We all have days when it can be a challenge to get on the mat and so welcome inspiration and motivation to help us become present, grounded and focussed. Here, yoga student and yoga teacher, Angie Newson, shares her favourite 101 inspirational quotes that have helped her on her yoga journey ...

I love reading inspirational quotes – they spur me on with positive and determined action when I need that extra boost, they encourage me to slow down when I'm rushing, and they remind me of the important things in life.
We all need a little help sometimes – whether it's to get back to the gym, get on the mat or to stay still and present.
Hopefully this collection will give you the power they give me – and although you may have heard many before, there may well be some new quotes to give you that extra little energising something. Enjoy.

Yoga calms me down. It’s a therapy session, a workout, and meditation all at the same time!"

Actress
The practice of yoga brings us face to face with the extraordinary complexity of our own being."

Philosopher

Go from a human being doing yoga to a human being yoga."

Yoga Teacher
Yoga has a sly, clever way of short-circuiting the mental patterns that cause anxiety."

Yoga Teacher
If you realize the unity of the Self amid the diversities of the not-Self, then yoga will not seem an impossible thing to you."

Writer

The attitude of gratitude is the highest yoga."

Spiritual Leader
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."

Yoga Teacher

I do yoga so that I can stay flexible enough to kick my own arse if necessary."

Author
When you’re in position, you wait for the inner body to settle, like the water in a glass that has been placed on a table."

Yoga Teacher
Yoga maintains youth, it keeps the body full of vitality and immune to diseases, even at an old age."

Yoga Teacher
I think that’s why I got to therapy and yoga at an early age. I realized that I’m accountable. I’m not here for very long on this planet and I want to do this life well, as consciously and mindfully as I can."

Yoga Teacher

Doing anything with attention to how you feel is doing yoga"

Author
Yoga is the perfect opportunity to be curious about who you are."

Yoga Teacher

Yoga is a powerful vehicle for change. As you build strength, you start to believe in your own potential."

Yoga Teacher
These days, my practice is teaching me to embrace imperfection: to have compassion for all the ways things haven’t turned out as I planned, in my body and in my life – for the ways things keep falling apart, and failing, and breaking down. It’s less about fixing things, and more about learning to be present for exactly what is."

Yoga Teacher
Practising yoga is like being on a body holiday."

Yoga Teacher
Maybe more than anything else, yoga teaches you to be still and calm under challenging circumstances."

Actor
The path of yoga is the path of self-discovery. As our self-image disintegrates, we contact our true self. Life becomes a great joy."

Yoga Teacher

Yoga is a way to freedom. By its constant practice, we can free ourselves from fear, anguish and loneliness."

Yoga Teacher
Asana practice has one meaning: to learn to sit in your own beautiful true nature."

Yoga Teacher
The asanas are useful maps to explore yourself, but they are not the territory."

Yoga Teacher
Authentic yoga is always a spiritual discipline ... even when the focus is on the body."

Author
A photographer gets people to pose for him. A yoga instructor gets people to pose for themselves."

Yoga Teacher

Yoga adds years to your life and life to your years."

Yoga Teacher
Yoga is essentially a practice for your soul, working through the medium of your body."

Yoga Teacher
Yoga is about awakening … creating a life that brings more love and more beauty into the world."

Yoga Teacher
You cannot do yoga. Yoga is your natural state. What you can do are yoga exercises, which may reveal to you where you are resisting your natural state."

Yoga Teacher

Yoga maintains youth long. It keeps the body full of vitality, immune to diseases, even at old, old age. The yogi never becomes old"

Yoga Master
For me, yoga is not just a workout – it’s about working on yourself."

Yoga Teacher
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."

Yoga Teacher

Yoga is not about touching your toes, it is what you learn on the way down."

Ayurvedic Doctor
Concentrating on poses clears the mind, while focusing on the breath helps the body shift out of fight-or-flight mode."

Writer
When we are aligned, everything can flow, and life and yoga becomes effortless."

Yoga Teacher
To practice yoga, telling the truth is not enough. We need to practice not lying. Today live with integrity by not lying to yourself about one important thing in your life."

Yoga Teacher

Yoga is the fountain of youth. You’re only as young as your spine is flexible."

Personal Trainer
A lot of exercise is mindless; you can have music or the radio on and not be aware. But if you’re aware in anything you do – and it doesn’t have to be yoga – it changes you. Being present changes you."

Actress
The yogi will tell you that you feel and look as young as your spine is elastic."

Yoga Teacher

You don’t have to be flexible to do yoga, you just have to be willing to shake the dust off and see what happens."

Yoga Teacher
Striving for the result of being spiritual or having a perfect physical shape is a destination, and yoga is what happens along that path."

Yoga Teacher
When this body has been so magnificently and artistically created by God, it is only fitting that we should maintain it in good health and harmony by the most excellent and artistic science of yoga."

Yoga Teacher

Yoga teaches us to cure what need not be endured and endure what cannot be cured."

Yoga Master
Yoga heals, nourishes, and challenges us. The practice infiltrates every corner of our lives."

Yoga Teacher
Everyone can do Ashtanga. Except lazy people."

Yoga Teacher

Yoga is 99% practice and 1% theory."

Yoga Master
Yoga in Mayfair or Fifth Avenue, or in any other place which is on the telephone, is a spiritual fake."

Psychiatrist
Yoga is not about self-improvement, it’s about self-acceptance."

Yoga Teacher

The very heart of the practice of yoga is abhyasa – steady effort in the direction you want to go."

Yoga Teacher
It doesn't matter what it looks like; it matters what it feels like."

Yoga Teacher
I would like for people to realize that yoga is not about touching your toes."

Author
To perform every action artfully is yoga."

Yoga Master

Sun salutations can energize and warm you, even on the darkest, coldest winter day."

Yoga Teacher
A lot of times people will think, I’m strong, I’m in shape; why can’t I do this pose? But that’s not the point. There’s nothing to win in yoga. You just do what you can do, one day to the next."

Singer-songwriter
Yoga is not a religion; it is a school of practical philosophy."

Yoga Teacher
Yoga's greatest gift is the vulnerability that fills your tender heart after a deep practice session and the spiritual strength that gives you the benefit of unflappable faith and devotion."

Yoga Teacher
One of the fundamental principles of yoga: a small action done repeatedly can make an enormous difference."

Yoga Teacher

True yoga was always aimed at recognizing us as that which is eternal, infinite, and unchangeable."

Yoga Teacher
What kind of yoga do you want to practice, the yoga of getting or the yoga of giving? One enslaves, the other liberates."

Spiritual Teacher
Try to let go of the idea that you need to do yoga perfectly in order to see its benefits. Rather, let it be a process of waking up to who you really are. If you do this, you will know joy. And that joy will be your gift to a world that very much needs our healing,"

Yoga Teacher
I fully expect to be doing yoga for the rest of my life."

Actress

Whatever you do in life, yoga shows you how to do it better."

Yoga Teacher
Yoga is the bringing together of that which was never separate."

Yoga Teacher
The practice itself, done consistently and accurately, is the real teacher."

Yoga Teacher
Yoga powers. To make oneself invisible or small. To become gigantic and reach to the farthest things. To change the course of nature. To place oneself anywhere in space or time ... in one’s deepest inner mind, or in the minds of others."

Singer-songwriter

Yoga is you living fiercely and without regret."

Yoga Teacher
Practicing yoga and learning about yourself is like entering a big dark room and turning the lights on one by one. People want instant transformation. Yoga is not for these people. It is for people who are patient and willing to work hard to overcome their limitations."

Yoga Teacher
Yoga science is not just a scholarly pursuit. It is a moment by moment and thought by thought practical guide for living."

Meditation Teacher
If one is looking for progress, or results, then one is already off the path according to yoga."

Yoga Teacher
When you listen to yourself, everything comes naturally. It comes from inside, like a kind of will to do something. Try to be sensitive. That is yoga."

Yoga Teacher

Yoga makes the rough road smooth."

Hindu Diety
Yoga is not a religion. It is a science, science of well-being, science of youthfulness, science of integrating body, mind and soul."

Author
Balancing in yoga and life is a reflection of our inner state. Can we dance with change? Can we fall and try again with playfulness? Do we have the focus, skill and attunement to find the stillpont within it all?"

Yoga Teacher
The power of yoga is immense and priceless ... I am grateful."

Yoga Teacher
Without proper breathing, the yoga postures are nothing more than calisthenics."

Yoga Teacher
Practicing yoga during the day is a matter of keeping your eyes on the road and one ear turned toward the infinite."

Yoga Teacher

The purpose of yoga is to stop suffering even before it arises."

Spiritual Leader
Yoga begins right where I am – not where I was yesterday or where I long to be."

Yoga Teacher
The aim of yoga is to eliminate the control that material nature exerts over the human spirit, to rediscover through introspective practice what the poet T.S. Eliot called the still point of the turning world."

Author
It doesn’t matter how deep into a posture you go, what matters is who you are when you get there."

Author
The quality of your practice is ultimately measured by its effect on the quality of your life. In other words, mastery in yoga is mastery of life."

Yoga Teacher

Yoga is like peeling an onion. You go through countless layers over a long period of time and maybe shed a few tears along the way."

When I started doing asana, the yoga postures, I had a very strong feeling of many unnecessary things dropping away – especially tension and inadequacy."

Yoga Teacher
Man is a creature of habits. When you do yoga, you unlearn your habits."

Yoga Teacher
Yoga is so universal in its principles and so holistically beneficial, it is possible for any person, young or old, religious or agnostic, to embrace and enjoy a practice."

Model
Corpse pose sounds like no big deal, right? Then what’s so difficult about this spiritualized snooze? Forget about getting your feet behind your head. Just try lying still for ten minutes. With nothing left to do, you’re finally forced to come face to face with yourself."

Author
Vogue and Self are putting out the message of yoginis as buff and perfect. If you start doing yoga for those reasons, fine. Most people get beyond that and see that it’s much, much more."

Yoga Teacher

The yoga mat is a good place to turn when talk therapy and antidepressants aren’t enough."

Yoga Teacher
In truth, yoga doesn’t take time – it gives time."

Yoga Teacher
Before you’ve practiced, the theory is useless. After you’ve practiced, the theory is obvious."

Yoga Teacher

The most important pieces of equipment you need for doing yoga are your body and your mind."

Yoga Teacher
Be soft in your practice. Think of the method as a fine silvery stream, not a raging waterfall."

Buddhist Monk
One succeeds in all yogas through energetic practice – even if one is young, old, very old, sick, or weak."

Yoga Sage
Yoga exists in the world because everything is linked."

Yoga Master
You can enter yoga, or the path of yoga, only when you are totally frustrated with your own mind as it is. If you are still hoping that you can gain something through your mind, yoga is not for you."

Spiritual Leader

Smiling is mouth yoga."

Buddhist Monk
Yoga takes us to the present moment, the only place where life exists."

Yoga is almost like music in a way; there’s no end to it."

Muscian
Yoga is a metaphor for life. You have to take it really slowly. You can’t rush. You can’t skip to the next position. You just have to breathe, and let go."

Singer-songwriter
