Eight Limbs of Aerial Yoga

Adapting Practice for Accessibility, Neurodiversity and Physical Support

Finding safety in our bodies is central to yoga practice, yet traditional classes don't always meet the needs of people with mobility challenges, neurodivergence, or mental health conditions. This new guide repositions the aerial hammock as a supportive, sensory tool that allows more people to experience yoga's physical and mental benefits - regardless of body type, ability, or neurological differences.

Written with trauma-informed, mental health-aware language and informed by the latest therapeutic research, this book honours yoga's South Asian roots while making the practice genuinely accessible to all.

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For Teachers, Students, and Every Body

This book serves both yoga professionals seeking to teach more inclusively and individuals wanting a safe home practice. Through lived experience testimonials, you'll discover how aerial yoga benefits people experiencing anxiety, depression, chronic pain, and PTSD. Contributors share how the sensory aspects of aerial yoga support autism and ADHD, while Jo provides practical strategies for self-managing different sensory needs in group settings.

Whether you're a teacher wanting to welcome more diverse students, or someone who's felt excluded from traditional yoga spaces due to body size, age, mobility, or neurodivergence, this book offers a pathway into practice. The aerial hammock becomes more than equipment - it's a tool for empowerment, allowing you to explore yoga's benefits in ways that honour your body's unique needs.

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250+ Photos, Sequencing Strategies and Real Life Inspiration

Professionals will find over 250 photographs of aerial yoga postures organised in a systematic structure that adapts to your teaching needs and mixed-ability groups. The book provides clear guidance on modifying postures for larger bodies, older adults, pregnancy, and conditions including MS and EDS.

Beyond the poses themselves, you'll get practical support for hammock installation, safety considerations, and how to sequence postures together for effective, therapeutic classes. This isn't just a pose library - it's a complete framework for creating classes that are fun, safe, and genuinely relaxing for students of all abilities.

The systematic approach means you can quickly find what you need, whether you're planning a class, working one-on-one with a student with specific needs, or developing your own home practice with confidence.

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The Hammock as Your Support System

What makes aerial yoga uniquely accessible? The hammock itself becomes a co-teacher, providing physical support that allows bodies to safely explore inversions, backbends, and stretches that might be challenging or impossible on a traditional mat. The ability to vary sensory input from gentle compression, deep pressure, cocooning and floating sensations, offers benefits particularly valuable for those with anxiety, trauma histories, or sensory processing challenges.

As Jivana Heyman writes in the foreword: "What strikes me most in this book is Jo's commitment to welcoming everyone to the practice. There's a big heart here that is open and welcoming to all of us. It welcomes our differently-shaped bodies, our neurodiverse minds, and the truth of our entire spirit."

This is yoga as it should be - not as something you must conform your body to, but as a practice that adapts to serve you, exactly as you are.

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Publication Details

Written by Jo Stewart | One of Australia's most experienced aerial yoga teachers, Jo has taught yoga since 2005 and aerial yoga since 2011. She founded the Garden of Yoga studio and is passionate about making movement accessible to marginalized communities.

Foreword by Jivana Heyman | Photography by Danielle Raphaël | Published by Singing Dragon, 2026 | Proudly supported by The Yoga for Good Foundation

About Jo

Endorsements

As teachers, we can choose to use aerial yoga as a way to do fancy tricks, or as Jo Stewart offers, to reach more people with love and support … I don’t know if I’ve read any other yoga book that strives so earnestly to welcome everyone to the practice.

Jivana Heyman C-IAYT, E-RYT500, Author, Yoga Teacher, and Founder of Accessible Yoga

This is a truly impressive book on aerial yoga, a subject I knew almost nothing about before reading through it. The book is not only very clearly written and comprehensive, but it helped me to understand the surprising number of benefits this form of yoga provides as well as how to make the practice accessible to a very wide range of people of all ages, body types, and physical condition.

Nina Zolotow Author of Yoga for Times of Change and co-author of Yoga for Healthy Aging

Yoga offers us many doorways into awareness. In this thoughtful and inspiring book, Jo Stewart invites aerial yoga teachers to explore their practice through the timeless framework of the eight limbs, reminding us that yoga is not only about what we do with the body, but also about how we relate to ourselves, to others and to the world around us. A must read for aerial yoga teachers who wish to connect their practice with the deeper philosophy of yoga.

Dr Lauren Tober Clinical Psychologist, Yoga Teacher, Author of Mental Health Aware Yoga: A Guide for Yoga Teachers and founder of the Yoga Psychology Institute.

Eight Limbs of Aerial Yoga offers a thoughtful and well-researched exploration of aerial yoga as both a historical and contemporary practice. I was especially interested to learn about the use of fabric hammocks and ropes as supportive tools in South Asian traditions. The authors clearly articulate how aerial yoga can expand accessibility and inclusivity in yoga spaces, while also providing grounded, practical guidance on trauma-informed care. The book presents many creative and clinically relevant ideas that invite teachers and therapists to reconsider what support, stability, and adaptability can look like in practice.

Amy Wheeler PhD, Chair, Yoga Therapy and Ayurveda Notre Dame of Maryland University

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Questions

What is the Eight Limbs of Aerial Yoga book about?

Eight Limbs of Aerial Yoga is a guide to using the aerial hammock to work with the body and mind, and integrate yogic philosophy into your teaching and practice.

It repositions the aerial hammock as a supportive, sensory tool to allow more people with diverse needs to experience the physical benefits of yoga and focus the mind. It provides teachers with a framework to create fun, safe and relaxing classes and for students to safely practice aerial yoga at home.

It is grounded in the philosophy and ethics of Patanjali’s eight limbs and explores how the support of the aerial hammock can enhance all aspects of this practice.

Written by Jo Stewart and published by Singing Dragon in 2026.

Is aerial yoga suitable for older people?

Yes! Older adults often find the support of the aerial hammock reduces pressure on joints, makes getting up and down from the floor easier (or provides a convenient alternative), and allows access to postures that might otherwise be out of reach.

Eight Limbs of Aerial Yoga shares live experience perspectives, pose options and options to help older people access the physical and mental health benefits of yoga.

Who is this book written for?

Yoga teachers who want to teach more inclusively and sequence creatively for multi level classes.

Individuals who want to establish a safe and inspiring home practice especially those who've felt excluded from traditional yoga spaces due to body size, age, disability, or neurodivergence.

Health professionals like Physiotherapists, Occupational therapists and Yoga Therapists who use the aerial hammock within their scope of practice.

Is this book suitable for beginners with no yoga experience?

Yes! Eight Limbs of Aerial Yoga doesn't assume prior yoga knowledge and includes practical guidance on hammock installation, safety, and sequencing.

Every step of each pose is clearly illustrated with over 250 photographs by Danielle Lara Woolley.

How does aerial yoga support people with Autism or ADHD?

The hammock provides many sensory options including swinging, spinning, deep pressure, cocooning, and floating sensations which can be regulating for sensory seeking and soothing.

Eight Limbs of Aerial Yoga includes lived experience testimonials from contributors with autism and ADHD as well as ways that these different sensory needs can be self managed in a group setting.

Can aerial yoga help with anxiety and trauma?

The physical support and sensory qualities of the hammock can help people with anxiety, depression, PTSD, and trauma histories access yoga's benefits in a way that feels safe rather than overwhelming.

The aerial hammock can be a bridge towards interception and a way to explore play, pleasure and relaxation through movement.

Considerations like scope of practice, ethics and mindful use of language are also addressed.

Is aerial yoga suitable for bigger bodies? Is there a weight limit?

Aerial yoga can be a wonderful practice for people of all body sizes can the support of the aerial hammock can make many movements more accessible. Eight Limbs of Aerial Yoga book shares pose options and hammock height adjustments that can make aerial yoga more comfortable for larger bodies, as well as lived experience sharing.

Body positive language is used throughout and the emphasis is on practicing in the way that supports your needs, with helpful strategies for home practice.

There is also a section on safe rigging and equipment purchase and quality aerial yoga equipment is generally rated for working load limit of 200 kg.

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