As I worked my way through another hot yoga class recently, it got me thinking about what a perfect metaphor this practice is for life.

Done in a room heated to around 40°C (105°F), the practice comprises 26 postures, each done twice, and two breathing exercises – one at the beginning of class, one at the end.  It’s taught via a 90-minute dialogue which is a bit of a misnomer because apart from the breathing exercises you don’t get to open your mouth for the entire class. But it’s called a dialogue because your body is effectively responding to the instructions being given by the teacher.

I’ve been doing the beginner’s form of this yoga for 15 years or so and I’ve completed a few 30-day challenges. Despite that, I’m still a beginner. The practice is physically and mentally demanding, but it rewards on many levels. It helps you relax, improve your flexibility, strength and balance. It also aids clarity of thought and concentration.

Over time, you begin to realise that these incredible benefits go way beyond the yoga studio. Here are seven life principles I’ve learned from a regular practice.

Stay the course

It’s easy to get put off by the intensity of the heat in the class, but that’s your first challenge – to stay in the room, an achievement in and of itself.

Life isn’t a smooth ride to our highest purpose. It’s a rich and unpredictable journey that calls upon us to extract the lessons and opportunities for healing and growth that are placed on our path.

If you ever feel like giving up, dig deep and find the mental strength to stay the course. The very act of doing so will make you stronger.

Learn to breathe right

It’s impossible to achieve the right form or alignment of postures, let alone stay in them, without first getting your breathing under control. The same can be said for how we go about our daily lives.

How we breathe impacts our emotions and physiology. It affects our productivity, mental acuity and judgement. Too little oxygen in our system can make us feel dizzy, nauseous, confused and exhausted.

If you’ve ever suffered from stress or anxiety (as I have), drunk too much coffee or got by on adrenalin or insufficient sleep for too long, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

Right breathing calms and oxygenates. Get control of your breath, and you can control your life.

Know when to push and when to let go

Bikram yoga is formulaic, but no two days or classes are the same. Often the teacher will say something like ‘practice to where your body is at today, now, in this moment’. If we push ourselves too far, too fast, we risk injury.

There is a lot of talk these days about being agile in business. To my mind, that simply means knowing when to push and when to let go.

As the founder of the practice says, ‘you don’t have to become a human pretzel’. That’s good advice for life, too. We don’t have to contort ourselves to achieve our goals or dreams. But we do have to know the difference between striving hard and overdoing it. Tuning into where we are on any given day, helps us decide which.

Lock the knee, lock the knee, lock the knee

This is one of the mantras you hear in class. It sounds simple enough but is ridiculously difficult when you’re trying to balance on one leg. The idea is that if you contract your thigh muscle and lock the knee ‘one piece like a lamp post’, you ought to be able to balance forever.

With practice, you eventually do learn to lock the knee. And before you know it, you’re standing, unwavering, on one leg.

To find your balance, you must first build a solid base.

It’s not what you do, it’s how you do it

Sometimes I find it odd that I enjoy this yoga as much as I do. It’s hard, and humbling, and even after 15 years I am amazed at how it tests me. But I keep going back, striving to be a little bit better each time.

As long as you’re trying the right way you receive 100% of the medical and therapeutic benefits of the postures, so it’s worth persevering.

Regardless of what we’re doing with our lives, there’s a lot to be said for trying the right way. Even (and especially) when the right way is the hard way.

Mind your thoughts

Most postures last only a minute or two, but it’s amazing how quickly the mind can find an excuse to prematurely tempt you out of them. Yes, our minds can literally limit or liberate our potential.

For many people, 90 minutes of uninterrupted, unplugged silence will feel like an eternity. Add into the mix the challenge of facing yourself in a mirror – seeing all your mistakes, the things you don’t like, feeling awkward and inflexible – and you have the perfect conditions for a mind run amok.

You quickly realise that the only way through, is through and that the sooner you learn to control your internal dialogue, the better.

Our minds, not out smart phones, are the truly powerful devices.

Don’t let anyone or anything steal your peace

You’d think it would be easy enough. Lie down and assume the ‘dead body’ pose, relax and stay still. Instead, this is one of the most difficult postures of the series.

‘Dead body’ means no fidgeting, blinking, itching, squirming or wiping sweat from your face. In the intensity of the environment, that’s a bit like asking someone to not reach for water when they’ve bitten into a chili pepper.

Mastering the art of total relaxation is incredibly beneficial to body, mind and spirit. It helps restore, rejuvenate, revitalize, re-energise.

Sometimes in life the simplest things are the hardest to achieve, and yet the most rewarding.

Whatever you choose to be or do in life, don’t let anyone or anything steal your peace.