How to Sit in Yoga – Peace or Performance?

Zahir Akram
Jun 24
3 min read

How to Sit in Yoga – Peace or Performance?

By Zahir Akram

This might be the most yogic part of the entire blueprint. And ironically, it might be easier for kids than adults. Because somewhere along the way, us grown-ups got it into our heads that sitting down in yoga has to look a certain way. Sitting has become a posture, a performance. A show.

Ask a room full of modern day yogi's to "just sit," and you won’t see people just sitting. You’ll see chins lifting, backs tightening, fingers arranging into mudras as if their value lies in aesthetic. Every person seems to be reenacting an image they’ve been shown—of what a real yogi looks like.

But none of it feels organic. Not really. Not for most of us. We sit how we think we should. How we were told to. Cross-legged. Spine upright. Palms facing up, perhaps with the index finger and thumb neatly touching. And while none of that is inherently wrong, you have to ask: in that moment, are we seeking peace... or are we still performing?

When I was younger, a wise woman once told me to sit. So I did. You know, upright, composed, like the student I thought I needed to be. She looked at me and asked, "What are you doing?" I said, "Sitting."

"No," she replied. "You're acting."

She told me to lighten up. To just sit as if there was no one to impress. No gold star to earn. She said, "You’ll spend the rest of your life performing. For your boss. For your friends. For strangers. For the opposite sex. For authorities. Life will become a play. But when you do yoga, especially when the physical part is done and it's time to sit—let it be the one space where you don't have to be anyone."

She said, "Let yoga accept you, just as you are."

Because for a brief moment, when you're not trying to look the part, when you stop chasing the right angle or the right mudra or the right vibe, something magical happens. You can feel what’s going on inside. You get a glimpse of yoga's true purpose: to bring you into yourself. Not to contort you into someone else.

A wise man once echoed the same: "When there's a task to do, do it with your whole heart. But when there's nothing to do, just be."

Be with all your awkwardness. With your forward head posture. With your insecurities. Be with your tired back and your fidgety hands. For one small moment, sit on your mat not as a yoga student, but as a human being. No slouching on purpose. But no holding yourself up like a statue either. No fake yogi smile. No serious face. Just you. As you are. And that’s enough.

In a yoga class, sit when it’s time to sit. Not to show. Not to perform. Not even to become spiritual. Just sit. And in that simplicity, in that moment where you stop trying... yoga finally begins.

Zahir Akram - Eternal Seeker

Check out my blogs for more of my enlightened punditry on all things Yoga. Only if you don't mind an alternative perspective.

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