Stay Lit — enhance your yoga practice with this incense Meditation kit from Reverse Karma

The sense of smell is strongly linked to memory and emotions. More so than any other sense. It strongly ties to our most primeval instincts, bringing them to the surface like foam rising above the waves. Ephemeral, short-lived, intangible, gone in the blink of an eye, and yet extremely intense. It’s not rare for us to find ourselves strongly reminiscing over heart-warming memories that have been brought up by a faint scent, remembering our childhood or our loved ones.

I have always been an incense junkie or, should I say, a smell junkie in general. Most of the time I don’t notice, but my husband often catches myself smelling things or foods I’m experiencing for the first time. At the age of 16, burning incense in my room while reading a book (quite often on religious or spiritual subjects) was part of my everyday routine. In recent years, I would also burn incense occasionally at home or at my yoga studio back in Morocco, and my fascination with scents grew into other areas of interest, including essential oils and aromatherapy (a discipline I have actually been considering studying for a while.)According to Reverse Karma, their story “began with the energy to change the way we think, interact and be kind to others. The ideology behind Karma has been traditionally linked to negativity - and we are here to change that.” This translates into an array of wellness products that their team has drawn inspiration, motivation and encouragement from, with the aim of giving back and spread positive karma.

Enter Reverse Karma. I first learned about this brand carrying incense, resins, herbs, smudges, and related accessories when I received their Pyramid incense cones in a Yogi Surprise box. It’d been a while since the last time I burned some incense, and I was pleasantly surprised with their quality, so I set out to learn more about them.

Following my experience with their Pyramid cones, this time I’ve been extremely excited to team up with them to review their Stay Lit - Meditation kit.

The kit comes in simple packaging, without any unnecessary extra adornments, and it includes seven colored incense sticks (one for each one of the main seven chakras). These are hand dipped, use natural dyes only, and are said to burn for up to 1 hour, leaving a lingering scent for up to 3 hours. Each stick also comes with a suggested word prompt for meditation, namely Accept, See, Speak, Love, Do, Feel, and Be, according to the characteristics of their relevant chakra, and they feature differenI lit up “Accept” (Jasmine Scent) for my yoga practice yesterday, and as I sat down to begin with my pranayama (breathing) exercises, I could immediately feel the effects of the scent on my being. It had been a while since I had practiced with incense, and I found it strangely calming and settling, I could immediately feel myself more focused.

As I started my asana practice, I found myself experiencing a deeper connection, dotted with bouts of intense awareness as I held each pose, some slightly longer than usual, sinking deeper into my body and finding new subtle adjustments that, somehow, felt like they’d always been there just waiting to be accessed. This, of course, is something that happens with regular practice, as we evolve and grow and deepen our understanding of the Self. However, it doesn’t happen in every practice, neither is it an often occurrence. I feel like the sense of smell, drawing from these amazing sticks, playing an important role in keeping me centered and deepening my awareness.

My yoga practice on weekends is usually very long. Yesterday’s comprised about 15 minutes of pranayama, near 2 hours of asana, an 11 minute savasana, and a short 5 minute meditation. The incense stick finished burning halfway through, and the smell lingered softly until the end. One important thing that I noticed is that the scent wasn’t overwhelming or stuffy, and by the time I was done, the air in the room felt light and fresh.

The experience was so amazing that I am excited now to incorporate the remaining sticks into my next practices, and I’m looking forward to them. I am also very curious about their other products (sage, palo santo), which I would love to try soon!

If you’re interested in trying their incense sticks and supporting Reverse Karma in their mission to spread positivity, here is their website. They have also very generously provided me with a code for my social media followers — feel free to enter MINTYOGINI10 at checkout in order to get 10% off your entire purchase. (This code will expire on October 20th, 2019)

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