It is probably here, on this part of my site, that I should mention I am also a part-time yoga teacher. I teach Dharma Yoga, Restorative Yoga & Yoga Nidra in the Greater Vancouver area. I want to say that Dharma Straps are my babies, probably because I birthed them to life while I was pregnant with my first daughter back in Norway.

You see, after all my years practicing and teaching, there has always been one prop that I wished more studios would have: the little ring-shaped straps that my guru, Sri Dharma, used to hand out in a basket at the Dharma Yoga Center in New York City. These little things helped me get my foot to my head for the first time. And I'll never forget it. Funnily enough, these weren't the fanciest props out there - just bits of fabric sewn together, all different shapes and sizes. But they worked.

Back in 2016, these little rings popped into my head again. I was tired of seeing people fumble with their conventional straps, and hearing those buckles clatter on the floor when they finished. "Wouldn't it be great if those Dharma straps existed..." A few months later, I was asked to teach a backbend workshop as part of a teacher training in Oslo. As expected, the first thing I thought was, “I really wish I had those straps for this!” Since they were still non-existent, I ended up doing what Dharma did - being resourceful! I found an old pair of stretchy pants and began to cut the legs horizontally, working my way up with even cuts until I was left with about 16 rings of fabric, each about 3cm wide. They weren't the fanciest things on the block. But they worked! "I should really try and do something about this..." And so I did.

For 9 months, the duration of my pregnancy, I brainstormed, sketched, did some market research, ordered and tested out fabrics, learned how to sew (rudimentarily, but enough!) and made actual mockups, which I tested out in my yoga classes. When I was satisfied with the size and function of my dummy straps, I then when through the equally lengthy process of reaching out to manufacturers willing to create a new product from scratch, doing a few trial runs and quality checking each piece. Eventually, we nailed it and I shipped my first bulk order to Norway to begin selling at various studios, festivals and my online webshop. Since then, it has been so fulfilling watching people's reactions as they play with this for the first time, and even more inspiring watching them try out new and more advanced variations of poses they were struggling with before. If you´ve read this far and intrigued to test them out for yourself, you can find my straps on Etsy, here.