Shanti Boutique, Yogi(ni) Jewelry for a Good Cause

Shanti Boutique, Yogi(ni) Jewelry for a Good Cause

by Crystal Water, owner and founder of Shanti Boutique

Conscious * ethical * charitable ...with these qualities in mind and action, Shanti Boutique is a fair trade business committed to producing unique jewelry, positive for people and planet.

When starting Shanti Boutique, my goal was to create a business that would not only serve as my dream job, but also make a difference in the world. So how can creating and selling jewelry achieve that? Well it's pretty simple: create meaningful jewelry that supports fair trade and charity while providing eclectic designs to conscious consumers and forward thinkers. 

Since I was a small child, I have had the pleasure to have many Tibetan friends. Altruism, hospitality and non-violence are just a few of the many wonderful qualities that Tibetan culture embodies. And they are also qualities we need so much in the world today. However, because many Tibetans are in exile and spread throughout the world, their culture is endangered. This is why I want to work to help preserve it. 

"Heart-centered activism" is what Jungian analyst and author, Dr Jean Shinoda Bolen, uses to describe working for a cause that is "meaningful, fun and motivated by love", thus becoming your soul work. Driven by this heart-centered activism, Shanti Boutique works with the Tibetan Children's Education Foundation TCEF, a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of Tibetan culture with a focus on Children's Education. Our involvement with TCEF is both active and financial. We donate 10% of the profits to TCEF as well as sponsoring a child and 2 grandparents. Since 2000, I've also been blessed to serve as a board member for TCEF. 

Through doing our soul work, we hope to offer you great jewelry that truly has a meaning far beyond it's artistic expression and works to improve lives. Enjoy our products and share the shanti!

View the Shanti Boutique Jewelry Collection at DownDog Boutique here: Shanti Boutique Jewelry

Dying to know more?

-Tibetan Children's Eduction www.tibetchild.org and 

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tibetan-Childrens-Education-Foundation/123107491054209

-Fair Trade Federation www.fairtradefederation.org

-Dr Jean Shinoda Bolen and heart-centered activism http://www.jeanshinodabolen.com

Britain's oldest supermodel Daphne Self

On November 20th 2012 Jenice Gaddis one of our Brand Ambassadors posted this picture of Daphne Selfe simply because she was inspired by the image and how elegantly beautiful Daphne looked in her pose.

Here is what Jenice said:

"This beautiful 83 year old woman is my inspiration. She proves that yoga is ageless, it is our Youth Serum, its strenth, its power, its beauty incarnate. ~JG"
I did some extra digging to find out more about Daphne who is indeed 83 and still working as a model and living in England.


I found a couple of newspaper articles from the UK which give a deal of her life story. Daphne describes herself as "Britains oldest Supermodel"

Here is the first story from London's Daily Mail:

Daily Mail

The second story is from three years ago but gives more information so is worth a read:

The Independent

To sign up for our weekly newsletter and get more stories like Daphne's sign up here:

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DownDog Boutique is an online boutique of Yoga Clothes, Jewelry, Mats & More run by Yoga lovers who enjoy sharing stories and all things Yoga.

Do plus size women want Yoga Clothes?

It is a pretty simple question: Do plus size women want Yoga Clothes? (I am quite sure that size 14 model Lizzie Miller shown here would look just fine in hers.)

The answers as always are a little more complex than you might think.

We have been looking at each of our Yoga manufacturers as they bring us their collections and most appear to stop at Large size or in a few cases Extra Large. Plus size appears to be defined as size 14 and above. 

We have asked a few of the manufacturers why no plus sizes? The answer appears to come down to a few main issues:

1. The manufacturers think that making plus sizes may represent a risk. Retailers who will buy the clothing hopefully in volume are risk averse by nature and usually want to do what has worked before. Plus size Yoga clothing is fairly unusual so has little track record of sales. Catch 22.

2. The way clothing is made requires careful control of waste and materials. Quality Yoga clothes in particular use expensive "stretchy" cloth. Sizes are ganged together to maximize yield so small sizes are cut with large etc. When you get to plus sizes you use more of the expensive material so the pricing needs to be higher at both wholesale and retail. Will plus size consumers pay more for the larger sizes or will they feel ripped off?

3. Will larger people who are exercising (Yoga clothing denotes some form of exercise) pay a high price for an item of clothing when they may well lose weight doing the exercise? Are they more likely to buy cheaper plus sized sweat pants (we discovered during research for this post that Champion one of our suppliers carries plus size sweat pants so we plan on adding them to our site soon)

We got into detailed discussion with one particular manufacturer who makes Yoga Clothes in the USA. As he doesn't need to bring over container loads of inventory from China he may be willing to create a plus sized Yoga line if the market is there and he can sell at least reasonable volume.

So we have set out to answer the simple question: Will plus sized women buy Yoga Clothes?

Please give us feedback at our website or on Facebook where we plan to post this story too, if you are sized 14 or above and have an opinion.

http://downdogboutique.com/contact.htm

Guest Blog by Kristin Khederian of Om Shanti Marketing

This article is reproduced by kind permission of Kristin Khederian of Om Shanti Marketing.

It was originally posted on Kristin's blog on 11/18/12

Spruce up your Holiday Marketing

It's that time of the year again...The malls already have their Holiday Decorations out and retailers (both brick & mortar and online) are pushing holiday gifts in full force. But what about the Wellness Industry? How can we get our clients to jump on the gift giving band wagon without being cheesy or over-the-top? How do you best promote possibly the most important gift of all...The Gift of Health?!

Here are Om Shanti Marketing's Top Tips for Wellness Industry Holiday Marketing Success 

Offer a Great Discount on a Class Card or Unlimited Membership

Many studios are offering amazing discounts right now on Class Cards and Unlimited Memberships that can ONLY be used through the Holidays. For example, Stil Studio in Dedham is offering a $100 Holiday Unlimited Yoga Pass - unlimited yoga through Dec. 31st for only $100. Super smart since this is the time of year where most people give up on their fitness plans because they are too stressed out and consumed with work events, holidays parties, etc. However, a great deal like this will likely motivate your students to come to class more often, allowing them to experience a happier and less stressful Holiday Season and you to fill your classes. It's a no brainer and a win-win for both sides!

Offer a Creative Promotion that also Supports a Good Cause
People love to be charitable during the Holiday Season and help others that aren't so fortunate, so why not offer a great promotion at your studio that not only helps to drive business for you, but also helps others? Genius! One of my clients, Balance Studio in Cohasset, is offering a great promotion this season that also benefits Toys for Tots. You can buy one of their Balance Studio Water Bottles for just $10 and $5 of that goes directly to Toys for Tots. Each water bottle also has a great prize in it, such as gift certificates, magnets, coupons for free health food and drinks, etc. They are also offering $10 off your next class card or monthly membership purchase if you donate an actual toy to Toys for Tots. Just a few examples of great promotions that encourage giving and generosity this Holiday Season and boost your studio's sales.

Offer Specialized Workshops that Help your Clients De-Stress
The Holidays are certainly one of the most stressful times of the year. Help your clients de-stress by offering them the chance to partake in specialized workshops that help them in this area. The result? Happier clients and more business/profits for your studio derived from these special events. Inner Strength Studios in Watertown is offering a special "December De-Stress" workshop with Rebecca Pacheco, geared to "give your mind, body and spirit a lift to last through the season." Consider adding an event like this to your studio's workshop schedule. 

Gift Cards - The Gift that Keeps on Giving!
This one is sort of a no-brainer but make sure to offer Gift Cards for classes and other services at your studio. Since your clients are obviously into yoga, pilates, wellness, etc. chances are they want to share that love with someone close to them. Make sure to promote these Gift Cards as "Giving the Gift of Health" - it's the best gift you can possibly give and it's true! You could also offer some sort of a promotion around Gift Cards. For example, buy a Gift Card over $100 in value and get a free $15 Gift Card for yourself or someone else. 

Cheers to a blissful and successful Holiday Season! 
Kristin Khederian

www.downdogboutique.com

DownDog Boutique says "Hello to Anjali Jewelry"

We are delighted to welcome Hema Santhanam and her Anjali Creations Jewelry to DownDog Boutique.

The Yoga inspired silk wraps are simply stunning!

See the whole collection here: Anjali Jewelry

www.downdogboutique.com

Holiday Sale Game of Skill win $50 Gift card!

LGFTHOAOTM Sale!

www.downdogboutique.com

Like most other sites we are having a great sale to kick off the Holiday season. We are giving the usual up to 30% off kind of sale promotion but our sale unlike almost all the others comes with a weird name and a chance to win a $50 gift card in a game of skill and wit.

This is not your regular old Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Purple Tuesday (I made that one up) kind of sale. This is a LGFTHOAOTM Sale!

We figured you could use some extra entertainment during the holidays and so here is your chance to win a $50 gift card by using your skill and ingenuity. Figure out what the letters mean and post it in the comments below. In a very complicated algorithm worthy of Google but mainly involving a large glass of wine and which one makes us laugh loudest on Sunday night will win a $50 gift card.

By a stroke of genius planning there will still be time to spend the $50 card in the LGFTHOAMATM sale on Monday and snap up those bargains for free.

Rules are simple. There is a real answer but if yours is better and makes us laugh that’s OK we will just pretend we were clever enough to think that up first. No curse words or offensive words were used so please keep it clean and suitable for a family audience. Have fun and you can enter as many times as you like.

Likes from other people will count towards a winning entry too so do your best to persuade your friends to like your comment and you increase your chances of winning the $50!

A quick DownDog Boutique guide to Acro Yoga

A quick DownDog Boutique guide to Acro Yoga

I have been seeing an increasing number of images lately on Pinterest where couples are performing  spectacular Yoga poses together.

You can see all the couples images here on our Pinterest board: Couples doing Yoga


 I have seen a few references to Acro-Yoga in this context and that set me to wondering what AcroYoga was all about. Here is a quick guide to what I discovered (Mostly thanks to Wikipedia):

Acro-yoga is a physical practice which blends elements of yoga, acrobatics, and healing arts.These three ancient practices form the foundation of a practice that cultivates trust, connection and playfulness between partners.

There are two schools of Acroyoga. Acroyoga Montreal, led by Jessie Goldberg and Eugene Poku, has used the term since 2001 brings together acrobatics, yoga and dance/performance. Acroyoga Inc., which began in California with Jason Nemer and Jenny Klein and was labelled as acroyoga in 2006. The latter practices brings together acrobatics, yoga and Thai massage. Both schools offer teaching certifications, and despite some differences have many similar poses.
There are three primary roles in an Acro-yoga practice: base, flyer, and spotter.

Base - this is the individual who has the most points of contact with the ground. Often this person is lying on the ground with the entire back torso in full contact. This enables both the arms and legs to be "bone-stacked" for maximum stability and support of the Flyer. Main points of contact with the flyer are the feet (generally placed on the Flyer's hips or stomach) and the hands (which either form handholds or grasp the shoulders). The Base represents stability and grounding.

Flyer - this is the individual who is elevated off the ground by the Base. The Flyer can move into a series of dynamic positions, and generally lets gravity do the work for them. A Flyer needs balance, confidence, and core strength. The Flyer represents freedom and dynamic balance.

Spotter - this is the individual who has an objective view of the partners, and whose entire focus is on making sure that the Flyer lands safely in case of any slips. The spotter can also make recommendations to the Base and Flyer to improve their form. The spotter represents safety and guidance.

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