We’ve kicked off the holiday shopping season with Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and although we know it’s good practice to hold back on rampant consumerism, there are a few tools you can gift to the yogi in your life that will elevate their yoga practice, which can have plenty of benefits – a better mind-body connection, elevated happiness, and a generally more mindful approach to life. Here are the top yoga tools you can get for the beginner, intermediate, or expert yogi in your life:
Beginner
Just the essentials to help those who may not have the flexibility or strength to fully complete poses yet.
- Yoga Mat – An essential tool for any yogi. Doing exercises on the floor requires some padding to keep from being in too much pain to practice often.
- Yoga Block – Another great tool for beginners. Blocks help with getting into poses and maintaining balance when you can’t quite reach the floor.
- Yoga Belt – This helps with getting into positions that require a little more flexibility than you currently have.
- Yoga Towel – This is a great tool for Bikram yoga. Yoga towels are designed to eliminate bacteria from sweat, but can also be used for support in certain poses.
- Yoga Retreat – Beginners can learn so much from practicing yoga away from home and their typical instructor. Sign you and your yogi friends up for a retreat in paradise with yoga expert Cher Aslor in March of 2017 – also a great way to escape winter for a week!
Intermediate
Once people are comfortable practicing yoga in a studio, they may want to take their practice outside!
- Outdoor Yoga Mat – These mats are thicker and can be used on rough surfaces like rock, or protect your body from sticks and debris on the ground.
- Outdoor Class Passes – Maybe your yogi friend wants to practice outside the confines of a studio, but still needs direction from an instructor. Find a studio near you that offers outdoor classes and get them a few.
- Clothes – Most people love to hang out in yoga clothes, and many beginners will stock up their wardrobe, but once you start getting into more advanced positions it becomes important to wear attire that won’t get in your way. Consider form fitting, stretchy pants and tops without sleeves to allow unrestricted movement.
Advanced
Practicing yoga isn’t just about doing poses. More advanced yogis may appreciate gifts that enhance their practice in other ways.
- Books – There are SO many options for books for yogis. You can find books about meditation, chakras, the limbs of yoga, anatomy, and more. Listen in to what your friend loves about practicing yoga and find a book on that topic – you can bet it exists somewhere.
- A journal – We’ve written plenty about practicing gratitude by writing it down in a journal, but journals can be useful for yogis (and pretty much anyone else) in other ways too. They can write about things that happen in their daily lives and track their emotional responses, record their progress in practicing asanas, or just write down their class schedule.
- Essential oils – Aromatherapy from essential oils can help you relax and get better sleep or become energized and more able to focus. Many people, yogis included, appreciate essential oils and all they do for the mind and body. They range widely in price, but are all useful for adjusting mood and atmosphere, while practicing yoga or just hanging out.
- A yoga retreat or training – Once your yogi friend has gotten to an advanced level, they may want to start teaching others what they have learned. Earning a yoga teaching certification requires an intensive, month long commitment to learning more in depth about yoga, its history, and the best ways to instruct others in practicing yoga.
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