Today we’d like to introduce you to Tiara Vail.
Hi Tiara, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
It’s an interesting concept sharing my story in the middle of my life, when my story is still evolving, but I’ll give it my best shot. 💗
Hi! I’m Tiara Vail, or you can call me T ☺️— I am a business owner, Yoga Teacher, mother of two, and married to my husband + business partner. Together we run Vail Aquatics, a swim school my husband started in 2013 that now serves families throughout Davis and Weber County.
We specialize in private, safety-first swim lessons for children as young as six months through the teen years. Our priority is water survival — teaching little ones how to roll onto their back, float to safety, reach a wall, or call for help if they ever fall into water. Once those lifesaving skills are solid, we build strong swim technique, confidence, and even dives. Session after session, we’re reminded just how capable and incredible kids are.
Our business continued to grow year after year, so Tanner trained me to teach alongside him. Building a business together while raising two babies of our own definitely stretched our marriage, but we kept showing up — and grew both our family and our dream in the process.
Through all the highs and lows of entrepreneurship and motherhood, yoga and movement have been my main source of therapy. Movement has always helped me process emotions when words fall short. It has been my anchor time and time again.
When our firstborn was about 18 months old, I felt called to become a student again and enrolled in yoga teacher training. At the time, I was coaching small fitness groups, but I could feel my path shifting. After completing my training, I started teaching at a gym right away — nerves and all. That was nearly seven years ago. The connections I’ve built and the transformations I’ve witnessed have been nothing short of incredible.
About a year into teaching, I felt a strong pull to create deeper, longer experiences where people could truly connect and heal. That’s when I began hosting retreats centered around storytelling, music, movement, nature, and nourishing food.
Each retreat is unique. Shaped by the people who attend, the season, the location, and the facilitators I intentionally choose to help hold the space. These gatherings embody everything I stand for: authentic connection, being seen in both the messy and the meaningful moments, movement as medicine, nature-based experiences, somatic breathwork, and returning to the heart of why we do what we do.
Speaking of which, thank you for giving me this opportunity to reflect and remember why I keep showing up especially on the days when my inner critic or doubt becomes too loud.
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?
Getting to this point in my life has been quite the journey. 😜 I’ll give you some background to help you understand why I am so passionate about this work.
I grew up in a small Idaho town with loving parents, four siblings, and a childhood filled with swimming, dance, cheer, and church. From the outside, my life looked wholesome and full — but internally, I was already questioning who I was and what life could be beyond my tiny hometown.
Dance became my first form of expression, but it also exposed me to early shame around my body. By my early teens, I was battling an eating disorder that gave me a false sense of control during a time I felt academically behind and emotionally lost. As I searched for belonging, I fell into unhealthy relationships, substance use, and situations that put me at risk, including experiences of sexual abuse. In a small religious community where rumors began to spread, I carried deep shame and eventually stopped caring about myself altogether.
At 17, I moved away to cheer at a University and for a fresh start, but instead of healing, I dove deeper into partying, toxic cycles, and numbing behaviors. When I lost my scholarships and faced financial panic, desperation led me into dancing at a club — something I never imagined for myself. What started as a short-term plan turned into over a year of living a double life, fueled by addiction and disconnection. Even in that darkness, quiet moments in nature would whisper to me that a different life was possible — I just didn’t yet know how to reach it.
Everything shifted the night my grandmother passed away. In my grief, I had a moment of clarity that felt like a crossroads: continue self-destructing or choose to truly live. I chose to change.
I poured my pain into training for a bodybuilding competition, which became my first healthy outlet for the emotions stored in my body. That chapter sparked my love for fitness, personal development, and helping others feel strong. Over time, I became a health coach, moved to Utah, enrolled in esthetics school at Aveda, and reconnected with yoga — a practice that had planted a seed in me years earlier. Yoga became an anchor, helping me heal physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
During this season of rebuilding, I met my now-husband, Tanner. His steady kindness and willingness to hold space for my past helped me learn to love myself and build a relationship rooted in honesty and growth. Together, we’ve created a life centered on purpose — raising our two children, teaching water safety and resilience through our swim school, and supporting emotional healing through yoga and breathwork.
Entrepreneurship hasn’t been easy. We’ve taken big risks, including a recent business setback that created a bump in the road. But each challenge has strengthened our skills, clarified our values, and brought us back to the heart of why we began: to serve families and help people feel safe, empowered, and connected.
My story is ultimately one of rewriting. From eating disorders, addiction, and shame… to healing, purpose, and service. I’ve learned that no matter how lost you feel, your story is never over. You can begin again. You can choose differently. And sometimes the smallest daily choices — to breathe, to move, to try again — are the ones that change everything.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Throughout the week, you can find me in the pool alongside my husband teaching private, survival-based swim lessons through our company, Vail Aquatics. We work one-on-one with children, focusing first on lifesaving water skills and then building strong, confident swimmers. (You can find us on Instagram at @Vail_Aquatics or at vailaquatics.com.)
As much as I love the work we do in the water, I’m currently in a season of gradually shifting more of my time into studio spaces and creating an online course. I teach a vinyasa-based yoga class at Studio Nine in West Haven every Sunday at noon and offer private yoga and somatic breathwork sessions upon request.
What sets my work apart is that everything I guide comes from lived experience. I don’t teach tools I haven’t personally leaned on, practiced, and been transformed by myself. My classes and sessions are rooted in embodiment, emotional awareness, and creating space for people to build trust with their own inner voice.
My style of teaching yoga is different from many traditional formats. I begin each class with meditation to help students quiet the mental noise and arrive fully in their bodies. After building some gentle heat through sun salutations, I gradually step back from constant instruction and invite students to move at their own pace. In a world where we’re constantly told what to do and how to do it, this approach can feel uncomfortable at first — but it fosters self-trust, creativity, and authentic expression. My goal is for students to leave not just with a good sweat and stretch, but with the confidence to turn on music at home, move through emotions, and use movement as a tool for regulation and release.
I guide somatic breathwork in a similarly intuitive and supportive way. The first half of a session uses a connected, circular breathing pattern through the mouth to gently activate the nervous system and bring suppressed emotions to the surface for processing. My role is not to “fix” anyone, but to create a safe, grounded container where people feel seen, supported, and empowered to move at their own pace. Being witnessed in our most honest moments is often where true healing begins.
The second half of the journey focuses on integration and regulation — allowing the nervous system to settle with music, affirmations, and grounding support so clients leave feeling lighter, clearer, and more connected to themselves.
This work has transformed my own life. Breathwork and embodied movement helped me move through deep emotional patterns, build self-trust, and step into my voice with more confidence and clarity than ever before. That’s why I’m so passionate about sharing these tools — because everyone carries stress, and most people were never taught how to safely feel and process their emotions.
No matter where you are on your journey, I hope to support you in one way or another.
You can connect with me on Instagram at @adailycupoft for my latest offerings, or reach out at rootandrestoreretreats@gmail.com to schedule a session or ask questions.
So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
I have been working with local businesses lately and it has been so fun bringing this work into different spaces. Whether it’s a coorperate space and i’m hauling yoga mats up the elevator along with essential oils or guiding breathwork at The Jungle Room, ogdens cutest plant shop or a teaching couples yoga a spa downtown. I love when business owners connect with me and I can pour back into them as so many business owners work long hours and in the midst of it all forget they haven’t even had dinner. ( ahem, guilty ) I have also helped host private birthday parties and a wellness style friendsgiving. The options are endless and I am always lit up when I have the opportunity to serve in this way.
The best way to support me is allowing me to support YOU! 🥰
My next Somatic Breathwork session will be held at Sage & Sound Healing in Ogden on Valentines day at 10 am. $45/person.
Pricing:
- $35-45 per person for a group somatic breathwork session
- $111 private Somatic Breathwork Session ( 90 min )
- $111 private yoga + journaling session (90 min )
- $1800 5 day retreat in Southern Utah on sale for $1500
Contact Info:
- Website: https://carnation-fennel-kyza.squarespace.com/
- Instagram: @ADAILYCUPOFT
- Facebook: Tiara Vail
