The Unnata community has always been at the forefront of innovation – Yoga postures with a hammock, Aerial Yoga classes with two people per hammock, Aerial Yoga classes with a focus on meditative benefits in addition to physical health benefits. Well, now we’ve started an entirely new way to take Yoga classes.
Here at the Unnata Aerial Yoga home-base, New York City, we’re starting pre-scheduled, semi-private classes.
…or Humble Lessons From a Previous Humbug (including the secret formula for manifesting what you want from the Universe!)
Holiday Cookie Pose
The holidays are a time when many of us revisit long-held family and personal traditions. We eat the same food, partake in the same activities and music, visit with the same family and friends each year. We look to these familiar traditions for comfort, but soon realize that while the external shell of our traditions may look the same from year to year, our inner experience is always different. We return to the same point on the calendar expecting a circle, but instead experience a spiral – each year drifting a bit from the person and circumstances of the previous year.
Have you ever thought about the influence that dance has on the chakras; the centers that rule our energetic body, and the impact this can have on our life experience? Well, I have! Ever since I started swing dancing a few years ago.
First of all, I must say that I am not an anthropologist and what you are about to read is the result of my reflection and experience. Nor am I an experienced dancer, just an amateur who enjoys dancing a lot. But, I have completed years of study and yoga practice and these experiences have helped me come to the conclusion that it was dance, specifically swing, twist, boogie-woogie, rock & roll … which influenced the great sexual revolution and creative explosion of the late 50s and 60s. This way of moving the body, especially the hips, unlocked stuck energy and released it, allowing both, men and women to enjoy a freedom that had not been allowed until then.
¿Alguna vez habéis reflexionado sobre la influencia del baile sobre los chakras, centro s que rigen nuestro cuerpo energético, y la repercusión que esto puede tener en la experiencia vital? Pues yo, que desde hace unos años me dio por bailar swing, sí.
Antes de nada, decir que no soy antropóloga y que lo que vais a leer es fruto de mi reflexión y experiencia. Tampoco soy una bailarina experimentada, solo una aficionada que disfruta mucho bailando. Lo que sí llevo son años de estudio y práctica del yoga y eso me ayudó a llegar a esta idea de que fue el baile, concretamente el swing, twist, boogie-woogie, rock&roll … lo que definitivamente influyó en la gran revolución sexual y explosión creativa de finales de los años 50 y 60. Esta forma de mover el cuerpo, especialmente la cadera, pudo desbloquear energía atascada y liberarla, permitiendo que, a un nivel casi global, tanto hombres como mujeres disfrutaran de una libertad que hasta entonces no estaba permitida.
Clouds can be fluffy, white, wispy, or condensed. Many times, they are various shades of grey – light and unthreatening, or dark and foreboding. The edges of clouds are bulbous, not sharp, giving them an appearance of being soft and amorphous, even when they are stormy.
We all know the image of a brain: with the overall shape of a kidney bean, it too is squishy, without sharp edges, a bit more solid than how we think of clouds to be; but like clouds, the brain is also full of liquid and electricity. As children, the way we draw the two is really quite similar. The brain is our own personal grey matter. It is our own cloud.
In a clear sky, a sky without any clouds, we experience the full warmth and enlightenment of Earth’s personal celestial being, the sun. No matter what shade or density, clouds obscure the sun’s rays to some extent. Light fluffy clouds only block some of the sun’s intensity, whereas dark stormy clouds can block the sun’s rays entirely, sometimes even replacing the sun’s fire with the cloud’s own attempts at fire – a simultaneously angrier and sadder version, full of dangerous lightning, and big teardrops of rain.
Do you know the feeling, when you give a class, and suddenly a unique word pops out of your mouth without you ever planning or intending to use it? It could be a metaphor, an image, or even just a surprising verb that sneaks into the sentence from the back door of your consciousness?
For our students, those words create moments when students are awakened, they pay close attention, and remember what they have experienced even more. A teachers’ language is a powerful tool to make a student open up and learn. As teachers, we should appreciate and nurture this tool with intention; our language matters. The more accurate it is, and the more fresh with presence, the more effective our classes will be.
These days there are so many classes out there using the terms “aerial” and “yoga” that it’s hard to tell what you’re getting, exactly. Unnata yoga has always been a true yoga class at its core, and we use the aerial component to compliment the yoga in the class.
The Ingredients of an Unnata Aerial Yoga Class
The Unnata method uses the hammock to inform a traditional hatha yoga practice. Thus, the Unnata method has two categories of ingredients at its core that create the conditions for an authentic Yogic experience:
Unnata teachers have strong beliefs in what responsibilities we have to our students. As teachers of aerial yoga, we have unique responsibilities that yoga teachers who teach without a hammock do not need to follow, and unique responsibilities to yoga tradition that many aerial yoga teachers are not concerned with.
First and foremost, we want to make sure our students can trust our equipment and our knowledge of how to use said equipment. Second, we believe that if one is going to include the word “yoga” as part of the description of their class, then the teacher is obligated to have had some education and experience in authentic, traditional yoga, and not just the physical fitness parts of a Yoga practice.
“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.”― Shunryu Suzuki
Can you remember your first yoga class ever? And how maybe it wasn’t at all like you thought it would be? I remember having a preconception that yoga would be easy and peaceful, and I was surprised that my first class was quite challenging both physically and mentally. My beginner’s mind didn’t care that the practice was different than I expected, and a world of possibilities opened up as I realized that there was a whole world I knew nothing about but wanted very much to learn. This was the start of my passion for yoga and even now, years later as my practice continues, it’s always a spark of beginner’s mind that keeps me engaged and wanting to learn more.
This post was written in celebration of Sri Dharma Mittra, who’s 80th birthday is this May, 2019. To find out more about Dharma Yoga and the studio’s celebratory plans, from May 10-14th click here.
Everybody has a unique way of being. A way of talking, a way of walking, a tilt of the head, or a facial expression reveals a thought or emotion. During a conversation, some people are quiet, some constantly interject, some speak at a slow pace, and others barely breathe while talking.
You receive so much additional information about people when you’re live in their presence, observing their idiosyncrasies. And you learn so much more about a teacher – and the teaching – when you experience it in person.
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