About Zainab

Zainab Zakari has been teaching flow yoga for over 10 years and has crafted and led workshops, immersions, and teacher trainings.  Her teaching passions include peeling back the layers from the outermost physical to the innermost soulful to reconnect to the heart’s voice within.  As a student of life and a biracial woman, Zainab is committed to creating brave spaces that cultivate truth & social justice for long-lasting, uplifting change for all communities.

Zainab’s flow classes are known for offering multi-layers—from the physical and the mental to the creative and the sacred.  She aims to meet students wherever they are on their journey, and she is not above using humor, movie references, dance, poetry, sports, geometry, physics or practical magic to do it.  Anchored by insights from all her teachers, Zainab encourages her students to build their awareness for alignment in living flow, a deep curiosity when approaching new experiences, and a kind, patient witness to whatever unfolds on and off the mat.  Students will be invited and *sweetly* challenged to breathe, to move, to listen and to trust their inner guide.  They will be invited to (re)connect to their Soul.

Zainab has become a sought-after mentor to new teachers and is a coach for the Soul On Fire YoginiPreneurs Mentorship program created by her mentor, coach and Prana Vinyasa senior teacher Monica Mesa Dasi.  Zainab enjoys sharing what she’s learning along the way in the hope that it helps create more conscious and compassionate connections for all.

Her many guides include Mother Nature and the Breath; her yoga teaching influences were ignited by Shiva Rea, Lisa Bennett Matkin, and Charles Matkin.  In addition to her foundational training, she has an advanced certification in Prana Vinyasa Yoga.  Most recently she has trained with senior teachers at Body & Soul Yoga Collective in San Francisco and has enjoyed adding these teachings to her offerings.

In addition to her teaching, Zainab also has a Master's Degree in Journalism, and she has contributed to DoYouYoga, Fit Yoga, Women’s eNews, & Zink. After growing up in the suburbs, then imbibing city life, she now savors the country in the Finger Lakes region in upstate New York.

You are invited to flow & (re)connect to the Soul.

Zainab merges the influences of her teachers and adds her own flair to tailor fluid and dynamic flows for the audiences and levels in front of her.  Whether leading large or small groups, she especially enjoys integrating these layers into the student experience:

​

• Guiding fluid movement linked with breath

• Cultivating energetic alignment & awareness in movement

• Highlighting the kramas (stages) in asanas to meet all levels

• Intuitive, intelligent & purposeful sequencing: from simple to complex

• Creative, playful & sound transitions

• Modern themes & storytelling

• Weaving in awareness of the elemental, subtle body & the chakras

• Guided meditation & centering

• Linking the experience on the mat to living yoga off the mat

• Creating brave spaces for all together