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Tara Stiles: Igniting freedom through yoga
Courtesy of Womenâs Health Indonesia American model turned yoga instructor Tara Stiles is nicknamed Yoga Rebel for a reason â she flips the image of traditional yoga around to make the practice more accessible to people of different backgrounds
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Courtesy of Women's Health Indonesia
American model turned yoga instructor Tara Stiles is nicknamed Yoga Rebel for a reason ' she flips the image of traditional yoga around to make the practice more accessible to people of different backgrounds.
She eschews difficult terms for yoga poses. When she leads a class, there are no chants or prolonged talks about chakras or the religious values behind each move.
In her Strala Yoga studio in New York, Stiles leads routines at a moderate pace and allows her participants to listen to their own intuition when forming poses. A little variation in every participant's movement is okay.
'More traditional and modern-traditional classes are, you know, very rigid and point to point, but Strala is much more fluid, easy and soft,' she told The Jakarta Post during her visit to Jakarta.
In her hands, the ancient physical and spiritual discipline is given a modern touch to help people become happy, healthy and beautiful ' even helping some to lose weight.
Her unorthodox approach has garnered a cult following and attracted numerous endorsement deals. Her non-purist take on Yoga has turned her into a celebrity ' and a rebel ' among the yoga community.
Born and raised in Illinois, the US, Stiles learned ballet in Chicago upon graduating from high school. A ballet teacher introduced her to yoga.
She started her modeling career after a photographer spotted her and has appeared in commercials for Pepsi, Verizon and other brands. In 2006, Stiles starred in some short yoga videos on YouTube as part of a promotion for the Ford Modeling Agency.
Realizing that modelling was not her passion, Stiles left Ford a year later to become a full-time yoga instructor.
In 2008, she and her husband, Michael Taylor, founded Strala Yoga, dedicated to helping people feel healthy and happy inside and out through fluid yoga movements.
'The goal of Strala Yoga is to radiate who we are, feel good and connect with ourselves,' she said.
'The physical class is about moving in a way that feels good for you and following how you feel. So, everybody looks a little bit different.'
She personally screens Strala yoga instructors, whom she calls guides. She prefers assessing the candidates' yoga practice before checking on their certifications.
'I want to see how they're doing it ' more than a piece of paper showing how much study they have done. But, I can assume that if they're doing it well; they also have studied it well.'
The studio's walls are all painted white to provide a neutral space for the visitors.
'We don't have Krishna or Buddha [pictures]. Whatever picture you want on the wall is in your mind,' she said.
She also comes up with titles for routines that are simple, appealing and, at times, funny. One is called the Sarah Palin Yoga Routine ' designed to assist with reducing stress and boosting brainpower.
She has launched a yoga apparel line with Reebok and authored three books; Slim Calm Sexy Yoga, Yoga Cures, and the latest one, Make Your Own Rules Diet.
Her latest book was an amalgam of yoga and diet advice. It offers yoga routines that help readers to up their energy levels and curb cravings, as well as simple meditations to soothe the soul.
Someone who loves to cook her own meals, Stiles shared 50 plant-based recipes that can be made in minutes.
'Each meal costs about a dollar which shows people that if you make food at home it can be really simple, not too expensive and make you feel better.'
Making a breakthrough in yoga has presented Stiles with some challenges ' some yoga practitioners resent her for breaking the rules and, some say, disrespecting yoga practice.
But Stiles said other yoga practitioners have thrown support behind Strala Yoga. 'It's interesting. I think the true traditionalists agree with what I'm doing because they're doing it in a similar way.'
What she does is simply make yoga more understandable to bigger audience.
'There are a lot of styles that say 'connect with your heart chakra', and things like 'open your heart', as though you can actually, physically open your heart.'
'So I try talk about things very realistically, in terms of what's happening in your body, to make it normal.'
Her non purism has captured people's attention and helped Strala Yoga to become a global brand. It has some 1,000 instructors who lead classes in partner studios, gyms and clubs in 15 countries.
She regularly shares her yoga routines on her YouTube account, which has generated 24 million views and is subscribed to by 233,870 people, with an even balance of males and females.
Unexpectedly, her videos have helped a number of soldiers cope with their problems.
'I started getting emails from military men, and women too, saying 'Wow, it helps me with my stress and helps me focus; helps me just to get a grip in a way and calm down so I can get through this horrible stressful situation,'' Styles said.
Many celebrities, like author Deepak Chopra and actress Jane Fonda, are among Stiles' students but for her, yoga is not only for the elites.
In her studio in New York, Stiles only charges US$10 for a yoga session.
'I am not at all motivated by money. My intention has always been to help people, whether through my personal actions or my business.'
