NuLife Yoga

Ruby is an exercise and nutritional expert who has been active in Physical Fitness for more than 30 years. Her fitness history includes marathon running and owning a health spa in New Mexico where she grew up.

After years of daily two hour weight training and aerobic workouts, she realized she needed to incorporate yoga into her life for balance, strength, and flexibility.

Now, yoga has become part of her life. Ruby has leveraged a Masters Degree in Education consisting of 15 years of high school and college level teaching experience, yoga classes, in Kerala, India and classes from yoga masters like Rodney Yee, Seane Corne, Shiva Rea, and Richard Freeman to become an exceptional Power Vinyasa Yoga Instructor. She founded NuLife Yoga with her husband in 2009.

Her physical conditioning is nothing short of incredible. She awakes at 4 AM. for a daily workout that includes two hours of weight and aerobics training as well as one hour of yoga practice.

Ruby's passion for fitness and her teaching skills have been an inspiration to many.

Ruby says

Yoga is medicine to me: massaging my internal organs as well as my mental and physical state. My approach to teaching is to give students the ability to work at their own level and be comfortable with it. I have a passion to teach those who want to incorporate yoga into their lives.

Ruby is currently teaching Power Vinyasa and Basic/Gentle Yoga on Mondays and Saturdays at NuLife.

Doug is a former high tech VP who decided to expand his life. He turned to yoga to help navigate toward more fullness of life. Many years of yoga practice later, including training in Kerala, India, he became a certified yoga instructor.

His classes are tuned to the needs of the high-performance lifestyles here in the Bay Area.

In addition to a challenging workout, he shows how yoga shifts your life's balance toward a more centered position, balancing the body, the mind and the spirit. Doug explains from personal experience, “There are many paths to eternity – as many as all of us. My path has been enriched by yoga.

It helps me balance my mind, body and spiritual dimensions, and to extend that intelligent cooperation to everyone and everything. Yoga has led me to believe that the richness of our journey is paced by our ability to cooperate intelligently, both internally within our own dimensions and externally with everyone and everything.”

He says

It is a thrill to have my life come together in this way, and to share it all with my wife.

Finally, Doug and Ruby have worked with the San Jose Unified High School District to introduce yoga as a calming and focusing influence at troubled schools.

Inspired by her sister Barani, yoga was definitely love at first try for Akari. Thankfully, her yoga journey brought a much-needed balance into her life after her residency at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital @ Stanford.

Akari finds rejuvenation of the mind, body, & soul, healing, and relaxation through yoga. She incorporates Hatha and Vinyasa flow while sharing her passion for yoga and uplifting restoration with her class.

Akari holds a Doctor of Pharmacy degree and practices hospital and community pharmacy. Aside from her role as a pharmacist and a yoga instructor, she enjoys reading, gardening, traveling, biking, hiking, tennis, turbo kickboxing, origami, photography, drawing, baking, and music.

John has made exercise and healthy living a part of his life since the mid 1970s. He understands you can only perform well in life when you take care of yourself.

John's philosophy encompasses the entire you; body, mind, and spirit. This includes a smart diet and diverse activity. He has participated in various activities over the years such as running, rock climbing, cardio, swimming, meditation, weight lifting, yoga, and hiking. John incorporated yoga into his life in 2003 when he realized how many benefits there were from the practice. John received his RYT 200 hour certification from Yoga Works and has participated in other teacher training through Yoga Fit, Yoga Journal Conferences and various workshops. He is always looking for new places and ways to learn.

He enjoys expanding his horizons by taking classes and exposing himself to new experiences as well. Another part of John’s life is his dedication to helping people. He volunteers in many areas and has always loved teaching and helping others accomplish their goals.

Grace's Flow Yoga has influences from tai chi and qi gong to dance and alignment studies. Her style nurtures the spine and focuses on breath, bringing awareness to these key aspects of injury prevention. She enjoys infusing her classes with steady effort, musicality and a little laughter. As a result, Grace’s vinyasas are slower, deliberate yet vigorous, with something to offer those wanting accessible instruction as well as those looking for a physical challenge.

Juliana began her journey in yoga in the end of 2005 while she was completing her Chemistry degree in Portugal. An entire new vision of the world started to emerge in her mind, She became intrigued with yoga. She moved to Austrailia in 2011, and studied Yoga in the Integrative Institute of Medicine of Brisbane. As her yoga practice deepened, Juliana saw that the benefits of yoga go far beyond physical conditioning. Yoga had become her passion and she committed herself to passing along all the benefits of yoga as a yoga instructor. Her yoga resume now includes Brisbane (Yoga instructor), Bali (Prenatal-Postnatal yoga and meditation), Munich (Yoga instructor), 350 Hr Yoga Instructor Certification, and experience in teaching Hatha, Vinyasa and Yin Yoga, Pilates, Pre and Post-Natal, and Kids yoga. Being able to remain calm, self centered, positive and happy with peaceful mind were some of the most important achievements during her journey. To be able to share love and good energies around the world is her biggest motivation.

Yoga inspires me to be a better human being everyday of my life.

Compassion, patience and love are some of the values that she shares with anyone that crosses her life.

Sometimes a simple and honest smile full of love can be enough to make a difference in someone's life.

Jared’s journey began in high school when he stumbled into meditation. Something clicked once he started practicing. Throughout college Jared befriended a zen priest, started an on-campus zen a meditation club, sat silent retreats, and lived in various monasteries. After completing his degree in economics and contemplating a research career, Jared switched life directions and moved to Tassajara - a zen mountain monastery off the California coast. Gaining exposure to yoga while living in the mountains, Jared took a liking to the ancient practice.

I strongly feel that what's taught on the mat is applicable to life off the mat. Personal transformation is possible - we can become significantly happier because we all have tremendous untapped resources lying within us. I want you to empower yourself. My goal as a teacher is to clarify how you can tap into a higher potential of life - by present moment mindfulness and slowly re-wiring your habits and attitudes through training and practice - and also help provide the motivation to do so.

Yoga came to Hsiao Lin’s life in 2010 when she was seeking ways to relieve stress and to balance her life and work. Through regular yoga practice over the years, she found herself not only growing stronger physically, but also becoming more spiritually enlightened. In 2012, she brought her yoga journey to the next level. She completed 200-Hour Hatha-Vinyasa certification with Noell Clark and Angie Poon at Just Breath Yoga Rivermark. Her classes focus on the fundamental principles of alignment, grounding, energy and self awareness. Hsiao-Lin is very excited to share her love of yoga, her transformation from yoga, and her enthusiasm about yoga with her classes. Come experience the joy of yoga with a mindful practice that will leave you energized and relaxed.

Tara turned to yoga to relieve stress while serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mozambique. However, the static poses she learned from flashcards weren't put together in a Vinyasa flow until she returned home. It was during her pregnancy with her son that she finally made a deeper connection with yoga and all the positive benefits it brought her mind and body.

Tara completed her 200 hour teacher training in Hatha-Vinyasa in June 2013, under the instruction of Angie Poon and Noell Clark. She loves that yoga is a lifelong journey and that through mindfulness of breath and its connection with asana a person can become more aware of who they truly are. She encourages students to smile, breathe deeply, play with new poses, and leave class with a positive outlook on life.

When Sheetal experienced Yoga for the first time, she felt like everything fell into place; not just physically, but also mentally, feeling light and content. Her yoga experience left her with a deep sense of calm. She instantly knew she wanted more of this feeling in her life, and that’s when she began her journey with Yoga.

She has been practicing Vinyasa flow yoga, a powerful and dynamic system that combines asana and pranayama. In 2014, she completed her 200 Hour RYT under the expert guidance of Ganga White and Tracey Rich at the White Lotus Foundation in Santa Barbara. In addition, Sheetal trained at the renowned Krishnamcharya Yoga Mandiram in India. She has also participated in various workshops and training programs locally as well as in India.

She feels, when it comes to yoga, she will always be a student. Yoga to her is not just a physical exercise, but a way of life. She strongly believes in the wonderful connection of the mind, body and breath and that Yoga is the discovery of self through the movement of the body.

Sheetal encourages all her students to find their personal Yoga and to use the asana practice as a tool to expand their consciousness and to bring more awareness to their mind, body and spirit. She aims to guide each student into that place of peace and calm by linking breath and movement. She encourages her students to try new things and most importantly to have fun with their practice!

Sima completed her 200 hour Hatha-Vinyasa teacher training.

Serving as a guide to connect prana, movement and self-realization. Awakening and cultivating awareness with nurturing guidance, holding space for all to peel away the layers of build up, find clarity, and embrace all emotions on and off the mat. Riding the waves of this path to create space for the new and leave behind what is no longer serving us.

James stepped onto his mat for the first time eight years ago in a community college class in Chico, CA. Being stiff would be an understatement, as he could barely touch his ankles. Although he was sore after his first class, the calming sleep which took place that night had him coming back for more. After transferring south to San Jose State to finish his degree, he began to find a more steady practice.

Sports have always been a major aspect of his life. Growing up in the Washington D.C. area, this was especially true with lacrosse. Quickly seeing the connection between a yoga practice and fewer injuries on the field, James began to share yoga with his teammates. Over the past five years he has enjoyed teaching yoga to lacrosse teams all over California. It was a natural step to seek the yoga training necessary to integrate teaching into his life. James completed his 200 Hour Yoga Alliance Certification through Jennifer Prugh’s Joy of Yoga Teacher Training in 2014.

James now focuses his time on the mat as an ashtanga practitioner under the instruction of Erika Abrahamian. Practicing Mysore nearly 6 days per week at Breathe, he enjoys the discipline and progression that the method offers. Off of the mat, he continues to teach yoga to high school and college athletes, as well as coaching lacrosse at the youth level.

My journey into Yoga began in 2006 when I observed a yoga class through a glass door at my local gym. I was curious so, I decided to try out the next class. What started out as just a class to stretch, turned into something I would fall in love with! I realized I felt great physically, emotionally, and spiritually, even though I was unable to do many of the poses. It felt like I finally found an outlet to compliment my stressful life as an Engineer.

During my search to find a regular teacher, I met Kenny Graham and I fell in love with Anusara Yoga. I learned tools while practicing this style that helped me to heal personally, and address many life changing events I was facing. Since then, I have completed classes and workshops with many experienced teachers like Sianna Sherman, Samantha Shakti Brown, Desiree Rumbaugh, Stacey Rosenberg, and Daniella Cotreau (just to name a few).

After I realized how Yoga has transformed me, I felt a calling to share this beautiful practice, so I started on a journey to get my certification to teach. I wanted to bring Yoga into the lives of others, so hopefully others could benefit as I have. I completed 100 hours of Immersion with Kenny Graham and Samantha Shakti Brown. Also, I completed 100 hours of Teacher Training with Abby Tucker in Berkeley. My reward as an instructor is watching the student's faces light up after every class. With 5+ years of teaching experience in a group setting, my classes are catered to all levels of students. My goal is to create a very heart-oriented, alignment based, safe, fun and playful environment for my students to practice.

Sharon’s love of movement started at a young age first as a rhythmic gymnast competing at the international level, and then as a gymnastics instructor during her college years. Following the birth of her second child, she originally turned to yoga as an alternative therapy while recovering from running-related injuries. Soon she was addicted to how yoga nourished her body, and brought a sense of calm and balance to her life.

Sharon received her 200-hour Yoga Alliance teaching certification through Nikki Wong at Yoga Inside Out and now shares the healing she experienced through yoga with her students. Sharon is known for her calm teaching voice, grounding presence, and challenging vinyasa yoga sequences.

Sharon considers it a great honour to be a yoga teacher and strives to connect with her students to support their own yoga journey. Expect to build heat from the inside out and leave Sharon’s classes feeling refreshed, nourished and balanced.

Rajesh started his yoga journey by practicing with Ruby Lyons. This is where he learned the right foundation and true meaning of yoga. He was then inspired to completing his 200 Hours yoga teachers training certification at Just Breathe Yoga Studio with Angie Poon in 2016. Forever a student, he likes to grow in his own practice as a teacher, and he always strives to evolve and bring new insights to his classes. He likes to focus on breathing and aims to achieve the delicate balance between effort and ease. Through his daily practice he wishes to become the best authentic version of himself and discover the true essence of yoga and the Self.

In his experience yoga is for everyone and that regardless of your current abilities, yoga will change your life.

He currently enjoys practicing Ashtanga Yoga regularly at Breathe Together yoga studio with Mojdeh Zahiraleslamzadeh, she has a profound influence on his learning...

Sway’s first memory of yoga was with her mother, wearing a spandex leotard, and putting her head behind her legs in uttanasana. Although she grew up in her mother’s yoga studio, Sway did not gravitate to practicing yoga until 2014, when she decided that her focus would be to increase her mobility and allow it to supplement her active lifestyle.

Through her yoga practice, Sway not only achieved her goal of increasing her range of motion, but more importantly, she became a better mother and had more patience while attending to daily activities - dishes, anyone?

Sway completed her 200-hour yoga teacher training in 2017 and is currently enrolled in a 300-hour program with Jennifer Prugh’s School of Joy.

Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.

As a recovering addict and someone who battled with chronic depression; Sway found healing in yoga and indigenous education. The meditative mind and movements of yoga continue to help her to be present; learning from nature’s speech and rituals allowed her to take up membership in the universe and find her belonging. Sway wishes to use her skills and experiences to help others to find a more peaceful and fulfilled life; ​a continuous state of well being.

When Sway is not teaching yoga, she enjoys reading, gardening and backpacking in the wilderness. Sway dedicates her time to cooking and developing recipes for her company, ​Soturi Kitchen​. She strives to not only help her clients move well, but to eat well too so that they can experience a quality life and enjoy the things they love.

Sway is also a NASM certified personal trainer, corrective exercise specialist, and herbalist in training. She is a student of ​Marti Spiegelman’s Shaman’s Light™ Training Program, which focuses on applying indigenous technologies of consciousness in modern business and community building.

C​ome say hi at 9:15am on Tuesday mornings!

Instagram @swaysoturi