About Ayama
Founded by Mariano Ardissone in 2003, Ayama Yoga & Healing Arts was created with a simple yet profound mission: to offer a sacred space for healing and personal transformation—supporting both teachers and students through the practice of yoga and complementary holistic healing arts.
More than 22 years later, we look back with deep gratitude, knowing that this mission has been meaningfully fulfilled. As our community has grown, so too has our calling. In order to deepen our impact and extend our service to the local community and beyond, Ayama has chosen to continue its work under its sister organization, Ayama Outreach, Inc., a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) corporation dedicated to service, education, healing, and personal transformation.
About The Meaning of Ayama
The Meaning of Ayama
The name Ayama comes from the Sanskrit root āyāma, meaning to expand, extend, or cultivate. In the yogic tradition, the word is most often encountered in prāṇāyāma—the conscious expansion and refinement of life force through breath.
At Ayama, this meaning reflects our deeper intention as a holistic center for yoga and healing arts: to create a sacred space that supports holistic wellness and longevity—physical, energetic, mental, emotional, and spiritual. Through mindful movement, breath awareness, meditation, self-inquiry, and education, practitioners are invited to soften limitations, restore balance, and reconnect with their innate capacity for presence and healing.
Ayama represents a process rather than a destination—an ongoing unfolding that honors tradition while meeting each individual where they are. It is a living resource that integrates time-honored wisdom with contemporary understanding, cultivating awareness, resilience, wholeness, community, and conscious living.
In this way, Ayama is not only a name, but an intention—a sacred space for healing, personal transformation, and longevity, grounded in tradition and lived through practice.