25 Happy Yoga Quotes to Begin a Positive Session

Yoga is more than a form of exercise, it is an art form and a way of life. It encourages mental calm, humility, patience, and strength. Yoga teaches us to focus on the present moment, live in harmony with nature, nurture inner peace, practice detachment, and express compassion and kindness to others in order to build happiness in our life.

Yoga quotes can help you find a deeper connection to your practice or make a connection between what happens on your mat and what’s going on in your life. They can be a powerful motivator for you to live life with a positive attitude and an open heart. Whether you’re new to yoga or have been doing downward dog for years, it’s useful to use happy yoga quotes during your practice.

What are some yoga sayings? To get you into the spirit of things, we’ve compiled a list of 25 uplifting and empowering yoga quotes to motivate and encourage you to develop your practice and help you stay focused on why you started yoga in the first place! 

Our Favorite Yoga Quotes on Happiness 

1. Happiness is when what you think, what you say and what you do are in harmony. – Mahatma Gandhi 
2. Be happy for those who are happy, have compassion towards the unhappy, and maintain equanimity towards the wicked. – Patanjali
3. Be sincere in your thoughts, be pure in your feelings. You will not have to run after happiness. Happiness will run after you. – Sri Chinmoy
4. If you want to be sad, no one in the world can make you happy. But if you make up your mind to be happy, no one and nothing on earth can take that happiness from you. – Paramahansa Yogananda
5. In deep, conscious involvement with everything around you, there is no entanglement – there is just joy. – Sadhguru
6. Judge nothing, you will be happy. Forgive everything, you will be happier. Love everything, you will be happiest. – Sri Chinmoy
7. Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness. If, in our hearts, we still cling to anything – anger, anxiety, or possessions – we cannot be free. – Thich Nhat Hanh
8. Many people think excitement is happiness. But when you are excited you are not peaceful. True happiness is based on peace. – Thich Nhat Hanh
9. The greatest obstacle to connecting with our joy is resentment. – Pema Chrodron
10. Yoga is a way to freedom. By its constant practice, we can free ourselves from fear, anguish and loneliness. – Indra Devi
11. Yoga does not just change the way we see things, it transforms the person who sees. – B.K.S Iyengar
12. Travel light, live light, spread the light, be the light. – Yogi Bhajan
13. Yoga, an ancient but perfect science, deals with the evolution of humanity. This evolution includes all aspects of one’s being, from bodily health to self- realization. Yoga means union – the union of body with consciousness and consciousness with the soul. Yoga cultivates the ways of maintaining a balanced attitude in day-to-day life and endows skill in the performance of one’s actions. – B.K.S Iyengar 
14. Yoga is the perfect opportunity to be curious about who you are. – Jason Crandell
15. Remember, it doesn’t matter how deep into a posture you go – what does matter is who you are when you get there. – Max Strom
16. Make an attitude to be in gratitude, you will find the whole Universe will come to you. – Yogi Bhajan
17. True yoga is not about the shape of your body, but the shape of your life. Yoga is not to be performed, yoga is to be lived. Yoga doesn’t care about what you have been, yoga cares about the person you are becoming. Yoga is designed for a vast and profound purpose, and for it to be truly called yoga, its essence must be embodied. – Aadil Palkhivala
18. Each morning, we are born again. What we do today is what matters most. – Buddha 
19. Yoga is not a work-out, it is a work-in. And this is the point of spiritual practice, to make us teachable, to open up our hearts, and focus our awareness so that we can know what we already know and be who we already are. – Rolf Gates
20. Yoga begins with listening. When we listen, we are giving space to what is. – Richard Freeman
21. If you are depressed, you are living in the past. If you are anxious, you are living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present. – Lao Tzu
22. Change only happens in the present moment. The past is already done. The future is just energy and intention. – Kino MacGregor
23. Thousand of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. – Buddha
24. The basic thing is that everyone wants happiness, no one wants suffering. And happiness mainly comes from our own attitude, rather than from external factors. If your own mental attitude is correct, even if you remain in a hostile atmosphere, you feel happy.  – H.H. the Dalai Lama
25. When you make someone happy, you see his or her happy face and feel happy yourself. If you have really experienced the joy of just giving something for the sake of giving, you will wait greedily for opportunities to get that joy again and again. Many people think that by renouncing everything, by becoming selfless and desireless, there is no enjoyment. No. That is not so. Instead, you become the happiest man or woman. The more you serve, the more happiness you enjoy. Such a person knows the secret of life. There is a joy in losing everything, in giving everything. You cannot be eternally happy by possessing things. The more you possess, the more sad you become. – Sri Swami Satchidananda

Got Any Happy Yoga Quotes of Your Own?

When you come across a yoga quote that resonates with you, meditate on it during your next yoga session. When you discover one or more quotes that resonate with you, write them down in a journal and truly start to think about what they mean to you.