Yoga Quotes for Change

38 Yoga Quotes to Inspire Change and Transformation

Published on December 30, 2020

As yogis, we are always striving to evolve and improve our bodies, hearts, and minds. As humans, we often get discouraged or find ourselves stuck in a rut. Even if we cannot see a way towards change, there are always opportunities to create new paths toward our goals, desires, and dreams. If you find yourself yearning for a big change, a fresh start, or a new direction you can find support, inspiration, and encouragement through reading quotes on the yogic approach to change and transformation. We’ve collected 38 powerful yoga quotes to inspire success in starting a new year, exploring a new practice, attempting a new yoga pose, setting new vows, or choosing a new direction of study.

38 Yoga Quotes About Change

We hope the following quotes help to inspire change, encourage determination, provide optimism, and cultivate confidence towards achieving a new you. You may find it helpful to print out one or more of these quotes to post near your yoga practice space to serve as reminders of your intentions, affirmations or goals.

  • Adhere to: faith, unity and sacrifice. Avoid: back-biting, falsehood and crookedness. Admire: frankness, honesty and large-heartedness. Control: tongue, temper, and tossing of the mind. Cultivate: cosmic love, forgiveness and patience. Hate: lust, anger, and pride.  Swami Sivananda
  • Anyone who practices can obtain success in yoga but not one who is lazy. Constant practice alone is the secret of success.  Svatmarama
  • As all the towering trees do not bear fruits until their due season, one’s tireless efforts won’t be successful until the time of fortune arrives.  Saint Avvaiyar
  • Be the change you wish to see in the world.  Ghandi
  • 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
  • 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
  • Do everything with a mind that lets go. Don’t accept praise or gain or anything else. If you let go a little you a will have a little peace; if you let go a lot you will have a lot of peace; if you let go completely you will have complete peace.  Ajahn Chan
  • Everyone has in him something divine, something his own, a chance of perfection and strength in however small a sphere which God offers him to take or refuse. The task is to find it, develop it & use it. The chief aim of education should be to help the growing soul to draw out that in itself which is best and make it perfect for a noble use.  Sri Aurobindo
  • 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
  • using yoga quotes for changeFor 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
  • However many holy words you speak, however many you read, what good will they do you if you do not act on them?  The Dhammapada
  • 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
  • In this moment, there is plenty of time. In this moment, you are precisely as you should be. In this moment, there is infinite possibility.  Victoria Moran
  • Never underestimate the power you have to take your life in a new direction.  Germany Kent
  • One of the fundamental principles of yoga: a small action done repeatedly can make an enormous difference.  Dr. Timothy McCall
  • Put your heart, mind, intellect, and soul even into your smallest acts. This is the secret of success.  Swami Sivananda
  • 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
  • Reshape yourself through the power of your will; never let yourself be degraded by self—will. The will is the only friend of the Self; and the will is the only enemy of the Self.  The Bhagavad Gita
  • 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.  Swami Radhananda
  • The moment is now. The present moment is not just a progression of past moments, but is alive in its own way, complete and perfect. And it is this new moment that demands our attention. Only in the moment can we be fully awake and respond to the real needs of ourselves and others. Only in the present moment can we be fully attentive.  Llewellen Vaughn Lee
  • The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.  Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • There are only two days in the year that nothing can be done. One is called yesterday and the other is called tomorrow; so today is the right day to love, believe, do and mostly live.  Dalai Lama
  • There is always room for change but you have to be open to that change.  Kathryn Budig
  • 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
  • The study of asana is not about mastering posture.  It’s about using posture to understand and transform yourself.  B.K.S Iyengar
  • 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
  • The very heart of yoga practice is ‘abyhasa’ — steady effort in the direction you want to go.  Sally Kempton
  • Train your senses to be obedient. Regulate your activities to lead you to the goal. Hold the reins of your mind as you hold the reins of restive horses.  The Upanishads
  • We do not belong to the past dawns, but to the noons of the future.  Sri Aurobindo
  • 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
38 Yoga Quotes to Inspire Change and Transformation

Making Vows in Yoga

Unlike a goal, which can be measured by a definitive destination, a vow is a bit more abstract. Committing to one or more vows is a foundation of the path of a yogi. Therefore it’s important to find some practical ways to demonstrate your promise to yourself.

  • Yoga does not transform the way we see things; it transforms the person who sees.  B.K.S. Iyengar
  • 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
  • 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
  • You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.  C.S. Lewis
  • You do not become good by trying to be good, but by finding the goodness that is already within you. Eckhart Tolle
  • 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
  • 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
  • Your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go. They merely determine where you start. Nido Qubein

Have a favorite yoga quote on change?

Did any of the above quotes resonate with you or give you a flash of insight? Do you have a quote that sparks your motivation to create change that we did not include?  Let us know in the comments below!

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10 responses to “38 Yoga Quotes to Inspire Change and Transformation”

  1. Larry Allman Avatar
    Larry Allman

    Dear Tim:

    I liked these quotations very much. They are totally grounded in basic, classic Yoga. We need more of that, basic, classic Yoga. Many of the new variations, e.g., Yoga with goats, are nothing but entertainment. Along those lines, I sent you my book, Yogic Wisdom, published this year (See Amazon), which is all about classic Yoga as given to us by Sivananda, Iyengar and Vishnudevanda, and Patanjali. I wish you would do something on it in your monthly newsletter/publication, since it’s a more in-depth rendering of the basic, classic Yoga you are offering in articles like this one on quotations. Thank you for your courtesy and consideration. Larry David Allman

  2. Cornelius Avatar
    Cornelius

    Yoga allows you to find an inner peace that is not ruffled and riled by the endless stress and struggles of life. – B K Y lyenger

  3. soul work Avatar
    soul work

    Nice blog ! thanks for sharing the information

  4. Cheryl Avatar
    Cheryl

    I was looking for continuing inspiration into my new journey with Yoga. These are wonderful quotes.

  5. Adi Risha Avatar
    Adi Risha

    All of these great yoga quotes have defiantly inspired change and transformation for my yoga practice. This is an awesome collection and i’m so grateful to have found your website.

  6. Emily Chee Avatar
    Emily Chee

    Thank you for the inspiring quotes!

  7. Guy Kulbeth Avatar
    Guy Kulbeth

    Hello there! This list of yoga quotes are so inspiring. I am always looking for ways to improve myself and these quotes help me do just that.

  8. Emma Williams Avatar
    Emma Williams

    I’m so grateful for these quotes. It provided me with that extra push I need to make a change I’ve been thinking about for a while.

  9. Ewen Eagle Avatar
    Ewen Eagle

    What a wonderful compilation of inspirational quotes! I’m so thankful for the timely reminder that change is often necessary for growth. It reminded me that I have the capability to make a difference in my life. Thank you!

  10. Ellen Stone Avatar
    Ellen Stone

    Absolutely brilliant! I love the idea of embracing change and finding beauty in it. I was really moved by how the different quotes all work together to create a powerful statement on the importance of change.

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Timothy Burgin Avatar
About the author
Timothy Burgin is a Kripalu & Pranakriya trained yoga instructor living and teaching in Asheville, NC. Timothy has studied and taught many styles of yoga and has completed a 500-hour Advanced Pranakriya Yoga training. Timothy has been serving as the Executive Director of YogaBasics.com since 2000. He has authored two yoga books and has written over 500 articles on the practice and philosophy of yoga. Timothy is also the creator of Japa Mala Beads and has been designing and importing mala beads since 2004.
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