A woman with glasses, wearing a blue shirt and black pants, sits on a yoga mat laughing during a yoga or meditation session. There is a wall with artwork behind her, and a large print of pink poppies is projected or displayed in the space.

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Learning to listen to my body through movement changed my whole life — and continues to. 

Curvy Yoga isn’t about making the exact shape the person at the front of class is making. There’s no toe-touching required, and you won’t find any mentions of dieting or extreme exercise here. This yoga is about cultivating a connection to your own deep, embodied wisdom and moving in ways that support you in feeling good both in and about your body. 

Want the really good news? You can tap into that connection today.

hi there

I’m Anna.

I have lived much of my life disconnected from my body. While that disconnection has come in many forms, including diet culture, trauma, and chronic pain, the path home underneath all of them has always been my body -- even when I had absolutely no idea that was possible.

Yoga was the first form of movement I tried that didn’t feel like a punishment, even when it was miles away from working for my actual body. At the time I don’t think I entirely knew why I stuck with it. Was I secretly hoping it would change my body? Of course. Was that happening? Yes, but not how I was expecting.

I did become stronger and more flexible. I did not wake up tall and svelte as I’d secretly hoped. But the real change was that each time I was on the mat, I was slowly, and mostly below my radar, building my capacity to listen to and be in relationship with my body.

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First I learned how to feel my feet on the mat (something I truly thought was metaphor for the first many years I practiced). And then, over time, I learned how to feel, well, everything I needed to — most especially my own truth.

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People who love Curvy Yoga always tell me it’s hard to explain. “It’s about curvy bodies,” they say, “but it’s also about so much more.”

While I also find it hard to put into words sometimes, I want to try:

  • Our focus is on embodiment, and our approach is relational, as in your yoga practice is a space to hear from, listen to, and speak with your own body. We’re building the relationship we each want with our own bodies, as well as the way we want that perspective to inform and change our lives and worlds.

  • We turn how yoga is often taught upside down (and not with a headstand). Many yoga classes start from an idealized version of a pose and then offer options “if you can’t do it.” We start from the foundation and layer in options from there for taking the pose in whatever direction you need.

  • We invite your whole body to be part of the practice and aren’t afraid to offer options for when your belly feels compressed in a forward fold or your chest is strangling you in Bridge pose (in fact, we include those options as standard!).

  • We’ll always remind you that ‍ sustainable practice is one that meets your body, life, and schedule where you are and that changes with you as you do because bodies and lives are always changing.

  • We’re all about the seasonal life over here, both the broader environmental season and the many seasons of life we’re each in personally. Your practice definitely needs to work for your body, that’s a given (at least around here it is). But it’s also so much more multidimensional than that. This is a practice that meets you in your humanity.

  • Our practices return you to your body: there are opportunities to check-in, encouragement to do what you most need (and support for noticing what that is in the first place), ample options to be curious about what version of a pose works for you today, reminders that bodies are always changing so even if you’ve done a pose a million times it’s worth seeing what’s true today, and so much more.

  • This is a place and a practice that trusts your body and supports you in beginning or deepening your own trust. This is an ongoing, ever-evolving practice for everyone, and we love that about it.

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