Aerial Insights: Jo Stewart's Journey to Inclusive Yoga Practices

In this inspiring episode of Living the Dream with Curveball, we chat with Jo Stewart, an accomplished yoga teacher and podcast host from Melbourne, Australia. With a passion for body positivity, self-acceptance, and inclusivity, Jo has been teaching yoga since 2005 and aerial yoga since 2011. She shares her unique approach to yoga, emphasizing the importance of adapting practices to suit individuals of all backgrounds and abilities. Jo discusses her upcoming book, *Eight Limbs of Aerial Yoga: Adapting Practice for Accessibility, Neurodiversity, and Physical Support*, which aims to make yoga accessible to a wider audience. Through her insights on aerial yoga, she reveals how this innovative practice can empower individuals, particularly women, through various life stages. Jo also highlights the historical roots of aerial yoga and its distinction from circus aerials, reinforcing the notion that yoga is ultimately about personal experience rather than performance. Tune in to discover Jo's journey, her thoughts on the importance of self-care, and how her podcast, *The Flow Artist*, serves as a platform for sharing wisdom from inspiring voices in the yoga community and beyond.
For more information, visit www.gardenofyoga.com.au and check out her podcast on all major platforms.
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Transcript

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 0:00

Welcome to the Living the Dream podcast with Curveball. If you believe you can achieve. Welcome, to the Living the Dream with Curveball podcast, a show where I interview guests that teach, motivate and inspire. Today I am joined by Jo Stewart. Jo is a yoga teacher and a podcast host. Jo has been teaching yoga since 2005 and aerial yoga since 2011. She approaches each practitioner different and she focuses on body positivity, self comparison and inclusion. So we're going to be talking to Jo about her yoga practices and yoga methods and everything that she's up to and gonna be up to. So, Joe, thank you for joining me.

>> Jo Stewart: 0:59

Thanks so much, Curtis, and thanks for that lovely intro.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 1:03

Why don't you start off by telling everybody a little bit about yourself?

>> Jo Stewart: 1:07

Well, I'm based in Australia, hometown Melbourne. I've got a little studio in my back garden called Garden of Yoga. And as Curtis mentioned, I teach aerial yoga. I also teach, like, regular floor based yoga as well, generally like a slow, nurturing, gentle practice. And I've actually just written a book called Eight Limbs of Aerial Yoga Adapting Practice for Accessibility, Neurodiversity and Physical Support, which is coming out in April. And as Curtis mentioned, I've been teaching yoga and aerial yoga for a while and it feels like the book was this chance to kind of share everything I've learned as a teacher to hopefully help other people, whether they're practicing at home or whether they are, also a yoga teacher. Just looking for some ways to make the movement practice, but also the meditation and the mental health benefits of yoga more accessible for a really diverse range of people. Because I do believe these practices are for everyone and that's my job as a teacher, to share them in a way that's really going to work for everyone who's there in my class.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 2:17

So what made you want to get into yoga teaching?

>> Jo Stewart: 2:20

Well, I was lucky. When I was a little kid, I, started a painting class and my painting teacher was also a yoga teacher. The style is sumi e, so it's, ink brush painting and it's got a lot of Zen philosophy as part of the painting process. It's more about using the ink and the brush and the ritual to get to a particular state of mind. Like you will produce a painting as well, but that's almost secondary. It's like the meditation process. So I've, I've kind of had that for a really long time. And I loved art and I went to art school. But that's when it really shifted from just being a practice that's all about, like, enjoying the process to something that's got a lot of pressure attached to it. And I went to a yoga class, just random yoga class, to see if that would be helpful. And it turns out it really was, like, it really helped me, like, calm down, get out of my own way, get back in touch with that creative flow. So I started going to yoga really regularly. And when I finished art school, I was looking for another job that I could do alongside making art. Not necessarily a 9 to 5, something that would take up less time, but also be fulfilling, like, be something that I really believed in. And so I went to yoga teacher training to become a yoga teacher. And just along the way, I realized that I think my life would be more fulfilling and easier as well, because, like, being an artist full time is a hard life. If I really shifted focus to, like, focus on yoga and on being a yoga teacher and to do art, for fun, rather than trying to make that my career and my vocation. Because I felt that teaching yoga actually tapped into a lot of the same stuff that I loved about us. So that's, that's where I'm at. And I do get to feel like I can be creative, both in terms of the movements that I put together, but also the ways that I can share things that meet the needs of a lot of different people who might be in the same group together and give everyone that space. Space to figure out, like, what is going to work for them.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 4:36

Well, talk about area yoga. What, what is aerial yoga and how can it support women throughout all phases of life?

>> Jo Stewart: 4:45

So if you've been to the circus and seen the aerial silks, the two bits of fabric that hang down from the ceiling, imagine just one of those and it loops at the bottom. So both ends attach up to the ceiling. And the, the bottom loop can either hang at about hip height, or you can bring it lower to the floor, like knee or ankle height. And depending on where the fabric is, you might hold onto it with both hands to support balance. So that's great for people who might be older, who might be recovering from an injury or a different condition. That means that they just need a bit more support and stability as they work on balance. So good for people who've got any bone density issues. For example, you, you can still hang upside down, so you can do some moves that feel quite supportive, but maybe seeing them might look like a little bit more of a circus move than a yoga move. I feel like what makes it yoga is the inner experience of the practice so hanging upside down as an inversion can have physical benefits, can feel like a really great decompressing feeling for your back, but also it can have a lot of mental benefits as well. Like even just putting yourself out of your comfort zone and trying something new can be a really powerful experience. It can be really empowering. You see the world from a different perspective when you see it upside down. So that can be good to like, shift you out of whatever has been going on. Because when you're doing something that feels so immersive, it can be a moving meditation. You can just be in that state of connection with your mind and with your body. And then there's also the restorative height poses. And they can be great if you are, feeling depleted, if you're feeling exhausted, if you're experience hip pain and back pain, A lot of the restorative moves can be super soothing for that. If you've practiced yoga with a bolster, like a pillow that goes underneath your hips or underneath your upper body, the hammock takes that place. So you might suspend the legs and the hips and gently sway, and that can feel amazing for the lower back. Or you might tuck the hammock underneath the back of your chest, and that can be a beautiful opening stretch for the upper back. So I feel like this, the power of the aerial hammock is it can meet you where you're at. So no matter how old you are, and this applies to all genders, but especially if you have a menstrual cycle, if you're going through perimenopause or menopause, you can feel really different each day. Your energy levels can fluctuate, your pain levels can fluctuate, you can feel a lot of different emotional stuff coming up. And I feel like that's the power of the hammock. It can just meet you where you're at. So if you need to be supported and cocooned, you can just lie in the hammock and maybe bring in some gentle movement with that. So that can be really helpful if you're experiencing pain, just to do some movements that feel relaxing and freeing for your spine. If you're feeling energized, there's movements that you can do there as well. And especially as we get older and estrogen levels drop, it becomes really important to work on bone density and muscle mass to like, stay strong and to, like support active aging. So there are moves that you can do with that. You can do moves that are similar to a pull up, but a lot more supported. Any move where you're holding the fabric with your hands, you can introduce a focus on grip strength by stretching it apart. And like, grip strength is a really functional biomarker. Like, it's one of the things that they test just to see how people are at as they're getting older. And it tends to correlate that if your grip strength is strong, a lot of other things, are also working well for you. And then there's also this, that chance to feel free as you move in the hammock. A lot of the people that I work with, women and all genders, are working in caring professions. So it could be full time parents, but I also work with a lot of teachers, nurses, psychologists, people whose day to day job is very much taking care of the needs of others. And it just seems like the feeling of being in the fabric, that feeling of like being supported, being held, can really help to shift gears just for an hour or so into really feeling into what you need for your mind and your body, to recharge your batteries, to refill your cup, so that when you do move back out into the world, into all of those other responsibilities, you've had that time just to do something for yourself.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 9:39

Well, talk about the history of, area yoga. Is it a modern practice?

>> Jo Stewart: 11:05

So this is really interesting because I feel like often in the marketing of aerial yoga, it's shown as a new thing. So when I was researching for my book, I actually discovered there's a lot of historical precedents, in especially South Indian culture, there's a thing called a thoughtful, and it's basically a fabric hammock. So mothers put their bay, or both parents put their babies to sleep in the throttle. And it feels like that feeling of sleeping in a hammock. You feel held and you feel supported and the baby can freely move. So that's something that directly translates into aerial yoga. And it also has ceremonial uses as well. Like often deity statues would be supported by a thought. So it's both a, furniture thing and also like an article of spiritual practice. there are actually some historical texts that have been discovered in the Mysore Palace. So the texts that they're found are from the 18th and 19th century, but they're probably based on earlier wisdom where there are actual illustrations of people hanging upside down from trees using ropes rather than fabric, but using it as a supported type of yoga practice. I believe as well they're aesthetic practices. And this is a different goal because I would never encourage students to push past the point of pain, but this would have been a spiritual practice where people hang upside down. It, was called bat penance for a really long time as a way of transcending their experience of their bodies to get into a higher spiritual state. So that's kind of not something that I would advocate in my classes, but that is a historical precedent of people doing these supported inversions as another aspect of their spiritual practice. And then just modern aerial yoga also draws a lot from circus. Like, there are movements that do come from aerial arts. I do them with a different focus. I do them not so much as a performance, but more for the inner experience. But I think it's important to acknowledge that's part of, part of it as well. And I'm actually, a chair yoga teacher as well. I teach accessible yoga and chair yoga, so working with lots of different populations, many of whom have disabilities, have mobility challenges. So I, I bring a lot of that chair yoga practice into my aerial yoga classes because the hammock can be like, it can feel, fulfill a lot of the same roles as the chair, but it's much more versatile. So you can bring the floor up to someone who isn't able to go down to the floor for knee reasons or wrist reasons and still find a way to practice lots of different asana, lots of different yoga poses, so that people can access those physical and mental benefits. And I feel like that is a connection back into how yoga has been historically taught. Big group classes are a pretty new way to learn and experience yoga. Like, historically, it would be very much about a small group or an individual practice where a teacher would share poses and practices based on what that individual needs. And rather than everyone learning the same sequence, you learn at a pace where you can integrate and learn and then move on to the next thing. So I try to, honor that in my teaching and practice as well. It's not about trying to make everyone do the same sequence and the same flow. It's more about tuning into what is going to work for that individual person and letting them learn at a pace that works for them.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 14:58

Well, how is aerial yoga different than circus aerials?

>> Jo Stewart: 15:02

I think it's the intention. So if you're a circus performer, it's all about putting on an, amazing show for the audience. So often circus performers might be pushing through injuries, they might be pushing through pain, they might be doing movements that don't feel good because that's their job. Like, they have to show up and they have to put on a show. And yoga is kind of the opposite of that. So it really is about the inner experience. It's about tuning into what's going to work for your body and also what you need mentally and emotionally on that day. So some days your practice might be just lying in the hammock like a cocoon and resting and breathing and taking that time to rest and rejuvenate. And that wouldn't make for a good circus show. So I feel like that's the difference. A, ah, yoga practice is for you and what's happening inside the body. And for a circus performer, it's for the audience and the outer experience of what that movement looks like.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 16:04

Well, how can we honor yoga's roots, especially when we use modern props like the aerial hammocks these days?

>> Jo Stewart: 16:12

I think it comes down to sharing all aspects of yoga, so not just the physical practices, but also the philosophy and aiming to live those ethics and philosophies in, our everyday lives as well. I think it's also about honoring South Asian teachers, present and historical, the source of this wisdom that we share, and crediting them to not take that knowledge like I'm a white person, to not take that knowledge as my own, but to really honor where it comes from and that continued history and, to treat this practice with respect and with reverence. It's not just a workout.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 16:57

Well, what are the most common misconceptions that you see or hear about aerial yoga?

>> Jo Stewart: 17:04

That you have to look a certain way to practice it. So often if you search for aerial yoga on Instagram, you would see people who look like circus performers, so young, super flexible, thin, doing impressive movements and flows and tricks. And that can be a part of aerial yoga. And I'm not saying you shouldn't be practicing aerial yoga if you look that way, but I feel like the real magic of this practice is actually how it can make the movement more accessible because it's so adaptable. So in my book, I, really wanted to reflect that with the models who were students of mine. So one of my models is 75. Shout out to Maggie. another person also shared their experiences practicing in a class in a bigger body, and how aerial yoga really helped them make friends with their body and move in a way that feels right for them. So shout out for Wendy. Thank you so much for sharing your experience. So maybe if you're older, if you're bigger, if you just don't feel like you identify with the image that you see of aerial yoga shared online. Like, I feel like that's where the misconception comes in that it won't be a practice for you, but actually it is really adaptable for different bodies and also for different brains, like a lot of my studio community and neurodivergent and find the hammock really helpful to work with sensory processing, to work with nervous system regulation. And many of those people have found that yoga on the mat doesn't always work for them. It doesn't always meet them where they're at. So I feel like another misconception can be that aerial yoga is more challenging than mat based yoga, when actually sometimes it can be challenging, gentler, more adaptable, and can work for people who found that a matte based practice maybe doesn't work for them.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 19:11

We'll talk to the listeners about your podcast. Let us know, what it's about, what we can expect when we listen to it and where we can listen to it.

>> Jo Stewart: 19:18

Oh, thanks, Curtis. So it's called the Flow Artist Podcast. it's with my husband Ryan, he's my co host. He's also a yoga teacher, but a web developer as well. And we do talk to a lot of yoga people, but we talk to everyone who inspires us. So we talk to authors, activists, people we know from our local community. I've had the chance to talk to a lot of authors of some of my favorite yoga books, which has been amazing. It gives you a forum to reach out to these people who you admire, who inspire you, and to essentially have like a masterclass with them where you can ask them about your work, their work. You can ask them all the questions that might have come up for you. Anytime that I go to a yoga teacher training or workshop, I am, always the person who has the most questions in the room. And that's even holding back some questions because I don't want to be obnoxious and take up too much time in that workshop where people are here to learn from someone else. But the podcast is this forum where I can ask all the questions and also, like, highlight people who I think are amazing and share their work with the world.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 20:34

Well, tell us about any other upcoming projects that you're working on that listeners need to be aware of.

>> Jo Stewart: 20:40

Oh, thanks. So my book's coming out April 21st. Like I mentioned, it's called Eight Limbs of Aerial Adapting Practice for Accessibility, Neurodiversity and Physical Support. it's available at all the, like, major retailers or I would love it if you went to your local independent bookstore and asked for them to order it in. My goal is that it is for aerial yoga teachers who want to make their practice more accessible for different people who want to bring in the philosophy, but also for people who maybe want to. Or a lot of people have already bought an aerial yoga hammock from the Internet and aren't sure what to do for it, what to do with it. So giving them the tools to be their own teacher. And a lot of the people who I share about in my book, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, people who might not be yoga teachers, but can use the aerial hammock as part of their scope of practice. And so it's for them as well, and hopefully, kind of shifting people's perceptions of aerial yoga for something that is all about the physical or something that's just like a different type of circus movement into like a, well respected discipline that's about supporting people physically and mentally and making movement and yoga, more accessible.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 22:05

Well, so people can keep up with everything that you're up to. Throw out your contact info.

>> Jo Stewart: 22:10

Oh, thanks. So I'm Garden of Yoga on Instagram. my website is gardenofyoga.com au and then you could also go straight to the book@8limbsofaerial yoga.com and the flow Artist podcast is just the Flow Artist podcast and you can find that on all the regular apps.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 22:31

All right, there you go. So close us out with some final thoughts. Maybe if that was something I forgot to talk about that you would like to touch on or any final thoughts you have for the listeners.

>> Jo Stewart: 22:40

Oh, thanks, Curtis. I want to thank you for, having me on today. I guess my final thought for the listener is that I hope everyone out there is taking care of themselves. It's a lot going on in the world at the moment and it can feel really overwhelming. So I hope people have practices that they can turn to to support them so that they can get what they need and then give them the energy and the clarity to give back to the world to make positive change, whether that's supporting someone close to them in their community or beyond that. Because I think that's what we need right now. I think we need these ways to take care of ourselves and each other.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 23:26

All right, ladies and gentlemen, garden of yoga.com au Ah, please be sure to check out the website and the podcast and to be sure, pick up the book when it comes out here in just a few weeks and follow rate Review Share this episode to as many people as possible. Let them know about the benefits of aerial yoga. And also I would like to let you know about the benefits of visiting www.craveball337.com where you can leave a review, you can follow the show, and if you haven't done so, you can sign up for the newsletter and keep up with all things. Living the Dream. Thank you for listening and supporting the show. Make sure you share that website and the show to everybody you know. And Joe, thank you for all that you do in the yoga space and thank you for joining me.

>> Jo Stewart: 24:15

Thanks so much, Curtis.

>> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball): 24:17

For more information on the Living the Dream with Curveball Podcast, visit www.craveball337.com until next time, keep Living the Dream.