Nathan Mills was born to parents who were devotees of a kriya yoga practice and who also taught and practiced other modalities of meditation and movement. He was introduced to the practice of Yoga Asana at the age of 12 while working at the Feathered Pipe Ranch, a retreat center for the yogic and healing arts in the beautiful mountains of Helena, Montana. At the same age, Nathan began his study of the martial arts under the patient instruction of his Shihan. Born handicapped with a leg discrepancy of over 3 inches, Nathan approached these demanding physical practices humbly, patiently.
With the encouragement of his parents and teachers, Nathan meticulously found ways to modify the shapes and forms of these practices to suit his body. After much adversity, surgeries, and battles with emotional health, he quickly began to see the valuable benefits of these art forms and the amazing positive changes these practices were evoking physically, mentally, and emotionally. These practices also gave him the tools to help navigate and heal from debilitating anxiety and depression that formed when Nathan was 19.
After high school, Nathan periodically lived up at the Expanding Light Center in Northern California where he was re-inspired by the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda. In addition to his study of yoga and martial arts, Nathan also took an interest in dance. At the age of 21, he began teaching in his home town of Helena, MT.
At the age of 23, Nathan moved to Los Angeles to study film where he also continued to deepen his yogic and martial studies. During these years he helped build Budokon® Universities school of “Yogic, Martial, and Living Arts” and became one of the first teachers ever certified to teach public Budokon classes. Nathan stayed in Los Angeles for 6 years working as a yoga teacher, nutritional counselor, life coach, while still pursuing an acting career.
During that time, he taught in some of the most prestigious studios in the LA including Golden Bridge, Santa Monica Power Yoga, Yoga Works, Exhale Spa, and Equinox. He then began traveling to teach workshops and during that time was introduced to his wife Heather in Oregon and went back to school to study massage and body work.
Nathan currently resides in MT Hood, OR with his wife. He works in numerous studios and offices around Portland offering body work, yoga, & meditation, working privately with clients as a nutritional counselor and yoga therapist, and offering workshops at studios, universities, and corporations.
Nathan continues to explore, evolve, and deepen his personal practice while teaching these life changing art forms to others. Always in study, never finished with his education, Nathan is continuously working toward additional certifications in yoga, martial arts, meditation, nutrition, and body work. He periodically travels away from Portland to teach workshops around the US, and abroad.
Nathan still loves to dance, write fiction, work on his home and performs in the occasional film, play, or television show.
