Beach Jan 2018

Evanna Shaffer with the round yoga mat at the Hermosa Beach pier, where
she was inspired to launch her company.
result of eight production cycles.
All the time that Shafer spent
meditating by the ocean seems to
have sunk in. Saberi makes some of
Shaffer’s products from a polymer
derived from refuse, like plastic
water bottles and fishing nets, that
wash up on shore. The two plan on
rolling out more products in the
coming year, including a line of
yoga pants.
Shaffer, Saberi said, manages to
combine the creativity of a designer
with the focus of an entrepreneur.
“She’s a great artist, and very high
energy, but she’s also definitely on
top of stuff all the time,” he said.
The vision
Roughly translated from Sanskrit,
“Chakya” translates as “to awaken
from within.”
The next product in the line is a
circular yoga mat. Almost all yoga
mats on the market are rectangular,
something Shaffer muses may be
related to fiting as many people as
possible into a yoga studio.
“When I’m on a linear mat I feel
like I’m a little soldier,” she said.
Her circular, color-wheel mat is
based around the chakras, an idea
in the yogic tradition that posits
there are seven different energy
centers in the body. Each chakra is
linked with a color, a part of the
body, and an aspect of the soul. For
example, the fifth chakra, located in
the throat, is blue, and signifies
communication.
Shaffer’s circular mat is split up
into six colored segments, and a
white circle, for the seventh
“crown” chakra, in the center. The
colors are arranged to provide reminders
for practice, she said, that
may elude someone on a traditional
mat. For example, based on the way
the colors are arranged, if she is
overdoing core work, associated
with the yellow chakra, it will be
difficult to occupy the purple part
of the mat, that signaling the chakra
responsible for intuition.
“The chakras are always displayed
in a linear fashion,” Shaffer
said. “But it makes so much more
sense to me this way. Doing it in a
circle unlocked so many mysteries.”
Among the idea’s proponents is
David Romero, a prominent local
yoga teacher who also leads regular
sound baths. Shaffer assisted
Romero when he gave a TEDx
demonstration on sound healing,
and often shows up to offer the
Chakya Gos as cushions at his regular
offerings.
“I’m a huge believer in it. I look
at things from the perspective that
the human body is one big vibrating
piece of material made of earth elements
of different densities. She
sees things through color, which is
also a vibration. It’s just further up
the spectrum of light,” Romero said.
The goal, Shaffer said, is ultimately
to use the mats as part of
specialized classes she has designed.
The energy flow would resemble
a traditional yoga class, with
a gentle beginning, a peak in vigor
near the middle, and gradual comedown.
But Shaffer describes the experience
as something closer to a
Disneyland ride, concluding people
softening into the bliss of meditation.
She’s currently looking for a
space in the area to launch the effort,
and is also pitching existing
studios to let her try it as a workshop.
Shaffer knows that getting people
to see new things in a discipline that
is thousands of years old will be difficult.
But her attitude lifts her high
enough that she can see it becoming
reality.
“By the time we finish, you
should be feeling as though you are
above the clouds,” she said. B
January 18, 2018 • Easy Reader / Beach magazine 19