What Is Aerial Yoga?
Aerial Yoga is a new type of Yoga that uses a circus hammock as a tool to help students achieve the traditional Yoga positions. Traditional Yoga positions lead us to a calm nervous system.
At its core, the practice of Yoga is a process of calming our nervous system through stretches, deep breathing, and actively letting go of stressful thoughts so that we can stop seeing the world through fear, anger, sadness or desire. Since these emotions determine what attracts, distracts and repulses us, when they are no longer dominant in our minds coloring how we see the world, we are not as easily manipulated by advertising, political agendas, or people with ill intentions. This means we feel more in control of our everyday decisions and therefore our lives.
What Is Unnata® Aerial Yoga?
Unnata Aerial Yoga uses the circus hammock to help students hold their bodies in the shape of traditional Yoga postures, the weight of the body being either partially or fully supported by the hammock. Many Unnata Aerial Yoga postures are designed to help the student better understand the purpose of traditional Yoga postures. Some Unnata Aerial Yoga postures are designed to help students achieve advanced traditional Yoga postures. Advanced Yoga postures can take years to learn, and even more time to understand and glean their benefits. The practice of Unnata Aerial Yoga is meant to help speed up that process in a safe manner.
In an Unnata Aerial Yoga class, students use both the hammock and the floor to immediately feel the improvement in their flexibility, strength and alignment, and to understand how to use the skills and benefits achieved through using the hammock while attending non-aerial Yoga classes and other physical activities.
The Unnata Aerial Yoga technique achieves more than a simple stretch. Our physical posture changes over time to increase our flexibility, develop strength, and forge deep, full breathing. Deep breathing reinforces a calm and serene attitude, which in turn increases our mental flexibility as well – the purpose of practicing Yoga.
Take a sneak peek in this real-time video of a “mini” Unnata Aerial Yoga class:
How is Unnata pronounced?
Unnata is the Sanskrit word for “elevated,” meaning both elevated in spirit and physically elevated.
The “U” sounds like the “u” in blue and rhymes with zoo, too. The rest sounds like “not,” followed by “ahhh.”
Put the emphasis on the second syllable; “ooo-NOT-ah” — Unnata.
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