Interview with Anna Guest-Jelley of Curvy Yoga

by Nina

I’m excited to welcome a special guest today here on the blog, yoga teacher, author and activist Anna Guest-Jelley of Curvy Yoga. I’ve been admiring her from afar for some time now because of her work as a champion for women’s empowerment and body acceptance. Recently I finally got up the courage to approach her. And guess what? She was as warm and welcoming as I imagined her to be, and she agreed to let me interview her so you can find out more about her mission and her work.

Nina: Tell us a bit about yourself and how you got started with yoga.

Anna: Hi, everyone! I’m excited to be here because I love this blog!

Chronic migraines brought me to the mat a little over 15 years ago. I was desperate for anything to help, and several people recommended yoga.

At the time, I was also completely disconnected from my body. I hated it and wanted it to change – less pain, less weight. I eventually tried over 65 diets before yoga helped me realize that body acceptance is a much better and happier way to live life (even though body acceptance is the last thing I was expecting, or even wanting, from yoga at first!).

Nina: Why did you start Curvy Yoga?

Anna: I started Curvy Yoga because for about the first 8+ years of my practice, I always thought something was wrong with my body during asana. Since my teachers never talked about how to adapt poses for bigger bodies, and I almost never saw any other bigger-bodied students in class, I assumed (incorrectly, thank goodness!) that the problem was me.

Over time, though, as I began my journey towards body acceptance, I had the thought: “Hey, maybe the problem isn’t my body! Maybe the problem is there’s just not enough information about how to adapt yoga for curvy folks.”

Once I realized that, indeed, the latter was the case, I set out to see what I could do about changing that.

Nina: Which yoga practices and/or yoga poses do you think are especially helpful for body acceptance?

Anna: I believe that the way yoga can move people towards body acceptance is by helping them (re)connect with their bodies. So many of us are disconnected for various reasons, and it’s quite hard to accept, much less love, something that you can’t feel or connect with. 

For me, once I began to be able to feel what was going on in my body physically during asana, I was then able to slowly extrapolate that to noticing my breath, my mental and emotional states, etc. It was only from that place of embodiment that I began to be able to know and meet my body’s needs from a place of love, not misplaced, unhealthy and (in my case) disordered approaches to weight, eating and exercise.


I see the whole path of yoga as one of body acceptance because of how each of the limbs teaches us to connect with our body and self in a holistic way.

Nina: Do you have anything else you’d like to tell our readers?

Anna: I’ll just add that for anyone reading this, student or teacher, that making yoga accessible for people of all shapes and sizes doesn’t have to be complicated. Whether through pose modifications, props, sequencing, body positive theming, or some combination, it’s all very doable.

Yoga has a profound ability to connect us with our bodies and empower us when it comes from a place of acceptance, not shame that a body is not this or that seemingly ideal way. You never have to change your body for yoga! 

Anna Guest-Jelley is the founder of Curvy Yoga, a training and inspiration portal offering classes, workshops, teacher trainings, retreats, a virtual studio and lots of love and support to people of every size, age and ability. She is also the author of Permission to Curve: Inspiring Poses for Curvy Yogis & Their Teachers and the co-editor of Yoga and Body Image: 25 Personal Stories About Beauty, Bravery and Loving Your Body (forthcoming Fall 2014, Llewelleyn). Visit Curvy Yoga online at CurvyYoga.com.

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