Practicing Yoga with Ease
“When yoga is over, it doesn’t need to end — it changes forms. For me, it’s bringing what I’ve learned from my yoga practice today into playing with [my daughter], talking to a friend, and all other aspects of life.”
When I interviewed Tara Stiles, the co-founder of Strala Yoga, on The Healing Catalyst podcast last year, it felt like a conversation between old friends even though we’d just met. Since then, we’ve become friends in truth.
Although I’ve been attending her classes online for the past year, I recently experienced her teaching in person for the first time and her approach captivated me. For the first time, I wondered how her background in dance influenced her yoga practice. I sat down with her again on the podcast to learn more about her unique perspective.
Lessons from a dancer.
Tara knew she wanted to dance from a young age. She pursued ballet with intent and passion through high school and set out on a path to becoming a professional dancer. When I asked what dance meant to her, Tara shared that she felt the most when she was dancing. She was present and alive while dancing in a way that didn’t always feel accessible.
Another piece of her time as a dancer stuck out to me…connecting with other people. Even as a little girl, she loved to bring joy to people and to talk with them after performing. Tara told a sweet story about performing in retirement homes and having conversations with people about their childhoods and watching them brighten.
As she moved further into the world of professional dance, the audience was more distant. In the more elite echelons of the performing arts world, having access to the performers is a rare privilege. It was during this time that Tara was introduced to yoga by one of her dance instructors.
Practicing yoga not performing it.
Like many people, Tara started her yoga practice trying to “do it right.” Eager to be good at this new practice, she tried to be a good student of the postures and the disciplines. Eventually, she opened herself up to her intuition that yoga is for her. And that her fears and obstacles are hers alone.
Tara’s instincts fought against the rigidity I find so common in Western practitioners of yoga. She shared that she found the stiffness of some of her instructors so off-putting that it was almost hilarious. And this is where I really admire Tara for her approach. She really gets that yoga is a practice that helps us discover ourselves and patterns of behavior.
Finding fluidity and ease.
When she began teaching, Tara focused on the process rather than a goal. Instead of trying to get the posture “right,” she worked with students to just move to the best of their ability. At the same time, she was learning about tai chi from her husband Michael Taylor, also a co-founder of Strala Yoga, and incorporating those principles organically.
And even though they weren’t focused on results, people came each week to talk about positive changes in their lives. Tara shared that people would say, “I feel so relaxed. I feel energized. I feel like I can do more with less effort. I'm not trying so hard, but more is happening.”
Movement as medicine.
What struck me the most about this is the fluidity and ease that Tara helped her students feel on their mats in class, which then led to them feeling more fluidity and ease off their mats and in their lives. To me, this is the medicine of yoga and the medicine of movement.
I loved my second interview with Tara Stiles and this blog post is just a taste. I hope you’ll listen to the episode to learn more about:
Her journey as a dancer and how it influences the way she teaches yoga
Why she keeps choosing fluidity over rigidity
The concept of ease and how it’s embedded in her practice
This post is part of a series on movement as medicine. Next week, I’m talking to Dr. Amy Wheeler about yoga therapy and how to use all the tools of yoga for healing.
Be well,
Avanti Kumar-Singh, MD
P.S. If you enjoyed this post, check out my other posts on movement as medicine: