by Tara Stiles | Mar 30, 2018 | Blog
Hi Friends, Spring has me feeling like cleaning from the inside out. I've been taking a bit more time to mediate and practice in the mornings before everyone wakes up. (Daisy is sleeping until 7 or sometimes 8 even so this is a gift!) I've been reading, knitting, goofing off, going for walks and dreaming on things. This week my friends Anna Kleb and Anja Schmid, Strala Guides, amazing people, and awesome leaders have been featured for their work creating communities. I'm so proud that Strala has grown way beyond a feel good nature of my class and evolved with… 
by Tara Stiles | Mar 22, 2018 | Be, Blog, Move
What if I want to learn something, I think it's valuable for me, but the practice feels completely wrong? This comes up sometimes. A part of us doing something another part doesn't like. Recently it was in a question from a friend about learning martial arts. I'll share a bit of her question here, it's helpful for learning martial arts if that's your interest. It might also relate to some other choices we make, about how we learn, and what we practice each day. "It felt like we were consciously destroying our bodies, crushing our feet, legs and joints. Seriously,… 
by Tara Stiles | Mar 21, 2018 | Be, Blog, Heal, Move
Strala combines the movement wisdom of tai chi with the forms of yoga, tai chi, qigong, and Traditional Chinese Medicine, as a way to help people release stress, heal, and move more easily through all kinds of challenge. As a result, Strala is used all around the world, in a wide variety of contexts - from bringing ease into everyday life, training for professional athletes, healing of disease, injury and pain, to finding connection, creativity, and inspiration in the work place. It's easy to get started here, and most of what we do is free for everyone. As… 
by Tara Stiles | Mar 21, 2018 | Blog, Heal, Move
For athletes, both yoga and tai chi forms can be useful cross-training, as a way to connect your whole body together and move more efficiently. You develop increased energy for greater levels of challenge, so this kind of training is useful for substantial gains in mobility, agility, and endurance. Practice here can also decrease the likelihood of injury, and support faster healing when injuries do happen. You can even work your way out of chronic injury and pain, where traditional approaches haven't worked so well. Following are some resources to get you started. Background a) Strala program and approach for athletes… 
by Tara Stiles | Mar 20, 2018 | Be, Blog, 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 | Be, Blog, Move
Sometimes this question comes up, 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? We don't hear this as often now, but my guess is it comes up for everyone sometimes. 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,…