Music as Medicine is an interview series that blends spoken conversation with live music playing

“You can go as far as you can imagine” – Before we manifest anything, it starts with the vibration of the Mind – Katja

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interview

sounds

Summary

This interview features Katja Prager @katjadharmayoga, recorded in the front reception area of El Estar, a low-key garden and healing center in San Pancho, where Katja offered classes, healings, and teachings during the 2025 season. The mantra recordings were recorded during the end-bits of her Yin Yoga classes.

She shares what it is like to find something you did not even know you were looking for. She speaks about the path of being a lifelong student, and the moment of stepping out from under the umbrella of a teacher to share her own voice and lived perspectives with the world.

Katja reflects on her dharma yogi studies and her choice to live a professional and personal life rooted in spiritual practice, healing, and devotion to loving all beings. She never considered herself a musician, and yet music found her. Within her practice, it quickly became like icing on the cake. Sound, language, and vibration became doorways into altered states of awareness, shared communion, and a way of life.

She also shares recent illuminations that have come through ceremony, therapy, and lived experience. Her tone carries deep humbleness, realness, and an honesty about the raw experience of being human, no matter who you are. She speaks to the need for various types of help along the way and that life unfolds through different chapters of Gripping and then letting go (or re-remembering). These insights have opened her into a new chapter, alongside the spiritual tools that have become wings on her path.

Katja’s message is simple and clear. Nourish connection and union. Look beyond the separateness created by limiting beliefs. And learn to love all beings…including yourself!

In this interview, we explore:

• finding a teacher and a purpose in New York
• The dharmic way and core teachings
• sound as a doorway into shifting the mind
• mantra, kirtan, and devotional practice
• the harmonium as an instrument
• Life rhythms and growth in San Pancho
• insights grounded in present-moment living

I have found Katja’s offerings, presence, and insights to be deeply comforting, transformative, and profound. If you are lucky, you may one day have the chance to cross paths with the mystical Katja yourself. At the time of writing this, she shared that she is working and volunteering at one of her favorite monasteries in Thailand.

If you would like to connect more directly, Katja also offers online Dharma yoga classes and private sessions. She is versed in Hatha Raja Yoga, Yin, Zenthai Shiatsu, Thai massage, myofascial, and Kirtan Bhakti chanting. You can explore her offerings on linktree here or the instgram page.

I hope you enjoy the blissful vibes 🙂 Thank you, Katja for your openess and this special moment in time!!

scroll down for additional details and information

{KATJA SONG RECOMMENDATION} – can’t fall out of love by East Forest….”ENDLESS CHOICES, YET THERE IS ONE CHOICE”

definitions

{INSTRUMENT} – Harmonium (or vaja). a wooden air keyboard creating a steady, warm, continuous tone. It is played similarly to an accordion. One hand pumping the back, and one hand playing the keys. found in yogic and devotional traditions to support chanting and mantra. Its sustained sound naturally invites slowness, steadies the nervous system, and makes it easier to stay present in breath, repetition, and prayer.

(shout-out to HappyHippoHarmonium on YouTube for tutorials)

{PRACTICE} – Dharma Yogi. Those who live in service to their inner calling and life path. The word dharma comes from ancient Indian spiritual traditions and refers to the natural order of life, the teachings, and the lineage of wisdom passed through generations of yogis, sages, and teachers. It points to the truth of who you are and the path that supports right living, devotion, and clarity. Their practice is not only on the mat but in daily choices, relationships, and how they move through the world. Yoga becomes a way of living, a way of seeing, and a way of returning to alignment with what is true.

Our first Interaction

My first interaction with Katja was during a time when I was dealing with a deep insomnia and pain cycle. So, not sleeping, I decided to walk down to El Estar for a 6 am meditation. Katja was leading the early morning session, and I believe there was one other person there as well. When she began playing the harmonium and singing the chant in her deep, soothing German accent, something opened inside me. As the sun rose and the roosters crowed.. and the Tears started flowing. from that moment on, the mantra was instilled inside me. repeating in my head and humming lightly in my chest in perfectly timed moments. it felt like a friend supporting me, giving me courage, during a deep renewal cycle that I was experiencing, in a place where I had yet to make supportive connections.

I also took several of her yin yoga classes. Her unique blended style of practice included elements of mindfulness, chanting, Dharmic spirtual teachings, sound bathing, and deep release Yogi movements. A very deep nervous system and fascia release… and time well spent. They were also some of the most popular classes in town. Probably also due to her high level of aura, presence, coolness, kindness and voice 😀

I would see Katja around town. Often cruising on a bike in the sunshine, likely on the way to El Estar to teach a Yin Yoga class. You can feel her openness, her gentle smile, and her sense of being. It was truly an honor to share a moment in time and space together.

Appendix notes from the last two INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

A –What does San Pancho mean to you?

K- A place of deep growth and transformation. The first place where she stepped out from under the umbrella and began living fully as a yoga teacher and therapist. San Pancho became both a professional and personal initiation. A place to work through relationships, attachment, and social patterns. An incredible playground where the energy shifts quickly. The ocean energy moves through the town and out toward the highway, not cyclical or smooth, but like a fast passing wave. The transitory nature of the people it brings both excitement and instability. A powerful place to learn how to be present with what is.

A- Any insight you are anchored to in this present moment?

K- Through various healing tools, yogic paths, Access Bars, Therapy, and a kambo experience, Katja received a core illumination. Being able to truly see yourself is the key to everything around you. It is easy to see others. It is harder to see ourselves. With the work, clarity grows around self-worth and how we position ourselves in relationships. Once you see it, you cannot unsee it.

The essential teaching is simple. Love yourself in the same way you love everyone else. When you learn this, you are free. Self-care, self-respect, and self-love open everything. Seeing the patterns of over-attachment and compensation allowed for a moment of “I am enough.” This realization casting forth a freedom for the next path ahead, with the tools that have become wings on that path.