Choosing the Perfect Holiday Gift for the Yoga Instructor in Your Life
Choosing the Perfect Holiday Gift for the Yoga Instructor in Your Life
Choosing the right yoga accessories can be a very personal process. By the time a yogi has reached the point in their journey where they’re capable of instructing others, they have probably seen every fad yoga and fitness accessory on the market, and no doubt they already have a closet full of spare yoga mats and water bottles they’ve received as gifts. Most wellness professionals already have their gear setup finely tuned to their individual style and needs, so take this opportunity to think beyond the mat and explore other options they will love and use.
It’s also important to remember that people in the yoga world tend to be conscious of both environmental issues and the spiritual significance of clutter in their own lives—the last thing you want to do is give them unwanted material objects. A Christmas gift that seems like a sure winner when you’re reading reviews online because it’s “good for doing yoga” might be something that gets shoved in a drawer on December 26th and never touched again.
When holiday gift-shopping for the yoga instructor in your life, a good first rule is to avoid the obvious. Don’t mess with mats, mat bags, foam blocks, weights, resistance bands, or those huge, hard-to-store rubber balls unless they’re specifically hinted at. But where do you go from there? Before shopping for a yogi this winter, review our fail-proof strategy and consider the products listed below. With our help, you can ensure your loved one doesn’t have to feign enthusiasm and fake smile their way through another boring gift.
Aiming for the Sweet Spot
When shopping for gifts for yoga instructors there are three good ways to approach the process.
You can start by looking for:
- Items that are yoga-adjacent without being explicitly “for yoga.” Think of objects more broadly related to meditation or décor/furniture appropriate for a yoga studio.
- Yoga-specific things that are niche enough that your loved one doesn’t already have a ton of them, but not so niche that they’re considered corny or useless by the yoga community at large. Yoga books are a good example.
- Yoga-specific consumable products like cleaning supplies, active beauty products, or favorite supplements/snacks. Even clothes need to be replaced.
Holiday Gift Ideas for Yoga Instructors
Expand your Christmastime consciousness when shopping for your special yogi. These gifts for yoga instructors are loosely arranged from most affordable to most expensive, although most of these suggestions come in a range of prices and can be scaled up or down depending on this year’s gift budget.
Yoga Socks
These cute socks are usually in a low-cut, athletic style, and feature grippy, rubberized dots or patterns on the bottom that help your yogi safely perform yoga poses and other exercises without shoes. Many yogis prefer an open-toed variety of workout socks, so try to sneak a peek into their closet to see which style they like before making any purchases. Your yoga instructor certainly owns several pairs already, but yoga socks wear out quickly with use just like any other athletic footwear, so it’s an affordable and practical stocking stuffer to show you’re thinking of them. Prices can range from a few bucks to $20+ depending on quality and quantity.
Candles and Incense
This might go against our own advice about looking beyond obvious choices, but when the obvious things are consumable items like candles, incense, or other air freshening products, the obvious can still be thoughtful and appropriate. Every fitness instructor likes their studio to smell nice, and yoga and aromatherapy are sort of like cousins, both being long-time mainstays of the alternative health space. Many folks who are into one are into the other. Instructors who lease their spaces may not be allowed to use open flames in their practice, so be aware of this and consider essential oils and diffusers as possible alternatives. Remember that smell preferences are also highly personal, so either go with some sort of variety pack that allows your yogi to experiment with scents or make sure you know your instructor’s favorite scents well before shopping.
Books
Yoga instructors are not merely teachers, but they also tend to take pride in being lifelong learners. Like any other serious professional, they want to stay on the cutting edge of their field, and the quiet, meditative nature of yoga leads to a lot of overlap between yogis and bookish types.
Some of the most recently released and top-rated yoga books include:
Yoga Dice
Yoga dice fall somewhere between game and accessory. Typically available in sets, these six-sided dice feature different yoga poses on each face that yogis can use to add a little bit of creativity and chance-based fun to a solo workout or a class setting. There are various styles available for anywhere from $10 to $50+. Some are colorful, illustrated dice intended for playing yoga games with children, while others are elegant, hand-carved art pieces for those with more meditative vibes.
Yoga Mat Cleaning Kit
While a yoga mat itself is usually a redundant gift for a yoga instructor, consumable supplies like disinfectant spray and cleaning cloths are always in demand and make thoughtful, practical gifts for yoga instructors. You can find cleaning kits online, or assemble your own by combining:
Towels/wipes
There are a wide variety of options here, from disposables and microfibers to high-end organic cloths. If your loved one is operating a space where a lot of students gather, a package of disinfecting Lysol wipes might be appreciated, whereas an environmentally conscious yoga instructor may prefer a reusable towel made of natural fibers.
Tapestry
f you’re confident in your knowledge of your yogi’s personal style, a decorative tapestry can make a great gift. Fabric wall art creates a space with a warmer sound and feel, and there are even some yoga-specific tapestries out there that detail popular poses in an artful way. If you don’t want to be too on the nose about it, a mandala or other abstract design is a great choice. The price of tapestries will vary greatly depending on their source and quality. Natural materials like wool, linen, cotton, and silk are a more environmentally friendly option than polyester and other synthetic fabrics, and they offer the look and feel of traditional hand-woven textiles.
Tibetan Singing Bowl
This might be something your yogi already has, but many yogis would be delighted to have a second one for their collection, especially if you find one with a motif or origin that is meaningful to them (or your relationship with them).
A Tibetan singing bowl makes a variety of meditative droning and chiming noises. Someone with multiple bowls could have one for the studio and one for home or use bowls of different dimensions in conjunction to make some very interesting and complex layered sounds.
Crystals
Most wellness professionals love natural, raw specimens of crystals and other minerals. Sometimes this is because they believe in the healing or focusing properties of crystals, and other times it’s simply because a certain type of gemstone fits the vibe of their studio. Either way, natural, uncut crystal specimens make memorable gifts for yoga instructors because they’re always one-of-a-kind pieces.
Here are some favorite decorative minerals and some of the properties commonly associated with them:
- Amazonite – a variety of potassium feldspar with an attractive, lively sea green color (intuition, hope)
- Amethyst – a purple or violet quartz crystal (intuition, calming)
- Aragonite – a carbonate material that forms in distinctive geometric clusters and is often found in pearls (patience, reliability)
- Aquamarine – a beryl gemstone named for its peaceful blue-green color and associated with the ocean (clarity, calming)
- Fluorite – a beautiful, glassy mineral that produces different colors at different angles, but is mostly found in deep purple and green shades (focus, protection)
- Labradorite – an opaque feldspar mineral with a breathtaking prismatic blue surface that reflects various blue tones (balance, spirituality)
- Malachite – a copper carbonate mineral with an intense green color and swirling, agate-like bands (wealth, beauty)
- Rose Quartz – a translucent pale pink variety of quartz (love, peace)
- Selenite – a cloudy white gypsum mineral sometimes found in dramatic “tower” formations (clarity, healing)
- Tiger’s Eye – a mineral often comprised of metamorphic rock that features shining metallic bands of gold to orange (willpower, motivation)
- Tourmaline – a semi-precious gemstone that comes in a wide variety of colors and dramatic geometric shapes (protection, security) The price range is wide open when shopping for crystals, as each mineral is valued differently based on its rarity, and you can find anything from huge, museum-quality specimens to thumbnail-sized gems suitable for use as pendants.
Subscription Services
Does your favorite yoga instructor spend so much time sharing their knowledge that they skimp on their much-deserved “me time?” Get them a subscription to a yoga- or wellness-themed subscription box to encourage them to sit down and relax at least once a month. Good options include:
- TheraBox contains self-care, inspiration, and relaxation products.
- Lunarly Self Care is a high-end box with tasteful items to inspire the mind and spirit.
- Goddess Provisions boxes include crystals, aromatherapy, and natural beauty items.
You might also consider a food subscription service specializing in fresh produce and healthy snacks if your yoga instructor is the sort of person who puts so much into feeding the wellness and spirituality of their students that they forget to feed themselves.
Meditation Pillows or Bean Bags
Yoga studios sometimes call for unconventional seating options. When the occasional class session requires more talking and less doing, some students may have trouble sitting cross-legged on a floor for extended periods, even with a comfortable mat. This is especially true if your yoga instructor is working with young children or the elderly. Having low cushions or bean bags throughout the studio creates a more inviting atmosphere, both visually, functionally, and in terms of acoustics. Options vary from simple solutions for around $40 per cushion to hundreds or thousands of dollars for complete, high-end sets.
Travel
Everyone loves to get away sometimes, but for yoga instructors, taking classes in a new environment can be an unforgettable experience that is transformative to their own personal spiritual journey and their perspective as an instructor. Pairing tickets to a high-end yoga class or seminar with the airfare needed to get there makes an unforgettable gift for a yoga instructor. A few of the most popular destinations for yoga and meditation-themed travel include:
- Ganges River Valley (and other locations), India
- Cambodia
- Bali
- Sedona, Arizona, USA
- Toronto, Ontario, Canada (annual Yoga conference)
- Telluride, Colorado, USA (annual Yoga festival)
Don’t have the cash for a roundtrip gift? Give your yogi friend this CHICECO Travel Yoga Gym Bag instead!
Yogi’s Need Inspiration Too
We hope we helped you find the perfect gift for the yoga lover in your life. Even though we might practice a healthy lifestyle, having a little something new can help inspire you in your journey. We’re sure no matter what gift you choose, as long as it’s thoughtful and given with love, your friend will appreciate your effort. I know I would!
Happy shopping!
