KAT PITHER
Kat Pither is founder of Yogi Bare, global yoga brand and movement community, and Healthy Metal offering magnesium glycinate to support sleep, anxiety and recovery.
Kat creates brands that inspire movement and connection through high performance and innovative products with a playful, welcoming and rebellious approach to wellness. Since its inception, Yogi Bare has creatively collaborated with Liverpool FC, Frieze Art Festival, Above&Beyond, Deus Ex Machina to name a few. Through her own battles of anxiety and sleep she founded Healthy Metal with Jose Vigo to support the silent health crisis of magnesium deficiency affecting over 60% of adults and contributing to sleep and mental health epidemics.
Kat was named Entrepreneur Magazine’s 100 most powerful women, Great British Entrepreneur of the Year and Vodafone's SME Disruptor alongside Steven Bartlett. Outside of business land, Kat mixes her love of music, meditation and spoken word, performing at Glastonbury 2024.
Follow Kat:
Instagram: @whatsgoodkat
Website: www.yogi-bare.co.uk / www.healthy-metal.com
“AYURVEDA DOESN’T ASK MUCH OF YOU, JUST TO UNDERSTAND WHO YOU ARE AND WHAT YOUR NEEDS ARE.”
WHAT DOES AYURVEDA MEAN TO YOU?
To me Ayurveda is to realise how a part of this earth you are.
It's a big old exhale, a sigh, a relief once you realise how connected you are to nature.
We live in this weird wonky modern world which demands so much of us but that we are not biologically made for. To me Ayurveda is a return to nature's home, to who we are and how we are supposed to be.
That said I have so much solace in the concept of the Doshas, for the first time I felt like the health system really saw me for me. It's funny because each Dosha has extremes, not necessarily positives and negatives, but a spectrum of wellness. You can’t cheat this stuff. You’re either in balance and feeling good or you’re not. It doesn’t ask you to change. It just guides you into becoming more you and teaches you how to care for that.
WHEN DID YOU DISCOVER IT? HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN PRACTISING IT?
I discovered Ayurveda when I was 17 and in rehab. I know not your usual story but I had found myself in the throws of self sabotage and addiction by choosing harmful ways to self medicate and manage my PTSD and anxiety. I felt like a little alien completely detached from the planet but also my body, paralysed by overthinking and a very quick mind. I'd once been creative, happy-go-lucky and would cruise with the flow but when the anxiety took hold it would be impossible to shake and get its claws into my whole life. My lifestyle and diet were erratic and I made some poor life choices and ended up in rehab. I hated the recovery program. I wanted to be better but felt completely unseen and unheard and it isolated me more. I thank my lucky stars every day that I came across a book in the library on Ayurveda. A Pukka Life by Sebastian Pole. Very much an entry level book but well rounded enough. It was like I finally could see myself and my place in the world and a path to peace that was so personalised. It was spooky to see the traits of a balanced and unbalanced Vata laid out and realise it was describing me. Every aspect from the self massage that allowed me to reconnect and respect my body again to the mind calming practices changed me.
WHAT DREW YOU TO AYURVEDA?
I love how it takes into account all of you. From your physicality, nervous system, mental wellbeing, habits, self sabotage mindset, digestion and skin health - all of it! It's not a diet or exercise plan. It's a way of whole being and you’ll find yourself being whole.
HAS IT HELPED YOU WITH ANYTHING MAJOR?
Understanding my nature was key in learning to work with my ADHD and forgive myself for falling into addiction and helped me deeply heal and overcome without blame.
IS AYURVEDA PART OF YOUR EVERYDAY LIFE OR JUST FOR YOUR MEDICINE CABINET OR FALL-BACK ROUTINE?
I would say it's both a little everyday and a little fall back. Being a founder of two businesses I can often find myself sucked into the matrix of it all and can become an extension of my computer. My Dosha is Vata and my job requires a lot of creativity which suits my natural inclination. But Vatas fall out of balance very easily - we are like the wind after all! I can get overwhelmed, feel all over the place, struggle with racing thoughts, anxiety and people pleasing. And like a baby hurricane it can happen fast! Ayurvedic practices have allowed me to keep that in check. It's almost as though Ayurveda could identify what we now know as ADHD all those 1000s of years ago. To enhance the best parts of me I need space, grounding, routine and regular meals. For a while my motto became: “I just need a jacket potato and I’ll be okay!”
WHAT ARE YOUR TOP 4 AYURVEDIC TIPS THAT HAVE WORKED FOR YOU?
Living seasonally and tapping into my Vata “Creative” time early morning
Taking an individualistic approach to my diet and leaning into my Vata - its helped my digestion so much to eat regularly and increase healthy fats like ghee
Realising my body craves down regulation and grounding practices. My nervous system is jittery enough!
That routine is not boring. It's the basis for more space, more peace, more action and more joy
WHAT SURPRISED YOU MOST ABOUT AYURVEDA?
How quickly and how much my mind and body took to it. It immediately felt like “Oh this is what I'm supposed to be doing all along.” Like I found some undiscovered manual for how to be a human.
DID YOU INTEGRATE IT GRADUALLY OR OVERNIGHT FOR ANY PARTICULAR REASON?
I'm a bit of an all or nothing person - a perk or a recipe for disaster depending on who you are asking! So I got ALL the gear and had no idea. I think once you realise everything Ayurvedic is geared towards supporting you being the most peaceful, happy, “here” version of yourself you kinda can’t un-see the ways and habits that didn’t serve you. Ayurveda doesn’t ask much of you, just to understand who you are and what your needs are. You can then bring in the foundations - eating certain foods, responding to the seasons etc… and then progress slowly into trying to see what herbs work for you. It's quite personalised.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE AYURVEDIC RECIPE OR GO-TO INGREDIENT?
I love root veg cooked in ghee with Ayurvedic herbs and spices like black mustard seeds, fennel seed and cumin seeds which have had their flavours unlocked by pre frying in a pan. I also love sweet potato with cinnamon.
HOW DOES AYURVEDA FIT INTO YOUR DAY-TO-DAY ROUTINES?
It kind of just becomes you in many ways. You feel so good when you’ve experienced how it feels to be aligned with your nature. I think a lot of people think it's just food or beauty but it's a beautifully rich system of how you show up in the world and tune in with nature. Even the seasons and times of the day have a Dosha. I am most creative during Vata time which is early AM or very late at night. It helps me schedule my working day to be productive, inspired and bring energy to Kapha slumps.
WHAT DO YOU WISH WAS EASIER IN OUR SOCIETY TO MAKE AN AYURVEDIC LIFESTYLE MORE ACCESSIBLE?
I wish our society didn’t prescribe to a strict 9-5 schedule or create such a pressure to be always on, always available. It completely goes against our nature and not everyone works best in the hours laid out for us.
WHAT’S THE ONE THING YOU WOULD ENCOURAGE EVERYONE TO TRY OR YOU THINK WOULD BENEFIT THE MAJORITY OF PEOPLE’S HEALTH FOR THE BETTER?
Realising we are nature, we are not separate or “other” from it. We’ve created this weird, high tech, alert, kinda fake world and given it more hierarchy and importance than our natural one. And we wonder why we always feel like we are battling against something, being pulled in different directions or out of sorts. It's because we are! The more we realise we can actively step back from technology/ modern life and step in on our terms the better and the more we work with the seasons - from sleep to food to routine - the more centred, calm, strong in who we are we will feel.