Nature Yoga

Area Served

About Nature Yoga

With locations established in 2004 in both Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood and Oak Park's Arts District, Nature Sanctuary has been a bright light in the yoga community for over a decade. Students will feel right at home with our experienced, welcoming yoga teachers and staff. Please join us for a class or workshop any time and stay for tea or to browse in our storefront boutique. Gopi Om (Nicole Sopko) first discovered yoga by chance and was instantly intrigued. She attended her first teacher training with the sole intention of learning more about the practice, but discovered the teachings of yoga to be so transformational that she couldn't keep them to herself and began teaching in 2005. Shortly after, her practice grew immensely due to the discovery and subsequent influence of her beloved Guru, Sri Dharma Mittra, who gave her the name Gopi. Gopi has completed the advanced level (500 hour & 800 hour) Life of a Yogi Teacher trainings at the Dharma Yoga Center in New York with Sri Dharma. She feels blessed to have received and to carry on his teachings. She strives to live every moment as an offering to the divine and to pass on the teachings of yoga as they have been generously shared with her. She is a vegan of nearly 20 years who knows that veganism was her first yogic practice in embracing compassion for all beings. A believer in the power of yoga as a lifestyle, Gopi feels that a playful yoga practice enables a person to approach the more mundane aspects of life with a lighter heart and a more accepting attitude. Her yogic journey has played a big role in her life and she feels lucky to have the opportunity to share that journey with others. Gopi is the owner/director of Nature Sanctuary in Chicago and Yoga Trek Center in Oak Park, IL. Additionally, she works alongside her life partner, Dan, in the operation of his natural foods company, Upton's Naturals, and vegan cafe, Upton's Breakroom.