Your yoga mat is the closest, fastest place to go for a quick getaway. If you're muttering "You crazy, girl!" right now, hear me out! One of the many goals (and benefits) of a healthy, fit life is understanding our bodies and minds in ways we never had before. If I've learned one thing in these past couple of years, it's that moving your body is one of the best, fastest ways to de-stress and feel better. 

Every time I get on my mat, I know I'll step away from it feeling worlds better inside and out than when I came to it.

I spend time on my yoga mat every single day, so just like my pillow, bed, workout shoes and desk, I need my mat to work for my body's needs. All yoga mats are not created equal, and some work better or worse depending on what you need out of them. 

My ladies know that we need them as much for perfecting our Warrior pose as much as we need them to do rounds and rounds and rounds of burpees and mountain climbers on. There's a lot that I look for in a good yoga mat; portability, grippy factor, sustainability, sweat-wicking, easy-to-clean, and hell, beautiful too. If I'm spending so much time on it, it might as well be something I enjoy looking at, right? Because I use them in so many different situations, I've found a few that work. Over the holidays, I wrote about five of the best yoga mats in the game over on SELF Magazine. I'm happy to add two new yoga mats to the recommendations I made over at SELF.

La Vie Boheme Yoga founders Yvette Charlton and Michaela Moryskova combined their love of fashion, travel and yoga in their collection of beautiful, stylish mats. “Every trip we have gone on has given us inspiration to create these beautiful yoga mats and accessories. We have chosen every single piece of our collection to represent our love of beautiful prints, and colors as well as functionality and comfort for our daily practice.” I love the Warrior Yoga Mat dreamcatcher watercolor print as well as the Rumi quote. "What you seek is seeking you" is a such a great mantra and the perfect intention to dedicate your practice to.

Most yoga mats don't fold down into something inconspicuous that you can toss into your purse or luggage. Enter the YOGO Mat. Not only is it everything I look for in a yoga mat (no leaving little bits of it in the studio, hotel room or park!), but it folds into the size of a light sweater. It's perfect for traveling or for toting anywhere you don't want to be lugging a big roll into. One word for the wise, though: the YOGO Mat is very eco-conscious and minimalist. In other words, the mat is 1.5mm thick and though it's made of natural rubber for max cushioning, it's definitely not a "sink into it" kind of cushioning. If you're into thicker yoga mats, be cautious! I love mine and have taken it on trips as well as one-off, non-studio classes at lululemon and Lorna Jane. I went to Modo Yoga in L.A. for a late hot yoga flow class. My YOGO mat was grippy enough to get me through class even without a towel over it, and it fit so nicely in my carry-on!

Check out more La Vie Boheme Yoga mat designs and YOGO Mat colorways here.

Thanks LVBY and YOGO for inviting me to try your mats out!

Disclosure: Products provided by YOGO and La Vie Boheme Yoga for this post. All opinions are mine!