Melina has been exploring the art and science
of yoga and nutrition for over 16 years. She combines her
knowledge of Hatha Yoga, Ayurveda, whole foods nutrition,
and healthy lifestyle promotion into a unique style called
Seasonal Vinyasa.
Melina has been teaching yoga full time at 8 Limbs Yoga Centers
(Seattle, Washington) since 1997 and is the Co-Director of
the 8 Limbs Teachers’ Training Program. In addition
to leading group classes, workshops, and private sessions,
Melina facilitates year-round yoga retreats in extraordinary
sanctuaries around the world. Her continual growth as a teacher
and practitioner has been influenced by studying with numerous
instructors, including Dr.
Robert Svoboda, Scott
Blossom, Sarah
Powers, Jin
Sung, Gary
Kraftsow, and Kathleen Hunt. Retreats and sabbaticals
are also vital to Melina’s personal practice and bring
her deeper reflection and inspiration.
Seasonal Vinyasa is Melina’s original offering to the
yoga community. Each yoga class,
workshop, or retreat
with Melina emphasizes the importance of sequencing and being
in alignment with nature. In addition to asana practice, they
include insights on physical health and nutrition as well
as how to inspire self-knowledge that allows for the conscious
adjustment of day-to-day choices. Her devotion to yoga and
eating well, to teaching and nutritional counseling, and to
traveling and experiencing different cultures combine to create
a colorful and hopefully enlightening perspective from which
to share that which she loves about yoga in its entirety.
Melina is the author of the Art
of Sequencing book. She has also created the Yoga for
the Seasons video series, which premiered in September 2009
with the release of the Fall Vinyasa
DVD. Both the book and the videos are practical, affordable,
and enjoyable wellness tools that can help practitioners connect
to physical health on an ongoing basis.
Melina holds a bachelor’s degree in Nutrition from Bastyr
University, where she deepened her interest in the world of
whole foods nutrition. While attending Bastyr, she found what
her body, mind, and spirit had been waiting for—yoga.
From her very first class in 1993, she have never stopped
exploring the physical, mental, and spiritual practices passed
down from the ancient sages. Yoga has been the “launching
pad”—as one of her teachers Gary Kraftsow describes
it—that has rocketed her into a life journey of cultivating
the disciplines necessary to gain insight and wisdom necessary
to be healthy, compassionate, and radiant, and then how to
share those gifts with others.
