Yoga is really popular as an exercise, and it is great for physical health—but what exactly is the goal of yoga? If you didn’t know, the goals of yoga are much wider than fancy-looking postures! Yoga is a spiritual philosophy and lifestyle that incorporates every aspect of your life.
In this article, we take a look at the ultimate goals of doing yoga, combined with some easily achievable goals for beginners. These simple tips will help you get the most out of your yoga practice!
What Is The Ultimate Goal Of Doing Yoga?
In summary, the main and most important goal of doing yoga is self-liberation and enlightenment. And you reach this goal through traditional yogic practices which improve self-reflection, self-awareness, mindfulness, meditation, breath control, and relaxation. These special yogic practices are specifically designed to strengthen your body, mind, and energetic channels so that you can reach enlightenment with ease.
Yoga is a spiritual discipline, and the goal of yogic practices is to create optimal states of health in body and mind for spiritual advancement and altered states of consciousness.
Yoga is a sacred spiritual practice that originates in South Asia. And we can better understand the purpose of yoga, through its history and development—which provides a better contextual understanding of the practice through its cultural origin.
Although meditation, spiritual philosophy and different types of yoga have originated from different parts of Asia—the main type you will come across in western modern yoga studios generally comes from South Asia.
Much of what is practised in the west are different brands of hatha yoga.¹ Hatha yoga is regarded as a branch of yoga and is a form of raja yoga from the four main paths of yoga—which are known as marga in Sanskrit.
There are many different brands of hatha yoga. And yoga class names are quite often derived from the type of yoga being practised.
By practising hatha yoga, your aim is to control your mind, invigorate your energetic body and harmonize your physical body to attain unity with Universal Consciousness and therefore liberation from the cycle of rebirth (known as moksha in Sanskrit).
It’s hard to pinpoint the exact history and dates of origin of yoga, because we rely on the accurate record of evidence and its interpretation, which isn’t always necessarily a reliable process.
However, James Mallison—a well-renowned Indologist and Sanskrit scholar—notes that hatha yoga techniques can be found in 1st Century CE texts such as the Buddhist Pali Canon and the Hindu Sanskrit epics.²
In these texts, Buddha can be found practising different techniques that are regarded as being the first written reference to the hatha yoga practices that we commonly practice today all around the world.
In the hatha yoga pradipika (1:6), a 15th-century CE modern classical scripture, Buddha was named as one of the enlightened sages, and a master of yoga.³
Jason Birch, a respected researcher and Sanskrit scholar, notes that the earliest known sources of hatha yoga can be first found in Tantric Buddhist texts such as the 11th-century CE scripture; amritasiddhi.⁴
Irrespective of the source, the goal of all types of yoga, meditation and spiritual philosophy originating from South Asia and Southeast Asia, is to unite the practitioner with Universal Consciousness in order to free yourself from suffering, and the cycle of rebirth (moksha).
As a practitioner, this essentially means—gaining full awareness that you are the Divine energy of the Source itself and overcoming the cycle of reincarnation.
Good Yoga Principles For Beginners
These yoga principles and achievable yoga goals aren’t really just for beginners, they’re a good reference for all yoga practitioners.
Whether you’ve just started going to yoga, or if you’ve been practising yoga for years, these tips can help to deepen, improve and focus your yoga practice to help you see the best results.
1. Practice Everyday
Make sure that you practice every day. This doesn’t have to be an elaborate 60-minute class or 90-minute session. Simply 10 minutes of yoga per day is enough to make great progress in your practice if that’s all you can spare. Don’t overlook the power of a small, but consistent and regular yoga practice!
2. Focus On The Breath
Do not ignore your breath during your yoga practice. Your breath is a central part of it, and it will inform you about the quality of your yoga practice. Unless you’re doing a breathwork technique that requires otherwise, make sure that your breathing is slow, steady, deep, and relaxed.
If your breath is short, sharp, and jagged, it either means you need to improve your cardiovascular fitness, you’re pushing yourself too far in your practice, or you’re causing yourself pain and too much tension so you need to pull back slightly in the yoga posture instead of going too deep.
3. Strive Gently But Don’t Overpush
Give yourself personal goals for your yoga practice to keep you motivated, and strive towards them—but be patient! Depending on your goals, you’re most likely not going to reach them overnight.
If your goal is to increase flexibility and touch your toes in a standing forward fold pose (padahastasana) don’t strive to the point that you feel pain and your breath is out of whack.
Simply focus on consistent progress over time and uphold the principles of yoga within that journey to touching your toes. You will get there with consistency, discipline, and patience!
4. Lifestyle —Diet, Exercise, Sleep
Understand that yoga is not just a physical activity on the mat, it’s really a spiritual philosophy and lifestyle that contains a whole plethora of recommendations. Much wider aspects of your life do come into your yoga practice such as diet, exercise levels, mindset, sleep routine, and mental health.
Not only is yoga a spiritual philosophy and way of life, but your diet, mindset, physical activity levels, and sleep routine will directly affect your yoga practice and yoga postures (asana) on the mat too.
Getting proper nutrition and proper rest ensures that you’re in the best physical shape to support your asana yoga practice. Good mindset and mental health also support your asana, meditation, breathwork, and mindfulness practice too.
And a wider exercise routine such as jogging or weight training helps to build your cardiovascular fitness and strength which also helps to support your yoga practice. Just because you’re doing yoga, you don’t have to drop all of your other fitness goals, in fact, they’ll really help your yoga practice!
If you want to learn more about the 8 pillars of holistic health and wellness you can check out my blog article here.
5. Make Small Goals And Be Consistent
It’s great to be ambitious, but it can be way more motivating to make small realistic goals that you can achieve to help build your self-esteem. Not only that, but be consistent with your goals and see them through—even if it takes you a year or two to get there.
6. Nurture Your Mind-Body Connection
Yoga helps with this anyway, but also spend some conscious time trying to nurture and develop a conscious connection to your body. Improve your mindful mind-body connection so that you can deepen your yoga practice, and prevent injury at the same time.
It’s the classic old ‘listen to your body’. Feels cliché, but it’s such valuable advice!
For example, notice if certain things are easy or hard, and notice if something hurts or twinges. If something is resulting in a short and sharp pain, pinching, twinging or something similar—it’s highly likely going to result in an injury if you keep pushing it or repeating it over time.
If something feels easy, that’s quite likely going to be a sign that you can push yourself a little further to deepen your practice. And if something feels particularly hard, that’s possibly a sign that perhaps you need to develop, and deepen in that area with a bit more focus and consistency.
For women, a great way to develop the mind-body connection is by learning more about the menstrual cycle and the inner seasons. You can check out more information in my blog article here.
7. Try Different Types Of Yoga
Different branches of yoga are great for different things. Expand and try different types of yoga such as hatha, tantra, ashtanga, and yin yoga. These different types of yoga style help to harmonize your body and subtle energy channels differently, and they’re also good for different times too.
For example, if you’re feeling tired, then it’s wise to opt for a relaxing yin yoga flow as opposed to 90 minutes of ashtanga yoga. And if you’re feeling full of energy, then maybe an ashtanga practice is going to be perfect to prepare you for meditation.
8. Practice Yoga At Home
Get yourself a yoga mat and practice at home as well as in yoga studios. Having a yoga mat at home is going to really help with your daily consistency and developing a regular practice because you can just jump on your mat for 10 minutes whenever you want.
9. Don’t Skip Breath Practice
Many people aren’t used to breath practice, so it can feel uncomfortable or alien to play with breath control in this way when you first start yoga but don’t skip your breath practice! Developing good breathing technique is a central aspect of yoga.
There’s a variety of different breathing exercises that you can try, so find a good range that are suitable for you. If you’re stuck here, I highly recommend getting tailored guidance from a good yoga teacher.
10. Don’t Skip Meditation
If you struggle with meditation and mindfulness practice, you’re not alone. But much like breathing exercises, it’s a central aspect of yoga. You can try different techniques to develop your meditation practice and also guided meditation. But my best advice is to go on a meditation retreat, or yoga retreat or get tailored advice from a good yoga teacher to get you started.
Once you’ve cracked the code and know what you’re doing, it becomes so much easier—I promise.
11. And Don’t Skip Shavasana
If you go to a yoga class, you’ll almost always have a relaxation pose (shavasana) at the end of the class. Shavasana is actually a yoga posture—just like any other—so it doesn’t actually need to be done in every yoga session if it’s not required.
For example, if you’re doing a 10-minute yoga session at home in the middle of the day, the chances are, you just won’t need a 10-minute shavasana pose at the end of your practice.
However, a lot of people skip relaxation because they struggle with silence, stillness, and relaxation. If this is you, don’t continually skip it—address the elephant in the room.
A massive part of yoga is developing a sense of comfort and familiarity with silence and stillness, so try to develop your ability to relax as opposed to avoiding it. It’s best to do this after a long session of yoga (such as a 60 or 90-minute class) when you’ll slip much more easily into a state of relaxation because you’re tired.
12. Go On A Yoga Retreat
Good yoga retreats are a great way to deepen and fast-track your yoga practice because you’re getting tailored yoga advice, yoga theory, and yoga practice over a succession of days.
If you struggle with yoga breathing exercises, meditation, or just anything to do with yoga in general, then I highly recommend investing in a good and long yoga retreat such as 7 days, 14 days or even a month.
13. Invest In A Yoga Teacher
If you can’t afford to, you don’t necessarily need a yoga teacher for every single session. But I do recommend investing in a good yoga teacher to help you deepen your yoga practice.
A cost-effective way to do this is to have one session per month with a private yoga teacher. That way they can give you tailored advice and practices to do, whilst also checking your current yoga practice too.
You can then go away and implement what they’ve taught you for the next month at home on your own, and continue to have monthly check-ins to develop your practice with the guidance of a professional.
14. Don’t Compare Your Yoga Practice To Others
Your practice is unique to you. Don’t compare your expression of a yoga pose to someone else’s expression of a yoga pose. Focus on moving your mind inwards and focus on your own yoga journey and relationship with yoga.
The practice and philosophy of yoga are so expansive, wide, and different depending on the branch of yoga and lineage, that it can become very noisy and chaotic due to a variety of different stances and opinions.
A huge part of yoga is developing your connection to Source energy or Universal Consciousness—which is a very unique, intimate, and personal experience. Remember that your connection to Universal Consciousness is what you need to concern yourself with.
Drown out the noise, listen to your inner guide, and move inwards.
If you’d like more tips for spiritual awakening and healing you can check out my blog post here.
15. Get Comfortable In Silence And Stillness
We live in such a busy, noisy, and chaotic modern world that moves at such a fast pace that it’s no wonder so many of us become really uncomfortable with silence, stillness, and relaxation. However, silence, stillness and relaxation are a huge part of a good yoga practice.
Notice your relationship with silence and stillness, and if you’re trying to fill in the space with thoughts, speech, or movement. A good yoga teacher can help you to develop a good and enjoyable relationship with space and silence.
16. Incorporate A Good Range Of Poses
Incorporate a good balance of different yoga postures, all the way from ones that you find easy to challenging. And also ensure that your overall yoga practice is pretty balanced with standing postures, floor postures, balancing postures, inversions, back bends, forward folds, and twists.
If you find yourself gravitating towards the postures that you find easiest, make sure you also add in a good dose of challenging postures too. And if you’re constantly striving and challenging yourself, then make sure you add in a good dose of easy postures that enhance relaxation.
Yoga classes are usually already designed to be balanced, but you’ll especially want to pay attention to this if you’re practising at home without a yoga teacher.
17. Take A Yoga Teacher Training
You do not need to be a highly experienced yoga practitioner to take a yoga teacher training. As long as you’ve got some kind of yoga experience, you can handle the intensity of dedicated practice over the space of a month (commonly involving 3 hours of yoga per day), and you’re comfortable with committing to a yoga teacher training—most yoga teacher training schools will accept you.
Yoga teacher training is a great way to deepen your yoga practice. Not only because you’re often practising 3 hours of yoga per day, 6 days a week for 4 weeks, but also because you’ll learn a whole lot of yoga theory. Furthermore, you’ll also learn how to create your own yoga practice.
Knowing which yoga poses to do, and how to create and tailor your own yoga practice is one of the most helpful things you can learn—so I highly recommend investing in a yoga teacher training, even if you have no intentions of ever teaching.
Conclusion
Did you know these goals of yoga? Or did you learn something new? Do you have any other achievable goals and tips for beginners? Let me know in the comments!
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