Claim Yoga for You. Make Anything Possible.

Yoga has evolved in parallel to the American cereal aisle. So many choices, options, gadgets, prizes, and gizmos: It’s dizzying.

The rise of yoga is good, but sheer supply doesn’t mean all supply is equal. It’s nice to hear stories from the people who come to Strala who love it at our studio, but it’s a bummer to hear of their bad experiences trying yoga and quitting yoga time and time again before finding us.

I’ve been such an advocate of yoga for so many years because I firmly believe that if a critical mass of people practiced awareness of body and mind in an easy way, many of our problems around our health to happiness would dissolve. For this to happen, we must go inside and make our yoga our own.

When yoga is copied it’s not yoga; it’s a copy of a pose, a phrase, or an idea. It is not internalized, and in teaching a copy, it becomes false, feels weird to the students, and develops an ungrounded feeling. For a yoga studio to feel expansive, the practice must be expansive. The teachers must be interested in the students, not interested in themselves. Every interesting person I know is interested in so many things. To be of use we must ground in our selves, meditate, and look outward and see how we can help.

If you have a bad experience in a yoga studio, with a video, or teacher, know that it’s not yoga, it’s just that experience. Yoga is a sustainable force inside of you, for you to discover, heal yourself, expand your life, and make your own. No one can take it from you, and when you harness the power that you have, anything is possible.

There are no spiritual moments; rather, every moment is spiritual. Everything you need is right there inside waiting for you to discover it. 

Deep breaths.

—Tara Stiles, Yoga & Wellness Expert