“I’ve started a movement to inspire others to understand that what they are searching for, they already have” With Tara Lynn Hubbard, founder of Om the Go
The “movement” is inspiring others to understand that what they are searching for, they already have. We all have bliss, happiness, truth within us, but sometimes we just need to be reminded! This is also known as “waking up”. Waking up to our inner wisdom, waking up to what we already are, waking up to our own divinity.
The way I share this “movement” is not by yelling from the rooftops, but instead by being. This is also what brings me meaning and purpose of being in front of a screen — through what I share on social media, to what I write and share on my blog, to what I film and share on my website — I want others to know they are everything.
Also I will leave you with this Anne Frank quote about starting a movement.
“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”
I had the pleasure of interviewing Tara Lynn Hubbard, founder of Om the Go. After completing the last course of undergrad in May of 2015, Tara took off for a 10-month solo trip around-the-globe. These travels were the birthplace for the inspiration of what she could be doing with her life, versus what she should be doing. Staying in a Sivananda ashram for one month was a pivotal moment in her journey and once she left, realized the importance of having a personal practice — which led to the creation of Om the Go. After completing her yoga teacher training in India, Tara now leads wellness retreats worldwide, operates her business from anywhere, and lives a life constantly striving to make the world a more beautiful place our hearts know is possible.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! What is your backstory?
Ever since I was a young girl, I have been an “athlete”. It wasn’t until I was on my own during my first year of university, that I realized being healthy was going to be a choice, constantly. Starting with diet! I learned, slowly, and it wasn’t until I was living in Miami Beach in my 3rd year of undergrad that I really began to take my health seriously. This is where I learned consistency, which is HUGE when it comes to being healthy. First it began with standard gym workouts, nutritional education, and personal trainers, but then, I found yoga.
I fell in love with yoga, especially as an avid traveler. I was traveling a lot during my last 3 years of college while living in Miami, as I had the fortunate opportunity to be a fashion model. This “job” allowed me to still attend school full-time, and provided a ton of travel experiences. I realized that when I was on the road, it was extremely difficult to stay consistent with my gym workouts but found that yoga was something I could do pretty much anywhere.
In May of 2015, I completed the last course of my undergrad abroad in Spain, but I never went home to walk. Instead, I took off for a solo, 10-month trip around the world. In all honesty, I intentionally didn’t come home to walk for graduation because I knew the fetters lurking — job opportunities, boyfriends, and leases. It was during these travels that my most formative learning took place. It was then that I created the space to learn what I could be doing, versus what I should be doing.
A few months into the trip, I stayed for an entire month at a Sivananda ashram in Vietnam. During this month, I rose every day at 5am for meditation, did 2 yoga practices per day, ate a vegan diet, learned what karma yoga was, and had more time for self-study than ever before. It was after this month and from all I had learned, that I laid out my travel yoga mat for the first time and flowed through a full yoga practice, all on my own. This was the most empowered I have ever felt in my life. It was during this moment that I knew what I wanted to do — share the gift of yoga.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?
Starting my business, I can honestly say I had no idea what I was doing. Looking back, maybe that gave me an advantage because I had no idea how difficult it would be, and had nothing to scare me away!
I launched Om the Go and our first product, the Asana Pillow, all while studying yoga and meditation in India at the end of 2016. I received the final prototype to the yoga ashram where I was studying but not after quite the shipping ordeal! It was sent to a friend in Delhi’s personal address, and then sent to the yoga ashram where I was staying in Rishikesh. I think it even got sent back one time. Somehow, with so much help from my local friends, I finally received the product. I held the final version of the Asana Pillow in my hands and it was such a beautiful moment for me. I was living the life that I had only dreamed about before. Traveling the world, starting my own business, and doing what I LOVE.
Are you working on any new or exciting projects now?
Yes! It’s a great feeling to be excited, and I am thrilled to be working on launching a yoga retreat, on a catamaran sailboat, in the Bahamas, happening February 2019! I feel this is a pinch-me-I-must-be-dreaming moment, combining my affinity for the water, travel, and yoga and being able to share this with others. I’m passionate about providing yoga to everybody, and work very hard to make it as affordable as possible (often in the form of by-donation community yoga classes). I’m offering a week sailing the Bahamian islands, daily yoga and meditation, snorkeling, island excursions, all at under $1700 per person.
Also, I continue to cultivate my love for community yoga and have many things in the works here!
Between work and personal life, the average adult spends nearly 11 hours looking at a screen per day. How does our increasing screen time affect our mental, physical, and emotional health?
I was listening to a podcast recently that interviewed computer scientist, technology writer, and composer Jaron Lanier. He said it so perfectly, “I think the more accurate description of modern times is that we’re starved for reality.”
We’ve all heard the buzzword “mindfulness” lately. I think, our modern lives often permit that we spend a lot of time in front of screens. As long as we stay mindful, aware, and we are experiencing our time behind a screen as the doer and the feeler, I feel it can still be healthy. The time we spend in front of a screen can be a beautiful time, can be a healthy experience, and can make the world a more beautiful place. When it becomes unhealthy, is when we are addicted to being behind the screen. When we compulsively reach to our pocket screens while uncomfortable from a quiet elevator ride, or when we feel an irresistible urge to open our Instagram app just to see how many more likes we’ve received and find ourselves there half an hour later not remembering why we opened the app in the first place! That is mindless behavior and just looking for the mind to be full, not being mindful.
Can you share your top five ways people can improve mental wellness and create a healthy relationship with technology?
Through reflection, control, and creating balance.
- Reflect. Sit for a moment and reflect on how you feel after that habitual Instagram scroll. Do you feed good? Do you feel inspired? Do you feel happy? Do monthly check ups, maybe quarterly, but whatever you do, continue to be intentional about what you’re consuming.
- After you reflect, another method to improve your relationship with the media you are consuming is action — take the steps to improve your situation. I highly recommend filtering the accounts you follow. I am delighted to say that now, when I spend time on my Instagram or Facebook feeds, afterwards I feel happy and fulfilled, inspired by what my beautiful family and friends are all up to! Amazing inspirational messages, news articles with meaning and substance, and positive photos are what floods my newsfeed. Also, I follow accounts like @krispyshorts that will just give me a good laugh 🙂
- Third, control. Ever heard of the Chrome plugin, News Feed Eradicator for Facebook? That’s control. Every time I get on my computer and go to send a message, post a photo, or connect with someone intentionally, I can now do so without getting flooded with distractions. We have all been there — you go to Facebook to send an important message and 30 minutes later you wonder why you’re there in the first place. I just listened to the podcast, Attention Please, by TED Radio Hour, and learned so much about distractions. One outrageous thing being that it takes a person, on average, 23 minutes to focus after a distraction.
- There are tons of tools out there to help you with self-control when it relates to your consumption. Whatever you find yourself suffering with — habitual app scrolling, losing sense of time while in an app, notification distraction, take action and control the temptation with the boundless plugins and tools out there.
- Lastly, balance. Give yourself moments of digital detox. If you want, start small by putting your phone on airplane mode for one hour this weekend. Airplane mode is a great hack because you can still check the time, jot down a note that popped in your head, or snap a photo if you must. During these moments of digital detox, just be with yourself or those around you. Daydream. Observe your surroundings. Tap into the reality that you’re witnessing at this moment. Meditate!
A lot of professionals swear by the method of batching, where you function in a digital detox mode, but set a specific time or multiple times per day where you allow yourself to connect to the world and get what you need done in a more effective and productive manner.
51% of Americans say they primarily use their smartphone for calls. With the number of robocalls increasing, what are ways people can limit interruptions from spam calls?
I keep my phone on silent, always. The only exception is when I have a planned phone call I’m expecting! This is actually a “skill” I picked up from my post-graduation trip. I didn’t have cell phone service the entire time, and would just intermittently connect to wifi when I wanted to. What I learned is that you will always find out the important stuff that’s happening in the world — whether it’s a significant current event, or something happened to a family member or friend. I understand it can be a very different story if you have a responsibility to others whether it be your job, family, etc. A rule that I grew up with was if something was important, leave a voicemail (or follow up text). I knew I could call my father 5x and if I didn’t leave a voicemail, he wouldn’t answer if he was busy because the understanding was if it’s important, I’d leave a voicemail. I feel that my phone is exactly that — my phone. This is not a tool for others to get a hold of me, it’s a tool for me to connect with others, on my time. We have to take control of our lives, and if we blame our phones and our jobs for our constant distractions it will continue to be just that, a distraction.
Limit your interruptions by keeping your phone on silent. If it’s an important call, they will leave a voicemail and you can call or even email back on your own time.
Between social media distractions, messaging apps, and the fact that Americans receive 45.9 push notifications each day, Americans check their phones 80 times per day. How can people, especially younger generations, create a healthier relationship with social media?
Ask yourself, what is your s̶o̶l̶e̶ soul purpose being there?
Again, instead of making it compulsive behavior (e.g. I’m here because my friends are, I feel like I have to be to stay relevant, if I don’t then there will be xyz consequences), identify why you want to be on social media. Again, coming from a place of “what could I be doing?”, versus “what should I be doing?”
What positive impact are you creating with your presence on social media? Maybe you support your peers with feedback, create inspiration for others, make yourself vulnerable to give others permission to do the same, or create funny cat videos to give others a laugh. Identifying your purpose with a “could” mentality versus a “should” mentality will allow you to be more creative and create more meaning in your daily actions.
I remember, in the summer of 2014 I caught myself formulating my inner thoughts in prose with the sole purpose of sharing to Facebook. Yeah, I was thinking in Facebook statuses. That’s when I knew I needed to delete my account. I was compulsively sharing, and felt I had to be on facebook because of work, as a freelance model. That’s in the end, what inspired me to delete my Facebook. I needed to prove to myself I could and would. (I waited two years and made a new account at the end of 2016)
80% of smartphone users check their phones before they brush their teeth in the morning. What effect does starting the day this way have on people? Is there a better morning routine you suggest?
When you check your smartphone first thing, what this does is release your power to the externalities of life. You could wake up one morning, check your phone and receive GREAT news that could propel you into an equally GREAT morning, or, the opposite could happen.
By beginning your morning in a state of awareness and self-reflection, you can then delegate that power back to yourself, which can be one of the most profound practices of your life. Learning to be self-aware enough and create responsibility of your reaction to LIFE. Think: response ability. Your ability to respond is your responsibility. I suggest, keeping your phone on airplane mode overnight that way when you go to check the time in the morning, you’re not automatically flooded with the notifications that accumulated while sleeping.
Can you please give us your favorite life lesson quote?
Listening to a talk by Alan Watts my senior year of college was one of the first “ah-ha” moments that led me to where I am now. The summation of the talk is simply this, “What Do You Desire?” He challenged me to really sit and think about what I want. He challenged me not to select a life path (the should) simply because of a promise of a certain earning power, but instead based off a passion that served my being.
“There is no other reality than present reality, so that, even if one were to live for endless ages, to live for the future would be to miss the point everlastingly.” Alan Watts
If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?
I like to think I have started a “movement”. This is my purpose, inspired from that moment I shared earlier, when I did yoga on my own for the first time.
The “movement” is inspiring others to understand that what they are searching for, they already have. We all have bliss, happiness, truth within us, but sometimes we just need to be reminded! This is also known as “waking up”. Waking up to our inner wisdom, waking up to what we already are, waking up to our own divinity.
The way I share this “movement” is not by yelling from the rooftops, but instead by being. This is also what brings me meaning and purpose of being in front of a screen — through what I share on social media, to what I write and share on my blog, to what I film and share on my website — I want others to know they are everything.
Also I will leave you with this Anne Frank quote about starting a movement.
“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”
What is the best way our readers can follow you on social media?
My favorite is Instagram! My personal account is @ttlynn and you can follow Om the Go at @omthego.
You can follow my writing on the Om the Go blog here, and see what I’m up to on our YouTube channel here. Also, would love a “like” on our Facebook page here.