The Pure Potentiality of What You Are.
Photo credit: TaraJudelle.com
Tara Judelle found Yoga in 1996 when she saw a girl in her drama school practicing in a rehearsal hall, and asked her if she had a book that she could borrow.
After that, Tara started practicing basic sun salutation in her room alone for a year.
When she moved to Los Angeles in 1997, she took a class at Crunch Gym, quit the gym on the same day, and signed up at the Yoga center the teacher taught at (what would become City Yoga — Los Angeles’ first Anusara studio) in West Hollywood.
Since then, she herself has become a teacher, and a famous one — traveling the world and teaching on YogaGlo.
Her first week of teacher training back in 2001 was on 9/11, which made her realize her purpose of serving people towards realizing their greatest self.
KP: What is Yoga to you?
TJ: What is not Yoga to me? To me, Yoga is life. To yoke yourself to spirit is to live in this constant I-i state. You and the so-called outer consciousness are the same. The practice is creating the facility for that in your body and mind.
It is learning how to excavate the pure potentiality of what you are and to apply it into this Earth School.
Photo credit: TaraJudelle.com
KP: What Yoga styles do you prefer?
TJ: I was certified in the method of Anusara Yoga in 2006, and have been teaching in that style since 2001. However, since 2009, I have been studying Body Mind Centering approach created by Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, and infusing the Hatha practice with more subtle body embodiment practices.
KP: Why have you chosen to work with Yoga for a living?
TJ: Yoga never feels like work. When I was going through teacher training, mostly as a means to get back to myself after a rugged career as a writer/director, the first week of my training was the week of 9/11.
The whole landscape of the world changed in my mind, and I realized that the only thing I wanted to do for the days I have is serve people towards realizing their greatest self. I have never worked in any other capacity since then. From the first job teaching, I never stopped.
KP: Why do more and more Western people get into Yoga asanas?
TJ: Western culture at the moment is physical, mostly external, and most people have an awareness that their health is connected to movement. I met Yoga from the level of asana. I call it the great bait and switch. It’s easier to get most people to agree to attend a Yoga class than, say, a meditation class.
That is because what is gross, tactile, undeniably real is easier to participate in than what is more abstract and less tangible.
Photo credit: TaraJudelle.com
KP: What is the biggest challenge for modern Yoga?
TJ: Currently, I think the biggest challenge for modern Yoga is to remember what it is really about. To survive the business, the Instagrams, the hashtags, the brands, the branded sequences, the over-saturation of too much stimuli in order to get to the amazing heart of it.
KP: How is your own practice in an ordinary week?
TJ: In ordinary weeks, I practice asana, meditation and Pranayama at least five times a week.
KP: What is your vision/mission and how does Yoga embrace it?
TJ: My mission is to facilitate awakening in myself and others. This is a constant process which never seems to end. Yoga is the practice that is the conversation about how to hold ever more presence and love and power in an individual and collective body.
It is the process of transmutation and it is the roots of what is has always been about.
KP: What would be your best tip to people who want to integrate Yoga into their lives?
TJ: There is nothing that is not Yoga. Start simple, achievable. Listen to what your body/mind asks for. Find the teachers that you respond to. There is no right way. There is no better way.
*****
For over 27 years, Tara Judelle has experimented with all forms of movement flow, from dance to Tai Chi, to movement improvisation and ultimately Yoga. An English degree from Barnard College, post-graduate studies in theatre directing and a foray into film-writing and directing brought her finally to the study of Yoga and meditation. Certified in the Anusara method, Tara has taught Yoga extensively, both nationally and internationally, for 12 years. She has been inspired by the Body Mind Centering works of Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, and has studied and taught with Carlos Pomeda and Sally Kempton. For the last four years, she has been a featured teacher as part of the YogaGlo team, allowing the Yoga conversation to stream around the globe. In 2010, Tara moved from her home base in Los Angeles to direct a Yoga program and retreat center in Bali, Indonesia, leading to her current schedule, teaching workshops, retreats and teacher trainings worldwide, which can be viewed at tarajudelle.com. Tara’s classes focus on the discovery of embodied anatomy, bringing to the yogic tradition a scientific yet playful study of the movement vocabulary of the body and the ever-expanding perceptual awareness of the human mind.
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