Staff Spotlight: Reba Gray

Nest Staff Spotlight allows fellow teachers, staff members and our yogis the opportunity to delve into the life of a selected community member. We hope this gives everyone a chance to learn more about our teachers and staff.

Reba moved to Boston after spending time in Mali with the Peace Corps. She discovered yoga in 2002 while searching for community. She practiced and trained for 8 years before being moving across country to Oakland. Reba expanded her yoga knowledge, completing trainings in SmartFlow with Annie Carpenter, yoga for traumatic brain injuries and yin yoga. Learn more about Reba below!

What style of yoga do you teach? Why did you choose this method or style? 

For group classes, vinyasa. It helps me to shake the dust off, then find restoratives and stillness at the end. With private clients I teach more hatha style and sneak in personal training/work with weights, etc. I’ve also studied a little yin yoga and love kundalini.

What are three things still left on your bucket list? 

Drive on the Autobahn, scuba in the Red Sea, and get back to Mali to visit people I met in the Peace Corps 20 years ago.

When was the last time you laughed so hard you cried? 

A few weeks ago, with my cousin, who thought I was describing the mandolin instrument, when I was miming a mandoline kitchen slicer. You had to be there.

What are you currently reading, watching or listening to? 

Re-reading The Untethered Soul, listening to yoga podcast Food Sex Money Water, watching view of the bay out my window, sunrises and sunsets.

Flashback to when you were 10 years old. What did you want to be when you grew up?

I just wanted to travel and learn. I was not a ‘good’ student, I prefer learning about things experientially.

What is the scariest thing you've ever done for fun?

Jumped off the top of a dam. So much fun. (It wasn’t a huge one or anything.)

If you were to describe yourself as a sandwich, which would you be?

Reuben.

Reba teaches vinyasa at Nest Yoga. Flow with breath to movement and build heat every Sunday morning at 9:30 am! Learn more about Reba by visiting http://www.rebagray.com/ or on Instagram @yogawithreba.

Staff Spotlight: Melina Meza

Our yoga teachers bring life to Nest Yoga. Each teacher is passionate, welcoming and unique. Some have been teaching yoga for decades while others have been instructing for a few years. Because of their desire to learn, we are able to offer a variety of classes including SmartFLOW® Yoga, Yoga Tune Up®, Hatha Yoga, Vinyasa Flow Yoga, Restorative and Yin Yoga, Egoscue Method, Yoga for People with Disabilities and Chronic Conditions and Meditation.

Nest Yoga is thrilled to have Melina Meza on the team! She joined us after the unfortunate closing of Namaste Yoga. Melina has been teaching yoga since 1997 and created Seasonal Vinyasa Yoga, a holistic approach focusing on diet, lifestyle and yoga that moves with the seasons. You can learn more about Melina’s upcoming workshop with Nest Yoga here: Winter Seasonal Health and Wellness – Change Your Life One Week At A Time.

Tell us about yourself. Anything you want the Nest community to know. 

I moved to the East Bay about 8 years ago after living in Seattle for most of my adult life. I am so grateful for the weather in Oakland, the diversity, and the variety of avocados at the farmer’s markets! I started teaching yoga almost 25 years ago and have enjoyed teaching weekly classes, workshops, teacher trainings, retreats, and now Seasonal Health and Wellness Programs (next one starts December 4, 2020).

 In addition to my love for yoga, Ayurveda, seasonal foods, music, hiking/biking/tennis, community and my husband, I am a photographer! In my free time, I’m usually dreaming up some place to visit with color, texture, or water to play with reflections.

Check out Melina’s photography here: Melina Meza

What style of yoga do you teach? Why did you choose this method or style?

I teach mostly Gentle, Yin and Seasonal Vinyasa Yoga classes. I love the Gentle style classes right now because they attract people who like to practice the way I do! I think I originally started shifting to more Gentle style classes when I had back issues and started doing PT about 10 years ago.  Before that...I taught pretty strong flow classes and Yin. As an aging yogini, Gentle is what I crave and feels like the kind of yoga I’ll be doing for the rest of my life. I”m sold!

The Seasonal Yoga classes or workshops are my specialty. In a typical Seasonal Vinyasa Yoga session, I weave in asanas, the wisdom of Ayurveda, healthy lifestyle tips, nutrition and seasonal dharma (truth). I truly believe nature heals and the more we align our lifestyle with her, the healthier we will be. My greatest joy comes from teaching people to reconnect to their environment and the gifts each season brings.

I do Yin Yoga PopUps and enjoy this style of practice because it feels like a bridge to me between asana and meditation. Yin classes also give me a great excuse to read poetry and share yoga philosophy relevant to our times.

If you could instantly become an expert in something what would it be?

Guitar

What are three things still left on your bucket list?

Hike the full P.C.T. (it doesn’t have to be all at once)

Have a solo photography show in a beautiful gallery

Host a Yoga and Photography Retreat 

When was the last time you laughed so hard you cried? 

A few years ago we took a yoga group to India and were treated to a puppet show at the PALACE we were staying at. The content took us all by surprise and we laughed until we cried.  You had to be there!

What are you currently reading, watching or listening to?

Reading The Overstory by Richard Powers

Watching - Just finished, The Queen’s Gambit and loved it!

Listening to: Lady Gaga/Fiona Apple, Sturgill (Cuttin’ Grass) Simpson, Women Sing Tom Waits, and East West for yoga (Prana)

What do you love most about your hometown?

I grew up in Pacific Grove California and love the OCEAN! Asilomar beach at sunset is the best.

Flashback to when you were 10 years old. What did you want to be when you grew up?

A cook - Mexican food

What are you happiest doing when you’re not working?

Outside taking photographs 

If you had one day to live over again, what would you pick?

I’ve been blessed with too many incredible days to pick just one!!!

Melina teaches with Nest Yoga Mondays at 8:45 am, Wednesdays at 8:45 am and Fridays at 9:00 am. Check out our schedule for more info!

Staff Spotlight: Natalie Lamb

Nest Staff Spotlight allows fellow teachers, staff members and our yogis the opportunity to delve into the life of a selected community member. We hope this gives everyone a chance to learn more about our teachers and staff.

This week we are featuring our newest Yoga Associate, Natalie! Natalie joined us a couple week before shelter-in-place began. Between classes to become a nurse and her other job, Megan checks in classes through Zoom and works on Nest projects. Many of you have become acquainted with Natalie over Zoom. She is a bright addition to the Nest Yoga team!

Tell us about yourself. Anything you want people to know. 

I recently moved to Oakland and am a newer employee at Nest Yoga. I have felt overjoyed with how welcoming the team and community has been. I am excited to continue my work and practice at a yoga studio that shows so much love! 

What is your role at Nest Yoga?

Yoga associate 

What is your favorite book/movie/tv show/podcast?

My current favorite book is The Secret Power of Yoga,  my favorite TV show is Survivor, and recently I’ve been listening to the podcast Oprah Super Soul Conversations. Although I always enjoy indulging in some crime podcasts, too.

4Flashback to when you were 10 years old. What did you want to be when you grow up?

I have always been passionate about working with animals

If you had your own talk show, who would be your first three guests?

Anyone from past or present? Obama, Bob Dylan and Maya Angelou for starters...

What are three things still left on your bucket list?

Visit all national parks in the United States 

Hike machu picchu 

Learn to hold my handstand 

What is your least favorite yoga pose? Favorite yoga pose? Why?

My least favorite pose is Natarajasana (dancer pose); I’ve always found it a little uncomfortable. My favorite is virabhadrasana (warrior two), which makes me feel very grounded.

What do you love most about your hometown?

It’s so full of nature and my family is there. 

What’s the craziest fashion trend you ever rocked?

Pj’s in public were my go-to. 

What’s a goal you have for yourself that you want to accomplish in the next year?

I’d really like to dive even deeper into my yoga practice and begin meditating everyday.

What hobby would be a lot of fun to get into?

I love getting active outside so maybe rock climbing and/or surfing. 

Where is the best place you’ve traveled to and why?

I loved traveling through Spain. The warm, easy-going lifestyle and culture, colorful towns and villages, and the never-endless paella are just some of the things that stole my heart when traveling through this beautiful country. 

What is the scariest thing you've ever done for fun?

I went on a jungle walk through the Nepali jungle where we saw wild rhinos and pythons and many more animals that looked hungry.

Richard Rosen's Asana Breakdown: Neti Pose

Neti Pose 

neti-asana

neti = no English translation

This pose is the third of 84 poses described in the early 18th century CE Joga Pradipyaka (not to be confused with the Yoga Pradipika). The Sanskrit “neti” has no English translation. Along with instructions regarding the leg placement, the text gives additional instructions about the arms and gaze, viz. cross your forearms in front of your torso, holding each elbow with the opposite hand. Then “churn” the arms clockwise for a few turns (so specific number is given), then anti-clockwise for the same number of times, “observing silence. Gaze at the tip of the nose.” Two effects are noted, physical and yogic. According to the former, the pose “purifies the body, removes physical disorders,” and the body “attains lightness.” For the latter, “the nadis [i.e., subtle energy channels] are purified,” and the arms “churn” the body’s subtle energy (prana vayu). For the pose to be most effective, we’re instructed to practice three times daily. 

1. Sit on a thickly folded blanket or two, depending on the openness of your outer hips; sit higher if you’re tighter, lower if you’re more open. But in either case, sit on some kind of lift, and sit near the firm front edge of the blanket, so your pelvis is tipped slightly forward on the fronts of the sit bones. Always be sure the top rim of your pelvis is parallel to the floor, not tipped back toward the tail bone. If it is, sit even higher. 

2. Bend your knees, stand your feet on the floor. Slide your left heel to your right sit bone and lay the outer leg on the floor. Then cross your right ankle just to the outside of the left knee and lay that leg down toward the floor as well. If this is too difficult, just cross your shins in front of the torso, right in front of left. 

3. Burrow your right thumb into the right hip crease (groin). Push down on the groin (never on the knee), grip the thigh bone and turn the thigh outwardly (laterally). Keep the thumb in the groin and lean forward slightly. Make sure the groin stays deep. If it seems to push up against the thumb, back off slightly, press the thumb deeper, and try to lean forward again. If you can’t keep the groin soft when leaning forward, then keep the torso upright.

4. When ready, reach your hands out onto the floor in front of the shins. Press them down against the floor and “scrub” them back toward the shins, using that down-and-back pressure to lift the top sternum up and through the arms (“scrub” means to pull the floor back toward the shins but don’t physically move the hands). Lean forward from the groins, not the lower belly. Always lengthen the lower belly between the pubis and navel. Also be sure to keep the collar bones wide, don’t hunch forward.

5. It’s more important to keep the groins soft and deep than it is to increase the forward fold. So your pose may be mostly upright if your hips are tighter. Every now and then with an inhale, lift the torso slightly through the top sternum and draw the lower belly out of the groins, then try to lower down a bit more. Imagine the back of the pelvis widening side-to-side, spreading out from the sacrum’s mid-line, as the front hip points narrow toward the navel. Stay for a minute or more, pushing the outer knees away from the pelvis. Come up with an inhale, reverse the legs and repeat for the same length of time with the left leg high. 

CAUTION: always be sure the top ankle is outside the bottom knee, so the top sole is perpendicular to the floor. Never press the top foot against the inner bottom thigh, so the ankle is angled and the sole parallel to the floor. Always see the top foot sole is perpendicular to the floor. 

ADVANCED TIP: if this stretch is fairly easy with the bottom heel at the opposite sit bone, you can create a deeper stretch by sliding the bottom shin forward, parallel to the top shin.

RICHARD ROSEN'S ASANA BREAKDOWN : UTTANASANA

Uttanasana

(oot-tan-AH-suh-nuh) 

ut = intense;  tan = to stretch or extend (cognate with Latin verb tendere, “to stretch or extend,” cognate with English “tension”)

Intense Stretch Pose, commonly called Standing Forward Bend 

Benefits:  Calms the brain. stretches the hamstrings, calves, and hips,  strengthens the thighs

1. Stand in Tadasana, hands on hips (see the Asana Breakdown for September). Exhale and lengthen forward from the hip joints, not from the waist. As you descend draw the front torso out of the groins and open the space between the pubis and navel. As in all the forward bends the emphasis is on lengthening the front torso as you move more fully into the pose. 

2. If possible, with your knees straight or slightly bent, and maintaining the length of the front torso, press your palms or fingertips on the floor, either slightly in front of or beside your feet. If this isn’t possible, cross your forearms and hold your elbows with the opposite-side hands. 

3. Press the bases of the big toes firmly into the floor, spread the balls of the feet, and lift inner ankles. You can pull up on the ankles witih your hands to get that action. Then from that lift, draw imaginatively up along the inner thighs to the groins, then lift the groins deep into the pelvis. Rotate the thighs slightly inward, but keep the center of the knee caps, as if they were a pair of eyes, looking straight forward. Spread the buttocks out from the mid-line of the sacrum, soften the outer hips, and imaginatively lengthen down the outer legs to the ankles. 

4. With each inhale, lift the front torso just slightly and lengthen between the pubis and navel; with each exhale release a little more fully into the forward bend. In this way the torso oscillates almost  imperceptibly with the breath. Let your head hang from the root of the neck, which is deep in the upper back, between the shoulder blades. 

5. Uttanasana can be used as a resting position between the standing poses. Stay in the pose for 30 seconds to 1 minute. It can also be practiced as a pose in itself for anywhere from 1 to 3 minutes. 

6. Don’t roll the spine to come up. Instead bring your hands back onto your hips and reaffirm the length of the front torso. Then press your tail bone down and into the pelvis and come up on an inhale with a long front torso.  
- Contraindications: If you have a serious back injury, do this pose with bent knees, or perform Ardha Uttanasana (pronounced are-duh = half) with your hands pressed to a wall, legs perpendicular to and torso and arms parallel to the floor. 

- Modifications & Props: To increase the stretch on the backs of the legs, stand in the forward bend with the balls of your feet elevated an inch or more off the floor on a sand bag or thick book. 

- Variations: A more intense variation of Uttanasana is called Padangustasana (not to be confused with Supta Padangustasana). After bending forward, slide your index and middle finger of each hand in between the big toe and second toe of the same-side foot. Then curl the fingers under the bottom of the big toe, wrap the toe, and finally wrap your thumb around the fingers. With an inhale straighten the arms and lift the front torso away from the thighs, making your back as concave as possible. Hold for a few breaths, then exhale and lengthen down and forward, bending your elbows out to the sides. 

- Beginners Tip: To increase the stretch in the backs of your legs when in the pose, bend your knees slightly. Imagine that the sacrum is sinking deeper into the back of your pelvis, and bring the tail bone closer to the pubis. Then, against this resistance, push the top thighs back and the heels down and re-straighten the knees. Be careful not to straighten the knees by locking them back (when doing this exercise you can press your hands against the back of each knee to provide some resistance); instead let them straighten as the two “ends” of each leg move farther apart. 

- Advanced Tip: To increase the stretch in the backs of your legs when in the pose, lean slightly forward and lift up onto the balls of your feet, pulling your heels a half-inch or so away from the floor. Draw your inner groins deep into the pelvis, and then, from the height of the groins, lengthen the heels back onto the floor. 

- Partnering: The partner can help you increase the stretch on the backs of your legs. Perform Uttanasana as a wall hang. Rest your buttocks against a wall with your heels 6 to 12 inches away from the wall. Bend your knees. Have the partner press firmly against your sacrum. Imagine that the bone is sinking into your pelvis and lengthening through the tail bone, which in turn is growing up the wall. Slowly straighten your knees against this resistance. As above in the Beginners Tip, don’t simply lock the knees back to straighten them; instead resist the back knees slightly forward as the two “ends” of the legs, the heads of the thigh bones and the heels, move apart.