INTERMEDIATE SERIES
INTERMEDIATE SERIES
The Intermediate Series is about the PROCESS of doing yoga. It encourages us to explore our body’s most innate, organic expression, underneath all our conditioning, even the conditioning of yoga.
How do we find alignment, heal and balance, move energy, and commune with the divine, from within, in our own unique way? How do we discover our organic breath, how does it move the spine, and what really brings integrity to the body? How do we find our way to our neutral body and equanimous mind contained in our sacred flesh but free to expand to the infinite?
In the Intermediate Series, our meditation practice, AY Nidra, influences how we approach the three distinct streams within this series:
1. Stability: AY FIRMA
2. Mobility: AY FLOW
3. Meditation: AY NIDRA
These streams are not in sequential fashion. Select the stream that will balance you at the moment so that you may experience the state of Samadhi (or feelings of deep connection) on a regular basis.
STABILITY: AY FIRMA
Strengthen your new movement patterns (including pulling and spirals) through the integrated and repetitive movements of this high-intensity but low-impact AY Practice.
Using the aquaball and resistance bands, you will learn how to manage increasing loads while improving your motor control and coordination. This reduces the risk of injury.
Done either on the SUP or the SB (stability board), we combine the movements of Yoga, Pilates and Functional Training in AY Firma to stabilize the joints, strengthen the legs, arms and core, and build endurance.
MOBILITY: AY FLOW
As a softer and gentler AY Practice, this yin-yang class provides a balance to the more dynamic AY Firma class. It improves flexibility and mobility by focusing on the pliancy of the shoulders, upper back, hips, groin, spine and abdomen, further enhancing your movement patterns.
Moreover, this class delves into the realm of subtle energy, exploring the organs and glands both as an energetic support to our structural core and as the natural habitats of our emotions, aspirations, and the memories of our inner reactions to our personal histories. They provide us with our sense of self, full-bodiedness, and authentic expression while supporting our emotional well-being, and giving volume to our movements.
By practicing AY Flow regularly, you can decrease the likelihood of strain and overuse injury, while encouraging the development of your intuitive faculty within your own yoga practice through interoception.
MEDITATION: AY NIDRA
For most of us, it is not possible to move directly from asana practice to meditation. This requires jumping from the body to the mind, forgetting what lies between. To make this transition, the breath and the senses, which link the body and mind, first need to be brought under control and developed properly. This is where our AY Nidra practice comes in.
AY Nidra is our specialized form of mindfulness meditation that focuses on the body to deepen our awareness of its sensations. Conducted while lying down, it is a guided somatic meditation practice that bridges the gap between the body and mind. Unlike traditional seated meditation techniques that use visualizations or mantras, AY Nidra centers on the raw sensory experience within the body.
Our body feels; we see, we hear, we taste. However, the judgment and control that can arise from the discomfort of feeling need to shift. As we learn to observe our body sensations more and more, without fight or flight, we can learn to stay in contact, to be equanimous and non-judgmental. The practice of AY Nidra is the practice of equanimity, and on the most basic level the absence of the mind being in control.
As a result, this AY Practice grounds the mind and body leading to a profound experience of relaxation and alignment, and offering a path to reduce stress, enhance self-awareness, and even promote healing.
