The Remote Yogi and her Advice for Beginner Yogis
Beginning Yoga 101
Admittedly, I don’t know a lot about yoga which is why I was clinging to Taryn’s words and explanations in this interview as well as why I had asked her the question, what advice do you have for those who want to try yoga but are too intimidated and have no idea where to start? (i.e. me, anyone else with me?)
Taryn’s answer:
“If you go to a (yoga) studio and feel out of place, find a new one, that’s obviously not the right scene. If you go to a studio that you don’t feel comfortable with right away, don’t feel forced to stay to just that one or give up.”
“I’m sure I’ve had students that haven’t clicked with me and I understand that. If you feel intimidated, that’s not what yoga should be. I still walk into studios where I feel like I’m being judged. The point of yoga is to focus on your mat and yourself, not to judge others.”
“Well, the sad thing too is most of those studios where you come in and feel intimidated it’s because those yogis are so insecure about themselves they’ve got to put that on you and that’s not what it should be about. When you feel like that, it’s really no reflection on you.”
Buti-full Empowerment
Taryn also brought up the point that there are so many different types of yoga, which I knew, but had no idea at how vast the yoga categories ranged.
Her favorite style is probably ‘buti yoga’ which uses dance as part of the workout and is also known to be a “female empowerment workout”.
Taryn says, “There are so many kinds of yoga, whether you’re looking to build strength, relax, or teach the body to calm down. The body is always tense, yoga forces us to slow down, in yoga don’t have time to think of something else. If your mind is constantly ping ponging like mine is, yoga helps (because) you don’t have time for that in yoga, you’re focusing on breathing or what positon your body needs to be in.”
Finding Your own Form of Meditation
“Everything around (us) is so stressful with the TV shows we watch, to the environments we’re in, and when we have this constant stress around us it teaches the body to stay tense all the time. (We are) constantly in fight or flight mode. It’s good for the body to learn to relax, forced to slow down and breathe.”
Taryn says her favorite pose is the relaxed cobbler’s pose where she lays on her back, feet together, with knees wide. She says, “As women we carry a lot of tension in our hips, meditating in this pose helps me.”
She explained her thoughts on meditating to me, “Meditation does not need to be sitting on the floor with eyes closed thinking of nothing. It’s any kind of focus, taking a walk, painting, active meditation, not just sitting there and clearing out your brain, that’s not helpful. It also helps to have audio recordings to focus on. I do offer some to my tribe but there’s all different types on Youtube and the internet.”
AHHHH; why Breathing is so Important
Taryn told me how huge deep breathing is in calming the body down. She says that it tells the brain we don’t need to be stressed and reassures us that everything is fine.
She also mentioned that sometimes letting a good verbal exhale is relieving too.
Very animatedly, Taryn showed me something that she does on occasion in her classes where everyone tenses up everything in them, brings their shoulders up, takes a deep breath in, and lets it out with a loud grunt, “AHHHH.”
Community of Yogis
Taryn tells me that beyond the mental and physical benefits in yoga there was another element to it that has been crucial in regards to her health which was, the yoga community.
Taryn tells me that she now recognizes the symptoms of her depression and when she feels it creeping in she knows that she needs a.) yoga and b.) her people.
Taryn shared with me that she had been through a divorce and that it was the yoga community that really helped her get through that time in her life.
She says that on days where she didn’t necessarily even want to get out of bed she knew she needed to for her students who were counting on her. She says she was obligated to be there through that time and that it was the best thing for her.
She says that no matter how she started her day, she always felt better, uplifted, after being with her students.
Creating a new you & Coping Creatively
One (of fifteen) of Taryn’s tattoos is a Phoenix that was actually designed by her sister. Taryn says, “I like being able to remake who I am whenever I want to. Tomorrow I can be a different person, I don’t have to explain that to anyone, I’m allowed to do that.”
She also mentions that your body is different every day and that you should listen to it.
She gave an example with the photo above of how much her forward fold improved and how different the pose turned out in the two photos compared side by side, despite them being taken only about an hour apart.
Taryn mentioned one of the things she loves about yoga is that “It feels like a cool accomplishment when you get something down, when you’re in a pose that used to be really hard for you, you can feel good about it.”
Taryn says:
“Yoga is not just the physical practice but the whole accompaniment…
It’s all about your own journey, whatever creative process that is for you, I preach that in my classes like I’m gonna suggest you do this pose but you do what you feel like is best for you.”
From being medicated for depression from the age of 12 to finding an outlet that has allowed her to soothe naturally and come off that medication, Taryn beautifully displays an example of what it means to be a creative coper.
