After seven years of hosting nomadic, donation-based yoga classes at places like Kava Collective in Hillcrest, O.B. Garden Café’s rooftop and the beach, reUnify Yoga has finally found its home. Founder and long-time resident Nikki Rae Bose said she couldn’t imagine opening her studio anywhere but OB.
“It’s a small beach town, and I love it that way,” said Bose, standing inside her studio at 2183 Bacon St., surrounded by natural light and green plants hanging from the ceiling. “OB has been my family, and OB has been my community.”
While reUnify yoga will offer traditional yoga classes like yin, hatha, and vinyasa, Bose said she’s also offering memberships that will incorporate the practice of “seva,” which is Sanskrit for service. Seva members will get three additional workshops for a few more dollars a month that will be donated to charities like the Surfrider Foundation, the Sharda Yoga Center (an organization that provides yoga and art therapy to orphanages in Tijuana) and the Thabarwa Meditation Center — which is where this whole thing got started.
Before she was a well-known yogi and surfer in OB, Bose worked full-time as a molecular biologist. When she realized that she wasn’t happy in her career, she quit her job and began a five-month solo travel journey that ended with her volunteering and living at the Thabarwa Meditation Center in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.
“Every person who lives there contributes to the camp,” she said. “When I first stepped into it as a westerner it looked like chaos. But then as I stayed there I realized what a living breathing organism it was because everyone was working together.”
“Yoga means union, and for me, it was the first time I had seen a group of humans actually living out yoga.”
So when she returned to OB from her trip, she quickly started reUnify so she could send money back to the Thabarwa Meditation Center and so she could “create a community that embodies that sense of union” in a place she holds near and dear to her heart. And so far, it seems to be working.
While reUnify’s studio won’t open until April 1, already Bose has seen this union come to life through her friends and family not only helping her get the studio ready but also through their participation in the grand opening party. Held from 12-5 p.m. on March 30, the event will feature live music, sound bowls, and even acrobats.
And though OB seems to be on board with giving — Bose said almost every membership she’s sold so far has been a seva — students aren’t required to donate monetarily. She also plans to host monthly service trips to places like the Sharda Yoga Center, and of course, people are welcome to come and just enjoy the yoga.
