As a yoga teacher and blogger, I enjoy sharing yoga quotes with everyone. I think inspiring yoga quotes can often be just what you need to think a deeper connection to your practice, or relate what’s happening on your mat to what’s happening in your life.
Yoga quotes move, motivate, and remind us that we are all connected and share the same emotions. They echo the reality we know in our hearts and minds.
We want to finish all the yoga sessions we teach with a motivational phrase for students to take. Often share amusing yoga quotes to lighten mood in a demanding flow, and sometimes I share deeper quotes on harmony and how to make the most of the practice. Yoga quotes aren’t just reading the classic Yoga Sutras, you can choose a more modern source.
Here is a list of our favorite yoga quotes:
- “It’s not about being good at something. It’s about being good to yourself.” – Anonymous
- “Inhale the future, exhale the past.” – Anonymous
- “A flower does not think of competing to the flower next to it. It just blooms.” – Anonymous
- “Letting go is the hardest asana.”- Anonymous
- “The pose begins when you want to leave it.”- Anonymous
- “Yoga is the journey of the self, through the self, to the self.” — The Bhagavad Gita
- “You cannot always control what goes on outside. But you can always control what goes on inside.”- Anonymous
- “Be where you are, not where you think you should be.”- Anonymous
- “Just breathe.”- Anonymous
- “The longest journey of any person is the journey inward.”- Anonymous
- “Yoga is a light, which once lit will never dim. The better your practice, the brighter your flame.” — B.K.S. Iyengar
- “The nature of yoga is to shine the light of awareness into the darkest corners of the body.” — Jason Crandell
- “True yoga is not about the shape of your body, but the shape of your life. Yoga is not to be performed; yoga is to be lived. Yoga doesn’t care about what you have been; yoga cares about the person you are becoming. Yoga is designed for a vast and profound purpose, and for it to be truly called yoga, its essence must be embodied.” — Aadil Palkhivala, Fire of Love
- “Yoga is not a work-out, it is a work-in. And this is the point of spiritual practice; to make us teachable; to open up our hearts and focus our awareness so that we can know what we already know and be who we already are.” — Rolf Gates
- “Change only happens in the present moment. The past is already done. The future is just energy and intention.” ― Kino MacGregor
- “Yoga begins with listening. When we listen, we are giving space to what is.” — Richard Freeman
- “The yoga pose you avoid the most you need the most.” — Anonymous
- “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
- “Yoga is not for the flexible. It’s for the willing.” — Anonymous
- “Yoga is a dance between control and surrender — between pushing and letting go — and when to push and when to let go becomes part of the creative process, part of the open-ended exploration of your being.” — Joel Kramer
- “Yoga is a mirror to look at ourselves from within”- Anonymous
- “Yoga does not just change the way we see things, it transforms the person who sees.” ― B.K.S Iyengar
- “When you listen to yourself, everything comes naturally. It comes from inside, like a kind of will to do something. Try to be sensitive. That is yoga.” ― Petri Räisänen
- “Yoga takes you into the present moment. The only place where life exists.“- Anonymous
- “We all wish for world peace, but world peace will never be achieved unless we first establish peace within our own minds.” ― Geshe Kelsang Gyatso
- “Meditation brings wisdom; lack of meditation leaves ignorance. Know well what leads you forward and what holds you back, and choose the path that leads to wisdom.” ― Buddha
- “True meditation is about being fully present with everything that is including discomfort and challenges. It is not an escape from life.” ― Craig Hamilton
- ”Yoga is the dance of every cell with the music of every breath that creates inner serenity and harmony.”- Anonymous
- ”In truth yoga doesn’t take time – it gives time.” ― Ganga White
- ”Yoga is the fountain of youth. You’re only as young as your spine is flexible.” ― Bob Harper
- ”Everyday is a great day for yoga!”
- ”Yoga is invigoration in relaxation. Freedom in routine. Confidence through self-control. Energy within and energy without.”
- ”Yoga is the perfect opportunity to be curious about who you are” ― Jason Crandell
- ”Yoga teaches us to cure what need not be endured and endure what cannot be cured” ― B.K.S Iyengar
- ”Calming the mind is yoga. Not just standing on the head.” ― Swami Satchidananda
- ”The body is your temple. Keep it pure and clean for the soul to reside in.” ― B.K.S Iyengar
- ”The body benefits from movement, and the mind benefits from stillness”
- ”The nature of yoga is to shine the light of awareness into the darkest corners of the body.”
- ”Yoga happens beyond the mat, anything you do with attention to how you feel is doing yoga.”
- ”The study of asana is not about mastering posture. It’s about using posture to understand and transform yourself.”
- ”Yoga means addition. Addition of energy, strength and beauty to body, mind and soul.” ― Amit Ray
- ”The very heart of yoga practice is ‘abyhasa’ steady effort in the direction you want to go.” ― Sally Kempton
- ”Meditation is a way for nourishing and blossoming the divinity within you”- Anonymous
- You may not be able to control the whole world, but you may learn to control your inner world through yoga.”- Anonymous
- ” It’s not about being good at something, it’s about being good to yourself”
- ”Yoga is not just repetition of few postures, it is more about the exploration and discovery of the subtle energies of life” ― Amit Ray
- ”It doesn’t matter if things aren’t perfect. My practice is my time to feel alive, loved and free.”- Anonymous
- ”The gift of learning to meditate is the greatest gift you can give yourself in this lifetime.” ― Sogyal Rinpoche
- ”Yoga adds years to your life, and life to your years.”- Anonymous
- ”Undisturbed calmness of mind is attained by cultivating friendless toward the happy, compassion for the unhappy, delight in the virtuous, and indifference toward the wicked.”- Anonymous
- ”Yoga is the artwork of awareness on the canvas of body, mind, and soul.”- Anonymous
- ”Meditation can help us embrace our worries, our fear, our anger; and that is very healing. We let our own natural capacity of healing do the work.” ― Thich Nhat Hanh
- ”Life’s too fast…Slow down and do yoga.”- Anonymous
- ”Inner peace begins the moment you choose not to allow another person or event to control your emotions.” ― Kathryn Budig
- ”Travel light, live light, spread the light, be the light.” ― Yogi Bhajan
- ”Your body exists in the past and your mind exists in the future. In yoga, they come together in the present.” ― B.K.S.Iyengar
- “Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.” ― Gautama Buddha
- ”The attitude of gratitude is the highest yoga” ― Yogi Bhajan
- “Yoga is a method to come to a nondreaming mind. Yoga is the science to be in the here and now.” ― Osho
- “The rhythm of the body, the melody of the mind and the harmony of the soul create the symphony of life.” ― B.K.S. Iyengar
- “Balancing in yoga and life is a reflection of our inner state.” ― Shiva Rea
- “Yoga practice can make us more and more sensitive to subtler and subtler sensations in the body. Paying attention to and staying with finer and finer sensations within the body is one of the surest ways to steady the wandering mind.” ― Ravi Ravindra
- “My body is my temple and asanas are my prayers.” ― Sri.B.K.S.Iyengar
- ”When breath control is correct, mind control is possible.” ― Pattabhi Jois
- “The purpose of karma yoga is to transcend the bondage of selfish genes through the service of others.” ― Amit Ray
- “Yoga is not about self-improvement, it’s about self-acceptance.” ― Gurmukh kaur khalsa
- “Yoga is the space where flower blossoms.” ― Amit Ray
- “I am standing on my own altar. The poses are my prayers” ― B.K.S. Iyengar
- “Move your joints every day. You have to find your own tricks. Bury your mind deep in your heart, and watch the body move by itself.” — Sri Dharma Mittra
- “I had discovered something; there was a pleasure in becoming something new. You could will yourself into a fresh shape. Now all I had to do was figure out how to do it out there, in my life.” ― Claire Dederer, Poser: My Life in Twenty-three Yoga Poses
- “I think it’s interesting that the opposite of being active in yoga is not being passive. It’s being receptive.” — Cyndi Lee
- “Learning to be present with yourself and to abide in that which is steady and comfortable does not allow space for self-judgment. When you live this way, you are practicing yoga: you are living fully.” ― Judith Hanson Lasater, Living Your Yoga: Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life
- “If we practice yoga long enough, the practice changes to suit our needs. It’s important to acknowledge that the practice isn’t meant to be one practice for everybody. The beautiful thing about yoga is that there are so many different approaches. As we go through our life cycles, hopefully we are able to find a practice that suits us. And if you practice yoga long enough, that will change many times. What exactly that looks like is going to be different for each person.” ― Tiffany Cruikshank, founder of Yoga Medicine
- “The body benefits from movement, and the mind benefits from stillness.” — Sakyong Mipham
- “My biggest struggles have been my biggest teachers.” — Kathryn Budig
- “Yoga does not transform the way we see things, it transforms the person who sees.” — B.K.S. Iyengar
- “The very heart of yoga practice is ‘abyhasa’ – steady effort in the direction you want to go.” –Sally Kempton
- “I bend so I don’t break.” — Anonymous
- “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
- “Throw your hair in a bun, downward dog like a boss, and handle it.” — Anonymous
- “Remember, it doesn’t matter how deep into a posture you go – what does matter is who you are when you get there.” – Max Strom
- “Sometimes in yoga I feel like a graceful swan. Other times I feel like a baby giraffe trying to use its legs.” — Anonymous
- “Balancing in yoga and life is a reflection of our inner state. Can we dance with change? Can we fall and try again with playfulness? Do we have the focus, skill, and attunement to find the still point within it all?” – Shiva Rea
- “Yoga. Because punching people is frowned upon.” — Anonymous
- “When we push for immediate results and instant healing, we never inhabit the important in-between phase, which is where much of the learning and growth actually happen.” ― Bo Forbes, Yoga for Emotional Balance
- “The yoga pose is not the goal. Becoming flexible is not the goal. Standing on your hands is not the goal. The goal is serenity. Balance. Truly finding peace in your own skin.” ― Rachel Brathen, Yoga Girl
- “Yoga is not about self-improvement. It’s about self-acceptance.” Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa
- “Here and now is where yoga begins” – The Yoga Sutras
- “Yoga exists in the world because everything is linked.” – T. K. V. Desikachar
- “Yoga is the journey of the self, through the self, to the self.” — The Bhagavad Gita
- “Yoga is 99% practice and 1% theory.” — Sri K. Pattabhi Jois
- “The soul is here for its own joy.” — Rumi
- “Yoga is not a religion. It is a science, science of well-being, science of youthfulness, science of integrating body, mind and soul.” ― Amit Ray, Yoga and Vipassana: An Integrated Life Style
- “Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest we take between two deep breaths.”– Etty Hittlesum
- “If you seek peace, be still. If you seek wisdom, be silent. If you seek love, be yourself.”– Becca Lee
- “You either get bitter or get better. It’s that simple. You either take what has been dealt to you and allow it to make you a better person, or you allow it to tear you down. The choice does not belong to fate, it belongs to you.”– Josh Shipp
- “Yoga begins right where I am – not where I was yesterday or where I long to be.”– Linda Sparrowe
- “Change is not only inevitable, but always happening. When you truly embrace this concept of change being constant, the only thing left to do is grow, detach, venture inwards, touch the spirit and find your source — the one responsible for keeping you grounded through the ever-changing seasons of life.”– Julie Weiland
- “Don’t move the way fear makes you move. Move the way love makes you move. Move the way joy makes you move.”– Osho
- “I have been a seeker and I still am, but I stopped asking the books and the stars. I started listening to the teaching of my Soul.”– Rumi
- “You are the sky, everything else is just the weather.”– Pema Chodron
- “It is not arrogant or egotistical to feel good inside. You had nothing to do with it. It’s simply the honest response to clearly perceived Reality.”– Erich Schiffman
- “I offer you peace. I offer you love. I offer you friendship. I see your beauty. I hear your need. I feel your feelings. My wisdom flows from the Highest Source. I salute that Source in you. Let us work together for unity and love.”– Gandhi
- “If you choose to see everything as a miracle, then where you are right now is perfect. There is nowhere to run to; there is nothing else to do except be in this moment and allow what is to be. From that place of radical acceptance, major change can happen. The first step in any transformational experience is acceptance and surrender to the present moment, the way that it is. From that place we have the awareness, humility and power to change what is.”– Mastin Kipp
- “Wisdom is knowing we are all One. Love is what it feels like and Compassion is what it acts like.”– Ethan Walker III
- “Have only love in your heart for others. The more you see the good in them, the more you will establish good in yourself.”– Paramahansa Yogananda
- “Mindfulness helps you go home to the present. And every time you go there and recognize a condition of happiness that you have, happiness comes.”– Thich Nhat Hanh
- “In meditation and in our daily lives there are three qualities that we can nurture, cultivate, and bring out. We already possess these, but they can be ripened: precision, gentleness, and the ability to let go.”– Pema Chodron
- “Your soul is your best friend. Treat it with care, nurture it with growth, feed it with love.”– Ashourina Yalda
- “The body benefits from movement, and the mind benefits from stillness.”– Sakyong Mipham
- “Follow your nature. The practice is really about uncovering your own pose; we have great respect for our teachers, but unless we can uncover our own pose in the moment, it’s not practice — it’s mimicry. Rest deeply in Savasana every day. Always enter that pratyahara (withdrawn state) every day. And just enjoy yourself. For many years I mistook discipline as ambition. Now I believe it to be more about consistency. Do get on the mat. Practice and life are not that different.”– Judith Hanson Lasater
- “Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.”– Lao Tzu
- “Be a lamp to yourself. Be your own confidence. Hold on to the truth within yourself as to the only truth.”– Buddha
- “For every beauty there is an eye somewhere to see it. For every truth there is an ear somewhere to hear it. For every love there is a heart somewhere to receive it.”– Ivan Panin
- “There will always be people who can do it better than you, but that’s a good thing! Start to see competition as inspiration — without envy.”– Kathryn Budig
- “Accepting means you allow yourself to feel whatever it is you are feeling at that moment. It is part of the isness of the Now. You can’t argue with what is. Well, you can, but if you do, you suffer.”– Eckhart Tolle
- “What you think, you become.”– Buddha
- “Once you’re in touch with the life force around us, it’s natural to want to help keep it around.”– Adi Carter
- “Each of us is a lake of love, yet strangely enough, we are all thirsty.”– Swami Kripalu
- “Your life is a sacred journey. It is about change, growth, discovery, movement, transformation, continuously expanding your vision of what is possible, stretching your soul, learning to see clearly and deeply, listening to your intuition, taking courageous challenges at every step along the way. You are on the path… exactly where you are meant to be right now… And from here, you can only go forward, shaping your life story into a magnificent tale of triumph, of healing, of courage, of beauty, of wisdom, of power, of dignity, and of love.”– Caroline Adams
- “The soul is here for its own joy.”– Rumi
- “The best thing you could do is master the chaos in you. You are not thrown into the fire, you are the fire.”– Mama Indigo
- “Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.”– Mother Teresa
- “Close your eyes and imagine the best version of you possible. That’s who you really are. Let go of any part of you that doesn’t believe it.”–C. Assaad
- “Go from a human being doing yoga to a human being yoga.”– Baron Baptiste
- “Remember, it doesn’t matter how deep into a posture you go. What does matter is who you are when you get there.”– Max Storm
- “Yoga is not about touching your toes, it’s about what you learn on the way down.”– Jigar Gor
- “ Live life as if everything is rigged in your favour.”– Rumi
- “ Meditation is a way for nourishing and blossoming the divinity within you.”– Amit Ray
- “People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing. That’s why we recommend it daily.”– Zig Ziglar
- “First, have a definite, clear practical ideal; a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends; wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end.”– Aristotle
- “When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.”– Helen Keller
- “The true miracle lies in our eagerness to allow, appreciate, and honor the uniqueness, and freedom of each sentient being to sing the song of their heart.”– Amit Ray
- “The ultimate goal of yoga is to always observe things accurately, and therefore never act in a way that will make us regret our actions later.”– T.K.V. Desikachar
- “The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra.”– Jimmy Johnson
- “May today there be peace within. May you trust that you are exactly where you are meant to be. May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith in yourself and others. May you use the gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you. May you be content with yourself just the way you are. Let this knowledge settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love. It is there for each and every one of us.”– Saint Terese of Liseaux
- “Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.”– Buddha
- “When I was five years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.”– John Lennon
- “The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.”– C.G. Jung
- “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.”– Sri Pattabhi Jois
- “Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built.”– Rumi
- “My sole literary ambition is to write one good novel, then retire to my hut in the desert, assume the lotus position, compose my mind and senses, and sink into meditation, contemplating my novel.”– Edward Abbey
- “Yoga is about clearing away whatever is in us that prevents our living in the most full and whole way. With yoga, we become aware of how and where we are restricted — in body, mind, and heart — and how gradually to open and release these blockages. As these blockages are cleared, our energy is freed. We start to feel more harmonious, more at one with ourselves. Our lives begin to flow — or we begin to flow more in our lives.”– Cybele Tomlinson
- “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.”– Henry David Thoreau
- “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, “Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?” Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”– Marianne Williamson
- “If you hear a voice within you say, “you cannot paint,” then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.”– Vincent Van Gogh
- “Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.”– Maya Angelou
- “When you are looking in the mirror, you are looking at the problem. But, remember, you are also looking at the solution.”– Anonymous
- “There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.”– Aldous Huxley
- “In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.”– Camus
- “The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.”– Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men.”– Willy Wonka
- “Make each day your masterpiece.”– John Wooden
- “When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.”– Lao Tzu
- “A human being is part of a whole, called by us the ‘Universe’ — a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts, and feelings, as something separated from the rest— a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”– Albert Einstein
- “I close my eyes in order to see.”– Paul Gauguin
- “Success is going from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.”– Winston Churchill
- “Light tomorrow with today.”– Elizabeth Barrett Browning
- “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
- “A photographer gets people to pose for him. A yoga instructor gets people to pose for themselves.”– Terri Guillemets
- “Anyone who practices can obtain success in yoga but not one who is lazy. Constant practice alone is the secret of success.”– Svatmarama
- “Before you’ve practiced, the theory is useless. After you’ve practiced, the theory is obvious.”– David Williams
- “Exercises are like prose, whereas yoga is the poetry of movements. Once you understand the grammar of yoga; you can write your poetry of movements.”– Amit Ray
- “Yoga is really trying to liberate us from… shame about our bodies. To love your body is a very important thing — I think the health of your mind depends on your being able to love your body.”– Rodney Yee
- “Yoga is almost like music in a way; there’s no end to it.”– Sting
- “To perform every action artfully is yoga”.– Swami Kripalu
- “The peace of God is with them whose mind and soul are in harmony, who are free from desire and wrath, who know their own soul.”– Hagavad Gita
- “Raise your words, not voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.”– Rumi
- “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
- “When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all of your thoughts break their bonds. Your mind transcends limitations; your consciousness expands in every direction; and you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive and you discover yourself to be a greater person than you ever dreamed yourself to be.”– Patanjali
- “One of the fundamental principles of yoga: a small action done repeatedly can make an enormous difference.”– Dr. Timothy McCall
- “Clinging to life, flowing by its own potency [due to past experience], exists even in the wise.”– Patanjali
- “By cultivating attitudes of friendliness toward the happy, compassion for the unhappy, delight in the virtuous, and disregard toward the wicked, the mind-stuff retains its undisturbed calmness.”– Patanjali
- “Crying is one of the highest devotional songs. One who knows crying, knows spiritual practice. If you can cry with a pure heart, nothing else compares to such a prayer. Crying includes all the principles of Yoga”– Kripalvanandji
- “Yoga, as a way of life and a philosophy, can be practiced by anyone with inclination to undertake it, for yoga belongs to humanity as a whole. It is not the property of any one group or any one individual, but can be followed by any and all, in any corner of the globe, regardless of class, creed or religion.”– Sri Krishna Pattabhi Jois
- “Hope is not a prediction of the future, it’s a declaration of what is possible.”– Yogi Bhajan
- “The purpose of life is to watch and experience living. To enjoy living every moment of it. And to live in environments, which are calm, quiet, slow, sophisticated, elegant. Just to be. Whether you are naked or you have a golden robe on you, that doesn’t make any difference. The ideal purpose of your life is that you are grateful – great and full – that you are alive, and you enjoy it.”– Yogi Bhajan
- “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
- “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
- “Yoga does not remove us from the reality or responsibilities of everyday life but rather places our feet firmly and resolutely in the practical ground of experience. We don’t transcend our lives; we return to the life we left behind in the hopes of something better.”– Donna Farhi
- “Practicing yoga during the day is a matter of keeping your eyes on the road and one ear turned toward the infinite.”– Erich Schiffmann
- “Yoga is the unifying art of transforming dharma into action, be it through inspired thought, properly nurturing our children, a painting, a kindness or an act of peace that forever moves humanity forward.”– Micheline Berry
- “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
- “The reward for doing yoga well is simple—you get to do a better job at living a fulfilling life.”– Randal Williams
- “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.”– Ellen DeGeneres
- “Concentrating on poses clears the mind, while focusing on the breath helps the body shift out of fight or flight mode.”– Melanie Haiken
- “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
- “This calm steadiness of the senses is called yoga. Then one should become watchful, becomes yoga comes and go”.– Katha Upanishad
- “Your hand opens and closes and opens and closes. If it were always a fist or always stretched open, you would be paralyzed. Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding, the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated as bird wings”.– Rumi
- “Better indeed is knowledge than mechanical practice. Better than knowledge is meditation. But better still is surrender of attachment to results, because there follows immediate peace.”– Bhagavad Gita
- “The more you meditate, the more helpful you can be to others, and the more deeply you will be in tune with God.”– Paramahansa Yogananda
- “Silence is not silent. Silence speaks. It speaks most eloquently. Silence is not still. Silence leads. It leads most perfectly.”– Sri Chinmoy
- “The perennial wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita can teach us how to transform our character, conduct and consciousness to meet the challenges of everyday life”.– Leonard Perlmutter
- “You may think that only you are a prisoner, but other people are also prisoners. You are in a small prison, but others are in the big prison outside. When will they be released? Think that you are a yogi and that you are pursuing your sadhana in this particular place and at this particular moment. Immediately you will experience great joy. If you change your understanding, you will be free in a minute.”– Baba Muktananda
- “Yoga is not a religion. It is a science, science of well-being, science of youthfulness, science of integrating body, mind and soul.”– Amit Ray
- “What yoga philosophy and all the great Buddhist teachings tells us is that solidity is a creation of the ordinary mind and that there never was anything permanent to begin with that we could hold on to. Life would be much easier and substantially less painful if we lived with the knowledge of impermanence as the only constant.”– Donna Farhi
- “If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete.”– Jack Kornfield
- “Yoga accepts. Yoga gives.” – April Vallei
- “Every waking moment we talk to ourselves about the things we experience. Our self-talk, the thoughts we communicate to ourselves, in turn control the way we feel and act.” – John Lembo
“Habits allow us to not think about what we’re doing . . . giving us the illusion of ease. When we are under the illusion of ease, not thinking about what we’re doing. Breathing the same old way, moving the same old way, thinking the same old way we check out of the present, out of happiness itself.”– Alex Levin
- “This world is your body. This world is a great school, This world is your silent teacher.”– Swami Sivananda
