Our Philosophy
Our Philosophy
At The Intimacy Project, we’ve created a unique and grounded way of working—supporting individuals to build their own personal life support system through daily practice, emotional healing, and self-connection.
Our approach is designed to bring real harmony and balance to your life, not just in moments of stillness, but in the messy, beautiful, ever-changing flow of everyday living.
With 1:1 support, we walk alongside you.
You’re not doing this alone.
This work was not created from theory.
It came through working closely with people, over time.
The Intiamcy Project began online, supporting 1:1 journeys — over 40 days, and over the course of time—the same conversations kept returning:
Food. Sleep. Stress. Burnout.
Relationships. Intimacy. Self-worth.
The nervous system.
The feeling of being disconnected, even when life looks “fine”.
Different people. Different lives.
But the same underlying experience of being human.
And the same question beneath it all:
How do we live with this?
Drawing from lived experience and deep training in Yoga, Tantra, Pranayama, meditation, energy work, nutrition, and Ayurvedic living, we explore how real change can take place in a way that is practical, sustainable, and personal to you.
Because we all long to live a life that feels kind, balanced, and true.
But let’s be honest—life happens.
Work demands. Emotional overwhelm.
The beauty and complexity of relationships.
Old patterns that keep repeating.
It’s easy to talk about change.
It’s much harder to live it.
The Intimacy Project is built on a simple, honest understanding:
Life doesn’t suddenly become easy.
Pain doesn’t disappear.
Challenge doesn’t go away.
But something can shift in how we meet it.
Through breath, body, and awareness, we begin to:
notice instead of react
feel without becoming overwhelmed
stay present in discomfort
respond, rather than repeat
Not because life has changed—
but because our relationship to it has.
This is why daily practice matters.
Not as something separate from life— but as something that supports life.
Through intentional breath and gentle awareness of the body, we create space for the nervous system to soften, for emotion to move, and for truth to be felt.
In that space, something begins to unfold:
What we see can be accepted.
What we accept can be loved.
What is loved can be released.
Whether you join us in Goa for our immersive 4-week journey, meet us in shared spaces, or connect through our online offerings, you’ll be supported in creating a practice that adapts to you—not the other way around.
In Goa, we work deeply with embodiment and somatic practices to support the release of stored energy and bring you back to the wisdom of your body.
Through our online spaces, this same process unfolds more gently—emerging naturally as a by-product of consistent, heartfelt practice.
This is not about becoming someone else.
Or escaping the human experience.
It is about building the capacity to be with life—
in all its seasons, all its weather.
To feel, without being lost.
To stay, without shutting down.
To live, with more space, clarity, and ease—
even within discomfort.
This is a path of remembering.
Of returning.
Of reconnecting with the unique beauty that you already are.
Meet
Ana X Chakora
Founder and lead facilitator of The Intimacy Project
When you find yourself in a state of imbalance, it is often a return to simplicity that restores what has been lost.
This is the essence of what Ana shares—and the foundation of how she lives.
But this understanding did not come easily.
Over the past 10 years, Ana’s journey has been one of searching, breaking, unlearning, and returning.
Before this path, she moved through fast-paced careers, experiencing burnout more than once—pushing, striving, and trying to find a sense of meaning and stability in ways that never quite lasted.
It wasn’t until leaving her home in the UK and arriving in New Zealand that something began to shift. A near-death experience became a turning point—bringing her into her first yoga practice, and opening a door that would slowly reshape her life.
From there, the journey unfolded across Australia, India, and Europe—exploring different lineages and practices, from Ashtanga and Iyengar to Tantra, meditation, Ayurveda, and natural living.
But more importantly, it became a journey into herself.
In 2019, Ana travelled to India, where she found herself in an unexpected and intense one-to-one training with a Tantric Swami in the Himalayas. There was no shared language. No explanations. Only direct experience.
This was a deep initiation into surrender—into learning through the body, through presence, through not knowing.
It would take years for this experience to fully unfold.
Later, in Goa, meeting teachers and teachings that gave language to what had been lived, something began to integrate. Through the teachings of the Heart of Yoga, the Shiva Sutras, and ongoing guidance from her teachers and community, a deeper understanding emerged:
That yoga is not separate from life.
That Tantra is not something to perform.
That everything is pointing back to a return to self.
Since then, Ana’s path has continued to evolve—not through collecting more practices, but through stripping away what is not true.
Through relationships, through loss, through the ongoing challenges of being human, the work has deepened.
What she shares now is not a fixed method or a perfected system.
It is something alive.
Through her unique combination of Yoga, Tantra, Pranayama, QiGong, and intuitive movement, Ana guides you back into your own experience—creating space for you to breathe in your own body, move in your own way, and begin to find balance from within.
Her approach is not about telling you how to be.
It is about helping you see clearly, so that your own way can emerge.
The Intimacy Project itself is constantly evolving—just as Ana is, just as you are.
This is not a finished body of work.
It is a shared enquiry.
A space where we come together to explore what it truly means to live, to feel, to relate, and to be human.
Ana’s passion is to share Dharma in a way that is real and integrated—not something separate from life, but something that supports how you live it.
To offer practical, embodied tools that allow you to move through the world with more clarity, honesty, and ease.
This is not about becoming someone else.
It is about returning—
to your body,
to your breath,
to your own truth.
Why We Created The Intimacy Project
After meeting and working with people from all over the world, we began to notice something universal—there are truths and desires that connect us all, no matter where we come from or how we live.
We all want a life that feels balanced, natural, and real.
We want connection, intimacy, and love—the kind that nourishes us, softens us, and reminds us we’re not alone.
We want to feel safe in our bodies, confident in ourselves, and clear in our direction.
Most of us are tired of the stress, anxiety, and pressure that comes with trying to keep up—whether in a demanding job, parenting, navigating relationships, or simply existing in a world that moves too fast.
We want to stop numbing, avoiding, or pushing through pain—and instead learn how to meet it, understand it, and release it.
We want more energy, focus, and ease in how we move through our days.
We want to feel at home in ourselves, and surrounded by people who see and support us.
We want to live in a way that feels aligned, purposeful, and true—not just on a retreat, but in the middle of real life.
We created The Intimacy Project to honour these truths
To support individuals in developing a healthy, harmonious, and caring life. One rooted in embodied practice, real connection, and the wisdom that everything we seek is already within.
Ana’s Story
Ana’s journey into yoga began in 2016, following a near-death experience while white water rafting in New Zealand. At the time, she had already burnt out multiple times—moving through careers in the entertainment and restaurant industries, constantly searching, yet never quite finding what she was looking for.
Leaving her home in the UK, she travelled to New Zealand in search of freedom. But instead of relief, she found herself face to face with the depth of her own pain. It was here, in Queenstown, that she stumbled into her first yoga class—a moment that would quietly change the course of her life.
What followed was years of travel and study across Australia, India, and the UK—immersing herself in Iyengar, Ashtanga, Hatha yoga, meditation, Ayurveda, and the power of daily practice and sangha. Her understanding deepened, but so did her awareness of the unseen patterns, both personal and collective, that shape our lives.
In 2019, India called.
In the foothills of the Himalayas, Ana found herself in an unexpected and intense 28-day, one-to-one training with a Tantric Swami—a man who spoke no English. There were no explanations. No philosophy. Only direct experience.
This was Tantra before words.
There was no space for resistance. Only surrender.
And in that surrender, something profound began.
It would take three years for this experience to fully unravel within her life.
It wasn’t until she arrived in Arambol, Goa, and encountered Western Tantra teachers, that language and philosophical understanding began to meet her lived experience. Piece by piece, the puzzle came together.
The deepest recognition came through the Shiva Sutras, and through the teachings of Mark Whitwell (Heart of Yoga)—who became both a teacher and a dear friend. It was here the realisation landed:
Yoga is Tantra.
Tantra is life.
And we are here to return home to the self—beneath the conditioned mind.
From this point, Ana’s path became one of unlearning.
Not collecting practices—but stripping away what is not true.
Through strong, sometimes confronting practices, and through the mirror of deep relationship, life continued to break her open. The passing of her father became one of the most profound initiations—shattering remaining walls and revealing deeper layers of grief, love, and truth.
For over a decade, Ana has devoted her life to the study of yoga, Tantra, and the enquiry into what it truly means to be human.
Along the way, she moved through many layers—Ashtanga discipline, neo-Tantra exploration, emotional release work—all of it chipping away, until only the rawness remained:
vulnerability, fear, sadness, ego… and the realisation that life is not as we perceive it to be.
This journey continues.
Tantra is often misunderstood—reduced to sexuality, expression, or liberation of inhibition. But Ana’s work points to something deeper:
the courage to see that what we are expressing is often conditioned, not truth.
And the real work begins there.
To recognise these conditioned patterns.
To feel how they live within the body.
To see how they shape our relationships, our choices, and our world.
And from there—to begin again.
Ana’s work today is rooted in this ongoing enquiry.
She co-founded The Intimacy Project, travelling and sharing the work through immersions, 1:1 mentorship, and gatherings across the world. From living in a car across Europe, to settling in the mountains of Montenegro, where she lived in deep connection with nature and Ayurvedic rhythms, her life has become the practice.
Her teaching is not about perfection, performance, or escape.
It is about returning.
Through breath.
Through the body.
Through feeling.
With courage, honesty, and attention.
Because this is not a personal journey.
Your pain is my pain.
My pain is humanity’s pain.
And the only way forward is to come back into relationship—with ourselves, with the Earth, and with truth.
To soften the armour.
To listen again.
To come home.
Contact us
Interested in working together? Fill out some info and we will be in touch shortly. We can’t wait to hear from you!