New York-based Strala Yoga Founder and Reebok Ambassador Tara Stiles goes around the world to help people feel good through yoga. The former model shared her thoughts on yoga, travel and a good life with travel 3Sixty° at the recent Wellness Week at Pangkor Laut Resort.
Photography: Aaron Chung
First encounter
When I was a little kid, I would go to the woods and sit and breathe and feel connected. I didn’t know it was meditation or yoga. I would feel really bright, non-abrasive colours swirling around and I would go and tell my parents and my mom and dad would be, like, “Don’t tell anybody. That’s super weird.”
I danced growing up and in the ballet program I was in in high school, we had a Hatha Yoga teacher. I remember just seeing him sitting like this and smiling and I said, “Yes! That’s it!” And I went over just like a crazy girl and sat next to him. I was like, “This is amazing. I wanna learn more.”
The beginnings of Strala Yoga
I grew up doing all kinds of yoga. The short story was none of my friends were doing yoga and I really wanted to get them to. So I started to think of ways to create something softer, easier-going and had a lot of freedom for following how you feel.
The benefits of yoga
The main benefit is you feel amazing mentally and physically, and really connect to how you feel. You become sensitized to what works for you or doesn’t work for you. You start to retrain your brain and want to eat better. Your relationships get better. You do better at your work. Health-wise, immunity goes way up. I never get sick anymore, which is incredible. Sleep improves. When there are challenges, you can deal with them easier, which is the hugest benefit.
What yoga means today
The yoga lifestyle is so broad. Especially in the modern world, it could mean a variety of things, from living in an ashram to drinking vodka on the weekends and doing yoga on the weekend mornings. I think for me, it’s always been about a process of paying attention, sensitizing my mind and body to each other so I can do good things in my life. So that’s what I’m telling myself to do and what I’m guiding others to do in an easy way.
Spirituality of yoga
I was very careful when I started leading yoga to talk about connecting to yourself and to improve whatever you’re doing with your life and about being a good person, things that all religions agree with: being healthy in your body, healthy in your mind and good in your life.
On yoga celebrities
I started putting videos on YouTube to connect with my friends, not to get famous. I think it really comes down to intention. I think a lot of people have really good intentions with it and are helping a lot of people. I don’t think there’s a need to put anybody down for it. It’s not a get-rich-quick scheme or I’m-a-famous-yoga-teacher scheme. People who have those intentions, [they don’t] really last long anyway.
Eating right
It’s not about burning calories and diet restriction. But if you feel really good about yourself, you’ll be eating things that make you feel better and your body’s going to be great and healthy.
Avoiding burnout
This famous sports medicine doctor came up to me. He was like, “You’re in trouble. When you love what you do, you have this incredible dopamine rush all the time so you feel energetic and excited and you don’t feel the need to relax as much because you’re basically on a drug, the drug of being happy.” He was telling me he works with a lot of high-performance CEOs and athletes. “You’re fine now, but if you keep going like this for five years, something’s gonna happen, you’ll get sick. I don’t want to scare you, but you need to find ways.”
This year, I’ve started to take a real vacation and not feel like I have to make a video. Restoring deeply will help me when I come back and do more of what I love.
Slowing down
I think the secret is to slow down and you actually get more done that way. The less you care, the more you can do. The concept of ease is huge for me. That’s the main basis of what Strala is about. Being easy in your life, not being lazy. Finding that way to do things with less effort, get more done, be more relaxed, not let every little thing stress you out.
Three steps to a good life
Meditation every morning. There are all these cool studies now that show if you spend 20 minutes meditating in the morning, you actually affect the moods of 70,000 people positively. For me, that’s motivation.
Regular yoga practice. Just five minutes, ten minutes, just whatever feels good, nothing too rigid or stressful.
Paying attention to how I feel, with what I eat and also interactions are really important to me, making sure that I’m treating people how I want to be treated and just being happy and respectful to everybody.
She’s secretly Asian
I love Malaysia, Singapore, Tokyo. I love this one street in Tokyo, Takeshita Street in Harajuku. I just love to watch the girls and the guys wear their amazing clothes. I just get ideas and take one thing and mix it with something else. I just like to be inspired there.
I’ve only been to Bali once at the W for an event so it was only just a few days. I’d love to explore Bali. Thailand as well. I was in Thailand years ago as a dancer for a dance job that we did. We were in Bangkok for three nights so I’d like to stay longer and have a look around. Asia’s definitely amazing. It’s a whole world here.
Her airport strategy
I love to do laps around the airport, just walk around, look at people, sometimes even talk to people. Or go to a bookshop to read or buy a book. I try to take advantage of the new surroundings. There was a huge Bruce Lee exhibit at the Hong Kong airport, it was so cool. I read the whole timeline of how he bridges the gap between East and West and his whole life story. I wouldn’t have found that if I hadn’t been walking around the airport.
Travel essentials
I got these face masks that heat up from Tokyo at the drugstore. They’re amazing. When I saw them I got 10 boxes of them, a dollar each. I put them on on the plane. It’s just really soothing and it helps me sleep when I need to sleep.
Curing jetlag
Jetlag is something very easy to cure. As soon as you get into the hotel room, drop the bag and bring your legs up the wall. It brings the blood flow back to your whole body and you feel refreshed. I think it’s important to eat healthy, as much as you can when you’re travelling. And if there’s no healthy option, try not to eat a huge amount of food.
Moving forward
The main focus now is on the instructors and helping instructors feel really good so they can help more people. I have two books that I’m currently writing about Strala Yoga. Anything on this idea of reaching a lot of people with a really good idea and a really good purpose of helping people, sign me up!
