Yoga mats are for more than just for yoga, they are cushion mats.

Why Use Yoga Mats

I have heard people say that they like to connect with nature, try to do yoga or Pilates or even stretching on top of a rock or with itchy grass poking through your yoga pants. I am pretty sure that you could do floor exercises without dying for a day, but you probably don’t do yoga or exercise just once a year right?

  • Cushion: Yoga mats are designed for yoga, Pilates, exercise, stretching and/or meditation. The point of using a mat is for cushion and support, the same reason we use a mattress or sofa to sleep on, a pillow on a chair to sit down, or sneakers to run (ask athletes why they use knee pads, elbow pads). We need to cushion our bodies against hard surfaces, like the floor. Unless you plan on doing Pilates on an inflatable bounce house, which by the way is very dangerous, because we also need firmness to prevent injury.
  • Slip Resistance: Another reason to use mats, is slip resistance. Yoga and Pilates have many advanced and upside-down poses that require balance, flexibility, strength, and the added ability of not slipping and falling. I have seen people trying to do a series of yoga poses on hardwood floors or marble tiles…most of them don’t end well, especially if they are sweaty.

 

So, in a nutshell, we need mats to provide us with cushion, support and slip resistance without being too rough surfaced (nobody wants marks on their knees, elbows, hands and back). The first mat I had was sort of cushiony, it was definitely slip resistant, but the surface was too rough, it was like quilted and I always ended up with the quilted marks all over.

Why the Resveralife Mandala Yoga Mat?

Like most other things we buy, we like to have both form and function, form as in the esthetic of the item. We want a functional mat, but it can also look nice.

This is where the Resveralife Yoga Mat in the Mandala design comes in. Not only is it functional, it is aesthetically pleasing.

Pros:

  • Proper Cushion
  • Slip Resistance
  • Soft to Touch
  • Machine Washable

When I first took this mat home, I felt it was heavy (compared to my old one of course), when I touched it I noticed that it was very thick (more cushion). I opened it and decided to do some stretching inside my apartment, it worked great, so I wanted to try it outside in my rough floored balcony. I didn’t feel any roughness, just good cushioning, even when I did more advanced yoga poses that put strain on the wrists and knees. I used to get sore in the wrists easily and quickly when I did certain yoga or Pilates poses, but with this mat I felt more comfortable and lasted longer in the poses.

I took the mat to my master bathroom that has marble flooring and can get quite slippery. I went crazy on that bathroom floor and nothing happened, never slipped, the mat has “staying power” as it grips to your body. I decided to use it for meditation, and that’s when I noticed that it’s also really soft to the touch, no marks on my body and a velvety sensation that covers your skin when your laying down, especially good for corpse pose.

Overall Impression

I’m truly impressed, until now everything functional was in place, it had cushion, it was slip resistant but soft too and provided firm support. And then I read that it is machine washable and it can be hung to dry, which is perfect especially after using it on my balcony. We sweat everywhere, not necessarily where we want to put our faces too without washing it occasionally, (I would recommend using the delicate cycle and no bleach detergent, you don’t want to damage the colors). It is made from natural rubber and microfiber.

Now moving on to form, as the name suggests this mat has a mandala design in beautiful colors such as pink, blue and purple. It’s a beauty to look at.

Meaning of Mandala

Mandala is a Sanskrit term that means circle, Sanskrit is one of the 22 languages present in India. Mandalas can be a Hindu or Buddhist symbol. It can be a circle enclosing a palace or square with deities on each side, a circle divided into four sections and it can represent many things, such as the universe.

Needless to say, I kept this mat, gave the old one away to be recycled and I am not looking back only forward to this colorful mandala design.