Will a Perfect Yoga Pants Improve Your Practice?

Around three years ago I started to play with the idea of blogging about yoga. My boyfriend did for me a quick check about what is the most used hashtag in relation to yoga. The result made me understand that I Have To start blogging.

It was the yoga pants.

Till today I’m quite concerned with the way yoga is presented in the world, with people that tell me that “yoga is not my kind of sport” or that they are not “fit/flexible enough to do yoga”. Actually saying “I don’t feel skinny enough to wear yoga pants”.

In many places, the only presentation that yoga gets is in it’s most superficial form. The focus is on the body. How does it look and moves, and what are the immediate benefits that you can get from it. But if you try to look even a little bit deeper, you will soon realize that in yoga, the body is just one tool, out of many, to a much deeper inner investigation.

It is definitely a very a major tool, but still, it is just a tool.
Originally, having a yoga body (whatever that means…) and looking great in yoga pants, is not what this path was created for.

But don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against yoga pants.

I have no doubt, that feeling comfortable while practicing yoga is important. In our about page under “What to Wear?” the main guideline is “You are free to wear what you want – just make sure you can move freely in it!”. If for some people tight pants are the thing that makes them feel the freest, then I am the last person on earth to argue with that. But I personally prefer my yoga pants as loose as possible.

Does it make me less fashionable? Probably. Do I care? Most definitely not. Why? Because I know it does not matter.

I know that my goal in yoga is to become freer. Free from unnecessary stress and delusions. My body, and how I dress it, are there to support me on this mission, not the other way around.

In contrast to what some people would say, the perfect yoga pants can not improve your practice. Neither the perfect yoga mat or the perfect celebrity teacher. If that was true, yoga would be much easier. We will all just buy everything needed for the perfect yoga picture and directly achieve Samadhi :)

The only thing that will improve your yoga practice, is practice.

The frequency in which you open your mat makes a much bigger difference, then the label written on it. The effort that you put into your practice would make your inner evolution happen, not what you wear during the practice.

The beautiful external appearance and immediate benefits of yoga are for many, the things that lured them to even try it out. From there, many eventually did find a deeper meaning. But all of us still need to be aware of the danger of making our spiritual practice too materialistic.

We need to consciously choose substance over form.

It is too easy to use it as an excuse, to believe that “If I only redesign my meditation corner (again), it will really help me to meditate longer” (just a not-so-random example for my own life….).
But deep inside I know very well, that the only thing that will help me to meditate longer is just set my timer differently, not anything else.