We love yoga. We’re not the most flexible, or the most graceful, or the most athletic yoginis going, but that’s not the point. We love yoga for the way it helps us stretch out our body, to calm our mind and to see life from a different perspective (hello inversions!). Best of all, we adore the way it puts us in just the right space for meditation.

So, we would beg, if you don’t already practice yoga, to give it a try. Truly, these days there is a yoga for everyone. We love gentle hatha yoga and slow, deep yin yoga but if you’re super-stressed or frenetic you may find your heart chimes to a fast ashtanga beat or a gymnastic jivamukti drum. That sounds odd but sometimes, when we’re very stressed, we just aren’t in the right space for slow and meditative. Truly, don’t worry too much: start your journey anywhere and you will find the yoga you love.

Can you use essential oils to deepen your practice? Absolutely! Our Meditation Guru blend is tailor-made for the slower types of yoga, bringing you into your own sacred space. Anoint yourself and breathe deeply as you stretch into your asanas. If you’re a yoga teacher yourself, you might like to use the blend while your class is lying in sivasana. We know teachers who go round anointing people’s third eye to relax them even further. What a lovely idea!

If your practice is tough and energetic then you might find that Concentrate is your ideal blend. It will keep you focused throughout those tough vinyasas.

Yoga is, or should be, totally non-competitive, but does anyone really not peek a glance at the bodies around you?   If you find your heart sinking at someone else’s seemingly perfect Bridge or Headstand, you might find Confidence makes a good friend in need. But do remember that, really, it doesn’t matter one jot what everyone else is doing. This is your yoga. Just yours. If your class or teacher makes you feel uncomfortable or lacking in some way, then we would respectfully say it’s time to find another class.

Oh, and if you go to a busy class where the mats are so close you end up tangling toes with your neighbours when you try a twist, we’d suggest armouring yourself with Travel Companion, just in case your neighbour has a case of the sniffles.

Talking of protecting oneself, one really lovely thing to do is to make up a Purifying Mist for yoga. Use it to clean your mat at the end of a sweaty class but also spritz it around you before you start your practice to surround yourself with the energizing, focusing, cleansing, protecting powers of essential oils.

Omm Shanti Purifying Yoga Mist

• Lavender - 8 drops
• Eucalyptus radiata - 8 drops
• Distilled Lime - 8 drops
• 1 oz. (30) of water in spray bottle

Of course, yoga doesn’t only happen in the shala, or at your once a week lesson. Ideally we should practice yoga every day, in any place. When we stretch out our mat at home we like to make a ritual of it. We put on one of our favorite chant CDs (at the moment we’re loving Deva Premal, Snatam Kaur and Waa – not all at the same time of course!). We light a candle and put a blend of oils in our diffuser. Setting up a sacred space deepens our practice, we find. Try it, and tell us how you get on!

Namaste Diffuser Stock Blend

• Myrrh - 10 drops
• Petitgrain bigarade - 10 drops
• Frankincense - 10 drops