Mindfulness Tools to Keep You Present in Yoga Class

Sometimes, your wandering mind needs an anchor. Thoughts of the day ahead, to-do lists, self-criticisms, and more tend to creep in when you’re in pursuit of stillness (aka on your yoga mat). Fortunately, the right mindfulness tools, aka mindfulness anchors, can give your monkey mind something to play with.

These verbal tricks are often a study in metaphor, such as exhaling as you think of crashing ocean waves, visualizing a color or shape, or imagining roots growing from your fingertips in Downward-Facing Dog. They can also be encouragements disguised as reminders, each meant to be returned to over and over should you lose your sense of focus.

Once you find an anchor that resonates, whether spoken by a favorite teacher or borne of your own brain, it’s likely to stick (at least in our experience). The following mindfulness tools might help make you more present in your yoga practice.

14 Mindfulness Tools to Try in Yoga Class

1. Engage in Ujjayi breath while imagining the ocean.

2. Imagine there’s a tiny portal in the back of your head through which all of your racing thoughts are slowly being siphoned.

3. Appreciate your body rather than criticize it.

4. Let thoughts and emotions flow through your mind as if they’re clouds or river water. Let them come, let them go.

5. Remind yourself it’s not about how a pose looks, but how it feels.

6. Use props. These provide support and minimize unnecessary physical tension which in turn frees up your mind.

7. Visualize a spiral or a labyrinth. Trace its cyclical path in your mind.

8. Picture your mind as water. Observe its movement, weather, and patterns.

9. Relax your shoulders.

10. Thank yourself for making it to your mat.

11. Imagine roots growing from your toes, the soles of your feet, fingertips, palms, or sit bones, depending on which part of you is in contact with the mat. Allow them to ground and stabilize you.

12. Choose a color that resonates for you today. Allow it to flood your senses.

13. Do a full-body scan, moving from your head to your toes. (This is especially helpful with wandering minds in Savasana.)

14. Breathe. Again and again.