Blog

Many of you have asked us how you can best clean the hejhej yoga mat in the most environmentally friendly way possible. Most yoga mat sprays on the market are not without ingredients from faraway countries such as Asia or South America. Unfortunately, refills are also very rare, which would be particularly sustainable for a […] weiterlesen

********UPDATE from 26.11.21********We wrote our first statement on our cooperation with workplaces for people with disabilities on the 15th of March 2021. Recently there has been increased criticism, primarily of the workshops but also of companies/start-ups that work with the workplaces. We have hardly received any critical enquiries ourselves, but we have followed the debate […] weiterlesen

An eye pillow is perhaps a piece of yoga equipment you haven’t heard of yet. Due to the pandemic, you may not have been to a yoga studio in the last few years, or you may not have been to one at all. But maybe you still remember your last time? What did you especially […] weiterlesen

Savasana is certainly a Sanskrit word that most often gets stuck during a yoga session. The lying asana at the end of a yoga practice. Here you can relax completely. Do you also love it when it’s completely dark and your eyelids are closed by gentle pressure? We have something for you. With our newly […] weiterlesen

The main purpose of a holiday is to switch off and completely relax. Sun is definitely a factor on vacation that allows the feeling of relaxation to arrive quicker but also that is not always guaranteed. Luckily there is also yoga and a careful selection of the best yoga hotels following in this article. Yoga […] weiterlesen

Sabine Gallei is a yoga teacher, knitwear designer/stylist, mother of three young sons and founder of YES YOU ARE (@yes.you.are_). Sabine teaches open yoga classes, private classes, business yoga, pre- and postnatal yoga as well as workshops, retreats and teacher trainings in various studios in Berlin. All online too, of course. We are very pleased […] weiterlesen

Social sustainability is an important part of hejhej for us. With every hejhej-mat sold, we donate to the Earth Child Project in Cape Town. We want to continuously increase our impact on social sustainability. We have already donated some mats to our partner workshops here in Nuremberg. That went down so well and touched us […] weiterlesen

The yoga block is probably the most widespread tool in the yoga world. At the beginning of your yoga journey, the block can support you to be well aligned in certain exercises and help you to slowly approach a yoga exercise. If you already have some experience, you can even intensify your asanas or learn […] weiterlesen

In this wonderful guest article, Marta Witecka, yoga teacher, describes how you can finally do something good for your neck and shoulders. Be sure to read the article to the end, because there are some shoulder yoga asanas waiting for you that you can try out at home.Marta has dedicated herself to yoga, strength training, […] weiterlesen

Sometimes, there is this one yoga lesson, that we’ll never forget. Maybe because the yoga teacher spoke harmoniously, the room smelled particularly lovely, the music really signed you out, or because the atmosphere made you feel the power of yoga. We really do love those studio classes that leave us feeling touched. But especially during […] weiterlesen

Yoga unites movement and stillness. As there is quietude and excitement within yourself, you’ll find both in your yoga practice, too. In our blog post about yin yoga asanas on the hejhej-bolster we focussed on relaxation and slow movement. This blog post is about 4 playful asanas you can do with your hejhej-bolster, hejhej-strap and […] weiterlesen

The circular economy is the most important building block of our company. A way of doing business that we live and thus show what is possible – circular economy businesses. Like everything created by humans, the circular economy has its origins in nature. Almost everything runs in cycles. The cycles of life. In the following, […] weiterlesen

This guest article was written by a specially trained trauma sensitive yoga teacher. Loredana Di Filippo offers (trauma)sensitive 1:1 sessions and workshops and works with traumatized people. Her work is based on the understanding of the autonomous nervous system. Das daraus resultierende Wissen ist für alle spannend, die feinfühlig sind, wirklich Veränderung in ihr Leben […] weiterlesen

Circular Economy – a quick introduction The circular economy holds the greatest sustainability potential for us. It is an alternative economy to the consumption of finite resources. In the circular economy, resources flow endlessly in cycles. Waste serves as a resource for new products so that no more waste is created on our planet. It […] weiterlesen

Sustainability is at the heart of our business. We decided to make a product-based donation from the very first product. This means that we donate 1€ of every product to a social/ecological initiative. In this way, we further integrate social and environmental sustainability into our business. With the hejhej-mats we support a social project in […] weiterlesen

Meditation and yoga during your period can support your cycle and connect you more intensely with your body. We talked to various experts about tips and tricks for your period and shared valuable information for you on Instagram for a week. If you missed it, no problem. We have summarised the most important information for […] weiterlesen

Yin Yoga poses stretch your muscles and fasciae deeply and calm your mind. Especially when practising calmly, the equipment can be a great help in your asanas for you to let go and stretch passively. Yoga bolster, yoga strap, and yoga blocks are the most commonly used ones by yoga practitioners. Especially in yin yoga […] weiterlesen

A sustainability report is not only for big companies but also for small companies to transparently report about its sustainability actions. Yet, we mostly know impact reports from big corporations. They use this report to present itself as the most sustainable company, reporting about all the little things they do. In reality, most of them […] weiterlesen

In the last weeks and months, we have been spending a lot of time on meditation. Especially because we spent a lot of time on the product development of the newly launched hejhej-bolster. It supports your meditation seat and embellishes your meditation experience. Especially now, in such turbulent times, it is so good to pause […] weiterlesen

Right now, in a time of turbulence, confusion, global pain and frost in the morning, you may be striving for a yoga class that grounds you. Which offers you support to manage your everyday life full of strength and peace. That makes you think about the good things in life. To the things, you can […] weiterlesen

Helping yourself, easier said than done. So, how does it actually work? Often, we’re hoping for someone else to fix things. People like friends, family, our partner or of course, our pet. Most of the times that is perfectly alright and leaves us feeling supporttet and safe. But right now, in times of a pandemic, […] weiterlesen

This yoga block looks like a little piece of art, don’t you think? It actually is a piece of art – it is a handmade yoga block out of flip-flops – flip-flops collected on the coasts of Kenya. We offer these yoga blocks as a special and limited edition. The organisation behind these yoga blocks […] weiterlesen

Have you ever been to a yoga class that actively included hearing-impaired people? A question you don’t ask yourself if you’re hearing. But inclusion remains a topic that we would like to deal with further, especially in relation to yoga, which literally means unity in Sanskrit. So is unity between hearing and hearing-impaired people possible? […] weiterlesen

Maybe you’re just at the beginning of your yoga practice or your old yoga mat is coming to an end. We know that the search for a sustainable yoga mat can be very tiring and long. Our hejhej-mat was created out of this need, so to speak. The mat fulfills all criteria that are important […] weiterlesen

One of the criteria that is often considered when buying a new yoga mat is slip resistance. If you have ever slipped on your yoga mat during a nice flow with wet hands or feet, you probably know what we are talking about. In yoga you should be able to concentrate on your practice, your […] weiterlesen

Let’s look at the yoga from a sustainability perspective to see how the yoga philosophy and sustainability are connected. Beginning this article we need to add a little side note about what we refer to as the yoga philosophy – because the yoga philosophy is a wide field. So we are referring to the Yoga […] weiterlesen

The Yoga practice is all about the full breath and the physical strength should be able to be used up to your personal limits. Therefore it is very important that your body can concentrate on the practice and, for example, do not have to engage an intensive digestive activity. At the same time, you should […] weiterlesen

A yoga strap can be very helpful for your yoga practice. Not only beginners but also experienced yogis can dive deeper into the practice with the strap. For us, it often depends on the day how we feel during the yoga, so the strap can be used just when we are a little uncertain or […] weiterlesen

What do Yoga and Ayurveda have in common? Both are Vedic traditions. The vedic religion is the oldest religion of India that can be found in written documents. In India, Ayurveda and Yoga have been integrated into the health system for a very long time and are seen parallel to western/traditional medicine. The Ayurvedic philosophy […] weiterlesen

Yoga mats – hardly any other piece of sports equipment needs to fulfill so many demands and that is why you can find a lot of yoga mat tests and reviews on the world wide web. In the first place, a yoga mat needs to be slip-resistant to give good support during a downward-facing dog. […] weiterlesen

Nowadays, quite a lot of companies claim to be sustainable. We recently, for example, have seen one of the biggest fast fashion companies advertising to sell sustainable products. So sadly, we can’t just trust companies anymore but we need to understand what it means to produce sustainable products. That’s why we want to explain to […] weiterlesen

Today is the 21st of March and it’s World Down Syndrome Day. Today should be about thinking about each other, acting for the community and the individuals. World Down Syndrome Day now exists for 14 years. It was not coincidentally placed on the 21st of March. The number 21 symbolizes the characteristic of Down Syndrome […] weiterlesen

We rush through our everyday life – both corporate and private. It’s full of appointments and we sometimes just forget to take some time in between for ourselves. Then there are suddenly times, where we are forced to stay home. Yoga is a great way to make the best out of it. A regular Yoga […] weiterlesen

We recently had the opportunity to talk to the 7th grade of a Montessori school about sustainability and examples of the circular economy. This day gave us incredibly valuable new food for thought because we were able to see the world of sustainability and yoga for a few moments from a child’s perspective. On the […] weiterlesen

It has never been more important to think about your own buying decisions. Everyone has power to make a change – every individual consumer, every tiny or huge company, every institution, and all our politics. Our start-up hejhej and the first recycled yoga mat is our contribution.

We did not reach gender equality in professional life yet and women are also underrepresented as entrepreneurs. Being a mum and and a founder: more and more mothers see entrepreneurship as an opportunity to combine family- and work-life.  Unfortunately, it is often difficult for mothers to fully develop their professional lives. Kita places have long […] weiterlesen

Chakras are another part of the ancient Indian knowledge about yoga. The word chakra from Sanskrit can be translated as wheel or disc. Chakras are centers of consciousness and life energy in the body, whereby the original teaching describes seven main energy centers. Of course, there are still many tributaries of the life force in your body, but these seven act as nodal points that concentrate and distribute the most.

Wir wollen dir die Strategien der Kreislaufwirtschaft an die Hand geben, um ganzheitliche Entscheidungen zu den materiellen Dingen in deinem Leben zu ermöglichen. That’s why Circular Monday is the Monday before Black Friday. We want to step in before the day of mass consumption to remind you of alternative options and to spread the message reuse, repair, and rent. Let yourself be inspired and discover holistic and exciting new concepts to manufacture, make available, and maintain the lifespan of goods.

Sustainability is simply inevitable. The circular economy is the most healthy way to consume and that is why we created the most sustainable yoga mat bag in a circular way.

Crowdfunding enables truly sustainable product innovation as society decides whether or not a new product will appear on the market. That’s why the hejhej-bag is only launched if the crowdfunding campaign is successful.

Do I really need this product? This simple question sums up the sufficiency strategy. All other sustainability approaches are solely powerless and need the sufficiency strategy on its side. This is why, we integrated the strategy in our personal as well as in our corporate life. It is a key part of hejhej although it totally goes against the classic economy. We tell people to only buy a new yoga mat if a new one is really needed. We don’t want to promote consumption, we want to make a change.

Why are there so few sustainable companies and products? Why does a closed-loop yoga mat so far not exist? Those were exactly the questions that led us to the decision to make a difference and to develop the first closed-loop yoga mat. In this blog article, we want to explain what the term closed-loop means and why it’s the most sustainable way to produce and consume new products.

It is a lingering movement but luckily we are becoming more and more mindful and more aware of our planet. Just as we are more attentive to our environment, we should also consider holistically our own health – and that not only affects the body, but also mind and soul. A holistic approach to health should also pay attention to the ecosystem in which we move: our earth.

The mindfulness of your yoga practice can also be taken with you while traveling. We are sharing our 3 best sustainable traveling tips plus our top 7 reasons why everyone should travel outside in nature once.

The story of a hejhej-mat – an ethical production of yoga mats. We want to communicate really transparent about how our hejhej-mats are produced. We consciously decided to produce in Germany in order to act as socially and ethically as possible and in order to keep the transportation ways as short as possible.

As you know, we are usually no huge fans of trends as they normally go together with unnecessary consumption. However, there is always an exception to the rule. One great one is Fashion Revolution. The global movement of fighting for fair working conditions for our garment producers is getting bigger. It gains more awareness on […] weiterlesen

We want to use this blog article to inform you about our current social hejhej-special. From the 15th of April till the 15th of May, for every yoga mat bought we will donate one yoga mat to two social initiatives for people with a handicap. Read more about why social sustainability is so important for […] weiterlesen

Fasting is about refreshment and reflection. Forgoing for a while the familiar is more than an old tradition. Fasting actually has its roots in religion and should prepare us for the festive easter days. As well as in the old days as today it should be a period about reflection and consciousness. So also if […] weiterlesen

Who would really need a mat? Especially for homeless people blankets and mats are really helpful. We wanted to extend the product life cycle of some of our mats from the development phase and at the same time support a social initiative. That’s why we decided to donate the yoga mats to a institutions for homeless people. Homelessness is not a topic in our society, we want to give you tips of how to support and interact with homeless people.

If you make a good deal it often comes to the cost of another person or our nature. Unfortunately, someone else is probably paying the price for your cheap yoga mat.

There are a lot commercial festive days, Valentine’s Day is one example. Especially on these days, it is important to not consume without thinking and to not support unethical companies but to show our economy and everybody out there that you care for sustainability.

129€ is a lot of money. BUT we want to make you think about whether it is really a lot of money for a fully sustainable, high-quality yoga mat made in Germany? We want to encourage you to think about the products you buy and consume. Let’s all try to consume consciously and fair!

Yoginis and yogis love meaningful and thoughtful presents. A lot of them are into the topic of sustainability since yoga is not only about mindfulness towards themselves but also about mindfulness towards the planet. We are sharing four of our favorite sustainable gifts for yoga in our recent blog article with you.

6 tips to make this year’s Christmas more sustainable than your last ones. We should all try to consume mindfully – also during Christmas time. Sustainable Christmas gifts are a great way to start.

In theory mindfulness towards yourself and towards the planet work really well together. BUT: Why do we yogis then practice yoga on a harmful plastic mat? Our sustainable and premium yoga mats enable other yogis to consume mindfully. Mindful consumption questions whether you really need a product since most of the products people buy are not really necessary.

Yoga has beneficial features for your overall wellbeing. Did you know that social yoga can also be supportive for people suffering from mental illnesses? Yoga für alle e.v. is a great NGO that makes yoga available for people who would otherwise not have the chance to participate in yoga.

A circular yoga mat only becomes fully closed-looped if you return it. So one of the most important success factors of the circular economy is the consumer because it is in the consumer’s power to return a product and to make it available for a new production. However, to achieve a sustainable circular product it is essential to be aware of the intention of reaching a more sustainable planet with the circular economy.

hejhej-mats is not only about developing a yoga mat, we are aiming to become an environmental friendly and social start-up. We wanted to cooperate with a social organization for sewing the logos on top of our sustainable yoga mats. This is why we are cooperating with a workplace for people with disabilities. We want to share with you our experiences and reveal to you why this makes us so so happy.

Yoga not only offers a variety of yoga styles but also various yoga poses and so many places where you can practice yoga. People are nowadays chasing through their life without resting. Yoga is just about yourself and your practice on your mat – so it is a great way of slowing life down. For us it is certainly part of our daily life and we want to share with you some of our favorite yoga poses, places and styles.

The product development of hejhej-mats always had the aim to develop the best yoga at the market. Now it is finished and our hejhej-mats will be launched soon. What we experienced is the most expensive sustainability criteria is to solely manufacture a product in Germany, which is why we have to raise our sales price from 119€ to 129€. However, we are happy and proud to offer you a fully sustainable yoga mat made in Germany.

Emotions are mostly not perceived positively although they are so important both in our personal life as well when starting up a business. We want to show that it is good to be emotional and tell you more about our experiences during the development of our sustainable and cool yoga mat.

Consumerism is part of our daily life and is even growing and growing so that there is a real overconsumption happening on our planet. hejhej-mats is not running its business in order to drive consumerism even more but just because we want to offer a sustainable and good yoga mat in Germany. All of us should ask ourselves the question of “Do you really need this product?” before making a buying decision.

A successful crowdfunding campaign can also be quite tricky and it requires a lot of work. As our crowdfunding campaign helped us a lot with the further actions of our business, we would like to give you some insights on what we learned from our campaign and share with you our 5 key findings for a successful crowdfunding campaign.

The amount of plastic waste on our planet is higher than ever before. All of us should start living a more sustainable lifestyle. We want to show you that some things are so easy but still so meaningful to change.

Unfortunately, we have to experience ourselves that there are very little women in entrepreneurship. And the women who start their own businesses face difficulties men do not.

The amount of plastic waste on our planet is steadily rising. hejhej-mats creates recycled yoga mats by using offcuts occurring in the foaming production.

People always talk about high-quality yoga mats. But what actually is a high-quality yoga mat and how to design such product? hejhej-mats used an innovative tool called customer co-creation to create their own sustainable and high-quality yoga mat.

We started hejhej-mats as we were disappointed by the current offer of yoga mats on the market. We did not find a mat, that could fulfill our sustainability expectations. So we started hejhej-mats and developed an eco-friendly yoga mat out of recycled materials which is also closed-loop. However, with one eco-friendly yoga mat, we can not call ourselves a sustainable start-up – but this is what we aim for! Sustainability is a fancy buzz word, but as some of you might already know, it is more…

The planet already has enough valuable resources in abundance. It is not necessary to take new natural materials, like natural rubber, to produce new products, such as natural rubber yoga mats.

hejhej-mats is making a contribution to the UN sustainable development goals. More specifically, to goal number 12. Read more about goal number 12 and how hejhej-mats contributes to achieving the goals.

The benefits of yoga are many. Yoga not only influences your body strength and flexibility positively, it is also beneficial for your mental strength. Read more about why everyone should try yoga at least once.

Seeking to achieve a sustainable planet that allows future generations to live a lifestyle similar to ours right now, we need to rethink waste as a resource. The current linear “take-make-dispose” approach is reaching the physical limits of the planet. A circular economy, with closed-loop products, such as a closed-loop yoga mat, can be one solution.

What actually motivates us to put all our time, money and heart into the development of a closed-loop yoga mat? We are driven by the vision of a sustainable future – but there are more factors that motivate us! We want to share our motivation with you in this blog post.