Why do we yogis practice yoga on a harmful plastic mat which is dangerous for our own health and our environment? Doesn’t it make sense to develop a fully sustainable and premium yoga mat?
We think that mindfulness towards yourself and mindfulness towards our planet work really well together. During our yoga practice, we get taught to be mindful towards ourselves. We shall feel and experience our bodies and souls. We shall carry this mindfulness even outside of our yoga practice and into our daily life which means to live a conscious and balanced lifestyle. So in theory mindfulness towards yourself and towards the planet work really well together.
Yogis on cheap plastic mats. For us this was very contradicting. Yogis ride their bikes to yoga classes and drink out of a glass bottle to prevent CO2 emissions and to reduce plastic waste. But at the same time, they practice yoga on a plastic yoga mat. This is hypocritical and this contradiction was also the reason why we came up with the idea for our sustainable and premium yoga mat. We wanted to give other yogis the chance to act mindfully towards themselves and towards the planet.
In order to achieve our fully sustainable yoga mats, we noticed that we really had to develop a premium yoga mat. A product in line with our environmental and societal needs for us means to use materials which are already existing. It means to manufacture with the highest labor standards. Also it means to solely produce in Germany. The result of more than one year product development, various testings and adjustment are our sustainable and premium yoga mats.
For us, not only a mindful way of producing is important, we also want to consume mindfully. This means to already think about the disposal of a product when buying it. Our premium yoga mat is all about that.
So we really wanted to make sure that our hejhej-mats do not line up with all the other yoga mats. They cannot get recycled and end somewhere on landfills or even in our beautiful nature. When developing our mats, we already had this in mind. This is why we designed them to be recyclable. So basically, our premium yoga mats enable you to consume mindfully. Mindful consumption is so important when challenging old and lavish consumption patterns. Our society became more and more wealthy. People started to consume, consume, consume and consume. They treat themselves with fancy and special products just because they can now afford it.
Most of the products people buy are not really necessary. How about your last pair of jeans or sneakers? Did you really need these products? Did you consume mindfully?
What actually is mindful consumption? Mindful consumption means that you live and consume consciously. You question whether you really need the product, where it comes from, how it makes you feel and what consequences it has for our environment.
We want to give you three tips which will help you to consume more mindfully and which are really easy to adapt in your daily life:
- Use each product as long as you can. Just because a product is green or sustainable, it is not good to throw your old one away and buy a green alternative. Green products are great but you can not consume them endlessly and without thinking.
- Before making your next buying decision ask yourself: Do I really need this product?
- Already when buying your product think about the disposal and what to do when it reaches the end of its lifespan
You will start consuming differently and more mindfully when you think about these three tips. So yoga and our premium yoga mats are about mindfulness towards yourself and about mindfulness towards the planet.
Keep this in mind and we are sure you will find your own mindfulness towards both yourself and the planet.
