Our Story

The name Ainasana is composed of two words that have a symbolic and personal meaning for us.

'Āina - is from the Hawaiian word for land, earth.

Sana - is from the Latin word for healthy, whole, sane.

Ainasana combines our passion, mission and life journey in the spirit of Aloha 'Āina, which means "love of the land" in Hawaiian. In other words, it means living a life in harmony with nature, protecting our environment and giving back to it.

Our founder, lived and studied in Hawai'i for 2.5 years. The idea of Ainasana started during an event with a non-profit organization called Travel2change which organized yoga and beach clean-up. The mission was to create meaningful experiences for travelers, help the locals, give back to the community and protect our planet. Even on the most secluded beaches in Hawai'i, we could find plastic waste. The problem of plastic waste is widespread throughout the world. During our travels, we were sad to witness piles of plastic waste scattered in nature and on the beaches.

Source: www.travel2change.org

In Asia for example, the waste management is not as we know it in Europe; many places don’t have access to public trash cans, so trash may be thrown directly into the environment. The most shocking event we witnessed were some people burning discarded waste they had collected together at a graveyard – right in the middle of nature, with no regard about the harmful chemicals they were releasing into the air.

All this left a deep impression on us, and we began to think about what we could do to solve the problem. The idea of ​​our own clean-up project 'Yoga for the Ocean' developed, and Ainasana was founded in January 2021. We wanted to create something that could put our vision of a clean world into practice. We had the beach yoga session in Hawai’i fresh in mind, when doing yoga and collecting plastic waste together gave us a sense of community. We believe in the collective power, that together we can shape a more sustainable future.

As a result, we made our first mindful yoga mat made from recycled plastic bottles and natural rubber. We decided to reduce the amount of plastic waste that our planet is currently facing, by repurposing what already exists so that it doesn‘t end up in the oceans. Our yoga mats do not only benefit the environment, they also benefit us as human beings during the pandemic – to inspire more people to practice yoga, mindfulness and meditation at home or outside in nature.

The concept of 'mindful living' and sustainability inspired others and we have had many great collaborations with other companies that also have the same vision as us. Our range of products gradually increased to include more environmentally conscious and sustainable products that are good for us, for our well-being and for the health of our planet. We have also entered into collaborations with Empower AS to contribute a percentage of our sales to clean-up projects.

Join our mindful Ohana (family), and be kind to our planet. Mahalo (Thank you)!