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Anya Rowlands

 Anya Rowlands - Biography

Anya was first introduced to the art of yoga as a young child by her mother. As an all-round sports enthusiast, she loved copying her mum's exercises and found that she loved the stretching involved. At the age of 18, Anya took up yoga herself, practising four times a week. Sampling several different yoga disciplines, including ashtanga and hatha yoga before discovering ki yoga.

When Anya happened across Jack Marshall practising Ki yoga at Bronte beach, she jumped in and joined the class. "I absolutely fell in love with it," Anya claims. "The class was brilliant because it was so dynamic - I loved the moving poses as they made my body feel so free. The dynamics of the poses, where I was moving my body from and to, made me feel so whole. The class took me on a journey through the body and afterwards I felt so full of energy that it left me with a feeling that I could do anything." Anya was left with a feeling of utter bliss.

Anya has now studied yoga for 11 years, specialising in Ki yoga for the past three years. She has found that it has benefited her in numerous ways - both physically and emotionally. As a teenager, Anya suffered a twisted knee that plagued her sporting life. Since practising yoga, however, she now can't remember which knee it was that used to trouble her!

Anya is in touch with her emotions, yoga has enabled Anya to more effectively access her feelings through focusing on her body's organs. "Yoga acts like an emotional cleanser through breath,' she says. 'It has released 'baggage' that is stored in my body. Furthermore, yoga helps clear toxins the body - those that we put in, such as caffeine, alcohol and food, as well as emotional toxins from feelings such as stress and anger."

Anya is delighted to be part of Yoga TV. "So many people want to do yoga but many don't have the confidence to start. Yoga is centred around focus, strength and stretching and chances are that you'll be able to excel at one part or all of these," she explains.

Yoga works on a whole spectrum of different levels and one big factor is stress management. In today's busy and highly charged lifestyle, yoga can benefit us by giving us the all-important strength that we need to face these challenges. "I've found that yoga has blessed me with the ability to now use my whole body to make decisions," Anya says. "It's helped me wake up to the needs of my body and taught me to understand how to read the signals. My life has become much easier since I've included yoga in it, especially in terms of my confidence levels. I feel healthy and reassured to know that everything I need, I already have within my own body."