Tara's yoga journey started with study and meditation. For her, the mind was the natural place to start on this path.
After university, Tara started into the physical practice of yoga. She was looking for a way to be active and wanted something that could be done at home without much investment into equipment or time. She remembered yoga from when she was young, doing lessons from the television on weekend afternoons with Lilias Folan.
Practicing first from a book, a yoga video - Jane Fonda's yoga workout - was finally available. She practiced on her own, at home, with a just a towel on the carpet in the living room - yoga mats were hard to come by in those days. Another video finally came out - Ali McGraw's Yoga -- and the yoga practice began to open up to her. Loving the benefits of this practice - the toning and lengthening of muscles and the sense of calm - a class was starting at the gym. The class was lead by Heather Moore, a recent graduate of Sivananda Yoga's one month intensive teacher training in the Bahamas. With a teacher, Tara found her practice developing much more quickly and going deeper. It was Heather, who first planted the seed that Tara should become a yoga teacher.
Becoming more confident in her personal practice, Tara ventured out into the blossoming Ottawa yoga community. At two of the founding yoga centres in town, Rama Lotus and Santosha, she found refuge from life's pressures. Working full-time, part-time, newly married, and studying 25-30 hours a week to become a professional accountant was a lot to juggle.
Her first teaching opportunity came by way of Georgia Morissette who needed a substitute for her weekly class at Greco Fitness in Barrhaven. Teaching this first class was so nerve-wracking that she didn't remember much of that hour. All she knew was she had to continue sharing the benefits of yoga.
Georgia's son, a yoga teacher and kirtan performer, Wade Imre Morissette, came to Ottawa a few months later and offered a weekend intensive yoga teacher training for a small group of yoga practitioners who were all eager to teach. After that weekend, Tara was so inspired that she signed up for a 200 hour training with Rama Lotus Yoga Centre to get even deeper into the teachings. It couldn't start fast enough.
Teaching since 2000, Tara has shared the yoga practice with hundreds of students in her home town of Ottawa, Canada. You would have enjoyed time with her either at studio classes, workplace classes, workshops, meditation groups or teacher trainings.
Tara continues to be a student of yoga, first and foremost. Daily practices, for mind, body and spirit, are essential.
CERTIFICATIONS:
2012: Yin Yoga Teacher Training (30hrs); Empower Me (Ottawa)
2009: Laughter Yoga Leader Training (20hrs); Sunflower Institute/Sophie Terrasse
2002: Yoga Teacher Training (20hrs); Wade Morrisette (Ottawa)
2002: Sport Yoga Teacher Training (40hrs); Sport Yoga
2002: Certified Chair Massage Practitioner (100hrs); Relax to the Max (Ottawa)
TIMELINE:
2007: Lead first 200 hour yoga teacher training program 2006: Registered as an Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher (200) with Yoga Alliance 2006: Opened yoga studio, Mountaingoat Yoga Inc, Kanata (Ottawa west), Canada 2003: Completed 200 hour training and became a certified, registered yoga teacher 2000: Taught first yoga class.