There is a lot of Rocking involved when using the Aerial swing. This can have enormous therapeutic effects. The rocking motion has a highly beneficial healing effect on humans easing the stress and anxiety brought on by our high pressured, high-tech lives. For example, reducing blood pressure, slowing down breathing, stimulating blood flow and helping the gentle rhythmic contraction and relaxation of back muscles.
We have always known that Rocking has relaxing and calming effects on mothers and babies as it has an effect on our ability to fall asleep and also the quality of the sleep, but this also extends to adults, tapping into a pleasure centre found in the brain.
A clinical study demonstrates that for people undergoing loss of independence due to Dementia, repeated use of a rocking chair improves blood circulation and balance while lessening muscular pain, anxiety and depression: -
“During the weeks they rocked, most residents’ psychological and emotional well-being improved.”
Source: The Therapeutic Effects of Rocking
Regular Aerial swing practitioners also regularly report an improvement in balance as the rocking motion helps stimulate the body’s ability to maintain balance.
Rock away!
]]>‘It harnesses the power of passivity to return homeostasis to our overwrought nervous systems. So, calmed and strengthened, you can go on with the quest.
Richard Holroyd, Aerial Yoga London
A practice that is focussed and grounded, can bring people to stillness.
]]>Regular yoga practitioners have experienced the Aerial swing’s transformative power as consistent practice helps remove the obstacles that obscure who people really are, that it helps come into psychological change - a fuller expression of true nature. As in traditional yoga, the Aerial swings give physical assistance to this process of psychological change. When considering real change in life, one can feel as though they are 'losing ground'. When people come through this experience and find that it was actually quite pleasurable it builds, self-confidence, as well as curiosity. These are qualities that are very helpful on the psychological level when considering fundamental change in human life. The yoga journey and this flowering of consciousness is a fundamental change – it brings great self-awareness and opens people up to a more profound relationship with life. These swings can be used very profitably in that journey, as everyone needs support.
“It is through the alignment of the body that I discovered the alignment of my mind, self, and intelligence.” B.K.S. Iyengar, Light on Life
]]>It is a playful and liberating experience and those who enjoyed swinging on the playground monkey bars as a child are taken back to this feeling of freedom. Play matters to our health and happiness and we can quite often forget its value and that it is essential to our health and well-being: -
“...beneficial effects of getting just a little true play can spread through our lives, actually making us more productive and happier in everything we do.”
‘Play’ Dr. Stuart Brown
The Aerial swing can create a sense of adventure, cultivate self-trust and add playfulness to life for better mind and body health and life quality.
]]>Any prop that brings people closer to ease and pleasure has to be worthy of investigation.
The Aerial swing is a prop!
It supports up to 150kg of body weight. It can be suspended at various heights off the ground depending on which postures one might be trying. In practice, the swing tends to start low with grounding and settling practises, before going higher for the more stimulating component of an Aerial swing yoga class. Then back low for more grounding. As a prop the swing assists alignment, deepens mindfulness and provides the immediate benefit of spinal decompression. Practitioners can explore and create length and space in the body. Without the compression of the joints and spine, proper posture and alignment can be achieved through relaxation rather than effort, therefore finding a more balanced and creative expression of each pose. It is suitable for beginners to advanced students. Whilst it improves flexibility, core strength and creativity it also makes challenging poses accessible, safer and more
pleasurable!
The Aerial swing can enhance and inspire any Yoga practice – it is a wonderful supporting prop.
“The body is the prop for the soul. So why not let the body be propped by a wall or a block?” BKS Iyengar
or the Aerial Swing!
‘The quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty’
Courage is what it takes to turn your world upside down and take that first ever inversion in the Aerial Swing. Trying anything new requires a certain amount of courage and as we approach a new year, we think about trying new things. Taking new action takes courage. Taking an action you didn’t think possible takes courage.
The Aerial Swing acts as a powerful tool to support inversions, while still activating the necessary muscles, proper alignment and bone stacking as well as grounding. This is truly freeing – physically, mentally and spiritually.
Letting yourself fall backward and hang takes people out of their comfort zone. This is a scary and daunting prospect into the unknown. Physically, hanging upside down may initially seem risky, but one can invert in the swing without putting pressure on the head or spine as in classic inversions. There is a softer alignment in an Aerial inversion.
Courage is required to hang down and strength to come up again. It is about losing your ground to find your centre. This can be a mind-body-spirit experience that builds courage because of the unfamiliar setting – liberating, as the body does something it has not experienced before.
Once the body has been to this place often enough and found that everything feels okay, it will feel more bold, playful and courageous. “Just let yourself fall backward.” pretty soon changes to ‘I just need to hang upside down!’”
‘Courage is the most important of all virtues because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently’ – Maya Angelou
Please do not attempt your first inversion without having first received safe instruction and guidance from an experienced Aerial Yoga teacher
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