Don’t Force it, Feel It.
Our February them is a great reminder to trust your self and your process. We’re so proud of our kind and thoughtful community all around the world, taking good care and supporting each other, with the mission of a better way. We take good care of ourselves daily with practice so we can use our gifts for good in the world. An inspirational together project started this year, Strala Reads, our no pressure book club. Everyone is invited. So many folks have already finished the first Strala Read of February, Woodstock Goes to Hollywood by Colin Broderick. There is plenty of time to finish and we are ready for more!
Strala is proud to share about Black History Month to celebrate our black and brown community, friends and inspirational people.
We’d like to offer two more Strala Reads for February. There Will Be No Miracles Here by Casey Gerald and Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History by Vashti Harrison. I heard Casey Gerald speak in person when Mike and I attended the BOF VOICES a few years back. We were there to lead yoga and tai chi for the event. Hearing Casey speak blew us away. Every pause, every word, every shift of his posture and energy reminded us of our highest goal of helping others with Strala, but Casey did this with ease. It’s who he is. Casey’s story is of someone who achieved the American dream and searched for a better way. I started reading his book that night and it drew me in as much as his presence. I believe Casey is one of the most gifted guides of our time, and he leads in the most gentle way, authentic to himself, with harmony and grace. I know you will fall in LOVE with everything about him. Enjoy this beautiful TED talk by Casey titled Embrace Your Raw, Strange, Magic.
Daisy’s NYC pal Kelsi gave her the super special Little Leaders book in the late summer when we were in town for a visit. Kelsi’s Mom and I became pals at the studio and we were pregnant at the same time and were so excited to be able to have playdates together. The girls became close fast and the favorite things exchanges began. Daisy and I read this book most nights before bed, and I learn a beautiful person who “changed the bad rules” and “helped make better ones”. This is a great one for the littles in your life. It’s so inspirational and really shows the potential we all have to use our gifts for good.
Let us know if you are interested in meeting up on a zoom toward the end of the month to catch up and chat about The Caretakers, Woodstock Goes to Hollywood, There Will Be No Miracles Here and Little Leaders. A great place to connect with everyone is on our Community Board at StralaHome.
Please join us for practice and sharing at StralaHome.
Download the February Strala Home Calendar.
Upcoming Training & Events
200+Hour Yoga Teacher Training with Tara, Mike, and Sam Berlind in Miami
May 8, 2023 – May 21, 2023
We’ve been coming to Miami more than a decade now for retreats and Strala Trainings. It’s the perfect warm and relaxed atmosphere to make moving well and feeling better a real part of your life, and what you share with others. Our theme for this 200+Hour Strala Training is Co-Creating. Leadership easily slides down a tough path of doing only for others – which invokes a leaning forward, off-center and out of balance, sacrificing yourself for someone else, for an idea about a greater good. It’s a well-meaning path, but it has an endpoint, often in burnout and injury.
So there’s a real magic you feel right away in the tai chi practice of harmony – that makes it so clear how things don’t get better when one part of us suffers to help another part. Or when one person suffers to help another. There’s a better way. No part of us is ever truly isolated. No one of us ever truly isolated. Even when we are not.
The magic of tai chi, that we can carry into our yoga and our everything, is in finding this truth of harmony – in how we care for ourselves, and in how we connect, create, and care for each other. There’s always a way to help, to lead, to enable, that helps all of who I am, that brings all of who I really am to the table.
Every one us can come together in this practice of harmony, and this shared circle of caring without endpoints. Through yoga, tai chi, and shiatsu, we’ll focus on the tools we need to co-create while practicing, leading, and sharing all the moments we have together. – TS
20+Hour Intensive Yoga Training with Tara and Mike in Berlin, Germany
Sept 23, 2023 – Sept 24, 2023
Berlin has become a wonderful home base for us, thanks to our global community of ease-makers. Joining a 2 day intensive is a comforting mix of new friends looking for more calm, and leaders of all yoga styles and backgrounds, excited for some self care time and a big reset.
We begin each day with an inclusive Energize practice. We spend the day workshopping principles of moving into harmony and balance with our selves, and all that’s here to support us, carrying these ancient foundations of qigong and tai chi into your yoga, and our everything. And we wind the day down with a Gentle practice.
It’s a mini-retreat, a renewing burst to invigorate, replenish, and inspire. You’ll discover a wonderful way to be, just for you, and for leading people together on this same circle of self-enabling care. Everyone is welcome. – TS
200+Hour Yoga Training with Tara, Mike, and Sam Berlind in Berlin, Germany
November 18, 2024 – December 1, 2024
Berlin is the perfect home to soak in your 200+Hour Strala Yoga Teacher Training, together with a wonderfully supportive, caring, and inspiring group.
You’ll learn to move through your yoga, and all that you love doing, in a way that’s powerful, sustainable, and healing. You’ll discover the ancient foundations of qigong, for mobilizing, harmonizing, unweighting, and replenishing in every breath, and every step. And you’ll learn to use these foundations in your yoga, and all your moments, to transform wherever you are into something better.
If you’re a care-giver, a teacher or health practitioner, in your family or across whatever you’re doing, you understand what it means to give until you’re out of energy. There’s a big secret and gift waiting for you in these practices. It’s at the heart of why Strala Guides and practitioners have found a way to stop burnout, and keep going sustainably, for the people they help and love.
There’s something deep in the foundations of tai chi and qigong, that teaches a way to care for you – in every moment, every action, every breath – and in all those same moments, how you can bring the people you support into this same circle of healing and care. It’s literally called turning lines into circles. The lines of giving and giving until you hit an endpoint, depleted – are transformed in these practices. In their place you find a way of being, moving, and giving that keeps going, that lets us all move each other together into a better place, on a shared circle of caring.
Our program is for anyone interested in feeling better, and gaining the tools to help others work toward enjoying a life of wellbeing. You’ll have yoga with Tara, tai chi with Mike, and shiatsu with Sam Berlind. Yes, you’ll learn how to lead a yoga class, in countless variations. But what we’re practicing alongside these tools is a real-life all-the-time self care practice, that cares for and empowers all that you do. This program changes every time, and changes lives every time. – TS