A Mile in Anika Rabbani’s Shoes
When talking about health, we must reflect on our mental health as well. Who is better conversant than Anika Rabbani, founder of Yoganika, and a thriving woman who has braved many struggles! She started yoga at the age of 14 and now at almost 40, is with the same passion for it as before. Anika candidly talks about her yoga journey thus far with Colors’ Tunajina Islam.
Yoganika offers varied yoga styles ranging from ashtanga, vinyasa to gentle yin classes. It also has corporate yoga, facial yoga and kids’ yoga sessions from time to time. She has been teaching yoga over the years and her business thrived in the meantime. She has been dubbed as “one of the most well-known yoga teachers in the country” by a leading English newspaper, The Daily Star. She has gone the extra mile and taken a yoga course at KPJAYI in Mysore, India which is one of the top yoga schools in the world that is called the Harvard of yoga schools. She trained with the world-renowned paramaguru himself. The company possesses an impressive corporate clientele, but the highlight of her corporate experience would be teaching yoga to 400 people at Grameenphone. She shows her generosity through teaching charity yoga to many underprivileged children and street children.
Looking for calm in the storm
Coming from a broken family, with only her mother to support her and her siblings, Anika carried a lot of stress, anxiety and fear into her teen years and early 20s. She did not have a smooth childhood but indulging in yoga greatly helped her through these hardships. Anika was faced with many obstacles but the worst was when she was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease called hypothyroidism which gave her relentless brain fog and fatigue. She resorted to yoga to calm her struggling and this motivated her to become a health coach to assist others similarly in her shoes. She further explained her most challenging obstacles during her journey.
“It’s still a challenge but I think my biggest one was getting to do all these tricky poses whilst battling a serious disease. Most people don’t assume I am sick because I don’t look like that. An autoimmune disease is invisible. Only the person suffering knows the extent to which it can damage a life, relations and professions. If your brain doesn’t work what good is anything? I would say learning to heal myself was my biggest challenge to date and still is on my bad days.”
Owning the corporate world as a woman
Growing up Anika had a very strong mother who brought her up in a matriarchal household. She believes this conditioned her to see the world as female dominated and gave her a strong sense of self. “I believe in myself endlessly and have never felt like I need a man to hold me up. I think this sets me apart and gives me an edge in a patriarchal society and world.” This is why in a corporate world that is adverse to women, Anika believes, “if you are a go getter you won’t let anything much less anyone serves as an impediment to what you want. As they say – all is fair in love and war. We are no less. If others think less of women, that is their problem and perhaps their downfall.”
Q: What are your future plans for Yoganika?
She was upfront: “To be magnificently successful and to shine a light in the path of others, especially when it comes to taking ownership of their health. I hate how doctors treat us, giving out prescriptions and never connecting to an individual. This is no way to treat someone. I believe this is where Yoganika and the Health Coaching can have a major breakthrough.”
