14 Mindfulness Tricks to Keep You Present During Yoga Class

Sometimes your wandering mind needs an anchor. Thoughts about the day ahead, to-do lists, self-criticism, and more often creep in when you’re seeking silence (aka on your yoga mat). Fortunately, the right mindfulness tools, also called mindfulness anchors, can give your monkey mind something to play with.

These verbal tricks are often a study of metaphors, such as exhaling while thinking 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, all meant to be returned to again and again when you lose your sense of focus.

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

14 Mindfulness Tools to Try During Yoga Class

1. Engage in Ujjayi breathing while imagining the ocean.

2. Imagine that there is a small portal in the back of your head through which all your racing thoughts are slowly siphoned.

3. Appreciate your body instead of criticizing it.

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

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

6. Use props. These provide support and minimize unnecessary physical tension, freeing your mind.

7. Visualize a spiral or labyrinth. Follow the cyclical path in your thoughts.

8. Imagine your mind as water. Observe the movement, weather and patterns.

9. Relax your shoulders.

10. Thank yourself for arriving at your mat.

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

12. Choose a color that resonates with you today. Let it flood your senses.

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

14. Breathe. Again and again.