New Community Feature - Zahzah Love

Tell us about yourself, Zahzah.

I’m Tirzah Love, a chef, wellness facilitator, pleasure priestess, and mama. After more than a decade feeding bodies as a private chef, I now also nourish souls through yoga, movement, and ritual. I teach Yin Yoga and Sultry Stretch as pathways to embodiment, sensuality, and deep rest. I’m passionate about helping people return to themselves; through breath, stillness, sound, and movement. My work is rooted in softness, soul, and self-liberation.

What do you love the most about practicing yoga?

Yoga is where I come home to my body. It reminds me that I don’t have to earn rest, that pleasure is a birthright, and that stillness can be just as powerful as movement.

What do you love the most about teaching yoga?

I love guiding people into their pleasure, helping them drop out of their heads and into their hips, their breath, their longing. When someone allows themselves to release, to moan, cry, smile, or sigh. I know something sacred has happened. Being trusted to hold space for that is a true honor.

What is your favorite yoga pose?

Supported butterfly, hips open, chest soft, heart wide. It feels like an altar I can rest on.

What is your least favorite yoga pose?

Plank. My wrists have a very vocal opinion about it.

What is your favorite place to visit OR a place you’d like to go someday?

I recently fell in love with Paris, but I deeply long to visit West Africa—Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria—to honor my ancestral lineage and experience the land firsthand.

What is one thing people would be surprised to know about you?

I used to cook for NBA players and Fortune 500 execs, and now I’m a barefoot mama teaching sultry stretch in a candlelit room with Sade playing in the background. I’m also a pole hobbyist, it’s one of my favorite ways to celebrate my body and reclaim joy through movement.

What is your favorite quote, or your favorite piece of advice?

“Your softness is not a weakness. It is your superpower.” I teach this. I live this. I believe in the power of softness, especially for those of us taught to be hard.

What else would you like our community to know about you?

I’m not here to teach you how to be flexible. I’m here to help you feel: pleasure, presence, power. As a pleasure priestess, I believe embodiment is a form of prayer. Whether I’m guiding breath, stretching hips, or sharing a meal, my mission is always the same: to help you come home to your body, your truth, and your joy.

Nest Community Feature - DeShauna Anderson

Tell us a little about yourself, DeShauna.

Hey, hey - I'm DeShauna. A Berkeley native, who enjoys spending time with my family, "day ones" (friends), traveling, riding my bike and being near the ocean. I'm a former Marriage-Family and Forensic Therapist and currently work as a Wellness Educator, Mindfulness Coach and Yoga Instructor. I've been teaching yoga since 2015 and currently partner with a bunch of orgs nationwide to provide wellness and somatic practices. I love learning, so I'm always enrolled in some kind of program because I believe that it's important to always be a student. Oh, my favorite color is purple AND I'm Gemini Sun, Virgo Moon and Capricorn Rising.

What do you love the most about practicing yoga?

What I love about practicing yoga is always discovering something new in my practice. I could do the same sequence 1000x, but there's still something to learn. I love the consistency of what's possible, so I can consider it off of my mat.

What do you love the most about teaching yoga?

What I love about teaching yoga is the extension of others and their journey. I also learn a lot from my students about my own practice. As a yoga teacher, I love providing safety and inclusivity to my students. I recognize that everyone's journey is different and I hope to hold space in a way that honors that.

What is your favorite yoga pose?

Crow Pose

Least favorite yoga pose?

Crow Pose

What's a place you'd like to go someday?

Panama

What is one thing people would be surprised to know about you?

I love learning about neuroplasticity and our brains ability to adapt to change or reorganize. So dope!

What is your favorite quote, or your favorite piece of advice?

"No mud, no lotus" -Thich Nhat Hanh

Nest Community Feature - Ellen McCoy

Tell us a little about yourself, Ellen.

I'm Ellen, a fashion-obsessed, yoga enthusiast.  I have a background in pattern drafting, apparel development, and production.  But these days, you're more likely to find me on my mat than behind my sewing machine.  I received my yoga teacher certification at Nest in 2023.  Working with many of the same teachers, I continue to expand my awareness and understanding of what yoga can offer both on and off the mat. 

What are some other fun facts about you?

When I'm not on the mat, you're likely to find me at the beach or on a hike.  I'm a certified California Naturalist.  My favorite movie is The Big Chill.  I love dad rock.  I have a tortie-point siamese cat named Esme, and she is full of "tortitude."  I traveled often when I was younger but haven't had as many opportunities in recent years.  If I could get on a plane tomorrow, I would want to visit Greece. 

One of the best pieces of advice I've received is, don't worry about filling someone else's shoes; you wear your own big girl shoes when you walk into a room. 

What is your favorite yoga pose?

My favorite yoga pose is Half Moon.  I enjoy how big of a pose it feels with energy expanding in all directions. 

What do you love about teaching yoga?

One of my favorite parts of teaching yoga is watching people chat before and after classes.  I stopped seeing yoga as just a form of exercise years ago when another student asked if a few of us regulars would like to bring a pot-luck breakfast into the gym one morning.  A week later, after class, we set up some tables and enjoyed breakfast together, welcoming anyone who wanted to join us.  We got to know some of the people in the class as well as some of the people around the gym.  While no long-lasting friendships were formed, after that point, we were all able to recognize a friendly face and say hello.  It's one of the main reasons why I note after my morning classes that there is hot water for tea available.  I enjoy seeing the community that is formed around the people who show up to practice yoga.  

Nest Community Feature - Bertha Solorio

We recently had a lot of fun doing a yoga challenge at Nest. We like to think everyone who participated was a winner - including Bertha, who came in second as far as how many yoga classes she attended during the four-week challenge!

Tell us a little about yourself, Bertha.

I’m a salon business owner on Piedmont Ave. I have 2 kids (Naomi 25 and Chris 21), and they are the most important people in my life. I have a lot of cats but am not considered a crazy cat lady and 2 dogs. I love yoga, to dance and to cook.

What is your all time favorite movie, book, song or artist/artwork?

The Devil Wears Prada (the movie)

What do you love the most about practicing yoga?

I love how much stronger mentally and philosophically yoga has made me.

What is your favorite yoga pose?

Child’s pose 😁

What is your least favorite yoga pose?

Half moon on the left side

What is your favorite place to visit?

Hawaii and Mexico - I’ve been and I’d love to go back.

What is one thing people would be surprised to know about you?

Before yoga I didn’t run at all, and now I can run a good mile pace.

What is your favorite quote, or your favorite piece of advice?

If you can do it, I can do it.

What else would you like our community to know?

That yoga will change your life.

Nest Community Feature - Leslie Howard

Tell us about yourself, Leslie.

Been teaching yoga for almost 30 years which makes me sound kind of old! However, as my practice deepens, I see the layers of subtlety. I love helping folks feel better in their body and mind and pointing them to the deeper layers. I have been doing a deep dive into the "death positivity" movement for the last few years and also help folks have a more conscious death.

What is your favorite movie, book, song or artist/artwork?

I hate this question! There are SO many favorites. In the past year some stand out books were: 4000 Weeks by Oliver Burkeman, Why Fish Don't Exist by Lulu Miller, How We Live is How We Die by Pema Chondron. Best movie of late is My Old Ass. Poignant, funny, meaningful. My favorite painter is Agnes Martin. Her paintings are meditation on the canvas.

What do you love the most about practicing yoga?

Discovering there are always more layers to explore

What is something you love about teaching yoga?

Taking folks on a journey.  Planning a theme, a good sequence and a sense of humor, I like the sense that we are all going somewhere in this practice, together.

Favorite Yoga pose?

Handstand

What is your least favorite yoga pose?

Parvritta ArdhaChandrasana but I still like to do it. It is most challenging.

What is your favorite place to visit OR a place you'd like to go someday?

I love being in nature and most favorite in a redwood forest. The silence is deafening.

What is one thing people would be surprised to know about you?

That I get sore! Whenever I mention this in class students say, YOU get sore? As if being a yoga teacher is an inoculation. I remind them when I am asking a lot of them that I too have a teacher.

What is your favorite quote, or your favorite piece of advice?

Be kind.

What else would you like our community to know about you?

That I really believe my many many years of yoga practice have made me a better person in a multitude of ways. Presence, subtle awareness, that those of us that have more have an obligation to give back (just to name a few).