Yoga, Authenticity, and Finding Your True Self Beyond the Mat – Interview with Jackie Anderson
Jackie Anderson is the owner of Kula Yoga Studios and a longtime yoga teacher whose approach centers on authenticity, self-awareness, and taking the practice beyond the mat. In this interview, she shares how yoga became her dharma, why teacher training should be a journey into the self, and how ancient yogic teachings can become practical tools for navigating everyday life. At the heart of her work is a simple belief, yoga isn't about perfection or performance, it's about learning to quiet the mind, recognize our patterns, and remember the wisdom that already exists within us.
Jackie Anderson, Yoga Teacher, Healer & Studio Owner
What first showed you that yoga was becoming more than a practice and was actually the work you were meant to do?
When I opened a studio with my sister in 2011, I was 30, had a business law degree, and was working in pharmaceutical sales. I was also pretty brash and rough around the edges, dealing with people was not my speciality.
On paper, I was successful. I made great money, but internally I was deeply unhappy and living in ways that weren't aligned with who I was. At the same time, I was teaching yoga at 5:30 in the morning, working all day, and coming back to teach at night.
Becoming a mother really clarified things for me. I began realizing that the place I felt most connected and purposeful was teaching. Ironically, the woman who thought she preferred animals to people discovered that connecting deeply with people was one of her greatest strengths.
Yoga became my dharma. My willingness to be raw, transparent, and imperfect became part of my teaching. When we give ourselves permission to be authentic, we give others permission to do the same.
How do you help students move from simply learning yoga to actually embodying its teachings?
I teach a very physically challenging practice, but I'm actually not that interested in the physical practice of yoga. Many students initially come because they want the workout, and that's okay. The physical practice can be the doorway. My job is to show them what exists beyond it.
While we're moving, I'm teaching about the koshas, the yamas and niyamas, the eight limbs, and, most importantly, the simple practice of quieting the mind.
I try to take teachings that can seem ancient or complicated and make them applicable to ordinary life. What happens when you're angry with your partner? When you're judging your body? When you're parenting from frustration? When fear takes over?
Can you pause long enough to recognize what's happening before reacting?
Eventually, yoga becomes less about what happens in a pose and more about how you move through your life. That's embodiment to me. The posture gives us an opportunity to practice awareness, but what we do with that awareness once we leave the mat is where the real yoga begins.
What does it mean to you for a student to eventually become their own teacher?
I believe every student already is their own teacher. Their life is teaching them through their relationships, challenges, mistakes, triggers, losses, and experiences. We're often just moving too quickly or carrying too much noise in our minds to hear the lesson.
That's why I continually come back to quieting the mind. When you slow down and get out of your own way, you can begin asking, "What is this experience showing me? What pattern keeps repeating? What am I supposed to see here?"
I'm not big on gurus. I don't want to be worshipped or put on a pedestal. In my teacher trainings, I make it clear that we're equal. I'm learning too.
My role isn't to give someone all their answers. It's to give them tools and help them become still enough to hear themselves.
Eventually, I want a student to realize that the wisdom they keep searching for outside themselves already exists within them. My job is simply to help guide them back to it.
Where do you think modern yoga loses its depth when image, performance, and social media become the focus?
I think social media, magazines, and the performance of yoga have created a huge misunderstanding of what the practice actually is. People see yoga portrayed a certain way and think, I don't have that body. I'm not flexible enough. I'm too old. I can't do that.
But yoga meets you exactly where you are.
Yoga isn't asking you to look like somebody else's version of a yogi. It's asking you to recognize the unconscious patterns that create pain and suffering, move toward your highest self, and realize you are perfect in your imperfections.
One of our strongest addictions is where we allow our minds to dwell. Judgment, comparison, fear, anger, and resentment can become automatic. Yoga teaches us to notice those patterns and interrupt them.
When I catch myself judging my body, can I pause and acknowledge something I love about myself instead? That's practice. That’s discipline.
There's nothing wrong with a beautiful pose or sharing yoga online. But when the image becomes more important than the inner work, we've missed something essential.
The goal isn't to look like yoga. It's to live it.
What should yoga teacher training develop beyond the ability to sequence and lead a class?
My teacher training is far more than learning poses, sequencing, and cueing. That's probably only about 30% of what we do. Much of the training is about looking inward.
We explore childhood, relationships, patterns, and experiences that shaped us. Students choose the yoga teachings to actually apply to their lives rather than simply memorize.
I also ask trainees to give something up and practice discipline around it. It might be coffee, shopping, social media, or a relationship pattern. The thing itself isn't the point, the awareness is. This is where we begin to see.
So much of what we do is unconscious. The moment we become aware of a pattern, the light turns on. Now we have a choice, repeat it or respond differently. This is enlightenment.
That's what I want teacher training to develop. It's a journey into the self, removing some of the masks and performances we've accumulated and getting closer to what's underneath.
Before you can authentically guide another person inward, you have to be willing to go inward yourself.
How can someone begin using yoga philosophy in ordinary moments of stress, uncertainty, or change?
Start with two things, breathe and pay attention.
When you're stressed, afraid, or overwhelmed, take a few slower breaths before immediately reacting. Then listen to what your mind is telling you.
We are not our emotions. We are not our thoughts. They are what move through us, shift, change, and pass. Yoga teaches us to create enough space to observe them instead of automatically becoming them. Become the seer rather than the main actor.
When you're struggling, ask, "What am I feeling? What story am I telling myself? Is an old pattern being activated? What can I actually control right now?"
Yoga also teaches us about attachment and change. Our children change. Relationships change. Careers change. Our bodies and identities change. The tighter we grip something that is inevitably changing, the more suffering we can create.
Yoga doesn't eliminate uncertainty. It teaches us how to meet it differently, to breathe, return to the present moment, and consciously choose our response instead of allowing an old pattern to choose for us.
What helps create the sense of safety and trust you want people to experience in your classes, trainings, and retreats?
I share first. I share my story, the good, bad, ugly, and indifferent.
I think sharing is a pivotal part of growth because so many of us carry experiences we're ashamed of or afraid to talk about. Somewhere underneath that is often the fear that if people really knew us, they might judge, reject, or abandon us.
In my trainings and retreats, I ask deep questions. We journal, we talk, and sometimes we go into uncomfortable places. But I would never ask someone to go somewhere I'm unwilling to go myself.
So I share my stories, my trauma, my mistakes, and the things I've struggled with. I'm very raw and transparent. I always say I live in a glass house.
When the person leading the room is willing to remove the mask first, other people realize they don't have to perform either.
That doesn't mean anyone is required to share. Safety also means honoring boundaries.
I simply want people to feel, I can be human here. I don't have to have everything figured out, and I still belong.
How has “authenticity, not perfection” shaped the way you teach, lead, and live?
It's everything. I genuinely believe the community I've built would be completely different if authenticity weren't at the center of it.
I've experienced yoga spaces where spirituality begins to feel like a performance, where teachers separate themselves from students, or where ego creates a sense of superiority. That's never what I've wanted Kula to be.
I'm not interested in appearing perfect. I'm interested in being real.
My students know they're getting me, my strengths, flaws, mistakes, stories, humor, and intensity. I think that authenticity is a huge part of why I've been able to build this community, lead trainings and retreats, and continue doing this work all these years.
Your vibe really does attract your tribe. If I created a culture around perfection, I would attract people seeking perfection. Instead, I want people to know they can be messy and still be growing, make mistakes and still have wisdom, and be deeply spiritual while being completely human.
Yoga isn't about perfecting yourself. It's about becoming honest enough to truly see yourself.
What do you hope people carry into their everyday lives after practicing with you?
I want them to know they're enough. I want them to recognize that they're beautiful in their imperfections and they're doing the best they can with the awareness and tools they have right now, while also knowing they have the ability to grow.
I hope they learn to trust the process and, more importantly, trust themselves.
I want them to honor themselves with love, respect, and boundaries. Sometimes yoga means breathing and staying present. Sometimes it means saying no. Sometimes it means finally walking away from a relationship, job, or pattern that continually asks you to abandon yourself.
I want people to understand that beginning again is always available. We can heal. We can change patterns. We can reset. We can make a different choice today than we made yesterday.
Ultimately, I don't want anyone to believe their power comes from me. I'm here to guide, teach, and remind them.
Their worth was already there. Their power was already there. Hopefully, the practice simply helps them remember it.
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