by Tara Stiles | Apr 16, 2013 | Blog
Question When I was four, I began practicing performance Shotokan Karate. I stopped after 10 years, then started gaining weight. As a teen I began going to the gym, and started another 10 years of pushing and forcing. More recently, I've been a running addict, alongside some pretty "violent" working out and healthy eating. I've noticed everything can be violent and self-attacking, even healthy eating. Now I'm practicing yoga, while trying to eat healthy and recover from pushing against myself. The problem is, I dont see my life without Karate or very hard work. What should I… by Tara Stiles | Apr 8, 2013 | Blog
Question Do I need a guru to advance in yoga? I feel like yoga is my me time. I like that! But when I look around the yoga world, all I see is religious icons and guru photos. Am I missing something? Answer You can bounce from guru to guru, study ancient languages, and read old textbooks. You can also go right to the source: you, discovering you, inventing your own life. Either way, when you're ready, there you'll be, patiently waiting for you. According to Yoga Journal, "The guru-disciple relationship is at the very core of… 
by Tara Stiles | Apr 7, 2013 | Blog
Question I've been trying to get into handstands for years. I keep on jumping up, and keep on falling right back down. I just can't stay up! What's wrong with me? Answer You might believe that when something isn't happening in your yoga, your body is failing you. You might believe that when something isn't happening in your life, you're failing your self. That's one way to look at things. Here's another. It might be that your body is miraculously, wonderfully, capably doing exactly what you need right now. Your body is the perfect expression of your… by Tara Stiles | Apr 2, 2013 | Blog
Question Does Strala focus on spirituality, or is it all physical? Answer All moments are spiritual, so no moment is more spiritual than another. No aspect is more spirit or more body or more anything. We're all single, connected, whole human beings, not disjointed collections of minds, bodies, and spirits. We are what we are, all the time, ours to experience. Feeling into our selves and connecting inward is spiritual. Talking about philosophy and history of yoga, to me, is at best an intellectual pursuit. Talking isn't spiritual. You're spiritual. You're a spirit. When you feel you,… by Tara Stiles | Apr 2, 2013 | Blog
Question I love my yoga, so why does it make me sad? Should it make me happy? Help! Answer It can be useful to get things moving that are trapped and immovable. This goes equally for bodies and minds, and includes our emotions. For some people, practicing yoga can give that first release for an often-surprising rush of feeling. These unlocked feelings might travel alongside specific memories, or they might be more generalized. They may simply feel like sadness. The release can be challenging. But even sadness, as it moves from unconscious to conscious, can feel like a…