As a new year begins, we’re surrounded by the language of goals — resolutions to set, habits to change, and plans for what you want to accomplish in the coming year. But yoga offers a quieter and more sustainable approach. By exploring intention vs goals in yoga, we begin to see how intention — instead of achievement — can guide a practice that is rooted in awareness, compassion, and long-term well-being.
For many people, January arrives with a mixture of hope and pressure — the hope that something can change, and the pressure that it must. Even when these impulses are well-intentioned, they can subtly pull us away from the deeper purpose of yoga: not self-improvement, but self-understanding.
Yoga invites us to begin differently.
Why Goal-Driven Yoga Practice Often Feels Unsustainable
Goals are not inherently problematic. They can offer structure, motivation, and direction. In yoga, goals often sound like:
I want to practice five days a week
I want to become more flexible
I want to hold poses longer
I want to advance my practice
These goals are common — and understandable. But they’re also outcome based. They focus on what should happen rather than how we are relating to what is happening.
The challenge with goals isn’t ambition; it’s attachment. When circumstances shift — through injury, illness, stress, fatigue, or major life changes — goals can quickly turn from motivation into pressure. A missed week of practice becomes a failure. A body that needs rest feels like an obstacle.
In this way, goals can quietly condition us to evaluate our worth based on performance. Yoga, however, was never meant to be yet another arena for self-judgment.
For many practitioners, this pattern is closely tied to perfectionism — the belief that practice must look a certain way to be “good enough.” I explore how this mindset shows up both on and off the mat in my article on perfectionism, and why it can quietly undermine well-being.
What Is an Intention in Yoga Practice?
An intention is fundamentally different from a goal.
While goals are external and measurable, intentions are internal and relational. An intention does not ask, what will I accomplish? It asks:
~ How do I want to be present?
~ What quality do I want to cultivate?
~ How do I want to relate to my body, breath, and mind?
Examples of yoga intentions might include:
~ Moving with kindness toward my body
~ Listening before pushing
~ Breathing steadily during challenge
~ Practicing patience and curiosity
~ Honoring rest as part of practice
An intention doesn’t depend on outcomes. It can be embodied whether your practice is long or short, vigorous or gentle, consistent or interrupted. This is what makes intention sustainable — especially over the course of an entire year.
Sankalpa: The Yogic Roots of Intention
In yoga philosophy, intention is closely related to the concept of sankalpa. Sankalpa is often translated as resolve, or heart-felt intention, but its meaning runs deeper than a simple decision.
Rather than striving to become something new, sankalpa is about remembering something essential — a truth that already exists beneath conditioning, habit, and self-criticism.
Instead of asking: What should I fix about myself?
Sankalpa asks: What quality already lives within me that I want to consciously align with?
Sankalpa is traditionally introduced during practices like Yoga Nidra, when the mind is relaxed and receptive. It arises not from force, but from clarity.
Examples of sankalpa may sound like:
I am grounded and at ease.
I trust my inner wisdom.
I am whole.
I meet myself with compassion.
These are not affirmations meant to override reality. They’re reminders meant to reorient awareness — especially when we forget.
Intention vs Goals in Yoga: A Philosophical Perspective
Yoga philosophy offers a powerful framework for understanding intention through the pairing of abhyāsa (steady practice) and vairāgya (non-attachment).
Together, they teach us to practice consistently and sincerely…to release our fixation on achieving results.
This balance is essential. Without practice, intention remains abstract. Without non-attachment, practice becomes rigid.
When intention leads:
Effort is present, but not forced.
Discipline exists, but without self-punishment.
Growth happens, but not at the expense of well-being.
This perspective is deeply aligned with the first of the Yamas, ahimsa, or non-harming — not only toward others, but toward ourselves.
A strictly goal-driven practice can easily drift into subtle self-harm: ignoring pain, pushing through exhaustion, measuring your worth through achievement. An intention-based practice continually returns us to relationship.
This perspective also reframes how we understand asana itself — not as shapes to achieve, but as a steady, embodied presence. I explore this more fully in The True Meaning of Asana: Exploring Yoga’s Third Limb, where posture is understood as relationship rather than form.
One of the quiet gifts of intention is that it keeps the practice responsive rather than prescriptive. With intention, you begin to trust your inner teacher:
What does my body need today?
What is my breath communicating?
What supports steadiness rather than strain?
This approach allows your practice to evolve over time. Strength days and rest days both belong. Effort and ease are not opposites, but partners.
Intention also helps dismantle comparison — both internal and external. Rather than asking whether your practice looks “good enough,” intention asks whether it feels honest.
This kind of responsive practice supports nervous system regulation — shifting us out of chronic effort and into steadiness and safety. I explore this in more depth in my article on yoga for nervous system resilience, where practice becomes a tool for regulation rather than another source of stress.
How to Set a Yoga Intention at the Beginning of the Year
Beginning the year with intention instead of rigid goals or “resolutions” can feel countercultural. We’re conditioned to measure success through productivity and visible progress.
How Setting an Intention Creates a More Compassionate Yoga Practice
But intention offers something many people quietly long for:
~ Flexibility instead of rigidity
~ Compassion instead of pressure
~ Continuity instead of burnout
An intention can hold you through motivated weeks and depleted ones. It can support periods of growth and healing. It does not require perfection — only presence.
This doesn’t mean abandoning structure altogether. Goals can still exist, but they serve the intention rather than dominate it.
For example:
A goal of having a sustainable yoga practice may serve the intention of presence
A goal of strength-building may serve the intention of resilience
A goal of rest may serve the intention of balance
When intention leads, goals become tools — not measures of worth.
How to Bring Your Yoga Intention Into Daily Life
One of the most powerful aspects of intention is that it does not stay confined to the mat.
You might begin a practice by silently naming your intention. You might return to it when distraction, frustration, or resistance arises. Over time, you may notice that the same intention appears elsewhere:
In how you respond to stress.
In how you speak to yourself.
In how you rest.
In how you set boundaries.
This is where yoga becomes less about poses and more about presence — less about doing and more about being.
A Gentle Reflection on Intentions vs Goals in Yoga
As you step into a new year, you might pause and ask yourself:
What quality do I want to cultivate in my life?
What does my body need from me right now?
What does my breath remind me of when I listen?
You don’t need to become someone else to begin again. You only need to return — gently, honestly — to what matters.
That is the wisdom of intention.
That is the heart of yoga.
About the Author
Laurie Kelly, CPT, RYT-500 is the owner of Dragonfly Drishti Yoga. She is an experienced yoga instructor with advanced specialty training in Restorative, Yin, and Trauma-Informed yoga practices. She loves helping others to incorporate yoga and mindfulness into their daily lives. Contact her here.