Inspiring Conversations with Tara Myers of Discovering Tara

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tara Myers.

Hi Tara, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was a dancer before I was anything else. I started when I was three years old, and the studio quickly became my second home. The open floors, the mirrors, the music moving through my body before I even understood what embodiment meant. At my dance school there was a teacher that choreographed many of our pieces. Her dances brought audiences to tears again and again. They were not just technically beautiful, they were honest and shined a light through dancing with poetry and music that really spoke. I secretly (because I was a teenager) wanted to be like her.

When I was about sixteen or seventeen, I took one of her yoga classes for the first time. I remember thinking, “Where is the dancing part? Am I really supposed to just hold these poses and breathe?” I hated it. The stillness felt foreign. There was no music to hide inside of, no choreography to perform. I didn’t yet understand that something much deeper was happening beneath the surface.

Around that same time, my first year of high school brought experiences that were deeply traumatic. Dance became how I coped. It was where I could feel my body without explaining myself. Where I could channel emotion into movement and let music hold what felt unbearable. Movement was where I didn’t have to think about what was happening at home with my relationships or at school in a society I felt I didn’t belong. When I left home for the first time and experienced another traumatic event, dance was no longer built into my daily life the way it once had been and I knew I needed something to hold me together.

I found myself back in studios, rolling out a mat quietly, this time willing to stay. Where I once felt resistance, I began to soften. The breathing that had felt pointless became grounding. The stillness that had felt uncomfortable became revealing. Yoga didn’t ask me to perform. It asked me to witness. It brought me back to myself in a way dance never had to. Where dance allowed me to move through emotion, yoga invited me to sit with it. Over time I fell in love. Not with the poses themselves, but with the feeling of integration, of being home no matter where I was.

For eight years I practiced. Through trauma and through peace. Through heartbreak and growth. Through uncertainty and becoming. Yoga was the practice I returned to again and again. In 2020, after nearly a decade of personal practice, I made the decision to go through a 200-hour teacher training. I was adamant that my training be rooted in India. I wanted to understand yoga from its source, not just as a fitness modality but as a philosophy, a lineage, a way of life. It was the year of COVID, so the training was online, but the depth was real. Since then, I have immersed myself in continued study. A 300 hour, trauma informed, 800 hour Chikitsa (yoga therapy) philosophy, anatomy, subtle body, Ayurveda, the koshas, the kleshas, the eight limbs. Yoga stopped being something I did and became something I live.

As I began teaching, I saw clearly how often yoga in the West is reduced to shapes. Flexibility, aesthetics, performance. But I knew from lived experience that yoga is so much more than the asana (poses) practice. Yoga helped me survive. Yoga helped me integrate. Yoga has helped and continues to help me uncover parts of myself that things like trauma, society, expectations of myself buries.

That is how Discovering Tara was born.

In yoga we are working to rediscover the truest part of the self. The word discover means to uncover. Uncover who we are beneath the conditioning, trauma, expectations, inherited labels or even labels that we have given ourselves. Discovering Tara became a space dedicated to that uncovering. The intention is to support, guide, and encourage people to gently uncover or rediscover their own truth, wisdom and wholeness. We are currently living in a world that is so disconnected from life and stuck in draining habits and mindsets that have been taught. To be liberated from bondage, we must first discover where the chains are.

Tara has many different meanings to it. The first meaning of the name has to do directly with my name. I am sharing with you the practices that help me discover my truest self. These practices are guides that offer a space for me to process and heal. In yoga and other spiritual traditions, Tara is known as a guide or a star that helps others when navigating through treacherous terrain guiding back to light. Symbolically this represents your inner wisdom, protection, and the ability to move through fear with presence bringing you back to the light that already exists in you. Tara reflects the inner self as the part of us waiting to be rediscovered.

What began as small classes grew into something deeper. Classes became containers for conversation. Conversation revealed shared wounds. Shared wounds revealed the need for more intentional, structured support. From that realization, the Intensive Programs were created. Multi-week immersive experiences blending movement, philosophy, journaling, art, nervous system education, and community connection. Not just drop-in classes, but intentional journeys for those navigating anxiety, grief, trauma, and life transitions.

As the vision expanded, so did the responsibility. Discovering Tara became a nonprofit because healing should be accessible. Because yoga, when rooted in its true intention, is not a luxury. It is community care. It is social impact. It is prevention. It is empowerment. It is liberation.

Now, this summer, we add another layer: in-person teacher training. The hope is not simply to graduate instructors who can sequence creative flows, but to cultivate teachers who understand that yoga is an eight-limbed practice. That the poses are the doorway, not the destination. That honoring the roots of the practice matters. That trauma-informed awareness matters. That philosophy matters. That service matters. That community matters.

Every traumatic and peaceful event in my life has led me back to this practice. Dance taught me how to move through emotion. Yoga taught me how to be with it. Discovering Tara grew from that lived experience. From the understanding that healing is layered, embodied, and collective. It is a space for remembering that yoga is so much more than what we see on the outside. It is a return. A reclamation. A coming home.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Discovering Tara has been built with so much support. With people listening and believing in the mission, showing up for classes, offering encouragement, and stepping in to help in ways big and small. It truly feels like this work is aligned with my dharma. A calling to create a space where we can be educated about the yoga practice. Where yoga is more than movement, where healing, education, and community come together. The path hasn’t been effortless. Teaching nearly 24 hours of in-person classes each week not including workshops, private sessions, celebrations, intensives. Leading early mornings, kids programs, and training. All while maintaining my own practice and furthering my education in the practice and working behind the scenes can be a full and demanding schedule. Like many small nonprofits in their early stages, we are balancing growth with sustainability, stretching time and resources carefully to keep the mission moving forward.
But what’s most important is what’s coming next.
Because of a generous donation we received in December, we were able to expand into a larger studio space. That expansion represents more than square footage and represents opportunity. Opportunity to serve more people. Opportunity to host our intensive healing programs. Opportunity to train teachers who understand that yoga is more than asana and who honor the roots of the practice. To continue this growth in a sustainable way, Discovering Tara needs financial support and strategic partnership. Donations directly fund accessible programming, scholarships, and community offerings. We are also actively seeking someone with experience in grant writing who believes in this mission and wants to help us secure the funding necessary to expand our impact.

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Discovering Tara?
Discovering Tara is more than a yoga studio, it is a growing nonprofit movement rooted in the belief that yoga is a lifelong path of discovery, healing, and education. Based in Columbus, we exist to educate communities and partner with advocacy programs to make wellness practices accessible and meaningful. Through yoga theory, mindful movement, meditation, breathwork, and holistic lifestyle education, we equip individuals with practical tools to strengthen both physical and mental wellbeing. Tools that extend far beyond the mat and into everyday life.
We have for our trauma-informed, multi-week Yoga Intensive programs and personalized private sessions. In our multi-week intensives, participants don’t just attend a class, they engage in a process that shows how these wellness practices can actually help you. We weave together philosophy, nervous system education, journaling, reflection, and embodied practice to help people build sustainable, independent habits that support long-term health and resilience. Every offering is designed to honor the roots of yoga while translating its wisdom into a modern, accessible context.
What sets Discovering Tara apart is our commitment to depth over trend. In a culture that often reduces yoga to fitness, we emphasize education, empowerment, and community care. We are equally passionate about the future of the profession itself and are striving to create opportunities where yoga teachers can build meaningful, sustainable careers, not just teach a class once or twice a week, but truly make this their life’s work within a supportive, purpose-driven model.
Brand-wise, we are proud of cultivating a space that feels like both sanctuary and classroom, a place where individuals come to uncover their own truth, strengthen their inner foundation, and carry that steadiness back into their families, workplaces, and communities. Discovering Tara is not simply about practicing yoga; it is about building a culture of sustainable wellbeing from the inside out.

What are your plans for the future?
Yoga teacher training, intensive programs, new larger studio space moving in on March 15th, grants to be able to hire yoga teachers as their full time career.

Pricing:

• $12 Drop In Classes
• $50 Monthly Membership

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.discoveringtara.com
• Instagram: Discovering_tara
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/discoveringtara
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@discoveringtara?si=DoOu7S2tpn7-RqFa