So, I started teaching yoga classes for my friends and family recently and went out and bought a bunch of yoga mats so the newbies could practice in style on the comfort of their own mats. I thought this would be a nice thing to do, but the problem was schlepping all those mats around. Carrying a couple of yoga mats along with all the yoga gear you need for a class takes more than two hands and a great deal of coordination.
Thanks to the stylish folks over at Saltbox, I now have the perfect solution. I got the opportunity to take their Getaway bag (in my favorite shade of green) for a test-drive this past weekend and packed up my yoga clothes, a water bottle, my laptop, speakers, cell phone, essential oils, class notes, and three yoga mats. Even with all this cargo, there still was plenty of room in the bag, and it all fit comfortably over my shoulder. I have to say I felt pretty damn vogue walking into my yoga classes with this smart-looking, stylish bag slung over my shoulder!
Don’t you just love this color of green?! The Getaway bag comes in five different styles for a total of 21 different colors/patterns.
On the inside of the Getaway bag there are two deep zip-up pockets on each side to put things like your phone and wallet. I used the bag fully open, but there is a center clip you can use to turn the bag into a cool slouchy pouch bag that makes a really big purse, and you can detach the handles and arrange them any way you like.
If you are going to use this bag for carrying a yoga mat, please note that the mat will stick out a bit, but it securely held the three mats I placed in it without a problem. This bag is going to be my go-to yoga-gear bag, and it will also get a lot of use when I jet away for exotic weekend getaways and for days at the beach (on the beautiful shores of Lake Erie!). The canvas is extremely durable, and I can tell it is going to soften and become just like a pair of my favorite jeans—except my jeans aren’t waterproof like the Getaway bag.
Saltbox also offers handbags, wallets, carryalls, and I love the fact that their bags are cruelty-free. They use a variety of plant-based fibers and man-made synthetics to create their products in small batches, which means that each piece has its own unique qualities.
In the spirit of the season, the generous folks at Saltbox are sharing the love and offering one of my lucky readers at either the Daily Downward Dog or MariaMedia the chance to win his or her very own Getaway bag. You get to pick which pattern and vibrant color you like! Here’s what you gotta do to win:
Required: Sign up for the Saltbox e-mail list. Send Saltbox an e-mail at studio@saltboxnyc.com with “Maria invited me to join your list and enter to win my choice of a Getaway bag!” Please put your e-mail address within the body of the e-mail, and make sure it is not hyperlinked (plain text, please).
Required: Leave a comment below and let me know what your favorite Saltbox collection is.
Extra steps for good giveaway karma: Saltbox is an emerging design company and needs our help to grow! Please either a) Fan them on Facebook or b) Follow them on Twitter and tweet “Thanks to @downwarddog for the chance to win a Getaway bag from @saltboxnyc, I want one in ______. [Fill in the blank with your color choice found on Saltbox’s Web site.]
If you can’t wait to win and really want to purchase the Getaway bag, here is a discount code to get 20 percent off any Getaway bag until the end of December: GA20DEC.
Everyone is a winner in this giveaway, because after the lucky winner is selected, all those who participated in the giveaway are going to get a really cool extra-special kerprise from me. Ooh, I bet you can’t wait to find out what this is!
When you are up at the Saltbox Web site, check out their newest zig-zag design called Cinnabar. I am loving those colors (hint, hint, honey, if you are reading this…).
This giveaway is open to all U.S. residents, and you can enter through Thursday, December 16 at noon when the winner will be randomly selected.
Last week I was a yoga-teacher virgin, still learning the ways of the yoga sutras, memorizing and practicing the various positions, double-checking my anatomy books, nervous about first-time performance, and hoping others would show up to take part in my passion for yoga.
Yeah, I had taught classes to friends and my fellow yoga-teacher-training classmates, but I had never put myself out there and taught at a real-live yoga studio.
I’m not quite sure how I did it, but I was somehow able to convince (maybe it was coerce) the owner of Indian Summer Yoga Studio to let me teach my very own yoga class. I got a prime Saturday-morning time slot and quickly put together my class description and bio and started handing out flyers for my class. I called some friends and family and offered a few bribes to make sure I would have a couple of supportive, familiar smiling faces looking up at me from their yoga mats.
I also looked to the super cool Twitter yoga community and got a ton of good vibes sent my way, along with a great list of advice—breathe, smile, and, my favorite from @Frenzy36, “Stay engaged with the group. We yoga students are an easy group.” He then followed up with this doozy: “Of course, at the end of class, we always expect the leader to take us to a new state of self-enlightenment but no pressure.” Good stuff!
As Saturday rolled around, I finished up my class playlist (which included a little Dave Matthews, Mary J. Blige, U2, Adele, Green Day, Sade, Alicia Keys, Joni Mitchell, and Ray LaMontagne) and put the finishing touches on my all-levels Hatha yoga class. I was ready to go, confident, and really excited. Then I started getting phone calls and texts, all with the same kind of message: “Sorry, Maria, can’t make it today because…” Bugger, bugger, bugger! I started to freak out and wondered if I would have anyone present to experience my yoga-teaching debut.
“Welcome to your first day at work,” David the studio owner greeted me as I walked in. Cool, I thought, this is my new work, and how freakin lucky am I that my work is teaching yoga?! I walked into the beautiful studio and went about preparing for class, silently sending out frantic karmic requests for just one student to show up.
The clock was just about to strike ten when two students walked through the door, and, to my delight, they were yoga virgins as well. We shared a delightful hour and fifteen minutes together; they got to do their first downward dogs, and I got to give two incredible women their very first taste of yoga. It was a balanced yogic exchange!
When the class was finished and we bowed and said namaste and you are awesome to each other, one of the women looked up at me and said, “I’m hooked.” She loved the yoga experience and wanted to know when she could come back for more! Her daughter loved my playlist. Ka-ching! I had achieved my goals for the class! We hugged when they left, and I have to admit, I was feeling pretty damn yogalicious!
It was the best virgin teaching experience I could have ever asked for and the best first day at work I’ve ever had! Hopefully, I will get more teaching gigs in the future!
Don’t you just love when you learn a new word? I recently heard someone use the term yogalicious, and I knew immediately that it would become a part of my yoga lexicon.
With every new word I learn, I typically go to the urban dictionary to make sure I really understand what it means before I use it (believe me, I’ve been burned before). I was surprised to find that yogalicious was not yet defined on the urban dictionary, so guess who submitted it as an official urban term? I felt it was my civic duty.
It took a few days, but I’m happy to say that the awesome editors over at UD have approved my entry and now I am a published contributor on the urban dictionary. How cool is that?! You can check it out at Urban Dictionary or see the definition below:
Any aspect of the practice of yoga that provides great pleasure or delight.
That new yoga pose we learned today is yogalicious.
by Downward Dog on Nov 28, 2010
So, in honor of my new favorite word, here are a few ways to bring yogaliciousness into your life:
1) Try a new asana you have been afraid to try. It’s time to go for it and challenge yourself on that yoga mat. Every time I try a new pose—even if I don’t get it right the first time—I always get a little surge of yogaliciousness for making the effort.
2) Tell your yoga instructor how much you enjoyed his or her class. I guarantee you will make them feel yogalicious.
3) If your mat is getting a little tattered or smelly, recycle it and buy yourself a pretty, new yogalicious yoga mat.
4) Grab a friend who has never tried yoga, and bring him or her to yoga class with you. It’s time to share the yogaliciousness with the special people in your life.
5) Next time you see a yoga classmate in exceptionally nice yoga togs, tell him or her that his or her outfit is yogalicious.
6) Instead of saying you are blissed out or have a yoga high, try saying, “I’m feeling yogalicious today.”
Got any yogalicious experiences or fun, new yoga words you would like to share? Please leave a comment below.
The yoga products store has been updated with lots of great deals and excellent holiday gifts for yoga lovers.
A few weeks ago at the beginning of yoga class, the instructor asked the class to plug in. She wasn’t talking about plugging in our computers or our cell phone chargers; she wanted us to plug our minds into our yoga practice. We were being asked to feel the heat in our bodies as we went through our asanas and to plug into what our bodies were telling us. She wanted us to plug into the present and fully embrace the yoga experience.
I think my yoga extension cord may have a factory defect. My internal surge protector sometimes fails me, leaving my mind to plug into other things, like everything I didn’t get done that day or the shower gift I need to buy after class or why I can’t bend my elbows the way I need to in crow pose. Being fully present in yoga class is a challenge.
I think I may just draw a picture of an electrical socket on the top of my yoga mat to serve as a mental reminder to be fully present during class. When I do I can feel the prana my body and breath generates as it courses through my muscles and spine like an electrical current. I’m not focusing on how much time is left in class, but focusing, instead, on my breath, the graceful and purposeful movement of my hands in my mudra, every move perfectly choreographed as I embrace the dancing yogini I want to be.
At the end of class, when we got into savasana, the instructor repeated the request to plug in again. I always thought savasana was the time to unplug and check out, but really focusing on how my body felt and sealing in my practice brought a whole new meaning to savasana.
The cool thing about plugging into your yoga practice is that you don’t need to worry about conserving energy or having a higher bill if you leave the lights on. The more you connect to your mind and body, the more amazing your yoga practice becomes.
I’ll never forget the first time I was in a yoga class and the instructor invited us to dance. It was a morning class on New Year’s Eve, packed to capacity with students wanting their final yoga fix for 2009. There was a cool vibe in the room; the yoga instructor was brimming with joy and enthusiasm, and she was armed with an amazing playlist! A great song came on, and as she was taking us through our final sun salutation, she invited the class to dance along with her. I don’t need any arm twisting to shake my booty, so I quickly got into dance mode. I looked around the room to see my fellow yoginis getting down with me (except a few shy folks who were too timid to get their groove on). I couldn’t think of a better way to close out my year than with a little dance on the yoga mat.
Yoga really is a form of dance. I think that is one of the reasons why I love it so much—because, for me, it does feel like a dance. I’m a ballerina at heart and took lessons for years, even though you would never know it today. Seriously, I think my parents should get a refund on all those ballet dance classes and pink tutus they paid for, because I am about the most ungraceful person on the planet.
I love dancing on my yoga mat, in bare feet, using my dancer arms as I flow gracefully through a series of asanas.
So, my yoga theme song for the week is “Tiny Dancer” by Elton John. It’s a classic song that brings out my inner ballerina and reminds me how much I love dancing in the sand and dancing in yoga class.
What an amazing feeling to express yourself through the dance that is yoga. Embrace your tiny dancer and bust a few moves in yoga class this week.
