How Affirmations Aid Yoga Practice

Using affirmations during your yoga practice is a great way to encourage yourself to reach new levels, both physically and mentally. If you’re not familiar with affirmations then let me introduce you!

What are affirmations?

They are simply short but powerful statements that help you to gain control of your conscious thoughts. You can either say these statements out loud or repeat them to yourself in your mind. Either way, the aim is to create a thought process that then becomes your reality!

On average, we each have between 45,000 and 51,000 thoughts every day (which is between 150 to 300 thoughts every minute). Studies into our thought processes have shown that around 80% of these thoughts tend to be negative!

Yoga for Positivity

When you’re engaging in exercise, such as yoga, it’s particularly useful if you have a stream of positive thoughts flowing through your mind. This is because positive thoughts help us to perform better and also help us to believe that we can achieve the things we are striving for in that moment.

Exercise accompanied by negative thoughts will leave us feeling unmotivated and reluctant to push through the pain to reach our goals.

Taking Action with Affirmations

Taking action is easily done by taking control of your thoughts, and that’s something that’s within everyone’s reach. Choosing the affirmations that you’re going to say to yourself does not have to be complicated.

You can create a short list of affirmations that you can take inspiration from each day for a yoga session. They don’t necessarily even have to be specific to yoga or exercise related at all.

Small steps towards your goals

With your affirmations, it is important to occasionally focus on how every small step that you are taking is a stride towards your goals.

Opting for affirmations that encourage this idea, such as, “every day, in every way, I am becoming fitter and healthier”, or “with every twist and every pose my body is becoming stronger”.  However, repeating affirmations that are more general to life and continued progress are also beneficial for an improved state of mind and better yoga practice.

Your next yoga session

The next time you approach the yoga mat, be sure to have one or two positive affirmations in mind.

Use these affirmations throughout your session, not just when a particular pose starts to feel difficult. Constant encouragement will keep your mind focused and help to prevent feelings of negativity. And this makes it much more likely that you’ll enjoy and benefit from your session!

Click for more great advice on how to embrace positive thinking!