by Tara Stiles | Mar 20, 2018 | Blog, Be, Move
There's a very good question that comes up, often near the beginning of a new way of practice. "What if the old way is so much in me? I really like Vinyasa and astanga. Or Bikram and burpees. It feels good to me. At least most of it does. Maybe some parts not so much, maybe sometimes I'm a little injured or frazzled. Or I have some pain, some difficulty, that isn't going away. But it works for me, I think. And I like this new way, too. So are they both ok? What if they don't agree with each… 
by Tara Stiles | Mar 16, 2018 | Blog
A common question that comes up in our yoga teacher trainings is, is this real yoga? If you take the yoga form, but focus on the whole movement rather than the endpoints, the poses, is it real yoga? I think this definition of real yoga as the yoga form moving badly - without practice of moving well - can't survive so much now. The science doesn't support it. And it doesn't feel right. So I think this idea remains only where people expect yoga to be usually awkward, often illogical, and yet still accomplish something. It doesn't need to make… 
by Tara Stiles | Mar 9, 2018 | Be
The thing about alignment is, it's important. We should always be in agreement with ourselves. Not part of us doing something another part doesn't like. So this is important. It's just not something we can think our way into. And it doesn't come from outside us somewhere, from correcting, manipulating, or pushing. We fall out of harmony, out of alignment, when we don't move well. When we make some bad choices. Sometimes we choose stress and struggle. If something challenges us we might choose force, instead of peace. We might practice aggression, instead of grace, ease. We fall into disconnection, disharmony, this… by Tara Stiles | Feb 22, 2018 | Blog
Hi Friends, The time for reinvention is now. We're here in Berlin, staying in a super modest apartment, cooking most of our meals, taking long walks, doing the yoga, in the moment, in between Strala programs, right here right now. Last night as Mike was washing dishes in our tiny kitchen while I was playing with Daisy a grand game of cup stacking, he said to me, "I'm happy here, in this simple apartment, doing the normal things of life." Sometimes when Mike gets deep out of no where, he has these out-of-body experiences where he sort of freezes and… 
by Tara Stiles | Jan 25, 2018 | Blog, Be
This question comes up sometimes. How do I choose what to do? What to lead, what to share with people? It happens with yoga or tai chi classes, making this decision. It happens with life, deciding what to be, what to do. So in a way, what we lead isn't so much a choice, at the moment we're leading it. Even if we put a great deal of thought into picking what we say, what we present and do. Still, what we lead isn't decided in that moment, or even in our short preparation, leading up to this moment. …