Today we’d like to introduce you to Sabrina aka BREE Zellis.
Sabrina, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Southern bell turned beach babe. I am original from Midland/Odessa TX only known for the movie Friday Night Lights. When I was 19, I told my mom I wanted to be a Pilates Instructor. She laughed it off and told me to finish my degree. After ten years of working in Optical as an Optician/General Manager for Luxottica Retail I started doing yoga to deal with the everyday stress for work. I didn’t really care about the physical aspect of it but needed something for a mental release. Little did I know I would be receiving both. I started at a local LA fitness and was pulled aside by my teacher to let me know I needed to join a studio to elevate my practice more. I found a Groupon and started at Uptown Yoga. I fell in love with all of the instructors there and when I started to ponder on taking a Teacher Training, I was told YogaWorks hands down had the best of the best trainings and teachers. I was faced with a dilemma to continue my comfy well paid Optical Job or take a leap of faith and try something new. Well, when the universe aligns it aligns. In a visit to LA, I had the opportunity to not only interview with YogaWorks but was offered a transfer in my company the same day. I met a friend of a friend who was moving out of his Southbay rental, and I was told by apartment in Texas that from being a loyal tenant they wouldn’t charge me a lease fee if I had to move. I BS you not. This all happened in a 24 hour period. The next morning YogaWorks offered me a position at their Southbay Studio. I had a decision to make keep my comfy predictable job OR take a chance. I decided to take that chance. In two weeks I moved out to LA and started my life as a 24/7 yogi. I took the YogaWorks Teacher Training abroad in Fiji about seven months after being with the company. And I was blessed to start teaching at local studios within a month of earning my certification. I now work in The Teacher Training Department of YogaWorks advising our 200/300 hour trainings for LA/OC.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The only constant is change….don’t you hate when people say that! I like to say life is not good or bad but it’s interesting. There have definitely been some “Interesting” moments along the way. When I left Texas, I knew NO ONE in LA except 1 person. Being an extremely social person with a deep connection to my family this was hard for me. I was known for hosting party’s and event planning for my friends. Seeing my family on the weekends and here I had one person to do that with. Not only did I have to progress thru moments of solitude but to add to this major life change I was prescribed a birth control that completely thru off my estrogen levels and caused me to have an anxiety attack. My significant other and I separated during that time, and I felt like my world was spiraling out of control. I was alone.
However, I found strength in my solitude. Suffering is only for a moment and as I accepted that I learned more about myself. Not that surface level stuff that deep shit that makes you reevaluate your whole take on life. I use that to help students off an on the mat to realize everything they need is inside of them. Just root down and rise up.
I am also so thankful for the yoga community because within a short amount of time I was able to find a base of good people. That community that I found I now help create within my students. Yoga stems from the word yoke or union. Sharing my map thru the rabbit hole only helps others.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the DoYogaWithBree story. Tell us more about the business.
DoYogaWithBree is exactly how it sounds doing yoga with yours truly. I don’t mean just asana or physical practice, I mean taking your practice off your mat and into the streets. Yoga is a lifestyle! When you look at my page, it’s not the traditional yoga look. Yes, I am doing an occasional pose or video but its really me just in my everyday environment. In our culture, this praise of asana has become extreme. I want you to see poses that can be accessed in everybody and see my yoga off the mat.
In the classroom, I teach an alignment based flow with banging beats and philosophy sprinkled in so smoothly that it’s like eating a really good donut and then you realize it was vegan and gluten-free! Taste even better right? Part of doing yoga with Bree is #BreeKind. These are friendly mindfulness reminders in my classroom, Instagram and website to help people with the day to day. Yoga is all about love and sharing that with others but I think love can bring about “Interesting” feelings for us all. But you know what is a little easier to practice is kindness. You never know what people are going thru so just BREEkind.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
Here’s that idea of good or bad again! I don’t like to look at things as luck. When things align they align. One of my favorite Ram Dass quotes says. When you let go, you receive. I continue on my day to day path with ideas in mind of what I would like to happen (of course don’t we all) but I have to practice being mindful for where I am at that day and as find this acceptance opportunities will present themselves. Some of these opportunities may be learning lessons and others may be “lucky moments” or I would rather say places where I was aligned. Both help me on my path to know what has worked well, what is a work in progress, and how to enjoy the process.
Contact Info:
- Website: DoYogaWithBree.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: DoYogaWithBree
- Twitter: DoYogaWithBree
Image Credit:
Bali.Kedek
Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
