Since we believe that yoga takes you inside, wraps you in yourself and then transforms you, our studio's name, Mayu,
derives from the Japanese word for cocoon. Yoga acts as a cocoon in our lives. Among the many benefits of yoga are a
healthy back and posture, strength and flexibility, mental clarity and an increased ability to reduce stress and manage it.
With a consistent yoga practice, you begin the metamorphosis to living a self-healing, empowered life, where you have
the potential to ascend to heights you never thought possible.
Gizella Donald,
Studio Director & Founder
Gizella began her studies and practice in 1990 at the Sivananda Yoga Center in San Francisco. Since then she has practiced
in different classical Yoga traditions as well as the more physical Ashtanga and Iyengar styles. Gizella integrated this wealth of experience
into a process towards true and lasting transformation.
In her classes, she emphasizes correct alignment of the body in yoga postures to minimize the potential for injuries and to maximize optimal energy flow. She teaches an energetic, challenging yet playful class, and excels in modifying poses so that they can be accessible to all levels of students. She inspires her students to extend the practice of yoga by encouraging them to bring the love of yoga into their everyday life.
Yoga Mayu is a family run business founded in December 2008 by Gizella and husband Robert Donald. Yoga Mayu is known for having a genuine and personal approach to yoga. Offering a range of Vinyasa, Hatha and Mellow flow classes designed to evolve your practice. Our vision at Yoga Mayu is to provide you with a fun-loving experience of yoga as a living practice, one that with time can lead to a new way of being.
Laura Arrington
A dancer all her life, Laura believes in the power of movement as a way to link body, mind, breath,and spirit. Laura's asana class is born from her practice. Her classes are often made up of creative sequences with a strong sense of flow. She believes everyone's yoga is unique and tries to encourage her students to work in the way that feels the most uplifting, opening, and freeing for them. She tries to facilitate a space where one feels free and safe to simply enjoy being themselves. She is certified through Laughing Lotus and is endlessly grateful to all of her teachers. http://www.lauraarringtondance.com
Sally Clark
Sally has been teaching since 2005, when she was certified by the Living Yoga Program in Austin, TX. Originally drawn to
yoga for its centering and heart-opening benefits, she came to rely on the practice for relief from chronic migraines and now
savors yoga as a way of living and experiencing the world. Inviting to all levels, her classes are simultaneously calming and
motivating, challenging yet not intimidating, and emphasize alignment, expression, and release. She draws inspiration from her
love of music, giving each class its own flavor and feel while often times striking a chord with her students through the joy of
song and movement. On and off the mat, Sally strives to take each moment with awareness and a sense of humor.
Read Sally's blog here: https://sallyoga.wordpress.com/
Leigh Ferrara
Originally an east coaster, Leigh has been active all her life; from tearing through the woods as a tenacious 10-year-old to playing
college athletics to long-distance running, she has never stopped moving. She first came to yoga hoping it would help her sit still.
It did, indeed, and she's been on the mat ever since. Having practiced yoga for nearly 10 years, she finds that the perfect confluence of
movement and stillness in a vinyasa practice keeps her consistently grounded in this very harried world. Leigh's classes offer fluid and challenging
sequencing designed to open the body, build strength, and, most important, calm the mind. With a strong focus on alignment, core engagement,
and moving with the breath, she helps practitioners work to attain the ultimate benefits from their practice. Leigh received her 200-hour
Yoga Alliance certification here in San Francisco at the Yoga Tree and has also trained with amazing teachers such as Seane Corn and Sarah Powers.
Dave Ford
Dave Ford swam and played tennis competitively in childhood and adolescence. In college he discovered non-competitive running. A decade later he gave that up after suffering a back injury, and replaced it with yoga, which he has practiced since. He is a graduate of the 200-hour Yoga Tree Teacher Training, and counts as his teachers Stephanie Snyder, Les Levanthal, Rusty Wells and Mark Morford. “Vinyasa yoga can burn away those mental and emotional difficulties that block our growth in life,” Dave says, “which then allows us to find the calm at the center of our being.”.
Brenna Geehan
Brenna Geehan began her journey with yoga, tantra, and ayurveda in 1998. In 2002, she met her mentor, Yogarupa Rod Stryker
and has completed his ParaYoga® Level 2 Master Certification with over 700 hours of training. She continues to teach all around the
Midwest and is an assistant to her teacher, Yogarupa Rod Stryker. Over the past 10 years she has had the great fortune of learning from
other teachers as well including David Life, Shiva Rea, Doug Keller, Beryl Bender Birch, Tias Little, Yogiraj Alan Finger, Ana Forrest,
Tim Miller, Gary Kraftsow, Andrey Lappa. Gabriel Halpern, and Judith Lasater.
She believes that we all have the right and capacity to realize a life brimming with joy, meaning and purpose. In her classes,
she offers an asana practice that honors a number of styles including vinyasa flow, tantra, and a soft and fluid approach that
encourages an "inner listening". She helps transform students' bodies to be stronger and more flexible and also aids in removing mental
and emotional obstructions so they may have a more balanced and healthy energy flow. She includes pranayama and meditation practices
that encourage students to find clarity of mind and peaceful dispositions.
Please visit her website: www.brennageehan.com
Sonya Genel
Sonya's journey with yoga first began 8 years ago, when she had come to the mat seeking a solution for chronic back pain
and merely expecting a physical work out. After a few weeks of regular practice she was hooked. Almost immediately she noticed
improvement not only in her physical well-being, but also in her mood, concentration, clarity and efficiency on a daily basis, and she
has been devoted to the path of Yoga ever since. Wanting to share the transformative gift of yoga with others, Sonya received her
200-Hour training and certification from Kripalu in 2007. Today her teaching is uniquely inspired by her Kripalu training as well as
her study of other yoga styles such as Ashtanga and Anusara yoga. Having come to see yoga as a means of transcending one's limited view
of the self, Sonya believes that the practice of yoga transforms us on every level of being.
To learn more about Sonya check out her website www.SonyaYoga.com
Jody Hahn
Jody took her first yoga class in 2001 in Los Angeles, inspired by a friend who had demonstrated a handstand.
She remembers that first class well - the physical challenge and the focus required, mixed with a exciting feeling of clarity.
She did not do a handstand that day but she was hooked on yoga, and two years later graduated from The Center for Yoga Teacher
Training Program in LA. She has been teaching ever since.
Her classes are infused with the philosophy that we are, all of us, engaged in a process at all times which can be illustrated
by finishing any statement with "yet": "I can't do this (yet)"... "I'm not flexible (yet)." If one can be
involved in the process and not focused on the outcome, then both the process and the outcome may be surprising and rewarding.
We are explorers - discovering poses, discovering mental clarity, discovering how we deal with challenges and, maybe,
discovering some spiritual awareness. Oh, yeah - and it helps to keep a sense of humor about all of it.
Katharine Otis
Katharine's yoga class teaches her students to honor themselves in the moment. She has come to find that the Yoga practice is constantly changing, as we all are, and asks her students to experience where they are in the inevitable process of things. Katharine invites her students to use the tools of the Yoga practice: ones relationship to their breath, the ancient body shapes, liberating the voice through chanting, sitting in stillness, and living in a mindful way; as a means to awaken to that which is always constant in their own hearts. Katharine welcomes all levels to her class and looks forward to continuing to share the healing practice that she loves. http://otislotusindia.blogspot.com
Caley Joyner
Caley began dancing at the age of 3 and has been dedicated to the expression of her inner most Self through connection of the body, movement, music and breath her ever since. She was first introduced to Hatha yoga in Oregon by her siblings, which sparked her interest and lead her to take an Iyengar class during her years of study in physical sciences at The University of Oregon. In 2006, Caley moved to San Francisco and joined the Yoga Tree Teacher Training program developing her deep passion to help others connect to the truest expression of themselves by integrating yoga, holistic wellness and nutrition. She went on to complete various other yoga trainings as well as obtained her degree to become a certified holistic health coach through the Institute of Integrative Nutrition in New York. Caley currently volunteers with the Art of Yoga Project integrating yoga and creative art for young women in the juvenile detention center, and teaches both public and private yoga classes. Her dynamic style creates a playful, free flowing and thought provoking Vinyasa class, allowing her students to explore themselves both on and off the mat!
www.CaleyAlyssa.com
CaleyAlyssa@Me.com
Sara Levine
Sara's yoga career started 7 years ago in her home town of Bozeman, Montana. After moving to San Francisco in 2004, her practice deepened with the help of her teachers Elise Lorimer, Janet Stone, Lauren Slater and many others. With over 400 hours of training, Sara's practice is a balance of simple form and fluid movement. Making a connection between her practice on the mat and off, she plays within her yoga to find more openness, a deeper breath and a quieter mind. In her classes you'll move slowly and gracefully into expansion, balance and strength using the 5 elements to root down, rise up, contract and expand. Music, chanting, laughter and breath are constants in her classes and you'll leave with more space in your body, your mind and your heart to offer up to those around you.
www.shantibeanyoga.com and www.bean_yourself.com
Christopher Love
Christopher Love, MA, RYT is a spiritual coach, teacher, yogi and musician who brings over 20 years of experience to his practice and teaching. He has a master's degree in Community Counseling from the University of Cincinnati, and certifications in yoga and bodywork. As a spiritual coach he assists others to embody principles of integrity and consciousness through a practice of meditation, self-inquiry, and compassion. He also works as a trained breath coach, harnessing the power of pranayama to release old energetic patterns in the mind/body through the constant of the breath.
Christopher Love has been practicing and teaching yoga in the bay area for 14 years. His own personal evolution has included immersion in the Ashtanga, Iyengar, Anusara, and Kripalu traditions. The result is a unique, seasoned style that weaves devotion and meditation with strong, sweeping vinyasa ("moving on the breath") to raise awareness toward clear alignment, posture and presence. Classes are All-Levels - students should find this work challenging, yet accessible. As a bhakti yogi Christopher brings a life-long love of music to his singing and chanting. Having nearly been a professional musician at a younger age, he later rediscovered this gift at the heart of yoga. He now shares his music and co-leads regular kirtans throughout San Francisco.
http://www.lovechristopher.com
Lindsay Jean Thomson
The Bhagavad Gita says that "On this path no effort is wasted, no gain is ever reversed; even a little of this practice will shelter you from great sorrow." Lindsay's path began in high school with a yoga class at the local community center and blossomed into a regular practice by the time she moved to Washington, DC in 2005 after graduating from UCSB with a bachelor's degree in English. In DC she studied at Flow Yoga Center, graduating from their vinyasa yoga teacher training in February 2008. She has also studied Thai Yoga Massage with Saul David Raye and pre-natal yoga. She recently returned to the West Coast to pursue teaching full-time and be closer to her family. Lindsay's teaching is guided by the joy she feels sharing yoga with her students and seeing the positive impact it has on their lives. She is honored to be on this path with you, with great thanks to her many teachers! Website: http://shantiloveyoga.com Blog: http://shantiloveyoga.tumblr.com
Megan Windeler
Megan's practice and teaching is rooted in the heartfelt belief that Yoga is simply a good thing. Her practice began by accident nearly twenty years ago during the deep dark freeze of a Chicago winter. After stumbling blindly into an Iyengar Yoga class in hopes of eluding the freeze, it was revealed to her that 'living is much easier if you breathe whilst doing it.' Over a decade and half on she is still trying to figure that one out, but, she practices it every day and has found life easier.
Megan completed the Teacher Training at The Yoga Tree in San Francisco in 2005, has studied pre-natal yoga with Jane Austin and anatomy with Ellen Heed and is inspired greatly and continues to learn from the teachings of Sri Dharma Mitra, Judith Hanson Lasater, Dr. Timothy McCall, and her dear friend Les Leventhal. But the teachers she is most grateful for are her son and her students. Megan's classes are filled with love and humor, sometimes silence and now and again a little Led Zeppelin. Come one, come all, do some yoga, find some ease.
For more information: http://www.megaredfishyoga.com
Christine D'Agostino
Drawing from her background in Tibetan Buddhist meditation as well as her lifelong observations of the natural world, Christine views yoga as nothing less than a complete science of living a more balanced and happy life. Creatively integrating asana, pranayama, kirtan, and meditation, her classes are centered around mindfulness and aim to awaken a deeper connection to the self, the community, and the ebb and flow of the living universe. "Yoga practice is a combination of seated and moving meditation, yoking the mind with the breath and the breath with the body. When that wholeness is experienced, the truth of our interconnectedness with all beings becomes apparent, and healthier, more compassionate relationships are a natural result."
When not on the mat, Christine can usually be found writing, hiking, or staring up at the sky watching for space dust. She has yet to meet anyone who is not her teacher and bows humbly to them all in love and gratitude.
