Namaste for awhile.
By Jaycee Levin — Written on Oct 11, 2019
Doing yoga and meditation can make you feel rejuvenated and ready to tackle the world. Practicing yoga gives you a space to escape and be alone with your body and mind.
Before I started doing yoga, I was really nervous because my body is far from flexible and it’s very hard for me to still my mind. But then, I got addicted to a cute little yoga studio right near my work and now I try to go everyday — if I can’t make it, I do some stretching and meditation at home.
I used to get so nervous sometimes when entering into the yoga studio because the studio I go to only attracts "hot" people that are insanely good at yoga, apparently. It can be uncomfortable at times, because I’m always the person struggling in downward dog while everyone around me is doing handstands, but even though I am not the best at yoga, I love it because I have found peace in it.
Yoga and meditation have become my favorite way to start the day and connect to my soul. I’ve also learned to not compare myself to others in the class, to focus on the work I am doing and to feel proud of my accomplishments. So now I can brush it off when the hot instructor comes up to me in class and says “Hey, how are you doing? Are you feeling ok?” when I’m feeling perfect and trying my best.
Sometimes the best workouts aren’t the workouts that you are the best at but the ones that you try your best at.
Meditation has also been a rewarding struggle for me. I downloaded an app on my phone that helps you meditate and guides you to longer meditations. On the app, I used to only be able to do five minutes of meditation and I would still get distracted and fall in and out of it, but now I have worked my way up to meditating for an hour without feeling like my mind is racing.
Meditation is like my new version of coffee because it wakes me up the same way and gives me the energy and concentration I need to get through the day. After meditating, I feel more receptive and aware of the world around me. Yoga and meditation are practices where I genuinely feel the benefits of doing them and feel like a better person and soul after.
If you also can't get enough of yoga and meditation, or if you're looking for a little inspiration to try something new, use these yoga quotes about meditation to put you on the right track to a healthy lifestyle:
1. Journey of the self.
“Yoga is the journey of the self, through the self, to the self.” — The Bhagavad Gita
2. Slow down.
"For someone like me, who loves to sweat and push herself, it's a challenge to slow down, to sit, to breathe and hold poses." — Ellen DeGeneres
3. Be curious.
“Yoga is the perfect opportunity to be curious about who you are.” — Jason Crandell
4. Celebrate life.
“Let your practice be a celebration of life” — Seido lee deBarros
5. Yoga gives time.
“In truth, yoga doesn’t take time – it gives time.” — Ganga White
6. Focus on your body and mind.
“The most important pieces of equipment you need for doing yoga are your body and your mind.” – Rodney Yee
7. Yoga can be nourishing and help you blossom into the person you want to be.
“Meditation is a way for nourishing and blossoming the divinity within you.” — Amit Ray
8. Live more freely through guided meditation.
“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 III.18
9. Find yourself through yoga.
“The thing about meditation is: You become more and more you.” — David Lynch
10. Goal of meditation:
“The goal of meditation isn’t to control your thoughts, it’s to stop letting them control you.” — Unknown
11. Learning to save space for what's important.
"Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest we take between two deep breaths." — Etty Hittlesum
12. Embody yoga and meditation.
"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
13. Find peace within yourself.
"When you find peace within yourself, you become the kind of person who can live at peace with others." — Peace Pilgrim
14. Move with love.
"Don’t move the way fear makes you move. Move the way love makes you move. Move the way joy makes you move." — Osho
15. Brighten your flame.
“Yoga is a light, which once lit will never dim. The better your practice, the brighter your flame.” — B.K.S. Iyengar
16. Focus on unity and love.
"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
17. Enter into the quiet spaces of your mind.
“Meditation is not a way of making your mind quiet. It’s a way of entering into the quiet that’s already there.” — Deepak Chopra
18. Find inner peace.
"Inner peace begins the moment you choose not to allow another person or event to control your emotions." — Pema Chodron
19. Move your body.
“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
20. Movement and stillness are both important parts of practicing yoga.
“The body benefits from movement, and the mind benefits from stillness.” — Sakyong Mipham
21. What is yoga?
“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
22. Be receptive to what your body needs.
“I think it’s interesting that the opposite of being active in yoga is not being passive. It’s being receptive.” — Cyndi Lee
23. Find a healthy balance in your life.
“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
24. Learn and grow.
“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
25. Find joy within yourself.
“The soul is here for its own joy.” — Rumi
26. Push yourself further.
“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
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Jaycee Levin is a writer who covers pop culture, astrology, and relationship topics.