Growing up in Sioux City, Iowa, Gary spent his youth enjoying the peace and quiet of the great Midwest.   His first exposure to yoga came in the late 1960’s as a college student.  Since that time, yoga, chi gong, meditation, and spiritual study have helped balance the pressures and demands of  legal and business careers.  Through the years he has been blessed to learn from many of the great yoga teachers of our time including Pattabhi Jois, Chuck Miller, Maty Ezraty, Richard Freeman, Gabriella Giubilaro, and Ramanan Patel.  Moving from New York to Los Angeles in 2002 to study full time with Miller and Ezraty, he received their teaching authorization after serving as their assistant and completing their teacher training.  After Ezraty and Miller sold Yoga Works, retired from daily teaching, and moved to Hawaii, he and his wife Melissa founded Home-Simply Yoga in Santa Monica, CA, a center for personal growth and healing.  Their dream was to create a place which served as both a community center and resource for those seeking to learn the ancient practice of Ashtanga yoga in an environmentally friendly facility.

In addition to teaching yoga and operating Home-Simply Yoga, Gary combines the experience and expertise he acquired as a corporate finance attorney and senior executive of a Fortune 250 New York Stock Exchange listed media and entertainment company, with a life time devoted to personal consciousness development to teach, consult, design and engage individuals and organizations in a range of developmental approaches, theories, and applications for real world impact.  His consulting work includes companies ranging from start up to well established businesses.  He also coaches and mentors individuals to help them gain personal satisfaction and success with the careers and personal lives.

Gary writes and speaks on topics including business and organizational development, aging, the baby boomer generation, yoga, and addiction recovery.




 

Melissa Margolin was just ten years old when she first began practicing yoga with her mother, the world famous model and business women, Wilhelmina.  In fact those yoga practices included in her mother’s book, The New You, became some of the most powerful memories she has of her mother who died just a few years later.


Yoga has helped her through the loss of her mother at a young age, the mental and physical damage left by an abusive alcoholic father, and the stress of life in New York City as well as careers in modeling, social work, and interior design.  Combining the experiences gained from her personal study and practice of yoga, body work in numerous modalities including the Feldenkrais Method and the Alexander Technique, educational background, and work experiences, Melissa conducts a safe and nurturing class where her students feel comfortable being themselves.


Although she studied many types of yoga, Melissa committed  to the traditional practice of Ashtanga yoga in 1998.  She first practiced with Pattabhi Jois in New York City in September, 2001 as the World Trade Towers tragedy unfolded around them.  The love and compassion that Pattabhi gave to the students and the resulting sense of calm and hope at such a dark time led to her decision to put her career as an interior designer specializing in “sustainable design” on hold while training to become a yoga teacher herself.


She moved to California with her husband Gary to practice with Chuck Miller and Maty Ezraty, who encouraged her to enroll in an upcoming teacher training program they were leading together.  After completing the teacher training, she continued to study with them daily, and assist in their Mysore Ashtanga class rooms until their move to Hawaii in 2004.  She teaches Mysore style classes where she can treat students as individuals, making the practice of Ashtanga Yoga safe for people of varied abilities and capabilities.  In addition to Jois, Miller and Ezraty, Melissa credits Gabriella Giubilaro, Richard Freeman and Ramanan Patel with influencing her teaching.  Using her exceptional knowledge of anatomy as well as her “healing hands”, Melissa encourages students to challenge themselves safely while still finding the numerous therapeutic aspects of the practice of yoga.



Photo by Jasper Johal

Photo by Jasper Johal