10 Signs your Body (and your Mind) wants you to Practice Yoga

You know someone who does yoga. We all do. It’s clear they’re devoted to their practice. And many say that it changes lives and bodies. But how do you know if yoga is right for you? Your body knows, says Eoin Finn, who teaches the Yoga Mind Body Medicine course in Ucluelet, B.C. And it’s trying to tell you to practice yoga with these silent (or maybe not-so-silent) signs.

Tightness means that you need some of the dynamic movements that yoga can provide.

The yogi says: “In general, when people are new to yoga I notice that there is a lot of tightness and rigidity in the body,” says Finn. “It’s easy to label this simply as inflexibility but that’s too general. I see this inflexibility as a symptom in the body but the root cause is often in the mind.” (This yoga flow will loosen you up.)

2. You breathe quickly

Short breaths can show that you are stressed. Learning how to properly breathe with yoga can help.

The yogi says: “There is a lack of awareness about how to regulate the body towards a state of peace and clarity,” he says. “We all face a lot of stress and worry in modern living and we are not given the tools for how to stay centered using our breath and awareness in stressful situations or how to effectively move this out of our bodies and minds.”