Tara Stiles is the founder and owner of Strala Yoga, widely known for its unpretentious, inclusive, and straightforward approach to yoga and meditation. Named “Yoga Rebel” by the New York Times, and the “Coolest Yoga Instructor Ever” by Vanity Fair, Stiles has also been featured
and profiled in Vogue, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, Esquire, and Shape. She works with The Alliance for A Healthier Generation,
Bill Clinton’s initiative to combat childhood obesity and promote activity
in schools, and she is the author of Strala Yoga, Make Your Own Rules
Diet, Yoga Cures, and Slim Calm Sexy Yoga. Tara lives in New York
City with her husband and daughter.
In this episode we talk about:
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first being introduced to yoga by her dance teacher
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being intrigued by this guy who appeared to be happy for no reason (the yoga guide)
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feeling it was illegal to pursue happiness as we are taught to just work really hard to do something to bring in steady money in a secure job
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Her plan to live in a nunnery be a lawyer during the day and dance on Broadway at night after being told dancers don’t make enough money
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Getting discovered to be a model and offered to go to Milan but not wanting that path and being practical about modeling so doing commercial work locally for income
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Getting a Coke ad and cashing the check and moving straight to NYC
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being scrappy and finding photographers info and cold calling and following other models into castings she wasn’t up for
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getting an Ad for Crunch Gym and how that brought her back to yoga and finding a yoga community in NYC
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signing up for a teacher training with no intention to be a teacher but just to learn more about yoga
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finding herself always advocating and recommending yoga poses to people on set and making it more accessible and approachable to those who weren’t interested in yoga as they had heard of it
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not wanting to teach but also feeling pulled to connect people to themselves and share yoga in a way that wasn’t being offered so starting to offer classes in the park and tell people about it
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seeing her yoga community being taken advantage of by a “yoga guru” and calling them out on the cult like behavior
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seeing how offering something that makes people feel so good can create big egos in teachers
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being inspired to do things her own way and strip away the yoga shoulds she had seen, offering yoga videos online
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getting a pushback from the yoga world because yoga didn’t belong online or how dare she be trained in this method and teach another way
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how you don’t have to stress and push your body but trust it and how dance taught her to sustain without needing to punish your body
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Her who made the rules shirt and collaborating with Reebock
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How she teaches in her trainings for the people to trust themselves, listen to their body and that teaching isn’t even so much about teaching but as you showing up as you
- Which keychain she chose from my line and why
You can find Tara @tarastiles and at stralayoga.com
LINKS to other things/people/music we mentioned!
PS. If we mentioned something and I forgot to include it here leave a comment and I will track it down for you!
Howard Schatz photographer
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F THE SHOULDS. DO THE WANTS.
Forget what you have been told you should do or should be.
Instead ask yourself, “What do I want?
Learn how to listen to what it is that you truly feel & want so that you are living your most present, aligned, and alive life.
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