Yoga Quotes and Sayings

Quotes about Yoga

When this body has been so magnificently and artistically created by God, it is only fitting that we should maintain it in good health and harmony by the most excellent and artistic science of Yoga. ~Geeta Iyengar

Yoga teaches us to cure what need not be endured and endure what cannot be cured. ~B.K.S. Iyengar

The yoga mat is a good place to turn when talk therapy and antidepressants aren’t enough. ~Amy Weintraub

The yogi will tell you that you feel and look as young as your spine is elastic. ~Richard Hittleman

Yoga is the fountain of youth. You’re only as young as your spine is flexible. ~Bob Harper

You cannot do yoga. Yoga is your natural state. What you can do are yoga exercises, which may reveal to you where you are resisting your natural state. ~Sharon Gannon

Yoga is possible for anybody who really wants it. Yoga is universal.... But don’t approach yoga with a business mind looking for worldly gain. ~K. Pattabhi Jois

By embracing your mother wound as your yoga, you transform what has been a hindrance in your life into a teacher of the heart. ~Phillip Moffitt

Yoga is 99% practice and 1% theory. ~K. Pattabhi Jois

I would like for people to realize that yoga is not about touching your toes. ~Gary Kraftsow

I like the physical part, but I’m also drawn to the spiritual. For me, yoga is not just a workout—it’s about working on yourself. ~Mary Glover, "Health Profile: Yoga leaves aches and pains behind," Arizona Republic, 2004 April 6

In our uniquely human capacity of connect movement with breath and spiritual meaning, yoga is born. ~Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa

A photographer gets people to pose for him. A yoga instructor gets people to pose for themselves. ~Terri Guillemets

I do yoga so that I can stay flexible enough to kick my own arse if necessary. ~Betsy Cañas Garmon, www.wildthymecreative.com (2009 tweet, @wildthyme)

The beauty is that people often come here for the stretch, and leave with a lot more. ~Liza Ciano, co-owner & co-director of Yoga Vermont, yogavermont.com

Yoga in Mayfair or Fifth Avenue, or in any other place which is on the telephone, is a spiritual fake. ~Carl Jung

Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape. ~Author Unknown

Vogue and Self are putting out the message of yoginis as buff and perfect. If you start doing yoga for those reasons, fine. Most people get beyond that and see that it’s much, much more. ~Patricia Walden

When asked what gift he wanted for his birthday, the yogi replied: "I wish no gifts, only presence." ~Author Unknown

While doing yoga we are more ourselves, and more than ourselves. ~Valerie Jeremijenko

Yoga is bodily gospel. ~Reaven Fields

The aim of yoga is to eliminate the control that material nature exerts over the human spirit, to rediscover through introspective practice what the poet T.S. Eliot called "the still point of the turning world." ~Barbara Stoler Miller

Without proper breathing, the yoga postures are nothing more than calisthenics. ~Rachel Schaeffer

If I’m losing balance in a pose, I stretch higher and God reaches down to steady me. It works every time, and not just in yoga. ~Terri Guillemets

Yoga, an ancient but perfect science, deals with the evolution of humanity. This evolution includes all aspects of one’s being, from bodily health to self-realization. Yoga means union—the union of body with consciousness and consciousness with the soul. Yoga cultivates the ways of maintaining a balanced attitude in day-to-day life and endows skill in the performance of one’s actions. ~B.K.S. Iyengar, Astadala Yogamala

Yoga is not about self-improvement, it’s about self-acceptance. ~Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa

 

   

 

Anyone who practices can obtain success in yoga but not one who is lazy. Constant practice alone is the secret of success. ~Svatmarama

Yoga is the practice of quieting the mind. ~Patañjali

Asanas attune the body to meditation, just as a guitar is tuned before a performance. ~Author Unknown

Yoga is the perfect opportunity to be curious about who you are. ~Jason Crandell, quoted in Yoga Journal, November 2005

Yoga is difficult for the one whose mind is not subdued. ~Bhagavad Gita

Yoga is essentially a practice for your soul, working through the medium of your body. ~Tara Fraser

Yoga doesn’t take time, it gives time. ~Ganga White

Yoga has a sly, clever way of short-circuiting the mental patterns that cause anxiety. ~Baxter Bell, quoted in "Worry Thwarts," Yoga Journal, March 2006

In this fast-paced, constantly moving world, practicing yoga allows me time to stop and just be aware of where I am and how I feel. It is a time to be one with my body, and let go of all the distractions and worries of the outside world. ~Jonathan Urla, Yogilates

Concentrating on poses clears the mind, while focusing on the breath helps the body shift out of fight-or-flight mode. ~Melanie Haiken, "Worry Thwarts," Yoga Journal, March 2006

The practice of Yoga brings us face to face with the extraordinary complexity of our own being. ~Sri Aurobindo

That’s exactly how it is in yoga. The places where you have the most resistance are actually the places that are going to be the areas of the greatest liberation. ~Rodney Yee

The ultimate essence of yoga is the contact and the union between the individual consciousness and the divine consciousness. ~Raphael, Essence and Purpose of Yoga: The Initiatory Pathways to the Transcendent

Practicing yoga during the day is a matter of keeping your eyes on the road and one ear turned toward the infinite. ~Erich Schiffmann

The autonomic nervous system is divided into the sympathetic system, which is often identified with the fight-or-flight response, and the parasympathetic, which is identified with what’s been called the relaxation response. When you do yoga — the deep breathing, the stretching, the movements that release muscle tension, the relaxed focus on being present in your body — you initiate a process that turns the fight-or-flight system off and the relaxation response on. That has a dramatic effect on the body. The heartbeat slows, respiration decreases, blood pressure decreases. The body seizes this chance to turn on the healing mechanisms. ~Richard Faulds

When you inhale, you are taking the strength from God. When you exhale, it represents the service you are giving to the world. ~B.K.S. Iyengar

Inhale, and God approaches you. Hold the inhalation, and God remains with you. Exhale, and you approach God. Hold the exhalation, and surrender to God. ~Tirumalai Krishnamacharya

Hatha is the sanctuary for those suffering every type of pain. It is the foundation for those practicing every type of Yoga. ~Svatmarama, The Hatha Yoga Pradipika, translated from Sanskrit by Brian Dana Akers (yogavidya.com)

One succeeds in all Yogas through energetic practice—even if one is young, old, very old, sick, or weak. ~Svatmarama, The Hatha Yoga Pradipika, translated from Sanskrit by Brian Dana Akers (yogavidya.com)

For those wounded by civilization, yoga is the most healing salve. ~Terri Guillemets

What we’re trying to do in yoga is to create a union, and so to deepen a yoga pose is to actually increase the union of the pose, not necessarily put your leg around your head. ~Rodney Yee

Sun salutations can energize and warm you, even on the darkest, coldest winter day. ~Carol Krucoff

I was in yoga the other day. I was in full lotus position. My chakras were all aligned. My mind is cleared of all clatter and I’m looking out of my third eye and everything that I’m supposed to be doing. It’s amazing what comes up, when you sit in that silence. "Mama keeps whites bright like the sunlight, Mama’s got the magic of Clorox 2." ~Ellen DeGeneres

Holding an asana like Warrior One, with my legs stretched in a lunge and my arms reaching up, I feel grounded and free at the same time. I can sense my body acting as a conduit between the earth and the sky, and feel my breath flowing with this sacred energy. ~Jonathan Urla, Yogilates

You don't have to be flexible to do yoga, you just have to be willing to shake the dust off and see what happens. ~David Good

Warrior pose battles inner weakness and wins focus. You see that there is no war within you. You’re on your own side, and you are your own strength. ~Terri Guillemets

Mountain pose teaches us, literally, how to stand on our own two feet.... teaching us to root ourselves into the earth.... Our bodies become a connection between heaven and earth. ~Carol Krucoff

Mountain pose is an affirmation. You can conquer anything with your natural boldness and resolute strength. Only you can reach the peak of your success. ~Terri Guillemets

All unimportant matters drop off you in ragdoll pose. Very few things are genuinely important. The Truth sways before you. ~Terri Guillemets

Tree pose grows confidence. ~Terri Guillemets

Chair pose is a defiance of spirit, showing how high you can reach even when you’re forced down. ~Terri Guillemets

Corpse pose restores life. Dead parts of your being fall away, the ghosts are released. ~Terri Guillemets

Yoga practitioners advise the times around sunrise and sunset, well before eating a meal, as the best time for yoga and meditation practice. The science of biometeorology (the study of natural forces on human and animal life) tells us that the sun has a tremendous impact upon the lives of plants, animals, and human beings. Even our blood chemistry changes with the rising and setting of the sun! Therefore, there may be a chemical basis for the thousands of years of belief, in every spiritual tradition, that to meditate and pray at sunrise and sunset is somehow more effective, more auspicious. ~Vimala Schneider McClure, A Woman’s Guide to Tantra Yoga

We are aware of yoga only as a technique to gain physical strength, flexibility, or increased health. And indeed these are potent side effects of the practice. But that is what they are: side effects. To focus on these largely insignificant manifestations is to miss the point entirely. ~John McAfee

The asanas are useful maps to explore yourself, but they are not the territory. ~Donna Farhi

The harmonizing of opposing forces is a key aspect of yoga — hot energy is united with cool energy, strong with soft, and masculine with feminine. ~Tara Fraser

It was obvious to me that for optimal fitness, yoga and Pilates belonged together.... Yogilates was born from my desire to create an accessible and effective regimen that contained the best of both techniques and would be ideal for everyone.... ~Jonathan Urla, Yogilates

Yoga accepts. Yoga gives. ~Terri Guillemets

Basketball is an endurance sport, and you have to learn to control your breath; that’s the essence of yoga, too. So, I consciously began using yoga techniques in my practice and playing. I think yoga helped reduce the number and severity of injuries I suffered. As preventative medicine, it’s unequaled. ~Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Before you’ve practiced, the theory is useless. After you’ve practiced, the theory is obvious. ~David Williams, Ashtanga yoga teacher in Maui, Hawaii; quoted from yoga.com

I tried yoga once but took off for the mall halfway through class, as I had a sudden craving for a soft pretzel and world peace. ~Terri Guillemets

The last time I opened my chakra so I could feel my peace, I got thrown right out of the pub. ~Terri Guillemets