Yoga Best Practices: What Kind of Yoga Mat Should I Use?
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Find below an excerpt from renowned yogi Sadhguru speak about how to choose the right kind of yoga mat for one's practice.
Q: Can we wear socks when we do yoga? And what kind of yoga mat should we use?
Sadhguru: Socks are not necessary when you are practicing yoga. If you do hatha yoga right, it generates enormous heat in your system. Ushna will be generated on the cellular level. Once that happens, even if it is a cold country, you will not feel cold.
There are certain points of your body that do certain things when they touch. In many postures in hatha yoga, your heels and your big toes need to actually touch. There is a whole lot of “circuitry” there. If you wear socks, you will obstruct that.
Above all, when you are doing yoga, your first relationship of being one is with the earth. To be in touch with the earth is important. If you can afford to do this, for maximum impact in hatha yoga, you must make a space with packed mud, clay, and use either a raw silk or cotton cloth – raw cotton, not sanforized – and do yoga on that.
Are Rubber Yoga Mats Ok?
About using rubber yoga mats, I know there are Isha-branded rubber mats. They tell me, “Sadhguru, cotton mats get dirty, who is going to wash them. So we made the rubber mats,” and, “Sadhguru, this is some special material which really insulates you.” What I want to ask you is – are you here to experience life or dodge life? Unknowingly, in so many ways you are insulating yourself from life.
So, if you are a home-bound person, which means you wake up in the same place every day, it is best you use a cotton mat or a raw silk mat for your yoga, because you must be connected with earth. Organic material makes this possible so that there is no break.