Traveling through India at the moment, the enchanting chaos that strangely touches the deepest stillness within me that I keep on returning to year after year. It is much harder work than a holiday, but my curious and adventurous nature keeps me moving through this land rich in history, culture and myth, and the sacrifice is always worth it. Rickshaws, trains, bumpy roads, and a heavy backpack, all make an impact on my back, and really has me missing my aerial hammock. Headstands help, but are not quite the same.. the feeling of hanging from my ankles or hips, and allowing my whole body to lengthen and decompress is like no other.
¿Qué haces ahí tirada sin hacer nada, es que no tienes nada que hacer?
Durante mis primeras prácticas de yoga escuchaba decir a mis maestros que Savasana era la postura más difícil y para mis adentros siempre pensaba: ¡venga ya! ¡que os he visto hacer el Escorpión! Pero la realidad era que cada vez que tenía que entrar en esta postura, tanto al principio como al final de la sesión de yoga, mi mente estaba más activa que nunca y era muy difícil encontrar ese estado de Savasana del que los maestros hablaban… o ¡me dormía! En cualquier caso, no conseguía mantener la conciencia de mi cuerpo y mente completamente relajados en esa entrega preciosa al presente.
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What are you doing lying there without doing anything, don’t you have anything to do?
During my first few yoga practices, I heard my teachers say that Savasana was the most difficult posture and to my inner self I always thought: Come on! I’ve seen you do Scorpion! But the reality was that every time I had to enter this posture, both at the beginning and at the end of the yoga session, my mind was more active than ever and it was very difficult to find that Savasana state that the teachers talked about… or I fell asleep! In any case, I couldn’t keep the consciousness of my body and mind completely relaxed in that precious surrender to the present.
Unnata Yoga: Hammocks Used in Harmony
Unnata founder Michelle Dortignac was recently interviewed for the September 2018 edition of British magazine “In The Moment, mindful ways to live your life well”.
Author Alice Whitehead writes of Unnata Yoga that “the hammocks are used in harmony with more traditional, static yoga poses, in a more yin style, to achieve proper posture through relaxation rather than effort.”
That’s a wonderful description; the author really understood the difference that Michelle has created with Unnata Yoga.
Michelle elaborates in the article, “I wanted to create a method that worked for the average person, not just for athletes. I don’t think of yoga and aerial yoga as being different from each other – we integrate floor and air and reap the benefits of both. The sensation of hanging gives lightness to the heart somehow. It brings me joy.”
Karma Yoga
Karma is an interesting word in today’s society, in that it can have two meanings:
1. luck or fate – something outside of our control
2. an action or situation that occurs as a direct result of actions we had previously made – something our actions inspired to occur, and therefore very much in our control
Even though the two common interpretations of karma could seem to be opposites of each other, it is my understanding they are actually two sides of one coin – the side we can see and the side that we can’t see. Karma is essentially the universe’s way of balancing out actions. Sometimes we experience the balance within our lifetime, and we can see the results of the seeds we have sown – good or bad. Sometimes, however, what we experience is partially the result of actions and deeds we did in a previous life, the effects of which simply took longer to come to fruition. Because our conscious minds may not be aware of what our souls did on a previous journey, the type of karma that comes to us from a previous lifetime can seem a bit unfair.
Podcast: On and Off the Mat Interview with Michelle Dortignac
Hi Everyone!
Recently, Michelle was interviewed by Erika Belanger of the On and Off Your Mat podcasts. In this interview, Michelle dives deep into what brought her to aerial yoga, how it has changed over the years, as well as some benefits and safety precautions.
Here is a link to the podcast episode on Erika’s blog: Podcast Episode 9: Are you up for Aerial Yoga?
And you can listen to the episode here:
Aerial Yoga, Pregnancy and Birthing
In general, aerialists are told that combining aerial and pregnancy is a risky combo. Pregnancy is always at the top of the list of contraindications for class. But, there is very little information online (at the time of this publication) about exactly what is risky and what is not. The few blog posts by aerial acrobats describing their own experiences of training through their own pregnancies are anecdotal and mostly refer to acrobatics and not aerial yoga.
So, is it ever ok to use a hammock during pregnancy? What about labor? Let’s dive in to the stages of pregnancy, and use some common sense to examine what might help or harm expectant moms…
What’s Happening Now? The Internal Journey of the Artist
hap·pen·ing
ˈhap(ə)niNG/
noun
1.
an event or occurrence.
“altogether it was an eerie happening”
2.
a partly improvised or spontaneous piece of theatrical or other artistic performance, typically involving audience participation.
“a multimedia happening”
I first started Unnata Aerial Yoga as an artistic experiment, with questions like, “What would aerial yoga look like?” And, “Is it possible to create a combination class of aerial acrobatics and Yoga that could remain authentic Yoga?” I used all the curiosity and persistence I developed as a dance, performance and aerial artist to craft and refine the Unnata Aerial Yoga method.
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Beyond Flips and Tricks
The aerial yoga hammock is a very versatile prop and it can be a lot of fun to explore creative ways to incorporate it into our yoga practice. The aerial yoga hammock that we use in Unnata® Aerial Yoga is often the same apparatus as the aerial sling aerialists use for aerial acrobatics and circus acts. They are both equally awesome and equally challenging, but they are not one in the same.
Even though the aerial yoga hammock and the circus sling share some obvious and important similarities the two approaches of aerial yoga and aerial circus actually have very little in common!
It’s Not Just In The Details
Let me explain, in aerial yoga we are using the hammock to assist in our yoga practice. Yoga is a grounding practice (even when we’re elevated) that requires no special equipment, although props like the hammock can be incredibly useful. So in aerial yoga, we’re often using the ground and sharing weight with the hammock and that informs the choices we make about how to grip, how to engage or relax, how to sequence, and more.
How Unnata Aerial Yoga Can Provide Relief From Bad Back Syndrome
Often I hear from a student, “I have a bad back!” But what exactly does that mean? The “back” makes up a large percentage of our body, with 33 vertebrae in total. (Although to be fair, some of those vertebrae are fused together.)
With that much substance and so many moving parts, of course a variety of things can go wrong, or wear down over time. So when a student says “I have a bad back,” she usually doesn’t mean the entire back has all possible problems. Instead, she means that only part of the back has troubles, and only with certain movements.
There may not be a one-size-fits-all solution for every type of back problem, but if you have “bad back” troubles – it’s likely that you can find relief with the support of the yoga hammock in an Unnata® Aerial Yoga class.
