Why We Set Intentions in Yoga and What It Really Means
"When you are inspired by a great purpose, your thoughts break their bonds, your mind transcends limitations, and dormant forces awaken within you." – Patanjali
If you've ever started a yoga class where the teacher invites you to “set an intention,” you might have paused, wondering what that actually means. Is it a goal? A wish? A mantra? While it may seem abstract at first, setting an intention is one of the most grounding and meaningful parts of the practice.
As teacher Donna Farhi writes, "What we practice on the mat is who we become in the world." Intention is the thread that connects those two spaces.
Intention vs. Goal: What’s the Difference?
In everyday life, we often operate from goals: specific outcomes we want to achieve. Goals are forward-focused. "I want to get stronger," or "I will practice yoga five times a week." They are measurable, motivating, and tied to performance or progress.
Intentions are different.
An intention, or in Sanskrit sankalpa, is not about achieving a result. In yoga philosophy, a sankalpa is a vow the heart makes rather than a task for the mind to complete. It is a remembering of your deeper nature, your svabhava, the part of you that is already whole.
It is about aligning with how you want to feel or who you want to be in this moment. A guiding energy rather than a destination. My teacher Ali Cramer calls it "a soul contract," and that feels true: intentions emerge from the inside out.
Many intentions are expressed in the present tense, as if already true:
• I am presence.
• I am grounded.
• I am connected.
• I move with compassion.
• I offer this practice as an act of devotion.
Speaking an intention this way invites your mind and body to step into the state you are cultivating. It becomes less about striving and more about remembering who you are at your essence.
Intentions live in the now. They are not something to earn, accomplish, or get right. They are something to embody.
Why We Set Intentions in Yoga
As many of you know or have felt, yoga is so much more than movement. Yoga is a way of living, a practice of awareness, and a path of returning to your inner wisdom. Setting an intention at the beginning of class invites you to shift from doing to being. After all, we are human beings, not human doings.
In the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali reminds us of svadhyaya, the practice of self-study. Setting an intention is an act of svadhyaya. It asks: What matters to me today? How do I want to meet myself and show up?
It also aligns with tapas, the inner fire that keeps us connected to what is meaningful, even when the mind drifts or the body meets challenge or resistance. And it gently connects us to dharma, the deeper direction or purpose that guides a life lived with awareness.
Here is what setting an intention can do:
• Anchor your awareness when your mind begins to wander
• Bring meaning to your movement beyond the physical effort
• Remind you of your values when you meet resistance or discomfort
• Connect your practice to your life off the mat
• Help integrate all layers of the self, often described through the koshas of yogic philosophy
It is a quiet act of remembering why you showed up today and how you want to show up for yourself.
Your intention can be a word, a feeling, a dedication, or a quality you want to cultivate. Some days it might feel clear. Other days, it might simply be the breath. There is no right or wrong.
The point is not to perfect the practice. The point is to practice with purpose, rooted in presence.
So the next time you are invited to set an intention, pause and listen inward. Let it be something true to where you are in that moment, not where you think you should be.
In yoga, what matters is not what you accomplish. What matters is how you arrive, how you listen, and how you choose to honor yourself in any given moment.