A regular yoga practice is one of the most healthy, centering, and empowering things you can do for yourself. Whether you practice at home, in a studio, or outdoors—nice!—here are 5 items from the Change Your Energy Shop to help boost your yoga experience.
(A couple of them are quite unique, and you won’t find them anywhere else. But knowing how powerful they are, we consider them essentials.)
1. Mats
You can use our
Meditation Mat as cushioning for seated meditation, bowing meditation, yoga, or other exercise. It’s soft, comfortable and non-slip, made of 100% cotton. The cover is removable and machine-washable.
The
Eco Bamboo Yoga Mat goes over your regular yoga mat to absorb sweat and moisture during your practice and prevent slipping. The surface is an ultra-absorbent bamboo blend, and the backing has a non-slip coating so there’s no bunching or sliding around.
It’s lightweight, making it easy to travel with. It’s also machine-washable so you can easily toss it in with your laundry, and you won’t have to clean your regular yoga mat as often. You’ll also feel good using this mat because the materials are predominantly plant-based and produced with environmentally sustainable resources.
2. Loose Clothing
Instead of the tight yoga clothes you see out there, we recommend loose, breathable clothing for your practice. The best clothing will keep you warm yet allow your body to circulate and release energy according to its natural flow.
Our breathable
Summer Breeze Shirt is a great one for your practice. It’s inspired by traditional Korean clothing called Hanbok, and it’s made from 100% natural-dyed cotton, so it’s environmentally friendly and won’t irritate sensitive skin. The front has traditional embroidery detail, two knotted buttons and a pocket. The look is quite nice for any body type, so it can do double-duty as a shirt to wear out in the world.
3. Non-slip Hantoryum Qi Socks
Keeping your feet warm is important for better circulation:
Water Up, Fire Down is the optimal flow of energy in your body, and these socks are great for promoting this optimal circulation pattern. There is an energy point on the soles of your feet called the
yongchun. It’s a powerful point on the kidney meridian, and the point through which you can draw in energy from the earth and circulate it all the way to your crown.
What makes
Non-slip Hantoryum Qi Socks special is that they are lined with dots of Hantoryum on the inner soles. Hantoryum is a composite of carefully-selected clay and earth minerals (such as zeolite, elvan, loess, and red clay) that have been used for traditional healing for thousands of years.
Why Hantoryum? According to traditional wisdom, wearing these Hantoryum socks connects you to the Earth’s energy.
Scientific research shows that making bodily contact with the Earth's natural energy can stabilize our physiology at the deepest levels and generate greater well-being. Often called
grounding or
Earthing, this contact has been shown to help reduce inflammation, pain, and stress, and improve blood flow, energy, and sleep.
There is also even a deeper meaning you can connect to by wearing these socks: Hantoryum is concentrated at the yongchun in a symbol representing the integration of heaven, earth, and humans.
And of course, the non-slip spots on the soles help keep you stable on your mat or whatever surface you practice on.
4. Belly Button Healing Kit
Belly Button Healing is a unique form of acupressure massage focused on the navel that's performed on yourself. Mindful stimulation of the navel is a powerful doorway to opening the energy and circulation flow throughout your whole body. It creates Water Up, Fire Down, as well as helping to stimulate the vagus nerve, which is involved in assisting the calming and relaxing effects of the parasympathetic nervous system.
When I do Belly Button Healing, I feel a sense of warmth in my abdomen and a smooth tingling sensation of circulation in my whole body. In just a few minutes, my thoughts dramatically slow down and I feel calm.
In a
study conducted by the Korea Institute of Brain Science (KIBS), just 5 minutes of Belly Button Healing was shown to significantly reduce busy or anxious thinking in the study participants. By integrating this simple method into your yoga practice, you can get into the flow of your movements and bring your mind into a meditative state more easily.
While Belly Button Healing can be done with your hands, it’s easier to do with a tool that gives you more power and leverage without tiring out your arms or shoulders. Our
Belly Button Healing Kit has everything you need: the tool, a book that explains all about it and how to do it, plus access to an online course walking you through the techniques.
5. Wooden Pillow
Although it’s now being rediscovered by many people, the
Wooden Pillow is quite ancient technology. It’s been around for many generations in Asian countries, used in homes and bathhouses to bring relief for various aches and pains. Change Your Energy founder Ilchi Lee has updated the wooden pillow practice for modern times so that anyone can use it as a natural tool for self-healing and relaxation.
For all its simplicity, the wooden pillow can do a ton for you. Used the right way, it helps open up the energy channels throughout your whole body. By doing so, it helps you release stress from your mind, relieve tension, and counteract spinal misalignments caused by poor postural habits.
Since the neck, shoulders, and back of the head are usually the first areas to tense up when we’re under stress, using the Wooden Pillow in these areas is the most common way. For example, you can use it under your neck while gently rocking your head side to side, and exhaling away tension. You can also put it behind your back when you're sitting to help your posture.
But there are many more ways to use the pillow. The Wooden Pillow comes with a full course on Change Your Energy with 27 guided videos on how to use it from head to toe. Check out the Wooden Pillow
here to learn more.
For more yoga essentials to support your practice, visit the Change Your Energy Shop.