Ingrahm

• • BA in Marine Zoology from University of Hawaii – Manoa
  • Crazy triathlete and coach, nearly 20 years
  • Outrigger canoe paddler and coach, 5 years
  • Certified Yoga Teacher from Kripalu Yoga Center, 1999
  • Registered with the Yoga Alliance at the eRYT200 level
  • Owner and founder, Yoga Hawaii, 1999-2011—only the third yoga studio to open on the island of Oahu.
  • Yoga teacher trainer of nearly 400 yoga teachers worldwide
  • Extensive Ashtanga studies, including with K. Pattabhi Jois, Sharath Jois, Bhavani Maki, Nancy Gilgoff, Doug Swenson, Darby & Joanne, Kino McGregor, Tim Miller
  • Special interests: pranayama, mantra, Ayurveda, anatomy, various kriya techniques, Reiki, hiking, ocean swimming and cycling—pretty much any outdoor adventure.

Rupali Embry

• • Computer Science major, UC Santa Barbara, 4 years
  • Competitive racewalker, 8 years
  • Certified Yoga Teacher from Kripalu Yoga Center, 1993
  • Registered with the Yoga Alliance at the eRYT500 level
  • Owner and founder, Yoga Hawaii, 1999-2011—only the third yoga studio to open on the island of Oahu.
  • Owner and founder, ShantiGirl Yoga Hawaii, RYS (the teacher training branch of Yoga Hawaii), 2004-present
  • Yoga teacher trainer of nearly 400 yoga teachers worldwide
  • Ten years of Ashtanga study with K. Pattabhi Jois, Sharath Jois and Saraswati, including four long, insane, mind-blowing trips to Mysore, India, totaling over a year
  • Additional studies with Bhavani Maki, Nancy Gilgoff, Doug Swenson, Tim Miller, Prem Carlisi, Anandra George and various wondrous Kripalu teachers
  • Trained in hypnosis, rebirthing, Reiki II, energy work, EFT, life coaching and mastermind group facilitation
  • Certified Functional Diagnostic Nutrition practitioner
  • Special interests: any discussion of the nature of energy and the Universe, teaching methodology, workshop design, website creation, optimal nutrition, Yoga Sutras, the Radiance Sutras, Sanskrit, pranayama, mantra, outdoor adventures of all kinds and studying foreign languages.