Self-care surrounding your yoga practice
Self-care surrounding your yoga practice: you deserve it!
You are already caring for yourself by getting on your mat. But what kind of self-care do you take surrounding your yoga practice?
The colder months have arrived and that means that we are going to turn inwards. You are probably a bit more at home cocooning, and your body, your practice and your yoga gear could use some extra love. It’s time to enjoy one of the nicest places there is, HOME!
How are you going to do that? In collaboration with Nourished, we have a couple of tips that might help you. Do you already know this natural beauty & lifestyle platform? Nourished is The Home of Clean Beauty & Natural Living, founded by two friends, Erin (an Aussie) and Floor (a Dutchie). Together they run this platform and ensure that the Netherlands and the rest of Europe have access to the finest, most environmentally friendly & animal-friendly products for your skin, hair, pets and your home! They gave us some tips to take some extra care of ourselves this fall.
Start clean & fresh
Self-care starts by having a moment to yourself, for example by starting your day with a yoga practice. When you jump on your mat, it is nice that it is clean, smells fresh and that the quality of your mat is maintained despite the fact that you clean it. Bondi Wash, an Australian lifestyle brand has a beautiful Yoga mat spray. The Bondi Wash Yoga Mat spray has a natural composition and removes bacteria and dirt from your yoga mat. This wonderful smelling spray refreshes, cleanses and kills 99.9% of all bacteria on your mat and is made from 99% organic ingredients. Once you have smelled a Bondi Wash product, you will never want anything else.
Set the mood
When you jump on your mat, you can start your self-care moment for your yoga practice right by thinking about two things. To set an intention, and to create the right ambiance. To set the right yoga mood, you can light a natural candle, use your favourite essential oils or choose a delicious spray. In order not to get a headache, it is a good idea to use a spray without synthetic fragrances. Choose a mist spray that lifts your mood, gives you energy or calms your mood. For every mood there are different scents that can help you with this. Spray on your skin, your mat, your clothes or just in the room you are in. Then it’s time to take your meditation pillow and enjoy the scent by taking a couple of healing breaths.
Treat those hands
During your practice your hands are very important, they constantly carry you, even if we only count your downward facing dogs. Obviously, it is a good idea to take care of them. A nourishing hand cream is definitely a must in the colder months. Take care of your hands with the best natural ingredients, the finest scents and richest creams. The advantage of a natural hand cream? This does not dry out your hands further, restores your skin, contains delicious vegetable ingredients such as avocado butter, cocoa butter, sunflower oil and argan oil.
Sweat & flow
During a yoga class you might sweat, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that! Transpiration is good, when you sweat your body gets rid of waste products that you don’t need and you cool your body. Is it pleasant? Not always! An antiperspirant is a no-go, it blocks your sweat glands and you don’t want that. A spray deodorant is packed with gases that we do not want to spray into the air and many deodorants contain aluminium. Fortunately, there are also fantastic natural deodorants and also in a Yogi’s favourite fragrance. The Nourished Daily Chai Spice (this one really smells like a Chai Latte) deodorant is made from 100% natural ingredients and helps you through your ashtanga yoga class without unpleasant scents.
What is your self care ritual surrounding your yoga practice? Are you in the mood for a new ritual, to pick up your practice again and make the best of winter (because sometimes that is quite difficult after a long summer)? Maybe a soft, new yoga outfit will help you too. For an energetic morning flow, you could choose a Bhav Yoga Top combined with the sweat-proof yoga legging Satya.
Do you prefer to take your rest from an evening yin class? Then we recommend opting for a nice long sleeve yoga top combined with our most popular yoga pants: the Dakini.