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.
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.
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.
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.
After graduating from the Unnata Aerial Yoga teacher training course, on an annual basis Unnata teachers have the choice to renew their license to teach Unnata Aerial Yoga. The Unnata license is not just calling oneself an “Unnata” aerial yoga teacher, and it’s not simply so that a teacher can keep using the “Unnata” logo, although those are definitely important parts. Maintaining an Unnata license is linked to a membership with an entire community of teachers and of their vast knowledge and various practices that all the Unnata teachers are devoted to developing. Maintaining an Unnata membership is keeping one’s teaching and personal practice relevant and safe, amongst other things.
What does it mean to be an Unnata Member?
We recently came across an article written in February 2018 by Occupational Therapist, Christy Jo Edgerle, MS, OTR/L.
In this article, Edgerle and her young students, take an Unnata® class at our member studio Kula Yoga and Wellness, in Wisconsin. Edgerle dives into the scientifically proven benefits of Unnata® Yoga including ‘upside-down play,’ and ‘vestibular, proprioceptive and tactile input,’ what those are and how they are beneficial for children and also for adults.
Edgerle shares her new-found love for the Unnata® Method and how excited the children were taking it.
Rock. Paper. Scissors. Let’s play a simple game that can teach us how to balance the three Ayurvedic doshas (Vata, Pitta, Kapha). But first, what is Ayurveda? And what are the doshas?
Ayurveda is science of Life (Ayur = Life, Veda = Science). It is the sister science of Yoga, and it teaches us how to manage our health at every level – physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual.
According to Ayurveda, the doshas are three primary qualities that we each embody in different amounts, and each dosha is derived from a particular combination of the five elements: earth, water, fire, air and ether (space).
Vata = air & ether (space)
Pitta = fire & water
Kapha = earth & water
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