Scene 1:
On a knoll with expansive views of West Los Angeles, Tara Guber has created the ultimate spiritual yoga sanctuary, The Yoga House. Here, she offers private evenings and intimate workshops where leading teachers in spirituality, healing, and higher consciousness share their wisdom and insight with those walking a spiritual path.



Scene 2:
In the middle of the inner city of South Central Los Angeles lies Tara’s dharma, passion, and inspiration: The Accelerated School. Built on the site of a former garment manufacturing plant, it has become an innovative model charter public school that incorporates yoga and meditation into the curriculum, a project empowered by Tara’s love and commitment to children. “I feel so blessed to be able to bring meditation skills to kids in the inner city,” she says. “The results have been impressive.”

“I’m grateful to the board because they listened to my dream of giving children back to themselves . . . helping them get in touch with their inner mentor. We spend so much money trying to help our children from the outside, but I believe there is an inner mentor and when we get in touch with it, it helps us discipline ourselves.” Tara calls it taking a “time in” instead of a “time out.” Time in means stopping and going inside and taking a moment. Asking, what can I do? And, who can I be, in this moment? “You don’t have to know anybody, go anywhere, or buy anything,” says Tara. “You only have to stop and be. It’s the easiest thing in the world. Everyone has the ability to do this.”



Teachers and children have found that when the classroom gets silent, the energy changes; the childrens’ school work and their relationships with teachers, peers, and parents improve. The yoga helps the kids to concentrate, and, says Tara, “When children are centered and focused they do better on tests and presentations. And not only are the kids enjoying the yoga, but the teachers and parents want to learn now, too!”

Yoga is incorporated into the curriculum through the physical education classes. Approximately half of the class time is physical exercise and half is yoga. Tara explains, “The class comes together in a circle. Often the children create their own postures and share their favorite postures with the class. The instructor asks the children what they would like to accomplish for the day. Then they close their eyes and we teach them how to create clear intentions for themselves. It is so empowering for the kids.”

Tara, with the support of her friends, is also providing a Yoga House on the campus for the students and for the community—a house of Spirit, as she calls it, that provides meditation, yoga, therapy, and a mind–body wellness library. “Once Spirit resides in a space, the energy is transformed,” she says. The children will use the Yoga House during the day and it will be available to the community after school lets out.

Tara has been practicing yoga for twenty-four years. Her dream was to create a model school with yoga and meditation in the curriculum.

“I think my dream came from my years growing up in Brooklyn and from being a school teacher in the ghetto. I saw so much inequality, which made me feel that everyone should have more. My empathy created a huge desire in me to give these children back something. I discovered that through yoga I could get kids from feeling stressed-out to being present and centered. Yoga showed these kids that they had the power to truly embrace who they are. Knowing the impact and power of yoga and meditation I wanted to put it into the schools. This is my dharma.”

Scene 3:
Twilight in an enchanted garden imbued with a spiritual and vibrant energy. Tara and the Living Arts catalog, a Gaiam company, are hosting “An Evening of Song and Spirit,” a benefit for Gaiam Yoga For Life. The Gaiam Yoga For Life program provides yoga curriculum materials and support to inner city public schools across the nation. This evening, popular recording artist Seal (a close friend of Tara’s) and kirtan singer Krishna Das are sharing their musical talents, along with children from the Accelerated School. Whole Foods (who also provides snacks for the yoga classes at the school) is catering the buffet. Well-known yoga enthusiasts Deepak Chopra, don Miguel Ruiz, Madonna, Sting, Christy Turlington, Mariel Hemingway, and Goldie Hawn are just a few of the celebrities lending their support.

Scene 4:
South Central is changing. The neighborhood is becoming more positive and empowered. In the middle of the inner city, where uprisings took place on Martin Luther King Boulevard and Main Street, now stands a beacon of inspiration for children: The Accelerated School.



How to Discover Your True Purpose
Tara believes that in order to discover your passion and purpose, you need to have a clear intention. To find this, you must ask yourself such questions as: “What am I here for? What are my passions? What do I enjoy doing? What makes me feel fulfilled? What gives me the most joy?” Meditation can help you eliminate thoughts, ideas, and beliefs that no longer serve you. Meditation can give you clarity and help you sift through the stuff of the day. If you give yourself enough time, eventually the mind stops chattering. You will find what gives you happiness and passion. You can read all the books you want about personal freedom and discovering your dharma, but you’ll only find those things inside yourself.

“Many people that have achieved success and abundance want to give back and share themselves,” says Tara. “The greatest gift that I can give is yoga. It’s my dharma. That’s what the Yoga House does, it gives the gift of yoga and transformation. Yoga is not an exercise, it is a way of life. It is breath, it is prana, it is the life-force.”