Philosophy

Wish you were better able to accept hot and cold, noisy and silent, joy and sorrow? Cyndi Lee shows us how.

Access Consciousness founder Gary Douglas explains how turning the standard self-help formula on its head could actually be a lot more helpful.

Master teacher Rodney Yee shares his interpretation of Yoga Sutra 1.2.

Los Angeles-based teacher Sesa O'Connor talks to YJ about her spiritual upbringing, raising a little yogi solo, and the booming yoga industry.

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Yoga historian Philip Deslippe looks at the insight a few unusual yoga-themed pieces of pop culture can offer into the popular perception of the practice in America over the last century.

Check out YJ Editor's author page.

Have you lost touch with the fact that you are the co-creator of your life? You are not a helpless victim. Check in and make sure you are pursuing what you truly want.

In this six-part series, our writer introduces the concept of internal activism through kriya yoga as the ultimate yogic tool for weathering personal, political, and natural disasters. First, learn how to become an internal activist.

Sutra 1.12 introduces two essential elements of yogic philosophy: effort and non-attachment. When practiced together, they can serve as a spiritual and practical roadmap for navigating almost every aspect of life with greater equanimity.

Whatever obstacle you’re facing, the right crystal can help you raise your vibration and manifest your perfect path past it.

In this dharma "talk," Judith Hanson Lasater delves into the paradox of santosha.

Master teacher Amy Ippoliti interprets Sutra 1.3 as a way to meet your thoughts and feelings with self-assurance.

With our community more than doubling in the last decade, yoga is quickly evolving. (Goat yoga gone mainstream? Couldn’t have called it.) This National Yoga Month, we asked respected teachers across the yoga spectrum: what’s happening now and what’s next? Despite wildly different styles, many shared unified perspectives—and predictions.

According to yoga tradition, there are five currents of vital force (prana) that run through us and govern our bodies and minds: the prana vayus. When we understand them and how they can work in harmony with each other, we're able to experience life with more clarity and authenticity. YJ Influencer Lauren Eckstrom explains how to use your yoga practice to embody the vayus, both on and off your mat.

Did you finish yoga teacher training with more questions than you started with? That’s why we’ve recruited seasoned teacher trainer Gina Caputo to speak frankly to some of the most common post-TT questions submitted by YOU. In each of the four posts in this series, she’ll address a new subject and offer both insight and practical tips on how to work skillfully with the challenges you face as a yoga teacher.

Learn how emotions can be transmuted to a higher plane—not unlike the process of turning metal into gold—to become powerful and transformative forces in your life. Pick up 3 easy tips to better grapple with your own emotions.

Meet your next teacher, Aadil Palkhivala, Purna Yoga™ co-founder and mentor in Yoga Journal's upcoming online Master Class course.

Yoga teacher Carola Lovering left YJ LIVE! New York with some existential questions about the practice of asana. Here she breaks down how a modern-day yogi can make sense of what we’re really doing on the mat.

Author Stephen Cope considers the contemplative traditions’ aversion to attachment—and penchant for non-attachment (vairagya in yoga)—and asks is attachment really so bad?

Part of our mission at Yoga Journal is to expand the conversation and include a more diverse group of yogis in print and on the web.

Alexandria Crow discusses the yoga you can and can’t see in an Instagram.

In his new book, You Are the Universe, best-selling author and integrative-medicine expert Deepak Chopra, MD, explains that the universe is participatory and that all of us are creators of our reality. Here, Chopra explores how yoga can help us understand our role as co-creators— and how liberating that knowledge can be.

Access health and happiness with ancient yoga practices from around the world that tap into the healing power of nature.

Amid global instability, it's only natural to crave connection, warmth, soothing rituals, and the comforts of home. Enter hyyge.

Discover the Enneagram, a personality assessment that can help you see what’s keeping you from realizing your most authentic, highest self. Here’s how to use it, along with your yoga practice, to change course.

We gave you a lot of wisdom to contemplate over the last 12 months. Here are our top 10 most popular pieces having to do with yogic principles and philosophy, from mantras to sutras to chakras. Catch up on the one you missed, or re-read your favorite here.

The secret to making change stick when things get tough? Harnessing your discomfort and transforming it into personal power through your yoga practice. Here’s how.

It could be this year's must-see movie for yogis. In Collateral Beauty, Will Smith turns to Buddhism and yogic principles to cope with unthinkable tragedy.

In the midst of post-election protests and fear, yoga teacher Daniel Sernicola shares two heartening stories of how people—and the world—really can change and urges yogis to continue doing our part.

As asana becomes less accessible, we can grow into a deeper appreciation for the limbs of yoga that live off the mat. Discover how they can guide us through the aging process.

Wondering what's next? These 10 yogis logged on to Instagram today to offer some comfort and wisdom about seeking peace, working together, and acting from love.

Nicki Doane shares 4 ancient codes of conduct from the Yoga Sutras that seem to be out of fashion right now but she thinks should make a comeback.

Yoga teacher Candace Moore has a theory: if you honor and let your most authentic self shine, you can achieve anything. Try living by her 10 commandments, excerpted from her new book Namaslay, to test it.

Leah Perlman's new book Drawn Together is a collection of the most beloved of these illustrations. Here, she shares 12 of her poignant comics.

Do you pop up into Handstand when everyone else is in Warrior II? Sneak glances at your cell phone during Chaturanga Dandasana? Sounds like your yoga etiquette may be out of alignment. Here are 5 rules of decorum to follow, and why.

Judith Hanson Lasater draws on the teachings of Patanjali to explain how yoga can—and should—play a role in improving our relationships.

Judith Hanson Lasater shares inspiration from the classic yogic text, the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, for developing a more mindful relationship with technology.

The four Purusharthas look directly into what moves us, the diverse demands and opportunities of our lives, and remind us that our yoga practice should leave nothing out.

In honor of International Day of Peace, September 21, Brother Priyananda, a Self-Realization Fellowship monk, offers advice for coping with the obstacles to inner harmony.

Purna Yoga founder Aadil Palkhivala reveals how nearly losing his beloved wife taught him about the obstacles to the path of yoga.

Judith Hanson Lasater shares her thoughts on the enduring relevance of the classic text of yoga philosophy, Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra, for life in the modern world.

There's a lot we can learn from the classic yogic texts about nourishing and honoring ourselves in our everyday lives.

Lasater explores the meaning of the first sutra and offers a home practice to honor its wisdom.

Lasater explains the meaning of ishvara pranidhana to her and its enduring relevance. Join us for her six-week interactive online course on Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra.

New myths about what yoga and the poses themselves can do for you are popping up all the time. Here, Yoga Physics founder Alexandria Crow debunks a few of her favorites.

Every yoga teacher should learn the core concepts of yoga philosophy before building their own teachings.

Yoga Journal co-founder Judith Hanson Lasater, PhD, and her daughter, Lizzie Lasater, share five reasons why teachers and students alike should know Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra.

Our places of discovery, illumination, and breakthrough are not limited to our temples and our mosques but extend into traffic jams, dirty dishes, and even our trips to the mechanic.

There's so much more to yoga than what happens on the mat. When you need a little push in the right direction or a fresh perspective, the Yoga Sutra is your guidebook living with intention.

Yoga teacher Eric Paskel takes us inside San Quentin as part of the Prison Yoga Project, where he helps inmates create a "prison break" without ever leaving the prison.

Since filtering what we share on social media has become the norm, Bad Yogi Erin Motz offered to take us behind the scenes of her Instagram account. Steal her best tips for getting real.

When it comes to yoga and meditation in the West, Hindu mythology can often be polarizing among practitioners. But it doesn't have to be.

21-year-old author and nonprofit founder Emily-Anne Rigal says she knows what it is to bully, be bullied, and to overcome both by looking within.

Harness the transformative power of language to design your own personal mantra and makeover your internal dialogue for authentic empowerment.

Find ways to weave yoga philosophy into your asana sequence without alienating or overwhelming your students.

Forget typical self-improvement resolutions—they simply don’t last. What does? Harnessing one of yoga’s profound formulas for setting the right intention and achieving your heart’s desire.

Nicki Doane, co-owner and director of Maya Yoga Studio in Maui, share a teaching from the fourth pada of Patanjali's Yoga Sutra.

Nicki Doane, co-owner and director of Maya Yoga Studio in Maui, shares tips for achieving (and transcending) the superpowers of yoga.

This week YJ LIVE! presenter Nicki Doane shares with us teachings from the Yoga Sutra of Pantanjali on the how of yoga.

These five steps will help you get there.

Use this collection of reader-contributed affirmations and mantras to get inspired to reconnect with yourself daily.

Yoga is so much more than asana. The sutras show us how to be our true selves and appreciate every moment—even when life gets crazy.

Erin Motz (aka the Bad Yogi) has crashed and burned plenty of times—and she’s proud of every single one of them. Learn what yoga fails taught her about success.

These poses, mudras, and mantras will help you embody and explore yoga’s ethical and moral codes, on and off the mat.

Use asana, mantra, mudra, and meditation to incorporate ahimsa into your yoga practice and bring into focus its unique lessons.

Use asana, mantra, mudra, and meditation to help bring into focus the unique ways this yama plays out in your life.

Use asana, mantra, and mudra to help bring into focus the unique ways this yama plays out in your life.

Use asana, mantra, and mudra to help bring into focus the unique ways this yama plays out in your life.

Use asana, mantra, and mudra to maintain vitality and bring into focus the subtle and not-so-subtle ways the yama plays out in your life.

Use asana, mantra, and mudra to help bring into focus the subtle and not-so-subtle ways this niyama plays out in your life.

Use asana, mantra, and mudra to help bring into focus the subtle and not-so-subtle ways this niyama plays out in your life.

Use asana, mantra, and mudra to help bring into focus the subtle and not-so-subtle ways this niyama plays out in your life.

Use asana, mantra, and mudra to help bring into focus the subtle and not-so-subtle ways this niyama plays out in your life.

Use asana, mantra, and mudra to foster devotion to a higher power and focus on the ways this niyama plays out in your life.

Find inspiration in this affirmation to keep you on track with our 21-day yoga challenge.

Try these three books for a careful study 
of the history of modern yoga and its relationship 
to the South Asian traditions of yoga.

This excerpt from Pema Chodron's new book Fail, Fail Again, Fail Better offers wise advice for the times in life in when things don't go the way you wanted them to.

Transform envy into a positive practice for finding—and fulfilling—your greatest potential with these six steps from Sally Kempton.

Advanced asana doesn't translate to advanced yoga. A longtime teacher explores both the relevance of advanced poses in practice and the potential risks of a purely physical pursuit.