Melissa van Zon Cunningham

Melissa van Zon - Cunningham (b. 1987) is a certified yoga teacher, breath coach, systemic coach and teacher of life-view education (levensbeschouwelijke vorming). She lives and works in Apeldoorn, in the Netherlands, and is a mother of two. She teaches under the name SunnyYoga, with the tagline "Education and practice".

Her interest in spirituality, religion and people goes back to childhood, when she asked her parents for a Bible and loved library books about other countries and cultures. She trained as a teacher of religion and life philosophy and in 2008, at 21, began working in education as a teacher of life-view education. In 2011 she came across a magazine picture of eight morning yoga poses and began practising each morning. The few minutes of yoga and conscious breathing improved her days right away. She went on to take classes at Spirit of Yoga and to study yoga philosophy more deeply.

Melissa completed her first yoga teacher training in 2015 with Peggy Schollaert (Eclectica) and began teaching at Spirit of Yoga in 2016. Her interest in breath and meditation kept growing, and in 2018 she trained as a breath coach. She sees yoga and conscious breathing as complementing each other: the postures create more space to breathe, and the breath builds contact with the body. Her further training includes a 200-hour Hatha yoga teacher training at YogaPoint in Utrecht, yin yoga workshops, Breatheology Fundamentals, a 200-hour online teacher training with Brett Larkin, and systemic work, including systemic work in education.

Today she teaches yoga in several styles to groups, individuals, workshops, companies and schools. She offers breath coaching and speaks for companies and schools. Since 2022 she has worked with H3Lab Onderwijs, travelling to schools across the Netherlands on projects that support young people's mental well-being. She also writes blogs on yoga practice and shares videos on yoga, breath and meditation on her YouTube channel. Her Insight Timer teacher page describes her as known for calm, attention and loving kindness.