How to Start a Yoga Lifestyle
What is it and what steps to take
For most people, yoga begins and ends on the mat.
It is only with time, that we begin to notice how yoga integrates into our lives and lifestyles.
Starting a yoga lifestyle might seem like the logical next step to take if you have been finding yourself progressing in your yoga journey, or even if you are curious about where it can take you.
This article talks about the yoga way of life, how we can start one, how to live like a yogi, and many more practical ways to imbibe and integrate yoga and its teachings into your life.
Let us begin with how to start a yoga lifestyle.
1. Build a regular asana practice
Asana is the third limb in the eight-fold path of Ashtanga Yoga.
Asana aims to prepare the body for concentration and meditation, which needs sitting straight for long durations.
Regular asana practice helps in connecting the body with the mind.
A healthy and robust body is vital for us to focus our energies on spiritual development.
You could try one or more of these tips to integrate asana into your yoga lifestyle:
- Find a style of yoga that you like. Take classes in a few different styles so you can find the one you align with best.
- Make yoga part of your everyday life. Find a pocket in your day where you can spend even as many as 15 minutes without being disturbed and use it for asana practice.
- Sign up for yoga class. Whether it is thrice a week or only on Sundays, learning from a teacher will help you develop your practice and stay inspired.
- Join a challenge. Joining something like a 30-day online yoga challenge can help with the initial schedule setting and make it easier to establish a practice.
2. Stay connected with your breath
Our breath is what connects our body to our mind.
The quality of breath is an instant signifier of how we feel inside.
Pranayama in yoga is a series of breathing techniques that help us regulate our breath in ways that are purifying and energizing.
We can also use our breath as an SOS when we feel anxious, stressed, or angry.
Bringing the breath in balance is a great way to get the body and mind in harmony, which is imperative for a yogic lifestyle.
Some practical ways to integrate this into your lifestyle:
- Be mindful of your breath when you go to sleep. When you retire to bed, spend a couple of minutes with one hand on the abdomen and just feeling your breath expanding and collapsing your belly. It will help connect with the physical sensation of the breath.
- Build a pranayama routine. At the end of asana practice, practice at least one pranayama.
- Take breaks in the day to practice equal breathing. Inhaling and exhaling for similar counts is an easy and effective technique to find your breath.
- Use your mood as cues. When in stress, see if you can make your exhalations longer than your inhalations.
3. Bring awareness to your posture
Whether you are standing or seated, practice taking your awareness to your posture.
- Notice your shoulders. Are they tight and up?
- Bring your attention to your jaws, are they clenched?
- What about your eyebrows, are drawn together?
- And your back? Is it slumped or erect?
Relaxing and straightening your body is an effective way to bring awareness to your posture, release excess tension, and stay relaxed.
If you are spending many hours sitting in front of a laptop, you could set reminders every 30 minutes on your phone to check in with your posture.
Bring awareness to your neck, shoulders, eyebrows, jaws, back, and facial muscles – all places where we tend to hold the most tension and consciously relax them.
While sitting at the dining table is another excellent place to check your posture; we usually end up slumping.
Straightening your back and keeping it erect, easing your shoulders, and sitting more upright will also instill more confidence.
4. Bring mindfulness to daily activities
Even if you do not have a daily meditation practice, starting by being more mindful while doing everyday tasks can create a big difference in the outcome of the activity and our engagement level.
A yogic lifestyle starts by creating mindfulness of how you feel, what you do, what you think, and what you say.
Easier said than done; here you have some tips that can help:
- Eat mindfully. Mindful eating is a great way to bring mindfulness into daily life. Engage all of your senses with your food. It helps in staying in the present.
- Walk mindfully. Mindful walking is another way. You can count your steps, count the trees, or stay focused on the different sounds around you.
- Postpone the mental chatter. If you are doing dishes, you can tell yourself that you will only be doing the dishes. The mind’s replaying of the past and future can wait.
5. Incorporate the ethics of yoga in your daily conduct
The first two limbs of Ashtanga Yoga are the Yamas and Niyamas.
The Yamas and Niyamas are observances that a yogi maintains as principles and ethics of life.
The five Yamas are ahimsa (non-harming), Satya (truthfulness), Asteya (non-stealing), Brahmacharya (moderation of the senses), and Aparigraha (non-possessiveness).
The five Niyamas are Shaucha (self-purification), Santosha (contentment), tapas (self-discipline), Svadhyaya (self-study), and Ishvara pranidhana (self-surrender).
Some practical tips for integrating the Yamas and Niyamas into your life:
- Start small. Out of the ten Yamas and Niyamas, pick one or two you would like to work on initially.
- Write down about everything that observance means to you. If it is ahimsa, for instance, you can think about how non-violence can become part of your life.
- Read up on your observances. It will help in expanding your view on the different aspects that it entails.
- Journal. Pick a time in the day and use it to reflect on the last 24 hours on your progress and hindrances.
6. Simplify your diet
Sattvic food shares sattva’s quality; it’s pure, natural, honest, clean, conscious, energy-containing, and essential.
It is food that is fresh, lightly spiced, and easy to digest.
A yogic diet avoids consuming meat and meat products as it is based on the principle of ahimsa, which is the principle of not causing harm to other living beings.
To adopt a yogic diet into your lifestyle, you can choose from these practical tips:
- Assess your current diet for any changes that you would like to make.
- Eliminate unhealthy eating habits. If there are habits around a particular food that you would like to change, cookies, for instance, think of a replacement. If 3 pm means a sugar craving, perhaps using that time for mini asana practice or having a fruit or some dates can substitute for the urge. Knowing how you would replace is imperative to creating change.
- Plan your meals. Think of the week ahead, especially when you do grocery shopping, and realistically map out how much cooking you need to do and when.
- Make small changes. An overhaul of your entire diet might feel overwhelming. You can start by weeding a couple of things out, taking charge of a few more meals, and pre-planning.
- Look up simple recipes on the internet. There are tons of recipes with vegetarian and vegan cooking that are easy and quick.
7. Get used to drinking lots of water
Water helps to keep the body hydrated and flush out the toxins.
A yogic lifestyle avoids alcohol and caffeine.
These tips might help:
- Find a substitute for coffee or tea. Sometimes it’s just about the comfort that comes from holding and sipping on a hot drink. An Ayurvedic drink that is great for health is CCF tea (coriander seeds, cumin seeds, and fennel seeds). Boil the three in water for a few minutes and sip.
- Set a reminder. Setting a reminder is helpful for those of us who forget to drink water. On average, eight glasses of water is what we need. Breaking that down into intervals and setting alarms is an excellent way to remember.
- Keep water handy – on your desk, at your bedside, in the bag.
8. Maintain regular meal times
As important as eating right is eating at the right time.
Having a light breakfast, making lunch the biggest meal of the day and having it around noon, and having a light dinner as early in the evening as possible, are recommended for a yogic lifestyle.
Some ideas to get this going:
- Plan mealtimes. Having a routine helps in building consistency.
- Plan meals ahead of schedule. That will help you save the rush and be better organized.
- Up your snack game. If snacking in between meals impacts how hungry you feel at mealtimes, it helps to find light and healthy replacements. Fruit, dried fruit, and nuts are some options.
- Dine lightly. A light dinner is usually possible when it aligns with sleep time. If you are going to bed late in the night, the chances of getting hunger pangs are high.
- Avoid skipping meals. Three meals a day, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, are recommended in Ayurveda.
9. Waking up early and sleeping on time
Waking up before sunrise is considered to be the best time for both asana and meditation.
Creating a routine where you go to bed early and wake up early is a great way to find more time for yourself and spend the morning hours in self-care.
Here is how you can do it:
- Get your sleep in order. If your sleep cycle is currently all over the place, the best way to bring it into order is waking up early. Even if you did not get enough sleep and survived the day without napping, waking up early will help you get to sleep earlier in the night.
- Consider a siesta. If afternoon siestas are something you enjoy, a 20 to 30-minute shuteye is the ideal nap time.
- Be mindful of your screen time. Screen time before going to bed is not recommended. All the light from screens that the eyes are exposed to confuses the brain about daytime or night.
- Exercise during the day. Sleeping well is imperative to a healthy sleep cycle. Some movement in the day is beneficial for good sleep. Asana practice helps. Even a walk can do the job.
- Create a sleep ritual. You can practice asanas that aid with good sleep, like Legs up the wall or restorative child’s pose. Take a warm shower, listen to some calming and relaxing music, and dim the lights.
- Limit caffeine intake. Caffeine consumption can impact the quality of sleep. Limiting your intake can help with better sleep.
- Establish a routine. An alarm clock is your best friend. Waking up at the same time every day, even on weekends, sets the body clock and makes it progressively easier to come into the desired sleep cycle.
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What is the Yoga way of life?
A yogic way of life means making conscious decisions in your everyday life in terms of habits, attitudes, and practices that bring you in alignment with the philosophy and principles of yoga. The purpose of a yogic way of life is to expand our spiritual energy.
Yoga, when translated, means union and refers to uniting or bringing in harmony body, mind, and spirit.
As per yoga philosophy, three primary qualities are essential in all matter, energy and consciousness.
Sattva is the quality of purity and clarity. The yoga way of life is to move towards sattva.
By following a yogic way of life, we can develop a healthy body, a mind that is clear and focused, and a loving and compassionate heart.
Only by making constant progress on yoga can one reach the ultimate aim of enlightenment and liberation.
How to live like a yogi?
A yogi lives by the Yamas and Niyamas. Observances to be maintained by anyone on the yoga path, as laid down in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.
Here are the observances to make to live like a yogi.
1. Embrace non-violence
The quality of Ahimsa is the first and most important quality that a yogi imbibes; non-violence both towards yourself and towards others.
2. Speak the truth
Speaking the truth is the quality of Satya, which entails telling the truth at all times.
3. Do not steal
Asteya means not only restrain from stealing physical objects from others, but more holistically, not stealing another’s credit, energy, or effort.
4. Learn to live in moderation
The quality of brahmacharya denotes keeping the senses in moderation and not over-indulging.
5. Do not hoard
Aparigraha in Sanskrit means not hoarding or collecting but only taking and using as much as you need.
6. Learn to be clean
The Niyama of Saucha means you maintain a clean body and mind, which also refers to the cleanliness of everything that we consume through our bodies and minds.
7. Be content
Santosha is to be content with what you have and release the negative emotions of greed, lust, and cravings.
8. Embrace self-discipline
Known as tapas which means heat, maintaining a daily asana and meditation practice, and being disciplined about your daily routine leads to purification of mind and body.
9. Devote time to introspection
Also known as self-study, Svadhyaya is the observance of reflecting inside and finding your answers.
It also helps you connect with your innermost self.
10. Learn to surrender to a higher consciousness
Ishvara pranidhana is the observance of surrender to that which is divine and true.
How does yoga help in attaining a better lifestyle?
Anyone who practices yoga, whether having realized it or not, has been touched and transformed by its power. These changes can occur in your body, in your relationships, or in the way you think and feel.
Here are some of the ways in which yoga helps in attaining a better lifestyle:
1. Helps us become more aware of our choices
Yoga helps us become more discerning.
We become more mindful of what we put in our bodies through all of our senses.
Yoga makes us fall in love with ourselves.
It makes us think about how something will impact our health and wellbeing, and we learn to make decisions in our best interest.
2. Makes us break unhealthy patterns
Over time, we develop coping mechanisms that help us navigate through difficult emotions.
Yoga helps us make the shift by letting go of the crutches we hold on to.
In asana practice, when we stay in a pose that feels difficult, our mind becomes more tolerant and accepting of the initial feeling of discomfort.
As time passes, this gets translated to off the mat, where the mind learns patience and perseverance.
It becomes more accessible than to cope with what seems to be initially tricky and thus break unhealthy habits and patterns of behavior.
3. Helps us become more self-confident
Asanas challenge us.
They challenge us to move, stay, flow, and hold.
They teach us to breathe.
Seemingly challenging poses become achievable as we progress in our practice, which teaches us a lot about life.
Yoga teaches us that we can achieve, that we can experience joy in our accomplishments, and that we are free to create a reality that we want for ourselves.
Yoga lifestyle diet
A yogic diet incorporates the qualities of sattva (purity), ahimsa (non-violence), and balance. It includes foods that are pure and enhance health, vitality, and strength. They are easy to digest, freshly cooked, and vegetarian.
A yogic diet is composed of fresh fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, and ghee (clarified butter).
There are differing views about whether a yogic diet should include dairy.
Ayurveda highly recommends milk in a diet as milk is considered nourishing, cooling, and growth-promoting.
In Ayurveda, there is no substitute for milk.
That said, Ayurveda also stresses that we become what we eat.
Milk comes from healthy and happy cows, unlike the highly processed and homogenized milk that we overconsume today.
Sticking with organic milk is an option; other options are choosing dairy alternatives like soy, almond, oats, or rice.
Other aspects of a yoga lifestyle diet include:
- Setting regular meal times
- Dining light and at least 3 hours before going to bed
- Not eating stale nor processed foods
- Eating slowly and mindfully
- Maintaining Mauna (silence) while eating
- Not engaging in any other distractions while eating
- Eating only as much as you need; avoid overeating
- Being in a positive state of mind while eating food
If you would like to read more about what Ayurveda says about a yogic diet, you can read this complete guide to an ideal diet for a yogi and this which talks about the elements in Ayurveda and how they are to be in balance for a yogic diet.
Below you will find a list of books we recommend in case you are interested in further reading about yoga lifestyle.
Still curious? 👉 This article discusses if ayurvedic medicine is effective for diabetes, check it out!
Yoga lifestyle books
These are lots of books that can help you continue your yoga journey, which happens to be a lifelong process.
Here is a list of recommended readings.
1. Roots of Yoga by Sir James Mallinson and Mark Singleton
This book is on yoga philosophy and talks about where yoga was born, how it originated, and its development.
The book talks in detail about a central concept or practice of yoga and draws attention to it, which helps build an understanding of a yogic lifestyle.
2. The Living Gita by Sri Swami Satchidananda
The Bhagavad Gita is essential reading in almost all yoga teacher training curricula. This translation covers practical applications of the Gita in modern life.
3. The Secret Power of Yoga by Nischala Joy Devi
This book is a translation of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, but from a feminine perspective, making it a beautiful read.
4. Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda
This book is a classic. It covers the story of a yogi, his journey to enlightenment, and some of his teachings.
The book helps build a spiritual understanding of yoga, and for those who would like to take the spiritual approach to a yogic life, this book is very inspirational.
5. The Yamas and Niyamas by Deborah Adele
A hands-on and insightful book puts the Yamas and Niyamas in a modern-day perspective and gives a practical toolkit for their implementation.
6. Perfect Health by Deepak Chopra
This book is an accessible and easy to implement guide on using Ayurveda to live a healthy life.
In closing
As you progress in your yoga practice, you might find that some lifestyle changes happen naturally, while others need more dedicated effort.
With this progression, there will come a realization that yoga is a way of life that connects you to the wholeness of existence and reunites you with nature.
This article from Yoga International will inspire you to commit to your yoga lifestyle when it feels challenging to stick.
“Yoga does not just change the way we see things, it transforms the person who sees.” ― B.K.S. Iyengar
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