Manduka US Site

March 22nd, 2011

Inspiration: # Practice Cleaning The Slate

By Eka Ekong

While looking over our facebook/twitter posts from the last remarkable week, I was inspired by our FB post on a fresh start. "Today we #practice cleaning the slate – it doesn’t clean itself. A fresh start comes from a conscious decision to renew."

I love my Black Mat Pro. There, I said it… It feels like I have been in a steady relationship with it for 9 years. We talk every morning, sometimes even in the evening. It greets me, arms open, no hesitation, holds me when I’m happy, and has wiped away many a tear. My mat does not judge me, or harbor any ill feelings. It doesn’t say “oh, good luck next time with that forward fold”, or chastise me if I lose my balance. Every time I step on my mat is a fresh start, a new beginning, a new hope. Each practice is a new possibility, without the luggage of the past. This is what my Manduka helps me practice.

Here are some notable responses on what Manduka helps others to practice:

From Runtaulbee
"I'm new to using @MandukaYoga and just love the new mat. #Practice feeling closer to the earth."

From Jill Lawson
"I practice what I teach and teach what I practice"

From ETL Yoga
"It helps me practice patience with myself....it helps me break down that wall-allowing myself to see what I have done"

March 1st, 2011

Manduka Featured In Fitness Magazine!!

Our PRO-lite is ready for its' close-up... How do we look?

February 27th, 2011

#Practice Love- Yoga Love For Shelter Animals

On February 12, 2011, Sanctuary Yoga Studios in New York, held the charity event “Yoga Love for Shelter Animals.”

Led by Manduka Ambassador Ashley DiMeglio , Bill Rosenfeld, Theresa Mihalopoulos, studio owner Nancy Mahon jumped on board to support as well.

The mission was to raise awareness, funds and tangibles for the shelter pets at Hi Tor Animal Shelter in Pomona, New York. Ashley put word out to her friends and students and on our web site and Facebook. At lightning speed, we had a waiting list, as the event sold out very quickly. Everyone contacted saw the need to help and acted without hesitation. Bill put together an elegant animal/ Valentine’s Day themed warm-up, and Theresa followed suit, lullabying the class through a nurturing and thoughtful Savasana.

The cause was love. That’s what it boils down to… Sharon, our Hi Tor Animal Shelter representative was inundated with toys, blankets, food, feed bowls and $650.00 in cash donations. Once the yoga class ended we threw on some cheesy love songs and began our raffle! Manduka towels were flying across the room as winners received their gear. Everyone was clapping with excitement as the winners were announced. We saved the amazing Manduka mat for last. Wonderful yogis were crossing their fingers in anticipation as the winner was called out. It was won by Lisa Williams, a passionate yogini. The sun poured in, and the music flowed. Everyone was stretched, loved and balanced. Friends were made right there that day. Love was in the air and Manduka was a part of the yoga love.

Yoga helps us to stay compassionate but it also reminds us to accept ourselves and find compassion inwardly as well. Through acts of giving and charity we witness our own inherent ability to love and learn about ourselves.

What does our Manduka help us practice? Love for others, animals, and our supreme absolute: our true selves.

February 22nd, 2011

Dear Manduka..

Dear Manduka,

As an active Mysore Ashtangi, I’ve been addicted to my “black mat” for over 7 years. From my studies in New York, to HIV/AIDS awareness work in Ghana, my black mat has stuck by me through good and bad (and is perfect for marble and/or dirt floors!). As a field worker for the Real Medicine Foundation in rural India, my yoga practice has kept me sane. I’m able to process the thousands of children I see dying of acute malnutrition, the faces of the people living with HIV/AIDS, and the bureaucracy that I fight with on a daily basis just to provide tribal people with access to health services.

About a year and a half ago, my Mysore practice needed a little extra sweat protection, and I invested in the eQua towel. Get this. Not only is the eQua towel a savior for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd series, but it has faithfully acted as my loving travel companion, going with me whenever my black mat can’t.

Yesterday, I had to take an emergency case to a hospital 8 hours away by car over bumpy pot-hole ridden roads under the hot Indian sun. The poor little baby was suffering from tubercular meningitis and severe acute malnutrition. As the afternoon heat beat in through the car window, I remembered my Manduka. I grabbed the eQua towel out of my backpack, and stuck it in the window. Cool and shaded, the baby boy was able to rest on the long bumpy journey, his fever remaining at bay until we finally reached the hospital.

Thank you, Manduka, for helping us in ways you never thought possible.

Jaimie

--
Jaimie Shaff, MPA
Program Manager: Health and Nutrition
The Real Medicine Foundation (India)

February 4th, 2011

Manduka On & Off The Mat: Santa Cruz To Kenya

By Amy Impellizeri

If anyone had suggested to me I would decide to FUNdraise money for something called the Africa Yoga Project as a commitment I would make to being an Ambassador so that once I reached my goal I would go and be of service in Nairobi Kenya for two weeks using yoga as a vehicle for unity, non-violence and possibility, I would have fallen out of my already “swaying” tree pose.

I write this to let you, the global yoga community know that I am stepping off the mat, here in Santa Cruz, CA and taking my yoga to Kenya to be of Seva/self-less service. I have committed to being an Ambassador to Manduka because my mat is going to last a life time and that is how long I believe I can sustain a personal yoga practice.

I have committed to being an Ambassador for the Africa Yoga Project because I believe in the power of community. I have been doing my practice on and off the mat since I was introduced to the Ashtanga Yoga Primary Series. I followed my practice, after many years, to teacher training with Manju Jois (Summer 1999) when my Manduka Black Mat Pro came under my feet. I have taken it everywhere I have practiced/taught since I began to use it. Including my AcroYoga teaching training in 2008 where I was introduced to the Africa Yoga Project. A combination of yoga practices opened up the possibilities of what the power of Yes can accomplish. And now in 2011, I am committed to being of service in Kenya, on and off the mat, sharing yoga and other skills in a global yoga community. The commitments I continue to make to myself when I step on the mat are the small steps leading from Santa Cruz, CA to Nairobi, Kenya. The flow from the Pacific Ocean to the Indian Ocean.

Check out the blog:

www.lovetokenya.org to read the journey, unroll your Manduka mat & Lead the Change!