Sahaja are a yoga mat company that gives back. For every yoga mat they sell, they donate a solar light to families in Mozambique. So everyone who buys a yoga mat, is a light giver.
Judes Yang is the Founding Light Giver of Sahaja Yoga Mats. She is an International Yoga teacher with over 1500 teacher training hours and has been teaching full-time since the age of 26, a time when active wear wasn’t cool or hip and there wasn’t a song about it. She has trained yoga teachers, worked at the assistant to the founder of Hot Yoga and lived abroad teaching and travelling the world fulfilling her passion and calling of teaching yoga.
Judes grew up on the Gold Coast and moved back there at the end of 2014. In March this year, she launched Sahaja –Yoga mats that give back and since then they’ve sold over 150 yoga mats, so essentially they have lit up 150 lives. Judes also recently completely the Bond Business Accelerator course, to help her learn more about how to grow Sahaja Yoga mats and pitched her start-up to a panel of judges and won the $5000 seed grant to help Sahaja grow even more. Judes is ecstatic the judges, saw and heard her vision of what Sahaja Yoga Mats that give back is all about.
Yoga Mat
Sahaja means, effortless, spontaneous, your inherent naturalness and simply being free. There was a point in Judes life where she lost her Sahaja. She experienced some traumatic life events which lead her to a very dark place. A place where she didn’t think she would see today. But with the love of her family, friends and community, she was loved back. It is because of that love that I she received during her darkest days, that inspired her pay forward that light to others.
So that’s how Sahaja was born. From a place of darkness, to bring light to others. Judes hope for this movement isn’t only to give actual light to those in need ,as without suitable lighting it can effect their ability to read after dark, effecting education and ability to earn income. Sahaja is to also about unifying and uplifting communities, to care for the planet and to inspire people to also give, as giving has a ripple effect.
As Sahaja is about communities. They purchase the solar lights from another Australian companyand give them to Mega Marine Fauna Foundation, a non profit who will be doing the distribution of the solar lights in Mozambique. The distribution happens when they reach 500 lights.
Being in the yoga industry Judes, found a problem when she moved from one style of yoga to another. She use to practise in studios that had carpeted floors and used a thin travel yoga towel mat, which was perfect. But when she started practicing in studios that had wooden or concrete floors the thin travel mat didn’t suffice anymore. So began my quest to find a yoga mat to suit those new conditions.
She found that the thicker mats didn’t grip the floor very well, the mats were also slippery from sweat, the towels moved around on my yoga mat during the practise, using towels meant more laundry and certain mats smelled after some time. So Judes decided to source her thin travel towel mat, just in a thicker version. So she did.
Sahaja Yoga Mats are a yoga mat and towel in one. The mats are eco friendly, which means they’re recyclable, they’ve been sustainable sourced, Sahaja’s unique prints are printed with water based inks, so aren’t toxic and are easy to clean. Simply hang out to dry or put into the washing machine. The yoga mats have a grippy rubber base with a super absorbent micro fibre top, so your mat wont move during your practise and no more slipping in downward dog or warrior. They don’t smell and no towels needed, which means less washing!
What separates Sahaja Yoga Mats from other mat companies, is that they are a social enterprise, their yoga mats our also thicker and longer then their competitors with similar yoga mats and their their prints are beautiful, one of a kind and all based on Sacred geometry and yogic philosophy which help form an organic alignment for the yoga practitioner.
Sahaja, is a yoga mat company created by yogis for yogis, Judes is her product. She simply loves the fact that people are simply practicing yoga and Sahaja’s goal is to light up 108 Million
Sahaja Yoga Mats can be found online at www.sahajayogamats.com or at the below stockists:
QLD
Essence of Living Mermaid Beach
Life Synergy Acupuncture, Burleigh Heads
Freedom Float Centre, Burleigh Heads
Blockout, Robina
NSW
Heatwave Hot Yoga, Kingscliff and Murwillumbah
VIC
The Daily Dose Studio, Melbourne
When you purchase a Sahaja Yoga Mat, you aren’t just buying a mat, you are contributing to making a difference in another person’s life. You become part of something bigger for the world, You become a light giver and together, we all can make a difference.
Judes teaches Prana Vinyasa Yoga and Yin Yoga at Fitness First both locations, Essence of Living Mermaid Beach and Ritual Yoga and Pilates in Palm Beach. Her main teaching influencers are Shiva Rea, whom she travels to study and receive direct transmissions from each year. Shiva is also the one who helped Judes find her own Sahaja again through the practice of Prana Vinyasa.
