What is Dharma Yoga: Interview with Katchie Ananda
Yoga and Dharma teacher, Katchie Ananda refreshingly speaks with Shakti Sundari at BaliSpirit Festival 2017 about finding your dharma, the “I’m not enough” syndrome, fighting patriarchy in yoga and how to love your “creature body”.
We loved having Katchie share her unique Yoga and Dharma teaching with us at BaliSpirit Festival 2017. Dedicating over 30 years of her life to practicing and teaching yoga, originally with a background in dance and performance, she was trained in Jivamukti, Iyengar and Anusara Yoga. Having lived across 3 continents, Katchie fully believes in her dharma, her journey of grace and describing it as a ‘verified faith’, risking something and fully diving into trust when your head tells you it’s crazy!
THE ‘PERFECT YOGA BODY’ – THE PRESSURE OF BEING BOTH A YOGI AND A MODEL ON SOCIAL MEDIA.
Katchie speaks about ‘the creature body’ a term she coined to encourage people to really listen, love and build a friendship with their body. As she explains the need to love your body in your yoga practice: “In yoga there’s this idea that the body has to be perfect. You see pictures of flawless young women, flexible, in the right light and its starting to resemble more the modeling industry rather than the yoga industry. Whatever body you happen to have; you can do yoga”
“Yoga should be for everybody, because yoga is a way of being ok with who you are”
I truly admire Katchie for saying it how it is, calling BS on not having the ‘perfect body’ to do yoga. She speaks about the idealized, and for the majority of us unobtainable ‘yoga body’ we see on stylized social media accounts where carefully orchestrated photos seep from our screens into our subconscious which can actually discourage us from practicing, because it makes us feel not good enough. Katchie speaks further about the never ending “not good enough” syndrome our mind throws us all the time.
YOGA: THE PROCESS OF LEARNING HOW TO LOVE YOURSELF AND IGNORE YOUR “I’M NOT ENOUGH” SYNDROME
“The not enough syndrome” is something Katchie believes has been programmed especially in the West, that we are constantly chasing something and forever feeling dissatisfied. She narrows this down to the result of patriarchy and an untrained mind, where there is a continual need to push for more, in a competitive (masculine) nature rather than being comfortable in an accepting and nurturing feminine space,
And we couldn’t agree more Katchie! Wahe Guru to you!
Watch her full interview here: