Shiva Rea is a mother and avid Ashtanga yoga practitioner who created Gaiam's Prenatal Yoga and Postnatal Yoga DVD programs.

She began studying yoga at the age of 14 as a way to understand her name, given to her by her father. Today, she teaches Vinyasa-based yoga that integrates alignment and intuition, strength and fluidity, meditation and wisdom in action. After studying with some of the world's best teachers who have fertilized her understanding of yoga - including Chuck Miller, Maty Ezraty, Shandor Remete, Richard Freeman, Erich Schiffman, Lisa Walford, Rodney Yee, John Friend, Donna Farhi, Rod Stryker, Patrica Walden, Tim Miller, Anna Forest, Gary Kraftsow and the extraordinary Kirtan of Jai Uttal and Krishna Das - she began teaching at Sacred Movement in Venice, Calif.

Her classes at Sacred Movement help practitioners experience the whole range of energy cultivated in yoga - from the sweaty purification of vinyasa and the multi-dimensional opening of backbends, to the release work of deep twists and hip openers and the stillness of inversions and meditation. She works with world music and chanting in her classes as a means to help people sync with their natural rhythm and feel more at home in their skin.

Shiva currently serves on the faculty of UCLA's World Arts and Cultures Program, where she received her master's in dance movement therapy while studying world dance, cultural anthropology, comparative religions and somatics. She regularly writes for Yoga Journal and leads workshops and adventure retreats worldwide.