Michelle & Sasha ~ Whale Song Mats
Creating Yoga Mats Aligned With
“Earth Loving & Sustainability.”
“Kindness and Compassion are Key to Many of Society’s Problems
and It All Starts with Healing Yourself.”
Whale Song Mats:
“ECO-MATS WITH A MESSAGE”
Helping to rid the world of toxic yoga mats whilst
sharing the message of ocean conservation.
One Whale Song at a Time.
Whale Song Mats Short Bio
Whale Song Mats are created by Michelle and Sasha ~ two sisters from the Northern Beaches area of Sydney, Australia. They share a deep love for the Ocean and Mother nature and after many a beach clean, they wanted to create a tool of awareness around Ocean conservation and daily sustainable living choices. As they both enjoy yoga and holistic living, they were surprised to find many people still used toxic regular yoga mats that are harmful to the body and the earth. So Whale Song Mats were created, Eco rubber/organic jute yoga mats to educate and inspire.
Michelle Havlik Short Bio
Michelle is a marine researcher, delving into ocean issues such as the effects of microplastic pollution, and has explored the physiology of microalgae in the past (she really likes tiny things). In her travels she has come across pristine, healthy, thriving environments, which make it easy to compare to those affected by human action, and drive her to protect our ecosystems be one of the change makers.
Sasha Whitehawk Havlikova Short Bio
Sasha is a holistic art therapist, an accredited nutritionist, and a mum to two magical little beings. She is also is the founder/curator of Breathe Wellness events, always seeking to share her passion of living a healthy and sustainable lifestyle. She feels that grounding into nature and reconnecting to our shamanic roots is vital for regaining our sanity.
Whale Song Mats Contacts:
Your Free Gift From Sasha & Michelle ~ Whale Song Mats
Sasha and Michelle have kindly gifted their “Your Home Your Earth” ebook.
This pdf download from the Whale Song Mats founders offers easy to implement advice on how you can live more eco-friendly and toxin free. Ultimately, providing huge benefits for yourself, your family and most importantly, for the planet.
You will also gain an understanding as to why single-use plastic is the problem that it is.
This ebook has an added bonus of showing you how to schedule some dedicated “ME Time” and have a good old meditative cut and paste with a beautiful collage inspired by the land and the sea whilst you enjoy a tea.
Please enjoy this very informative and must read gift from Sasha and Michelle.
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Sasha WhiteHawk Havlikova: Live Love By Design Complete Guest Profile
Sasha Whitehawk Havlikova was born in Czechoslovakia into a communist age, in 1983.
Her family escaped across the border when she was four and they spent the next two years in refugee camps till they could come to Australia. Settling on the Northern Beaches area of Sydney.
Nine years later her sister Michelle was born. They are lucky their parents are here, and now Sasha has two incredible wild little people of her own, as well as two fur babies.
Growing up Sasha and Michelle were both deeply connected to Mother Nature. Sasha in the forests and Michelle in the Ocean.
Neither could live very long away from the salty breezes and healing waters. If they are not answering their phones you can generally find them barefoot in some wilderness.
Sasha is a bit of a shape shifter, having done a bit of everything really. She is doing Transpersonal Art Therapy now which is fascinating and rich with shamanic influences and nature connection.
She is also a holistic energy healer, and employ the teachings of herbalism, nutrition and naturopathy. It all compliments each other and empowers people to find the resources and the divine within to live a beautiful fulfilling life.
She is In love with Whale Song Mats, for the joy and inspiration they bring to people, the awareness and the knowledge around natural/toxin-free living.
Sasha’s Philosophy: Help others. Be kind. Be generous. What goes around comes around, that is for sure. We have been burned but we have also been shown amazing generosity and support and we do our best to help as many people/boutiques/ local business as we can, cause at the end of the day we are all in this together and the more we support each other the better is it for everyone.
Michelle Havlik: Live Love By Design Complete Guest Profile
Born on the northern beaches of Sydney, when Michelle’s parents left the hospital with her the first time, they took her to see the ocean from the cliffs, and a pod of dolphins graced the waves as if to welcome her to the world. Since then, she’s loved the sea and taken a keen focus in learning all she can about it, down to the tiny phytoplankton, with her honours degree in Marine Science, and has been around the world on this knowledge quest, most recently working as a scientific researcher in the Red Sea off Saudi Arabia – and has been so lucky to work with extraordinary scientists. She’s been an active part of the plastic-free movement for around 10 years, since her first beach clean with Eco-Divers. Her head is a constant jumble of new facts and other passions like free-diving and playing music, so yoga and meditation is the main way she slows herself down. She loves everything to do with nature, and is obsessed with beetles, birds, and cetaceans.
As a marine researcher, being constantly faced with the issues wrought by humanity against the sea definitely shaped Michelle’s goals for Whale Song Mats.
When Sasha and Michelle set out to create Whale Song Mats it was always with the intention of creating a new platform to reach out to people with conservation messages, and be able to effectively support organisations making a difference in the environment.
Now they know first hand what it takes to run a business, it can be quite challenging, but they’re getting to a point where they understand the process much better, and are more in a position to help out which is exciting.
Michelle’s Philosophy: Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible. ~ Dalai Lama
Click for Complete Transcript of this Show
0:14 hello and welcome to another episode of Live Love by Design TV I’m Karen Chaston
0:21 and today I have these two beautiful ladies with me in this gorgeous setting
0:26 Sasha and Michelle and they’re the founders of whale song mats sounds
0:34 interesting doesn’t it so tell us all about it ladies
0:37 Whale Song Mats it’s a eco yoga mat company that we founded about a year a year and a half ago
0:46 with the intention of bringing more awareness to environmental conservations issues as well bringing people back to their centre
0:54 on a mat that’s non-toxic and it’s made out of good materials
0:59 Oh beautiful so they are yoga mats and they are so what are they actually made of so they are
1:06 made of jute which is a really fast growing it’s actually in the grass
1:10 family an eco rubber that takes a lot less time to break down once it’s on even in a landfill biodegradable material yes
1:20 we’re really surprised how many people still use their regular mats that leak
1:27 toxic chemicals into your skin when you’re practicing on them and then they end up in landfill
1:33 would most people realise that though Yeah we were surprised that most people don’t
1:38 yes because I wouldn’t have known we don’t you don’t you don’t actually think to ask
1:44 what is it actually made of right right yeah so we thought we’ve got to change that because
1:49 you’re so close to your yoga mat yeah especially when you’re in the prayer
1:54 position and yeah and all of those positions you’re actually breathing it in yeah so I
2:02 got to ask you because you both have an amazing history
2:06 so Sasha you were born in Czechoslovakia yeah Czechoslovakia at the time
2:11 when it was still communist so the family decided not for us and we escaped so
2:20 your family had lived there for generations yeah Wow and so had it just
2:25 change over the generations or was it slowly brewing to a stage where they had to
2:30 say we need to leave yeah I mean our family’s from all over Europe but they’ve been in
2:34 Czech for a while but long enough to know they didn’t want our mum and dad
2:38 specifically didn’t want their children growing up in communism so that’s it they just made the
2:44 choice and wow it’s such a brave choice yeah yeah to escape was it easy to
2:50 get out no dad was connected so we got some papers and things to escape the
2:58 country but it was always going to be risk and yeah I remember driving up to
3:03 the border to Austria that feeling of yeah will we get through, fear yeah yeah so you
3:10 will four at the time yes Wow and I always say that memory sort ingrained in you
3:15 yeah definitely and then the two years following that in refugee camps
3:20 so we’re were they Austria Austria oh wow and what made you come to
3:25 Australia was it so was that always the destination or was it where ever you could go
3:29 yeah no my auntie auntie and uncle were here since the 60’s and on the beaches yes in Dee Why and since we
3:42 got here we’ve always been beaches peoples where’s Michelle was born in Australia I was Sasha jokes that I’m the sunshine kid. The one that was born into sunshine. I’m sure mum
3:57 carried her out for the first time and dolphins were leaping out of the ocean. Oh that’s beautiful as dolphins are full of oxytocin which is the feel good hormone
4:08 and every time everyone sees a dolphin you do automatically feel good don’t you they spread
4:14 that energy to you yeah underwater they actually buzz you so when you’re close
4:18 to them they’re clicking at you you can feel their vibration Oh wow that is amazing. so Michelle is a marine biologist is that correct yeah
4:58 what make you go into marine biology I mean I grew up next to the ocean and
5:04 always loved it I always thought I would do journalism and so I applied for that
5:09 when I finished school and then we went on a trip up to the Great Barrier Reef
5:13 with our geography class and we went snorkeling and I kind of separated from
5:17 the group I know what happened but I saw a shark and I followed it to the edge of
5:22 the reef and I had no idea that it could be so it just dropped off and there was
5:29 stingrays and all this array of fish under them and I was just like no
5:34 I don’t just want to write about this I want to study it all and I want
5:37 to be involved in helping save it and protect it yeah so it just shifted so was it a reef shark
5:46 it was yeah a reef shark I did not think it would be a big shark I still get nervous cuz I was like is he gonna turn back
5:54 and bite me did you find it very powerful the shark
5:59 I found him very I was so interested that he
6:02 was so calm as in like he knew what he wanted to do where he wanted to go away
6:07 from us but he was very calm and just very relaxed that I was relaxed
6:13 behind him as well oh wow that must be such beautiful moment I’ve got some photos of you which I’ll add
6:21 to the back of this episode of you actually swimming underwater and so tell
6:27 us what it’s like like how do you feel in that moment when you’re actually I
6:33 guess it’s like you’re in a different sort of hemisphere type thing isn’t it totally is
6:39 well I like to think of it as the only place the world goes quiet my mind is
6:44 just always constantly on and then underwater all you can hear is like the rolling of little rocks and snapping of fish as they’re cracking at the rocks
6:56 yeah it’s just such a magical experience to be underwater recently I’ve been
7:02 trying to get deeper in my free diving practice and that’s been a real kind of practice of stillness and to get into that other hemisphere as you say
7:14 relaxing I’m sure everything’s very very relaxing to be you know at a point where
7:21 the pressure is it’s it’s quite high but it’s bringing you down it just feels
7:25 like you’re going home yeah it definitely does make sense so how far down have you been so I’m up
7:31 to 26 at the moment oh wow I’m trying to get
7:35 to 30 this year okay so when you come up from there don’t know how far is it
7:39 before you have to go into one of those chambers and stuff like that
7:42 ah so when you’re free diving because you’re going with your own breath then
7:47 you don’t actually if you do it right not doing it too many times then you don’t have to worry about decompression
7:54 yes it’s just your own breath and your body is able to deal with the nitrogen
7:59 buildup whereas if you’re diving with a tank yeah it’s super unnatural for our
8:03 bodies so it’s easy to have nitrogen narcosis oh ok that is really interesting so obviously these girls are all about the
8:11 environment and protecting it and you’re about to go on a little overseas trip so
8:17 you want to tell everyone about that yeah so we’re about to go to New
8:21 Caledonia isn’t it yeah with a bunch of just inspirational women
8:25 Jess Lambert is one of them she was the designer for the mat yes they are just beautiful
8:30 Oh thank you yes she does incredible all freehand work and she does
8:35 incredible projects and she is passionate about ocean consolation as
8:39 well and SJ Sjana is going she’s a beautiful fairy you know that spreads
8:47 sunshine wherever she goes she’s got an amazing community that loves
8:53 her she does amazing yoga and she is beautiful all these beautiful women are going along and
8:59 the idea is to I guess raise awareness around ocean conservation and not just
9:06 that but just being mindful when you travels so eco- tourism and
9:10 treading lightly when you go and connecting with the cultures that are there yes I totally agree with that I don’t
9:17 understand people who go overseas into third world countries and say in a Hyatt
9:23 not that there is anything wrong with a Hyatt, you can leave the Hyatt and experience the area yes exactly
9:25 Not sure if I’d do an airbnb, who knows somewhere in the middle
9:35 it’s gonna be a beautiful inspiring trip and I think we’ll use the mats just
9:42 like that bridging tool to just raise awareness and yeah yeah
9:46 so obviously there’ll be links below at this TV show and on their dedicated web
9:53 page the mats now available for anyone to purchase yeah but we’ve got
10:00 the current mats that we have the three colors the original design
10:05 yes and the ones the Jess Lambert edition is coming out quite soon I think in the next couple of months. We’ll do a pre order run
10:14 Ok great so you do have one of them on the website yes we’ve got ones that we’ve got here there
10:20 which will will we’ve got some whales on them and yeah they’re available now and
10:26 the Jess Edition will be the same beautiful
10:29 material but it will have her beautiful line work so she does not do the handwork on every single mat no I was going to say that would take forever
10:47 obviously you look after yourself very well both of you has that always been a top
10:52 priority for you that comes under the all about me pillar Interesting question
10:58 not for me yeah yeah in a way I remember when was the shift though where we both
11:05 went yeah and something opened up in us where I think it was when I left high school
11:11 yeah it was definitely triggered by you you started before you had Tee yeah
11:17 you started exploring the worlds of yoga and health and wellness holistic wellness and then by you I went into my first yoga class and everything changed for me then and I was 20
11:30 I’m not so what the changing point was but there was a time when it was
11:36 McDonald’s every day oh everyday ha ha
11:40 and just didn’t really care but now yeah we’re really mindful of living chemical
11:46 free as much as we can and do you drink alcohol No I do yeah I mean the odd thing but not really which is great isn’t it because you do actually
12:00 feel freer when you you don’t have alcohol I just recently stopped drinking alcohol Oh good on you well its taking me 60 odd years well not 60 but 40 odd. I just know that when I don’t drink alcohol I work better
12:18 I think clearer I don’t make so many stupid decisions yeah yeah as we all can but more importantly I feel more connected yeah do you feel that yeah well
12:30 I’ve never I’ve never actually been a drinker okay I don’t know that
12:34 that I observe yeah behaviours yeah I’m quite happy to be in control of my actions and not have I guess
12:45 chemicals to sort of alter my natural state that what feel I also feel the older you get you’ve only got so
12:53 many more days left you don’t want to waste the next day yes which you can
12:57 tend to do so they tend to do yeah yes but anyway
13:01 so the next one is obviously all about relationships and you have children you
13:06 don’t and more importantly you’ve got a great relationship between each
13:12 other yeah and considering there’s nine years between you yeah yeah this is a great
13:18 number nine is the birthing number so I always love my numbers which is why I have nine areas of
13:23 life and everything else in the live life by design whole plan but was it always
13:29 that good yeah it’s shifted because when Michelle was born I guess I was more
13:35 like her mum like a babysitter you know especially when you’re a teenager though you wouldn’t have
13:41 wanted to baby sit would you oh no I loved it I just took her everywhere oh yeah just to all my places
13:51 then when she got a little bit older it shifted and we just become best friends which is great and then the next pillar
14:01 is all about your expertise so obviously creating a new business how has that been That is not our expertise Ha Ha its becoming your expertise
14:07 the amount we are learning is astounding yeah I think we both simplified it a lot which is
14:19 actually probably good because we might not have done it if we did not know how much work there was yeah well what’s one
14:31 advice you would give to someone else who’s just out in out oh no what your
14:36 learnt my advice would be to if you can have a mentor who has done something similar and who has advice that they are happy to give you
14:43 I’m not sure we really had that a mentor is good well it gives you direction even if they are only a little bit further down the road They don’t have to be doing the same thing just something similar
15:42 the last pillar is all about your wealth creation so at the moment obviously
15:47 starting the business it seems the flow of energy is probably going
15:50 more out then in yes but we’re just at the starting point in terms of getting
15:57 serious with it yes we’re a little bit and dad’s always sort of I mean he’s the
16:06 same he is very giving that he’s always told us us that you know we need to be a
16:10 little bit more business minded so you have a mat and you have a mat so you need to learn to receive so yeah women
16:20 know how to give but coming the receiving that’s a really interesting perspective
16:24 so work on the receiving side of it and know that it is a well so it will come
16:31 in and it will flow out but it’s about letting that well fill up
16:34 Yeah right yeah I have to say that we did yes we were just able to donate a little bit of our proceeds which was really exciting yeah where did you
16:44 donate them so this first batch of mats we were
16:46 really focusing on reef health around the world coral reefs are bleaching and
16:51 it’s a massive issue that a lot of people are misinformed about so we’re trying to kind of bring
16:56 awareness to it and so there’s these bunch of amazing
17:00 they’re pretty young actually young kids in Tahiti in Moorea and they taking
17:06 small fragments of coral that has survived and growing them in places that
17:11 so they have died and they are called Coral Guardians so it regenerates yeah it regenerates and
17:17 more and more we’re finding out the science world is looking at how to make
17:20 them quickly grow right so I think these guys are just doing what they can at the
17:25 moment but it’s so amazing so all the tourists that go there so what happens to
17:29 the environment if the coral depletes so the coral is basically like a
17:34 keystone part of the reef so the great barrier has been there for 10,000 years
17:39 and in other areas even longer and it’s basically like
17:43 an animal plant symbiotic relationship so it’s both at the same time and if we lose the coral there is nothing that can
17:52 replace it to a T in the ecosystem you can have algae to kind of
17:57 have the same function but because the coral is so many species are dependent on
18:01 that then it’ll have this knock-on effect that we honestly have no idea
18:05 it’s almost like losing trees oh yeah we wouldn’t be breathing
18:13 oh that’s very beautiful well ladies I just have loved speaking
18:19 with you we’re going to show you some mats now which will obviously be part of this
18:24 show and also make sure that you reach more importantly actually purchase
18:30 one of these mats because not only is a benefit beneficial for the environment
18:34 it’s beneficial for you do you really want to be breathing in toxic waste from
18:41 the actual you know the cheap mat that you’re doing your yoga at and when you think
18:46 about it a cheap mat and the yoga it just sort of doesn’t fit with the whole
18:51 philosophy of yoga does it no so well done is there anything else you’d
18:57 like to say to our viewers Oh no thank you thank you so much okay we’ll see you
19:04 again Bye
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Karen Chaston: Show Host and Executive Producer
“I feel like I’m at the stage in my life, where honestly, I’m interested in giving back through showing people an easier way to do life, one where they don’t have to settle for less. One where they can learn from any mistakes I’ve already made. One that really makes it possible for them to live their dream life where every relationship in their life is complete, especially the one with them self. That is the true Essence of Live Love By Design.” ~ Karen Chaston
AAs a former corporate Chief Financial Officer, Karen brings a unique perspective; extensive business experience and hard-earned wisdom that she wished were available to her when she needed them. Her many Live Love gems (tools and tips) will assist you to create your new normal life after any major loss. You will love who you become, all your relationships and any work you do will become more meaningful and effective.
For more details about Karen, her programs and other publications please visit: www.karenchaston.com.au and www.livelovebydesign.com