Membership
The Laya Center offers a unique wellness experience, blending traditional Afrivedic™ practices with modern health technologies to create a holistic approach to wellness. With customizable memberships, clients can tailor their journey to health, choosing from a range of services including spa treatments, fitness classes, and wellness workshops. The center's emphasis on integrating physical, mental, and spiritual health attracts individuals seeking comprehensive health solutions. Special membership offers include a 15% discount for monthly payments and a 20% discount for those who pay six months upfront, encouraging a commitment to sustained wellness. This approach not only positions The Laya Center as a leader in holistic health but also invites individuals into a serene and transformative wellness journey designed to nourish the body, mind, and spirit.
Discover Afrivedic™ Wellness
Afrivedic™ Wellness is our proprietary approach that honors the connection between the African diaspora and the timeless healing traditions of Ayurveda. It is a journey that begins with understanding your unique elemental makeup and leads to a personalized wellness experience that is as individual as you are. It's a philosophy that nurtures your entire being, aligning you with the elemental forces that animate life.
Your Elemental Journey to Wellness
Earth (Massage): Stand Your Ground with our therapeutic massages, designed to reconnect you to the Earth element. Feel the restoring touch that eases muscle tension, enhances stability, and rejuvenates your physical foundation. Ground your being with our herbal treatments and mineral rich salt therapies, which draw out impurities and instill a sense of stability and resilience.
Water (Yoni Steam, Hydrotherapy): Flow into tranquility with our hydrotherapies and purification rituals, cleansing your body and soothing your soul. These treatments gently cleanse, hydrate, and refresh, mirroring the life-giving essence of flowing rivers and tranquil lakes.
Fire (Infrared, Light Therapy): Ignite your inner spark with the transformative energy of Fire through our infrared and light therapies. These powerful modalities harness the Fire element to boost your metabolic flame and invigorate your body's energy centers.
Air (Cryotherapy): Soar on the breezes of wellness with our Air-elemental cryotherapy. This invigorating treatment enhances circulation, breathes new life into your cells, and uplifts your spirit with the crisp clarity of a cool breeze.
Ether (Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy): Connect with the vast Ether element through our Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy. Elevate your wellness experience as you breathe in the purity of concentrated oxygen, filling the expansive space within your being with vitality.
Customizable Membership Services
Understanding that wellness is not one-size-fits-all, we offer Customizable Memberships & Retreat Services tailored to fit your unique needs. Choose from a wide array of services and create a personalized wellness plan that speaks to you. Whether you’re drawn to our serene spa treatments, invigorating fitness classes, or restorative retreats, your journey to wellness is yours to design.
Workshops, Fitness, and Recreational Activities
Dive into our diverse selection of workshops, fitness, and recreational activities. From soulful yoga sessions to exhilarating fitness challenges and enlightening workshops, each experience is a step toward achieving your wellness goals. Engage in activities that fuel your passion, enhance your health, and elevate your spirit.
Join Our Community
Become a member of The Laya Center family and gain access to a world of exclusive benefits, personalized treatments, and a community of like-minded individuals who share your commitment to wellness. With our membership, you're not just part of a center; you're part of a movement towards living your most balanced and vibrant life.
MEMBER PERKS
Standard discount on your curated monthly treatments.
Additional 15% off all lifestyle products, supplements, Tea Bar purchases.
Free Yoga (when available)
Access to the Ancestral Meditation Collection
Choose between balance or a focused, elemental membership. Want to create your own membership? Submit your request below!
Balancing the body through elemental theory taps into the profound wisdom of nature, offering a blueprint for holistic wellness that aligns with our intrinsic needs. Customizing a membership based on this elemental balance ensures a deeply personalized approach to health, yielding benefits that are as unique and dynamic as the individual themselves, promoting optimal well-being in harmony with the natural world.
ELEMENTAL balance
Balancing the body through elemental theory taps into the profound wisdom of nature, offering a blueprint for holistic wellness that aligns with our intrinsic needs. Customizing a membership based on this elemental balance ensures a deeply personalized approach to health, yielding benefits that are as unique and dynamic as the individual themselves, promoting optimal well-being in harmony with the natural world.
ether
The Akasha Element
Ether has qualities, but unlike the other elements, ether’s qualities are based more upon the absence of its opposing quality than on the actual quality itself. For instance, ether is cold. It is cold because it lacks warmth created by fire. Ether is light because it lacks the heaviness created by earth and water. Ether is immobile because it lacks the propulsive nature of air. Ether is subtle because it lacks the profound presence of the more obvious elements. Ether is also omnipresent. It is everywhere. In the body, ether is expressed within the empty spaces. The hollow of the empty intestines, blood vessels, bladder, and the lungs are filled with ether. Vitiation of ether in the body results in an increase of space and a decrease in structure. The result is the destruction of tissue.
Bring oxygen to the body where blood flow is constricted, scar tissue has altered the tissues, air flow is blocked, and inflammation in any part of the body has interfered in nerve function. Use the concentrated oxygen as a beauty regimen to turn back the hands of time.
Balancing with Ether requires Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy.
air
Air is mobile, cool, light, dry, rough, subtle, flowing, sharp, clear, and hard. Although air is subtle, its effects are observable and so we have a sense of what it is. In the body, air is expressed in the form of motion and life. It is the force allowing blood to circulate, breath to move, nerve impulses to glide, thoughts to flow, and joints to propel our movement through the world. Air is the force behind all motion. Disturbances in the functions of air result in aberrant motion. Air may move too fast, too slow, or become obstructed and blocked. Each occurrence produces different effects depending upon the location of the air that is disturbed.
Excess motion in the nervous system results in hyper-excitability, deficient motion produces sluggishness and dullness, while blocked flow results in a complete loss of motion. For example, in the digestive system excess flow results in diarrhea, deficient flow results in sluggish motion, and blocked flow results in either severe constipation or complete obstruction. In the joints, excess motion results in hyper-mobility, deficient motion results in decreased range of motion, and blocked flow results in a frozen joint. In the circulatory system, excess motion can result in rapid heart rate, decreased flow in a sluggish heart rate or poor circulation, and blocked flow results in catastrophic consequences, such as robbing the affected area of its blood supply. This results in tissue ischemia (lack of oxygen) leading to necrosis (death of the tissue).
Balancing with Air requires Cryotherapy.
fire
It comes third because it evolves from ether and air, containing the essence of these elements within it. Ether provides fire the space to exist within, while air provides fire the capacity to burn. It is because of air that fire will never be still. The fire element represents the capacity for heat and light. Fire is the generator of energy in the body just as the sun is the generator of energy for the earth.
Fire represents light, heat, luster, energy, understanding, metabolism, and the power of transformation.
In the human body, fire is expressed in five distinct ways. The fire that provides our body with the capacity to digest food is called pachaka agni. The fire that ignites the intellect, digests ideas, and allows for understanding is sadhaka agni. The fire of perception that that digests visual impression into recognizable images is called alocaka agni. The fire that energizes and invigorates the body, adding color to the body is called ranjaka agni. The fire that digests touch and sunlight and gives off the radiance associated with healthy skin is the light provided by bhrajaka agni. Because fire has a destructive quality, in the body it is always mixed with a small amount of water to keep it from destroying the tissues. The container of fire and water is pitta. Hence, the five agnis are also called the five types of pitta.
Excess fire in the body results in a buildup of heat, and deficient fire results in a feeling of being cold. There are also other ramifications of heat. As it builds up in the body, there is a need to eliminate excess heat. Hence, the body sweats and urinates more, and the stools become looser and more frequent. The luster of skin increases and the eyes shine brighter. The mind becomes sharper and more focused while the intellect strengthens. If fire increases too much, there are negative consequences. The skin erupts in red rashes, the eyes become bloodshot, the mind becomes intense, the tissues of the body may become inflamed, and there may be fever. A lack of fire in the body results in a loss of luster as the skin takes on a gray or pale tone and metabolism slows down. In the digestive system food is poorly digested, in the mind it becomes difficult to digest new information. As the body tries to hold on to heat, sweating, urination, and bowel elimination all decrease.
Balancing with Fire requires Infrared Sauna treatments.
water
The element of water represents fluidic matter and the cohesive principle of physics. Water is the protector of the body. It provides the body with its most basic nourishment. Water protects against the dissolution of the ether element, the roughness and motion of the air element and the heat of the fire element. The water element soothes all pain and inflammation in the body.
To know any element is to know its qualities. Water is cool, stable, heavy, moist, smooth, gross, flowing, dull, cloudy, and soft. The water element is the antidote to symptoms that have the opposite qualities in the body. It is important to take in the qualities of water when you are feeling too warm, un-grounded, emaciated, dehydrated, rough, lacking in self-esteem, obstructed and immobile, irritable with a sharp tongue, transparent and vulnerable, or if your heart has become too hard.
In the human body, water is expressed in five distinct ways, known as the five types of kapha. The water that protects the mouth against the actions of chewing and against the enzyme that begins the breakdown of carbohydrate (salivary amylase) is called bodhaka kapha. Bodhaka kapha is the salivary fluid, and also the mucous membrane secretions of the lips, checks, and pharynx. The water that protects the mucous membranes of our stomach against the acids that aid digestion is called kledaka kapha. The water that stabilizes the flow of neurological impulses and protects the nerves of the brain is called tarpaka kapha. The water that protects the joints from the friction of motion is called sleshaka kapha. Sleshaka kapha is found in the synovial fluid that moistens joint surfaces, and in the bursae that allow tendons to glide smoothly over each other. The water that protects the respiratory system from the movement of breath (a drying process) is called avalambaka kapha. Avalambaka kapha keeps the mucous membranes of the bronchi and lungs healthy and also provides the fluids that support the pleura and pericardium.
Balancing with Water requires Hydrotherapy or if you’re specifically experiencing difficulty with female reproductive system then, Yoni Steaming is required.
Earth
It comes fifth because it evolves out of each of the other four elements (ether, air, fire and water), containing the essence of these elements within it. Ether provides earth the space to exist within. Air provides earth with subtle movements seen on a subatomic level. Fire (energy) is latent within earth, bound by the chemical bonds of nature that hold structure together. Einstein quantified the relationship as E=MC2. E (energy) represents the fire element. M (mass) represents the earth element. C (Speed of light) represents the air element. Water is also inherent within earth. Water is the bridge between the gaseous state of matter and the solid state. As matter becomes denser, gas (air, ether and fire) coalesce into water (fluidic matter). The process of densification continues until matter becomes solid. Earth is the elemental representative of the solid nature of matter.
Earth is cool, stable, heavy, dry, rough, gross, dense, dull, clear, and hard. The earth element is the antidote to symptoms that have the opposite qualities in the body. It is important to take in the qualities of earth when you are feeling too warm, ungrounded, chaotic, emaciated, fluidic, lacking in self-esteem, feeling insignificant, irritable with a sharp tongue, vulnerable, or can’t withstand stress.
Deficiencies in the earth element in the body result in a weakness of body structures. Lacking in the raw materials to build solid tissues, the bones become weakened and osteoporosis places the bones at risk of fracture. Muscle mass is reduced and body fat decreases. As one function of the earth element is to retain heat, the body’s ability to regulate internal temperature decreases and an individual easily feels cold. Lacking in substance, a person with a deficiency of earth is unable to stand up against the challenges of the world and is easily pushed aside by stronger forces.
Balancing with Earth requires frequent Massage therapy session.
The principle of afrivedic™ Elemental Wellness comes from a combination of Yoruba Healing, Ayurveda, and Traditional Chinese Medicine. To learn more about how the elemental balance affects total wellness click HERE.
All Membership tiers require submission of a policy agreement.
Cancellation requires 30 days advance notice via email. *** Client may cancel membership at any time (after the initial 6 months) by sending an email to LaToyia.Mays@thelayacenter.com. The cancellation will take effect after 30 days of receipt. If membership is canceled, client may not sign up again for a 6 month period.