Everyone’s objective for yoga is different, and it doesn’t have to be a massive goal. Even better? It can change every time you do yoga. It seems like the social media version of yoga is all about the headstand and crazy, contortionist-like poses. That’s fine for those types of poses to be a goal, but that isn’t what yoga is really about and there is so much more to yoga than trying to achieve a specific shape or push the limits of your flexibility.
Increased flexibility can be a great yoga goal, especially if you struggle to touch your toes or always feel like your body is tight. You can increase flexibility and make great progress in that area and never want to do a headstand.
Improved stability and mobility also help us age better and can be accomplished through an intentional yoga practice. Asymmetric poses can improve balance, and often with our one legged stability focused poses we can find where we are unbalanced. We often don’t even realize one side of our body is stronger or more balanced until we get to yoga class.
It may make me odd as a yoga teacher, but my goal has never been some pinnacle pose that I want to define my practice. My yoga goals:
- consistency in my yoga practice
- maintaining flexibility
- using yoga as a relaxation tool
- decrease stress so I can sleep better
- meditate multiple times a week, even if only 2 minutes at a time
My yoga goals for my practice are also different from my yoga goals as a yoga teacher and how I want to teach classes. I love it when a yoga student asks to work on something specific. With that said:
What is your yoga goal? How have your goals changed? How do you see them changing in the future?
