What is dharma? How do you discover your purpose? And what does living in alignment really mean?
These are some of the most common questions I hear from yoga teachers.
Perhaps you’re wondering if you’re teaching the “right” classes. Maybe you’re questioning whether you’re meant to teach yoga full-time. Or perhaps you feel a quiet longing for something more, but you’re not quite sure what that is.
In our modern world, we’re often told that our purpose is something we have to find. That somewhere out there is one perfect career, one perfect calling, or one perfect path waiting for us.
But yoga philosophy offers a much deeper, more compassionate understanding.
What Does Dharma Mean?
Dharma is one of the most profound teachings within yoga philosophy. While it is often translated as purpose, life’s calling, or life’s path, its meaning extends far beyond our career or profession.
In the Bhagavad Gita, dharma also refers to right action—living in harmony with universal law and responding wisely to what each moment asks of us.
Rather than asking:
“What am I meant to do with my life?”
Yoga invites us to ask:
“How am I being called to show up in this moment?”
Dharma is not simply about finding your purpose.
It is about living your purpose on purpose.
It is about honouring your unique gifts, staying true to your deepest values, and choosing to act with integrity, compassion and courage in every area of your life.
Dharma Is More Than Your Career
Many people believe discovering their dharma means finding the perfect job.
While our work can certainly become an expression of our dharma, our purpose is much bigger than our profession.
Your dharma is reflected in:
- The way you treat people.
- The choices you make.
- How you respond during challenging moments.
- How you care for yourself.
- How you contribute to your community.
- The energy you bring into each interaction.
As yoga teachers, our teaching is simply one expression of our dharma.
Our practice reminds us that yoga doesn’t end when we step off the mat. It continues through every conversation, every relationship, every decision and every opportunity to choose love over fear.
The Bhagavad Gita and the Courage to Live Your Dharma
One of the greatest teachings on dharma comes from the Bhagavad Gita.
The story begins with the warrior Arjuna standing on a battlefield, overwhelmed with fear, confusion and self-doubt. Faced with an impossible decision, he questions everything.
Sound familiar?
Many of us experience our own versions of this battlefield.
We wonder:
- Should I leave my job?
- Am I good enough to teach?
- What if I fail?
- What if people judge me?
- What if this isn’t my path?
Krishna doesn’t tell Arjuna to avoid the challenge or wait until he feels completely confident.
Instead, he encourages him to remember who he truly is, reconnect with his deepest values, and fulfil his dharma with courage, compassion and presence.
This is one of the most powerful lessons yoga offers us.
Living your purpose doesn’t require certainty.
It requires trust.
What Pulls Us Away from Our Dharma? Understanding Adharma
If dharma is living in alignment with your deepest truth, purpose and values, then adharma is anything that pulls you away from that alignment.
It can show up through fear, comparison, self-doubt, people-pleasing or trying to follow someone else’s path instead of your own.
As yoga teachers, it’s easy to compare our classes, businesses or confidence and slowly lose sight of our unique gifts. But yoga gently reminds us that your path was never meant to look like anyone else’s. The practice isn’t about never drifting from your dharma—we all do at times. It’s about noticing when we’ve wandered, returning to ourselves with compassion, and choosing alignment again, one moment at a time.
How Yoga Helps Us Discover Our Purpose
Rather than giving us all the answers, yoga helps us become quiet enough to hear them for ourselves.
Through practices such as:
- Meditation
- Pranayama
- Asana
- Self-inquiry (Svadhyaya)
- Mindfulness
- Yoga philosophy
…we begin clearing away the noise that clouds our inner knowing.
The more we cultivate awareness, the easier it becomes to recognise what feels aligned and what no longer serves us.
Purpose is often less about discovering something new and more about remembering who we have always been.
Living in Alignment Every Day
Living your dharma doesn’t require dramatic life changes.
It begins with small, intentional choices.
Ask yourself:
- What feels deeply meaningful to me?
- What values guide the way I live?
- Where do I feel most alive?
- What gifts come naturally to me?
- How can I serve others today?
- What is this moment asking of me?
Every choice becomes an opportunity to live more intentionally.
Every conversation becomes an opportunity to practise compassion.
Every challenge becomes an invitation to grow.
This is yoga in action.
Dharma as a Yoga Teacher
As yoga teachers, our dharma isn’t measured by how many students attend our classes or how successful our business becomes.
It is reflected in the way we show up.
Do we teach with authenticity?
Do we continue learning?
Do we serve with compassion?
Do we honour our own wellbeing alongside supporting others?
When we build our teaching and our businesses from a place of alignment rather than comparison, we naturally create something sustainable, meaningful and deeply fulfilling.
At Gem Yoga, I believe our practice, our work and our lives are deeply interconnected.
The more we cultivate self-awareness, trust our inner wisdom and live in alignment with our values, the more we create a positive ripple effect—not only in our own lives, but in the lives of our students, our communities and the wider world.
A Book I Highly Recommend
If you’d like to explore this topic more deeply, I highly recommend:
The Great Work of Your Life: A Guide for the Journey to Your True Calling by Stephen Cope.
It beautifully explores the concept of dharma through the stories of the Bhagavad Gita and offers practical wisdom for discovering and living your own unique path.
Final Reflection
Perhaps the question isn’t:
“What is my purpose?”
Perhaps the question is:
“How can I live more fully in alignment with who I already am?”
Because dharma isn’t waiting somewhere in the future.
It unfolds through the choices we make today.
By living with presence.
By acting with integrity.
By honouring our gifts.
And by having the courage to become more fully ourselves.
If you enjoyed this article, I’d love to hear your reflections.
What does dharma mean to you, and how has your understanding of it evolved over time?