27 Yoga Quotes To Ignite Change

Inspirational yoga quotes can help build and strengthen your connection to your mat and your life. Read on and let these words of wisdom inspire you to enrich this practice and lifestyle.

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Yoga Is More Than Just a Workout – It’s Also a Lifestyle

Yoga, with the help of a yoga instructor, is much more than a workout, a time to sweat, or a chance to increase flexibility. It’s an opportunity to work on you, an opportunity to find freedom in your body and freedom in your mind.

This meditation is also more than just yoga postures and calmness of the mind. It is a way to move and train the body and the mind with the breath to help us become more grounded, more centered, more energetic, and more loving.

The mind is connected to the body, the body is connected to the mind, and the breath reveals our emotional states — it is all connected. When we can harness the power of breath and the power of the mind through the body, we flow through life with more ease and peace.

Yoga practice is a lifestyle that promotes love and compassion for all beings, including you. It is an opportunity to observe thoughts, thought patterns, and behaviors of the mind we have accumulated in our lives.

With this opportunity to begin slowing down the mind and engage in non-judgmental observation comes the wonderful gift of witness, awareness, and potential for change. In a nutshell, yoga provides openings and possibilities to change your life for the better so that you can live the life of your dreams – the life you deserve.

Yoga provides us with an opportunity to connect with ourselves, connect with others, and also connect to our Earth by enabling us to think and act with more kindness, love, compassion, empathy, respect, honor, and dedication to a peaceful way of being with all human beings and living beings, including our environment.

27 Meaningful Yoga Inspirational Quotes

I have accumulated some of my favorite yoga quotes from enlightened individuals around the world who inspired me to look at my yoga and life journey with a focused intention.

The intention of love and connection. Namaste.

1. “The most important pieces of equipment you need for doing yoga are your body and your mind.” ~ Rodney Yee

Performing yoga does not strictly require any equipment; all you need is you. The important thing to remember is to connect your mind and body to make this exercise work for you.

2. “When we do yoga, we put controlled stress on ourselves so that we can learn how to react to stresses of life." ~ Leslie Kaminoff

You will experience stress at some point in your life, and one good thing about yoga is it helps manage stress. The exercise uses our mental state to have control over stress, allowing you to respond to stressors the right way.

3. “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

This quote makes you wonder, are you the one hindering yourself from your natural state? And if you are, yoga might just be the key to awaken your overall well-being.

4. “We are familiar with moments of freedom, but we also know how it feels to be stuck, caught, as though there are obstacles in our way. We feel imprisoned by limitations. Limitations sometimes manifest on a physical level – inflexibility appears in our body or a rigidity of the mind – we keep bumping into ourselves and other people and things. Nothing seems to work. It feels as if the sky has collapsed and clouds are hanging around us, and our limitless potential seems far away. The goal of yoga is liberation from all limitations. So how do we overcome limitations? Look what happens when you do Hatha Yoga: a stiff and inflexible body will stretch, release and relax. In the same way, if you use the other tools of yoga you will stretch your mind and bring your essential self into the Light.” ~ from Living the Practice by Swami Radhananda

You know you’ve reached your mental and physical limitations when you feel unexplainable pain in some parts of your body, and your mind doesn’t work as it should. This is where yoga comes in to help ease the “symptoms” you feel from these limitations.

It improves flexibility that can help increase your limits in responding to things and approaching what’s happening around you.

5. “What we want out of yoga is ourselves, not something better than ourselves.” ~ Douglas Brooks

Although yoga enhances your overall health and well-being, it’s actually helping you acknowledge who you are and what you are capable of. It’s a physical, mental, and spiritual practice that takes yourself out from the negativity surrounding you, helping you understand who you really are.

6. "Whatever you do in life, yoga shows you how to do it better." ~ Chuck Miller

Regardless of how busy or how comfortable you are with your life, yoga helps you see how you can make your situation even better. It conditions your mind and body to be in a relaxed and calm state, so you can think better about dealing with the things around you.

7. "Yoga is a way of moving into stillness in order to experience the truth of who you are." ~ Erich Schiffmann

Because yoga is also a form of meditation, it helps you transition into a state of being still physically, mentally, and spiritually. This allows your mind to focus on working on how you can see the real you.

8. "You are not responsible for the programming you picked up in childhood. However, as an adult, you are one hundred percent responsible for fixing it." ~ Ken Keyes, Jr.

Regardless of what you have become right now, you always have the option to change it and become a better version of you. Yoga has a way of helping you achieve a better self.

9. “Through sustained focus and meditation on our patterns, habits, and conditioning, we gain knowledge and understanding of our past and how we can change the patterns that aren’t serving us to live more freely and fully.” ~ Yoga Sutra III.18

Yoga helps you focus on your life goals, yourself, and your response and approach to your surroundings. Because of this, you learn from your experiences.

Life lessons allow you to eliminate the things that don’t contribute to your well-being, resulting in a free and happier life.

10. “Healthy plants and trees yield abundant flowers and fruits. Similarly, from a healthy person, smiles and happiness shine forth like the rays of the sun.” ~ B.K.S. Iyengar

Healthy plants give us beautiful flowers. It’s the same way with our bodies. The healthier we are, the better the vibe and aura we give off.

There is always positivity in being healthy, and that will naturally brighten up your vibration as well as the things around you. Shine like you are supposed to!

11. “The body is actually a reflection of the mind, a symbol in flesh and blood of everything you think and feel.” ~ Deepak Chopra

This is one of the yoga quotes that most of us can relate to. At some point, you may feel that when you are mentally stressed, you start to experience various reactions from your body, like lowered energy levels.

This primarily affects your performance in life which does not bring any good to you. Yoga can help you manage this situation by improving your mental health.

12. “The success of Yoga does not lie in the ability to perform postures but in how it positively changes the way we live our life and our relationships.” ~ T.K.V. Desikachar

You may be doing different yoga poses, but this is not what the exercise is about. It is about how it affects your life positively, making you become the person you should be.

13. “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

Because yoga enhances your way of thinking, it also improves your ability to observe the things around you, which helps you enhance your analytical skills on how to react to them. This also means you’ll learn to make decisions you won’t regret in the end.

14. “Every cell in our body suffers or grows, receives a life impulse or a death impulse, from every thought that enters the mind. You tend to grow into the image of the thing you think about most.” ~ Swami Sivananda

This relates to a previous quote on our list where your body is a reflection of the mind. Scientifically speaking, this is what happens during the thinking process, so whatever comes into your mind significantly affects your cells, too.

This is the reason why you need to do yoga, to help you think of healthy things, allowing your cells to grow healthily as well.

15. “Put your heart, mind, intellect, and soul even into your smallest acts. This is the secret of success.” ~ Swami Sivananda

Big things come from small things. In every small aspect or detail in your life, you need to focus on it, too, so you can work things out easier.

Yoga can help you focus your mind, heart, and soul on these tiny things that can significantly impact your well-being.

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16. “Yoga takes you into the present moment, the only place where life truly exists.” ~ Unknown

It’s always important not to think about the past and the future too much. You can’t change your past anymore, and your future depends on the outcome of the present. Yoga can aid you in making the most out of what you have and who you are right now.

17. “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” ~ Viktor E. Frankl

This belongs to inspirational yoga quotes with a scientific basis. It’s true there is space between a stimulus and a response, and it’s up to you to use this space to think how you can respond positively to your surroundings with the help of yoga.

18. “The rhythm of the body, the melody of the mind, & the harmony of the soul create the symphony of life.” ~ B.K.S. Iyengar

One of the goals of doing yoga is to create a connection between the mind and body to help you understand your inner strength. When you can successfully establish this connection, you can also practice good rhythm, harmony, and symphony in your life, letting you live a better one.

19. “Be at least as interested in what goes on inside you as what happens outside. If you get the inside right, the outside will fall into place.” ~ Eckhart Tolle

Some people might be more conscious about what is happening around them and might put little attention to what is inside them. This, sometimes, is where the problem lies.

If you’re too busy noticing what's on the outside, you might miss the opportunity of assessing what your inner self needs. Fixing yourself first through yoga makes your world a better place as you know what you are capable of.

20. “You cannot always control what goes on outside. But you can always control what goes on inside.” ~ Dr. Wayne Dyer

Although you may not have control over what’s going on on the outside, you can always manage your inner being to make your life more peaceful.

Working on improving one’s inner self through yoga helps you cope with the negativity and channel positivity to achieve a quality life.

21. “The pose begins when you want to leave it.”

This yoga quote has a deeper meaning to it. You’ll only get to experience the true purpose of yoga when the exercise has impacted your well-being positively.

22. “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

Yoga poses may be the actual performance you’ll do when you are following this exercise, but what really matters to it is the thought of focusing on what you’d like to achieve with the activity. It’s all about finding your true self using meditation.

23. “Make an attitude to be in gratitude, you will find the whole Universe will come to you…. Gratitude is the highest form of yoga.” ~ Yogi Bhajan, Guru of Kundalini

The practice of being grateful for everything is one of the goals of yoga as it helps you see more positives than negatives. If you have gratitude, better things will always come your way that can serve as your inspiration.

24. "We have never arrived. We are in a constant state of becoming." ~ Bob Dylan

There’s always room for improvement, and you should constantly work on that. Yoga lets you realize that no matter who you’ve become and what you have achieved, you still need to grow and develop to become the person you should be.

25. “You are the universe in motion.” ~ Rumi

You are your own universe, so only you are responsible for what’s happening in your life. If you keep moving forward and allow growth through yoga, you’ll continue to know yourself more.

26. "You are very powerful, provided you know how powerful you are." ~ Yogi Bhajan

This is one of the best yoga quotes with a deeper meaning. It means you can become who you want to be if you understand your capabilities and limitations.

Yoga does the job of helping you determine your weaknesses and strengths.

27. “Let your asanas be a prayer to yourself. Let it be a prayer of self-love. Let your breath lead the way towards loving everything about yourself.” ~ Gracious Living Lifestyle

In yoga, your body posture determines how the exercise helps you know yourself. It’s like your driving force to loving yourself and understanding who you are.

Your breath also serves a purpose as it acts like a guide to seeing yourself positively.

Here’s a quick Sun Salutations sequence you can practice every morning from Sunwarrior:

We hope these yoga quotes will motivate and encourage you to aim for a healthier lifestyle. These inspiring quotes can help you better understand yoga beyond just the poses and breathing exercises.

Let these words ignite the change in you to be a better person inside and out. And if your body needs a push, try natural supplements to boost your immune system!

Do you have quotes to inspire other people to try yoga? We want to know in the comments section below!

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Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on November 7, 2014, and has been updated for quality and relevancy.