By Joleen

Here We Explain Our Pricing I'd like to explain why our mats cost what they do AND why you still need one even at that price… Our CEO, Joleen, on our Frida Kahlo She Brings It to the Canvas yoga mat and our 112-year-old maple floors… Unlike our competitors, we don’t crank out generic yoga mats by the thousands (or tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands). We’re a small, family-run business and we print each mat individually to order — custom made exclusively for you. We simply don’t have the same economies of scale as big- yoga brands or big-box retailers and,...

Hi there. My name is Joleen Emery, and I’m the founder and CEO of Big Raven Yoga. A lot of people have been asking me how Big Raven Yoga came to be — what our "origin story” is, if you will. So here's our story... The first thing to know about me is that I. Am. A Yogi. And I have been for 18 years, both as a practitioner and as a teacher. My life is built around my yoga mat. It’s the foundation of my life. No matter what else is going on — work, travel, family — I eke out time...

Oh. My. Gosh! What an amazing weekend we had at the LA Yoga Expo in Pasadena, California! We met SO many super-awesome people. This was the first time we’ve shown our mats at a big event, and everyone’s reaction to them was absolutely incredible. Thank you so much for all of your love and support (and your orders, of course! SO many orders… It’s going to take a while to process them all — please be patient!) It’s really, really gratifying to discover that we’ve created something that complete strangers love as much as we do. Our only regret is that...

There are several theories on the “motivation for change.” One I think about a lot is “current state” versus “desired state”. It goes something like this: Let’s say I have a goal to lose weight. If I want to lose 10 pounds, my current state and my desired state are not that far apart. So while I need to stay motivated to achieve my goal — I can see the near future when I am living my desired state. Now let’s say I want to lose 100 pounds. My current state and my desired state are really far apart — it will...

Mee-Maw’s Wallpaper Introducing our latest journal feature: Design Highlights! In honor of Thanksgiving, our very first Mat of the Week is Mee-Maw’s Wallpaper; read on to learn why… Mee-Maw’s Wallpaper When I was growing up, each Thanksgiving we would go to Grandma Martin’s for lunch and Grandma Emery’s for dinner. Two huge meals in one day. Each house was crammed full of people, food, and simultaneous conversations. At Grandma Martin’s I was one of the younger cousins (I’m the 8th out of 11 on that side), and while my older cousins and the adults would sit in the living room visiting...