Mary Michelle Chua
Certified Yoga Instructor Since 2010
Registered with Yoga Alliance, RYT-500
Founder of Root 2 Rise Yoga
Registered with Yoga Alliance, RYT-500
Founder of Root 2 Rise Yoga
Drawn to yoga to rehabilitate from a dance injury, Michelle Chua experienced its power to align body and mind with the unconditional love that lies within, eliciting benefits beyond physical healing. During 15 months of volunteer teaching in Ghana, West Africa, and later in Costa Rica, Michelle developed a regular yoga practice and realized that in its various forms, yoga can empower a joyful vibrant life when applied with integrity and consistency. After returning to the USA in 2010, she graduated from YogaWorks' 200-hour yoga teacher training and transitioned from California-credentialed schoolteacher with an Art emphasis and professional dancer to a life path sharing yoga with diverse communities and evolving in her own practice since attending her first yoga class in 2001.
Michelle’s compassionate teaching style nurtures a clear understanding of physical alignment paired with mindful breathing to facilitate focus and meditation among diverse "levels" of yoga students. She invites insight on ways to integrate yogic tools in daily living for inner peace and wellness and provides space for self-inquiry and personalizing asana (physical) practice within group sessions.
Michelle earned her 300-hour yoga teacher training in Yoga Psychology and has trained in various meditation techniques, offering accessible yoga for different bodies and abilities, applying yoga in action, mindful leadership, trauma-informed yoga, skillful asana sequencing, moving meditation, yoga as lifestyle and yoga hikes. Integrating her passion for art, movement, nature and culture, she founded Root 2 Rise Yoga, through which she facilitates Hike + Yoga, Soul (free flow) Movement and wellness retreats locally and abroad. She has facilitated yoga classes weekly throughout Los Angeles, from fitness centers, outdoor spaces immersed in nature, corporate lunch hours, yoga studios and private clients to California State University, Northridge’s Kinesiology Department as adjunct professor and for the University of Southern California's faculty.
Michelle now continues to teach weekly on Zoom, in local studios and in nature in the Los Angeles area. Find her donation-based weekly online classes here or her LA Yoga- in-Nature events here. Since 2010, she has been offering community yoga classes by donation in the spirit of community and accessibility.
Always a lover of dance, she continues to freelance lightly as a professional dancer.
She enjoys her free time traveling and immersing in world cultures, dancing, running or hiking in nature and savoring a meal at her favorite plant-based restaurants.
Connect with Michelle via email here and IG @root2riseyoga or FB here.
Michelle’s compassionate teaching style nurtures a clear understanding of physical alignment paired with mindful breathing to facilitate focus and meditation among diverse "levels" of yoga students. She invites insight on ways to integrate yogic tools in daily living for inner peace and wellness and provides space for self-inquiry and personalizing asana (physical) practice within group sessions.
Michelle earned her 300-hour yoga teacher training in Yoga Psychology and has trained in various meditation techniques, offering accessible yoga for different bodies and abilities, applying yoga in action, mindful leadership, trauma-informed yoga, skillful asana sequencing, moving meditation, yoga as lifestyle and yoga hikes. Integrating her passion for art, movement, nature and culture, she founded Root 2 Rise Yoga, through which she facilitates Hike + Yoga, Soul (free flow) Movement and wellness retreats locally and abroad. She has facilitated yoga classes weekly throughout Los Angeles, from fitness centers, outdoor spaces immersed in nature, corporate lunch hours, yoga studios and private clients to California State University, Northridge’s Kinesiology Department as adjunct professor and for the University of Southern California's faculty.
Michelle now continues to teach weekly on Zoom, in local studios and in nature in the Los Angeles area. Find her donation-based weekly online classes here or her LA Yoga- in-Nature events here. Since 2010, she has been offering community yoga classes by donation in the spirit of community and accessibility.
Always a lover of dance, she continues to freelance lightly as a professional dancer.
She enjoys her free time traveling and immersing in world cultures, dancing, running or hiking in nature and savoring a meal at her favorite plant-based restaurants.
Connect with Michelle via email here and IG @root2riseyoga or FB here.
Running in Nature in Her Native Country--the Philippines, 2019
Volunteer Teaching in Ghana, Africa, 2008
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Volunteer Teaching in Costa Rica, 2009
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Feedback about Michelle's Yoga Offerings...
Michelle has a way of making you feel like you've come home in her classes. Not to a space or a location - but to yourself. Beyond providing a personalized critique of my practice, she continually offers a philosophical structure for personal inquiry and growth.
-Craig Havens (West Covina, CA)
Thank you so much for teaching my students yoga. You had an incredibly positive impact on them as evidenced by their written reflections:
One student wrote, I felt well-instructed, confident in my poses and really empowered afterwards.
Another explained, I was so focused on the movements and felt each of them in my body. In fact, I have never felt so true to my emotions.
Another described, The peppermint oil, soothing sounds of rain, darkness and the sound of my own breathing enveloped me, and in that moment, I felt grateful for the chance to experience something like yoga.
With much gratitude,
Catherine (Campbell Hall High School, Studio City, CA)