ADVANCED SERIES
ADVANCED SERIES
We welcome the clarity, mental space and basic wisdom that emerges as a result of awakening our physiology as we immerse ourselves in exploration of the reality of our practice and the totality of our personal experience.
It draws attention to the relationship between soft tissue sensitivity and the quality of our consciousness.
In the Advanced Series, our meditation practice, AY Sati, influences how we approach the three distinct streams within this series:
1. Stability: AY SPORT
2. Mobility: AY RESTORE
3. Meditation: AY SATI
The 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 SPORT
AY Sport is a high-intensity and high-impact AY Practice that enhances dynamic stability, movement variability, and motor learning to elevate athletic performance.
Using the SUP or SB (stability board) and aqua bag in a more powerful way improves our adaptability, robustness and resiliency, while also boosting our aerobic and anaerobic capacities.
By activating co-contraction for motor control (instead of proprioception), it rouses the unconscious decentral control of stability that is required not only in sports but also in unexpected real life perturbations.
Through this AY Practice we can elicit our autonomy which not only develops self-confidence but instills accountability. Dynamic stability and variability create a stable yet flexible system necessary to thrive in life and sport.
MOBILITY: AY RESTORE
AY Restore is a body-centered and trauma-sensitive AY Practice that is rooted in psychology. It focuses on healing and addressing injuries and/or trauma, making it ideal for times of injury or when transitioning from a triggered, stressful state into a regulated, parasympathetic state. This practice is designed to transform us on a cellular level. Through the use of restorative SUP Yoga postures and Somatic Therapy methods, we can effectively and consciously release built-up tension and negative emotions stored in the body.
When a traumatic event occurs, our body’s stress response triggers the nervous system into survival mode, releasing stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. This leads to elevated blood sugar, blood pressure, and a compromised immune system, causing the body to remain in a prolonged fight-or-flight mode even after the trauma has passed. This prolonged state can manifest physically, resulting in symptoms like chronic pain, fatigue, and immune system issues.
Moreover, traumatic experiences can instill deep-seated negative beliefs that aren’t readily accessible to our conscious minds, leading to persistent thoughts of self-doubt and unworthiness. These emotions linger in the body and resurface during new stressful situations or triggers from past traumas, causing a cycle of re-experiencing those feelings repeatedly.
The intention of AY Restore is to let go of the need to set a goal or push ourselves, and instead focus on supporting our body where it’s at in order to become more regulated and balanced, allowing for healing and restoring energy.
MEDITATION: AY SATI
AY Sati is our seated meditation practice that consists of two complementary aspects: serenity and insight. Serenity empowers insight, while insight provides direction to serenity. Imbalance can lead to issues; insight without calmness may cause distress, and being calm without understanding can be directionless and occasionally become misdirected.
The insight aspect of AY Sati emphasizes mindfulness and inquiry, and serves to deconstruct the problems we may create out of misunderstanding and misperception. Insight helps us see and understand ourselves, life and the world as they truly are, not as we desire them to be. With AY Sati we ask the questions “what” is happening and “how” is it happening, fostering wisdom and insight.
The practice of AY Sati involves attentively observing experiences in body, heart, mind, and life with an open-minded, non-judgmental, curious approach. Attention is softened with intentions of goodwill, letting go, and non-harm, fostering an understanding of the interplay between our internal and external experiences.
